Saying goodbye to a legend - Prince

As everyone has heard, Prince Rogers Nelson (known as Prince and simply The Artist) passed away last week at his home in Minnesota.

I realize that Prince was not for everyone but his talent and his success is well known to pretty much everyone.  Even if he wasn't your thing or your genre, please look at the videos below which display his talent they are certainly worth the watch.

Much to my parents' dismay, I was a huge fan of his from my early teen years up to present day and age.  I drove my parents crazy cranking up his music in my bedroom.  Through the walls they could hear the backbeat of songs like Little Red Corvette, 1999, DMSR and of course his Purple Rain album, I wore out.

On vinyl, I sill have 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign of the Times and Lovesexy (where he appears nude on the cover, was certainly worth the purchase price for that album).

Prince led a very quiet life and typically stayed out of the media.  He loved music and played 27 instruments proficiently.   Also, I've heard it told that he didn't really read music that well, his talent was just a gift...  a very special gift.

He loved his fans and the first video below not only displays his talent on the guitar, but also shows his playful nature when it comes to his fans.  It's an acoustic set of his and he's relaxed and really enjoying himself.

Only 5'2" tall, he was certainly bigger than life when it came to the stage and his ability to recognize true talent and nurture it was remarkable.

The second video I am posting up is a collaboration with Tom Petty and Steve Winwood as they all perform "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".  Prince is on lead guitar in this video and has an amazing solo.

The Third.. well there is a story behind that one...   in 1985 Prince performed at the American Music Awards his Grammy winning hit, Purple Rain.  I taped it on the VCR but wanted to watch it on the big TV live (I was 16 at the time) and my brother (8 years old then) was playing Nintendo on that TV and wouldn't give it up for 5 minutes...

Back then, Nintendo did not have memory cards so my brother left his game running all night so he could pick up where he left off...  well the next day, I got home from school and saw his game running and turned it off....     he came home from school and all hell broke loose....    oh he was angry.

Now I have the video on You Tube and so I get a laugh when I watch it....

To Prince's friends and family my heart goes out to them.  I loved him from afar and I can only imagine how deep his loss effects them.  I know that my heart is broken and the world has lost a fantastic artist and by all reports and all around good person.

Rest in Peace Prince Rogers Nelson, you were loved and you will be missed.

Until next time....

Belle

Rain AAR

So, I left a half hour before O'dark thirty for work this morning and ended up taking a very short tour in the local area, U turning three times and driving back home.
On the "bright side" a temporary shotcrete retaining wall on the side of an overpass under construction blew out in the storm yesterday. Two of three lanes inbound on 290 are closed until further notice.
This fail is between me, and 20,000 other people and my work, and the other 20,000 people's work.

Belle and I took a little reconnaissance drive a short while ago looking for a way to what's left of the freeway.*

Nope, not getting out that way

Nor that way

The third option I couldn't get a picture of water. I'm certain it was downstream of us somewhere, but someone had placed orange construction barrels closing the road.  The upside is my VPN connection is solid and I've been working from home.  I could get used to this, ya know?

Two bonus pics

Right around the corner from the BAR Corp HQ

The houses here are high and dry, in the back of this neighborhood,

not so much.

Neither "Infinity" nor "G7" mean waterproof in Japanese

Click to embiggen and you can see the waterline on the door.

All snark aside, this time, this is an inconvenience for me.  Many, many homes were flooded. A number of people lost their lives. Two people got trapped in two different deep underpasses, both of which I travel through frequently, and drowned. While there was less total rainfall than Tropical Storm Allison, there was more rain in a 24 hour period.  South of us there was 15 to 16 inches. A nearby blogger, Teke, is down there somewhere. I hope he and his are ok.
Close by, there was 11 to 14 inches.
Sobering.
I suspect I will have an unusual calm and patience on my circuitous commute in the morning. This is not a problem, this is an inconvenience.







*Freeway, there's a misnomer. How many hours of my life have I paid on that God forsaken treadmill?  

Done rained again

Forecast was for rain, but I don't think anyone expected this.
It rained less than tropical storm Allison*, but more in a 24 hour period.

