Booming School 101 - profane but must hear

Fucking boom

I first heard this on "Le Show" podcast the woman talking about boom starts at 01:57 enjoy

Touchdown Jesus

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100615/NEWS01/306150004/Lightning-fire-destroy-Touchdown-Jesus-statue-on-I-75-in-front-of-Solid-Rock-Church

My niece posted this on Facebook, and it reminded me when I was a callow youth, my parents took me on a pilgramage to Notre Dame. For an Irish Catholic family, which we were because of my mother, driving to Notre Dame was like a Hadj. It was a three hour drive from home. My dad got lost, this was the sixties, no tomtom or gps. We ended up in the black ghetto of South Bend. There was a skeletal skinny extremely tall black man passed out across the entire sidewalk, and people were stepping over him, not looking twice. I think when a group picked up a shopping cart and lifted it over him, without rendering aid, this pushed my mothers nerves over the edge.

When we finally rolled into the campus, we were greeted by a very tall caucasian mosaic. Touch Down Jesus.  My mom was grateful and relieved.  It began to dawn on me, mom really did not like to be outnumbered by dark people, but that revelation wasn't really complete until I had children with a african american woman. Five boys.

There were hints. Like the day after MLK was shot, April 5th, 1968. I got home after being beaten up by a group of black kids, after school let out. We were mobbed, but my friend Jerryl from band did a human saw horse over me, and protected me, while my neighbor Herb got smacked pretty good.  When I got home, I called my mother at work, as I did every day. I asked if she'd heard about MLK getting killed. She said, "Yes its all over the news, but we can't really be surprised darling, he was asking for it." 

After digesting this snowball, I looked at the phone receiver. "Who is this?" I thought.

After that, I started listening to the conversations of the adults around me, and discovered they had some really noxious views of people who were different. My parents were not overtly racist. That would have been declasse. Showing your racism was tantemount to cursing in mixed company, or admitting you had a weakness.  All that started 10 years later in the seventies. So you had to listen between the lines. "Them", "those people", "typical of those people", etc.  I hadn't listened till mom told me MLK was "asking for it."  It definately expanded my awareness.

Touch Down Jesus indeed.

Dragon's Blood Sedum and marigold smell

I just came in from the garden. I planted a new Butterfly Bush, next to the grave. (A section I carved out from the main garden, it juts out six feet by four, and when it was first carved out from the sod stepson Alex said it looked like a grave.)  After planting the butterfly bush, I planted a few more plants then walked the garden picking a weed here and there, and planted some cilantro and nasturtium seeds.  I've planted nasturtium all over, so much I can't remember.  

It will be fun to see where they all come up. Nasturtiums I'm told by gardeners even older and crotchety than me, are the only plant that capture nitrogen from the air around it. I can't verify this, but its one of those things you can go "ooooo I like that."  You can also eat them, and the romans used nasturtium to spice cooking and salads.

When I was weeding the vegetable plots, I deadheaded the marigolds. Marigolds have an interesting very unflower- like smell. It's probably why they are good companion plants. I was trying to figure out the smell, and they smell like a wet pack of camels. When I was nine, I fished out a pack of camels from a relatives convertible, whose roof was left down in the rain . I hid them in my room to dry out to smoke. They smelled exactly like the marigolds of this afternoon. Yes I smoked when I was nine. Steve McQueen smoked, so I did too. Who doesn't want to be cool.

We made hypertufa pots a few years back, they are very amateurish, but I like them. This year I put some Dragon's blood sedum in the one.  I had torn it out, and pushed it in the dirt. Voila, they are growing and doing well, in partially shady spot. God bless dragon blood sedum. Every gardener needs a plant like dragons blood sedum.  It's good to have a plant in the garden that's indestructible, so when other things go awry, there is always that plant to reassure you you are not completely incompetent.  Cheers.

The Gulf Oil Disaster/Instant Karma

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

This is pretty astonishing. The oil company that is destroying the environment of a large section of our planet, is putting the live feed on the internet for all to monitor. It's absolutely incredible.  I was cheered by Sen Mary Landreau's D-LA who said if you made a dime, or a million dollars from the gulf, and don't make it next year, she will make sure BP writes you a check for that amount.  I don't think there is any wiggle room other than declaring bankruptcy.  More likely they will have to go after their partners, and the winding road will end up with Haliburton.  Remember them?  The company that fleeced America, electrocuted our service people in their showers in Iraq?  Are responsible for the oil rigs all over the world?  Were run by Mssr Richard Cheney before is run as US Vice President and architect of most of the foreign policy nightmares of the Bush administration?  THAT GUY? 

Raining on Jason's moving day

At work the ERU is doing a training scenario, with 20 other agencies, all are going to get wet. Jason my stepson is moving out, and into his very own home. The garden is getting a good drenching, lots of seeds need it a lot.  Good luck to Jason, he has a really nice yard with a lot of potential. I'm a little sad he can't enjoy having the place to himself, but he's a more social creature than I am.  It will be nice to have the garage space back, to be able to set up a table to do gardening stuff, maybe some hypertufa pots, etc. Also I can toy with the valve to the backyard hose.

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - About the Book

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change? - About the Book

Furnace Filter

Changed the furnace filter. Back when we had to buy a new hot water heater, we had eight people in our cracker box northside domicile, so I thought the number 50 gallons made sense. No one from the gas utility that we purchased it from told me I was crazy. When it was installed in the very tiny space, the intallers did not suggest we could get by with something smaller. So ever since, 8 years or so trying to get to the furnace to change the filters has been a royal pain.  So I have developed surprising freak show, snake lady skills to get in and out with the help of barbecue tongs.  This is not to say I don't curse and hrrrumph plenty, and pine for the day we can afford an on demand water heater in a thought out convenient place.  This is all preamble to one of the more remarkable conversations I had with a repairman.  I'm reminded of this every time I change the filter and am contorted around the water heater, face pressed against cobwebs and dust.  We had a Centerpoint Energy tech out one time to service our furnace. He looked at the water heater capable of serving a fraternity, or a commerical laundry and said, "What the hell is this, this is an outrage, this would have never been put in MY house. This makes no sense. What lunatics put this in?"
"Your company."
He visibly shrank, looked at his toes and coughed.
I did all I could do not laugh.
"Oh." he said.