Nearby to the BAR Corp HQ received about a foot of rain, per the nooz, over night as of about 8am this morning.  The official tally from the nonexistent BAR rain gauge is just a hair over a butt load.
The three nearest official rain gauges to us are showing 11.16", 12.76" and 14.04" for the last 24 hours.

Large areas of Houston are flooded once again.  The Corp HQ is dry...ish.  No water in the house but the ground is mush.
Forecast is for more rain tomorrow. I hope the weather man is wrong.

A neighbor reported that the neighborhood directly to our east has pretty much all the streets under water.  Little Cypress Creek is out of its banks. The west end of our street has drained off. The east end I'm keeping an eye on. The water level seems to be rising.*

This morning we watched Mr. Ididn't Think Itwasthatdeep, drive his minivan into an underpass on a live TV shot and swim out of his vehicle as it sank...as in disappeared.
Belle commented that, "I bet that dumbass has driven that route every day on his way to work. How could he not know it wasn't "that deep"?"

So far, the extended BAR clan is good. Ya'll do an anti-rain dance for us.
pics later maybe, If I can brave the floating rafts of fire ants and displaced snakes.


* google that one.  This is actually being reported as a worse rain / flood event. Allison rained for three days, 36" total.

Lordy it's Dogfish time.

IPA that is.

Missed "Stair Day"

Belle and I drove out to the oldest daughter's place for the oldest granddaughter's birthday party.
She and her man rent this place.

I've no idea who built this house but they were apparently sick on the day " Introduction to stair building" was taught.
Now in their defense, math is hard, especially when all you have is a tape measure in feet and inches.

I am operating on the assumption that a tape measure was actually available.

Aside from the issues with that bottom riser not quite working out quite right,

 twice,  the 12" high steps are a bonus for a daily leg workout.

Missed the top riser on the porch stairs by just a smidgen there too.   Watch your step there, that will peel the sole right off your penny loafer if you catch it just right...

As an antidote to the previous post

88 Lines about 44 women.
I've known some of these.

Our current political process in 21 lines.

1) Romney robocalls for Kasich in Ohio.
2) Romney robocalls for  Rubio in Florida.
3) Now Romney is now "supporting" Ted Cruz" now.*
4) Romney is a dishonest, lying, divisive SOB. Good luck with the explanation at the pearly gates.
5) GOPe must create an opportunity for a brokered convention because teh open bar and free bacon wrapped shrimp and lands a titles.
6) Must stop Trump.
7) GOPe does not like the Trump.
8)  Media loves / hates Trump; good for ratings but "Republican!1!11ty"
9)  Media must incite mob violence because Trump is wearing thin, but teh RATINGS! and they are all democrats!
10) The  Trump does not play by the GOPe or Media's rules!
11)  senator Grassley, who mere days ago wanted to shoot Cruz on the floor of the Senate chambers now endorses teh Cruz.  whuuuut?
12)  The republicrat party is in total panic and has lost its ever loving mind.
13)  Do SOMETHING. Anything to keep Trump from getting the 1200 something delegates!
14) The democrats have a lazy layabout pot smoking socialist that has never held down an honest job** or a criminal for candidates.
15) The American people have had enough of the elite ruling class.
16) It's looking like we are going to get Trump.
17) Or, an unplanned and uninvited brokered suppository, Paul Ryan.***
18)  If so, Hillary will win the election and her first act as president will be to pardon herself.
19)  And perhaps Huma.  You don't actually think Wiener was instant messaging pics of his junk because Huma was like all hetero female do you?  Marriage of convenience?
20)  Hillary's bathroom email server IT guy is fucked beyond belief.****
21)  We are fucked.

If McConnell greases up, rolls over and presents his belly for a senate hearing and confirmation of Obama's  Supreme Court anti 2A nominee, things are going to get ugly.  There's still time between the nomination and the Obominoid's last day in office.  Just sayin.

Perilous times indeed.




* My attempt at cognitive dissonance in text. :) hat tip to the BAR department of redundancy department.
** Wait, they already did that.  Sanders, not Obama.
*** aka, John Bohner Jr. without the heavy drinking and uncontrollable weeping. Claims he will not accept. Snort, snarfle, spit, ever the "reluctant hero". yuh right.  where have I heard that before.  dickweed.
**** Never ever in his wildest imagination did he ever suspect when he took that moonlight IT gig that his very survival would hinge on a Republican winning the Presidential Election. Sucks to be you dude.  Screw prosecutorial immunity. I'd be having conversations with the FBI about the witness protection program.  Good luck.

oh, there's some good news....

I'll be there next week.

Police officer wounded as shots fired at Police Station.

No honor amongst thieves.*  What has this world come to.







*Yes. That was snark on both sides of the equation.

It is Time

Time for another Tito's mixer post.

aka scrounging for mixers or,

how to get Hydrated and Baked at the same time.

Doing the dirty work so you don't have to.

As a legal disclaimer, I highly recommend you do not do this with cheap bar Wodka.
Tito's rocks.

Actually, this is not bad at all. Going down quite smoothly. Now that I think about it...this could be quite dangerous.

Gatorade and Tito's.*

Not acidic like Wodka and orange juice. (acid reflux, yuk.)
No carbonation like the previous orange soda experiment, although, that was pretty tasty.

Yes, this is going to be very dangerous.




*  Tito's straight up is clean enough to sip straight up, or palatable as shots, but I don't want to stumble up the stairs just yet.  I might have some more complaining to do.

I larned sum new math tuday

I did not know that round up to the next whole number meant add "1".
For example:
160 / 50 = 3.2
Rounding up to the next whole number means 3.2 +1 = 4.2!

This comes from my Expurt Code Consultant (a registered professional engineer*) and my Third Party Building Permit Reviewers (also professional engineers).

All this time, since my middle school math days I've been under the misguided notion that whole numbers were like, oh, I don't know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc.

I am so elated to have my childish notion of basic math corrected after all these 40 years or so of delusion.

This disagreement on basic math is actually a very big fucking problem for one of my projects.

I am surrounded by highly educated morons.  Time for another adult beverage.


* No really, I've seen his actual professunial seal and signature.

Rub some dirt on it

Michelle Fields, Breitbart reporter, is whining that some "goon" at a Trump event gave her a boo boo.
Andrew is rolling in his grave.
In my estimation, Breitbart's news organization has been infiltrated.
Get over it. Even Greta agrees.

 Precious Snowflake, I have a theme song for you.

Hmmmm, indeed

No effort to fact check this yet but my  subconscious connected some dots while killing time in Boston Logan.
Headline says Trump has won the open primaries, whereas Cruz has won the closed primaries.
"Republican" voter turnout is said to be "up".  Democrat voter turnout is said to be down.
Recent polls have shown all the contending Republican candidates, except Trump beating Hillary.

Stack the deck much?

This brings the thought that Democrats aren't crossing the line so much in support of Trump as ensuring the one guy Hillary can beat gets nominated.*

The primary calendar now moves toward more closed primaries. So we shall see how the con man's fortunes fair.

* assuming she isn't indicted...not holding my breath.

Super Tuesday

This may, or may not be the end of my faith in my fellow Americans.
We shall see come tomorrow.
Trump is a con man and his con is working on a lot of people.
I pray the voters have a moment of illumination before they push the Trump button.
Personally I've never seen another man that could make the word "luxurious" sound so slimy.

Nooooooo! Not right now

Oh.  HeHe.
Its for the man child.

Iowa Cadaver is on the TV

Caucus I mean.
The winner of the Iowa caucus has not won a presidential election in 16 years.
I've one hairy eyeball on Fox news. The sound is muted. I don't need to listen to the talking heads mentally masturbate.
The numbers at the bottom of the screen are all that matter, for what that is worth.
I heard on the radio that the expected voter turn out could be north of 100,000.
Weeeee!  We wonder why we get such dickheads in positions of power.
Rubio is slowly eating Trump's support.
Cruz is leading at the moment.
Clinton, hack spit, and Sanders are separated by two points.

Damn! Dog.

You been eating peanuts again?
How such nose hair searing smells come out of such a small animal I will never know.

WTF, Srsly? Iowa?

How did Iowa become such an important primary state?

3.1 million people, most of which have vested interest in ethanol.*

There are more people in my county than the whole of Iowa.

This is completely ducked up.

* Pro tip. If you have a flex fuel vehicle that is claimed to run on E85, don't do it.
Period, end of story.
Your vehicle will die a premature death.
And, because you didn't read the owners manual, your warranty is void. You didn't read the owners manual, did you....did you.

True Love Comes in all shapes and sizes..

Yes true love does indeed come in all shapes and sizes.

I have several true loves..    and yes of course Kx knows ALL about them.

Naturally those of you know know me know that one of those true loves are things that go bang and put a shooty goodness smile on my face...   but of course I am not speaking of that true love...

No..   I am speaking of the truest love you can possibly have and that is the love that you feel for your children, then eventually your grandchildren.

I am in Galveston with my oldest daughter and her son, my little man.

The little man suffered a severe burn on both his legs and his feet due to a household accident about a year and a half ago.  He is three now, 18 months old when it happened.

That being said, he had a laser procedure today and bottom line is, the young man amazes me.  He is tough, he is resilient and through it all, he tosses out the random hugs, kisses and "I love you Nana"s

I am in grandbaby heaven, even if the circumstances aren't the best.

The little man simply warms my heart and its' been a happy couple of days.

Cherish every moment you have with those you love.  Always let them know how much they mean to you and with your grandchildren?   Give them their heart's desire every chance you get.. after all, you don't have to suffer the consequences of a spoiled child... that's mom and dad's job!

Until next time....

Belle 

Surveying the aftermath

Back in DC for the day.

Reagan national airport was a zoo.
DC was pretty much a ghost town.

It was still a bit snowish...

What goes around, comes around

The thought has crossed my mind;  If you, as a business owner, are going restrict my right to carry in your establishment by your legal choice, you become responsible for my safety.

This is not law in Texas, and has not been tested in the courts here to my knowledge, but it seems ethically fair to me.

Tennessee State Senator, Dolores Gresham, apparently thinks along the same lines.

I can, in my mind's eye, see the harrah! in hoplophobe's eyes everywhere across this great land.  The price of their Starsuck's double grande mocha capuccino latte with a lemon twist is about to go up to cover the cost of off duty cops providing security.

snick.
snort.

Not sure who the douche nozzle was that posted the pic with the article in the link above, but this is not a proper way to concealed carry.  Unless your goal is to create a new 9mm pathway down your thigh.

Snowmageddon

I flew into DC Wednesday night this past week.  It was snowing when the plane landed.
Crikey.
I had been keeping tabs on the weather as always and knew a big snow storm was expected.  Knowing that only meteorologists and economists can keep their jobs being wrong 90% of the time, I was concerned I might find myself grounded in DC for the weekend.
It snowed 1 inch in DC Wednesday.  People were stranded on roads and highways for 6 hours.
It perplexes me that DC has no better snow abatement capabilities than say Atlanta, or Houston.*

Thursday I awoke to clear skies, did my meetings and booked it back to the BAR Corp HQ.

Belle and I have been watching the weather channel off and on over the weekend monitoring the situation.
While the weather channel has named this purportedly record setting winter storm, it appears it was largely an inconvenience, or a day off from work / school.
I read somewhere, that in Wisconsin, they referred to it as "Friday".
From what I've seen, snowmen, snowball fights and sledding were the pastimes of choice to while away the time.

I have heard El Nino in reference to this storm but not Global Worming Climate Change.  Perhaps all the gas has been let out of that bag finally.**




* In 1989, two inches of snow accumulation in Houston which remained for 4 days resulted in 1450 auto accidents over the 48 hour period of Saturday and Sunday.  We don't do snow and ice down here well.

** Remember the ozone hole and CFCs for which we all gave up the more efficient R22 freon many years ago?
Yeah.
The Ozone hole is still there.  For all we know, the ozone hole has been there for the entire lifetime of the earth's atmosphere. It wasn't discovered until the advent of satellites.   But it was an emergency once discovered and obviously due to man's misbehavior.  CFCs being heavier than air tend to settle to the ground. I've not seen any cogent explanation of how they got all the way up there to blow a hole in the ozone layer.

kx59 goes hipster

A review of sorts.
I carried a hard shell brief case for decades.  The youngins in the office had backpacks or book bags with long straps which I always thought made them look like schoolboys.
Now I think, "the skinny little strap on your book bag sucks. I can see it biting into your shoulder."
Behold my MANPACK!
I ran across this sling pack quite a while back.  When I found out I'd be traveling again, I decided the brief case had to go.
This is my cell phone's fault.
I travel light with a strapped Nike gym bag which I carry in hand most of the time.
Maneuverability.
Held in front of me, it works remarkably like a rudder through the oncoming current of other travelers in the airports.
With the briefcase, no free hand for the phone.

So I got one of these:




Mine is Urban cammo, aka black.  I've had it long enough that it's dirty now.
The pockets, zippers, compartments are minimal and yet well organized.  My Ipad Mini, laptop, gum wrappers, highly important bidness papers and assorted bar receipts travel quite well in it.  The cell phone pocket on the strap I use to store a 3" maglite flashlight rather than my cell phone.
The only issue I've had is with the outside pocket, which has a a magnetic catch on it.  The magnetic catch works really well.  Putting a USB thumb drive in the pocket, I found, is not a good idea.  It became a tiny little brick after spending a day glommed to the backside of the magnet.

Other than that, two thumbs up.  I carry it every day now.

This Evening's Libation

I did not over imbibe on New Year's Eve. I was in bed, watching Russian Dash  Cam videos by 9:30pm.
Happy New Years's btw.
Earlier today, being on a staycation since Christmas, I had a few* bottles of the hoppy brew.

This evening, the drink of choice is Tito's Wodka with a splash of Ruby Red Grapefruit juice from the fertile valley of Tejas. (that's Texas for those of you born after our war of independence from the sadistic dictator Santa Ana )**




* If you are my tee totalling methodist Aunt, one is too many.  I know, right? You thought only the baptists lied about drinking. More to the point...it was more than "one".

** Not to be confused with Santa Clause.   Why does Santa's name  have a "clause" in it?  So many mysteries. Another blog post I suppose.
I digress.  (which is the actual reason for the footnotes)

There's a reason for our territorial attitude in Texas.  We gave up all of Oklahoma and quite a bit of  Colorado to join the Union.  We are still bigger than France, and certainly less inclined to drop our guns and run.

New Year's day dinner

Ham.*
Black Eyed Peas, for good luck.
Cabbage, for Money.
Corn Bread, because the Belle makes a kick ass corn bread and I LIKES IT.


If you are doing the "Soul Food" or "Southern" version of this, collard greens are an appropriate substitution for cabbage.

Given that Belle comes mostly from Irish dirt farmers and I have a bit of the Irish in me as well, we opted for cabbage.....with bacon...and bacon grease.
mmmmmm b a c o n.





*A friendly note to the radical islamist cells nearby:  there is so much pork in my blood, should you get any on you, you will not be getting your 72 virgins.

The Air in Texas Has The Scent of Freedom!!!

Today in The Lone Star State, Open Carry has become legal for those of us who have a license to conceal carry.

My views on whether or not one SHOULD open carry vary.  Personally I don't believe that it's a good idea, at least not for me but it's really nice to know that now I can carry OUTSIDE the waistband and not have to wear frumpy clothing to conceal my pistol.

I will admit that I have not been carrying very often for the past couple of years.  Mainly because of the clothing issue, but also, even with Lady (Sig P238) in my flash bang holster, it's not very comfortable to carry in the summer time.*

That being said, today I found my belt, and my Quantum holster from Dragon Leatherworks, reversed the clips so that I can carry OWB and strapped my beloved Alexa (Springfield XDm Compact 9mm) to my hip, put on a jacket an off I went to the store.

What is great about open carry is that I didn't have to worry about the wind blowing open my jacket or if I reached for something in the store my gun showing.  So now I will more diligently carry my best girl even in the summer when I can throw on a light button down shirt over my tank top.

All that being said....    on my way out of the store, sure enough a gust of wind blew open my jacket just as I was passing by a guy going into the store.   His eyes grew big as saucers and then he smiled a HUGE freedom loving smile....    I said to him, "The land of the free!"   His response was simply..... "Amen!"

Range day will be on Tuesdays after my piano lessons I think.  I am feeling good today and ready to get back to my old shootygoodness self.

Happy New Year everyone!

Belle.


*  Most women know that even wearing a bra in the summer time makes you sweat under the boobage, I found adding a pistol to that does NOT help.  Just sayin.