Monday, February 28, 2005

getting ready for the keys

It's raining here to day. I knew yesterday that we would get either rain or snow. The air was damp and cold. I got chilled just standing on the deck even with no wind blowing. It started raining very early this morning, and the wind is gusting to thirty five miles per hour. There is always at least a strong breeze here by the bay in the winter, but sometimes you couldn't buy a breeze in the summer. I fired up my wood burner in the garage this morning and put the third coat of polyurethane on the book case shelves that I volunteered to do for my daughter Nancy. I also snelled up 12 very large circle hooks with eigty pound test line for Tarpon fishing in Florida. Man; I hope that I hook at least one Tarpon. I saw pictures of hooked Tarpon flying through the air six to eight feet off of the water last year, and thoughts of Tarpon fishing have been in my mind ever since. We just need the wind to lay down so that we can get fifteen miles out in the gulf to where they are.
We leave for Marathon, Florida at 3:00 A.M. on the ninth of March. I am getting more excited every day. Glenn sent the money for the campground this morning
I need to go to the garage and throw a couple more logs on the fire to dry the polyurethane, so that's enough for today.
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Saturday, February 26, 2005

my life on the Chesapeake

Winter here on Beechland Creek cretainly is different from winter in Michigan where I came from thirteen years ago. The creek gets iced over about twice during the winter, but not thick enough to cause damage to my boat which I leave in the water all winter.
I am raising oysters in floating pens attached to my docks by lines which allow the pens to rise and fall with the tide while remaining always in the water. The action of barnacles and salt water had caused the lines to chafe and two of the pens broke loose. Fortunately I found them in the Needle grasses along the shoreline. I reconnected them during a brief snow shower yesterday, and harvested eighteen of them which I will roast in the oven until they open and then eat tonight with a cocktail sauce. Chesapeake Oysters are wonderful.
I need to clean and repair my crab pots soon. They have been sitting alongside my garage gathering leaves since last fall. The salt water and barnacles damage them too. April first is the first day of crab season, although I don't usually put the pots in that early. There isn't much activity at my dock until May. I really enjoy sitting on my deck in the summer evenings picking freshly steamed crabs. Pat freezes the meat and then we have crab cakes when we want in the winter.
Croaker fishing begins in early April, and I can catch all of them that I want. They are a very plentiful fish. My grandkids really like to catch them as they fight real hard for a small fish

More later
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Friday, February 25, 2005

women shoppers

Pat and I went to Wally World to shop for a few items earlier tonight. I became engrossed in watching women shop. Women become oblivious to everything around them when they shop. They will slowly proceed down an aisle scanning the merchandise with a look on their faces like they have doubled their daily dose of Prozac, and then swallowed a couple of Valium just for the hell of it. They usually will stop in the middle of the aisle when their eye bones lock on to the searched for item. All trafic in both directions ceases at this moment while the woman stares at the item. Shopping carts are not equipped with horns luckily or they would be blaring. The woman walks to the shelf where the object of her desire lies, and she picks it up and scans all sides of the item. Her cart is still blocking traffic. Finally someone says," Excuse me please." Which draws her mind back down to this planet, and then she will put the item in her cart and slowly meander down the aisle. This scene is repeated in every aisle by almost all of the women.
Men are different. We are hunters. Our mental processes go something like this. " Wife says I need pants....Go directly to store that sells pants....Go directly to pants.....Pick up pair of pants and try on....If they fit pay clerk and leave store."
This must be the difference between hunters and gatherers.
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

God A Biography--A book report

Pat and I belong to a group that reads various thought provoking religious books. Some are good, and some are not so good. We gave up on one of the not so good books tonight. The group was two thirds of the way through God A Biography when we relazied that the book was a bunch of hooey. I believe sincerely that the author was trying to impress himself with his vocabulary. He certainly wasn't writing so that the average man could enjoy his book. God A Biography won the Pulitzer Prize which makes me think that the Pulitzer group is very impressed by big words also and by an author that jumps all over the map. (I think that the Pulitzer group was bedazzled by the big words) I feel that the book would make a great wasp killer. You know--wait until the wasp lands on a flat surface and smack it with the book. To bad there aren't outhouses anymore. I could think of a use for it there as well!!

The Ol Curmudgeon

Monday, February 21, 2005

Nancy's and Charlottesville

Just got back from a weekend trip to my daughter Nancy's house in Chesterfield. We helped her do some yard work, and also helped stain and varnish some book cases. We were varnishing this morning when we noticed on the can that pregnant women shouldn't be exposed to the vapors from the polyurethane. So Pat, Nancy and I closed the house up and headed to Charlottesville for the day. I have wanted to take Nancy there for a long time and it finally happened. We had lunch at a place called The Hardware Store, which obviously had been a hardware store at one time. It was well preserved. Pat and I have eaten there before. They have the largest selection on their menu that I have ever seen. There was a whole page of ice cream deserts! Some cost as much as $15.00. Nancy freaked! Pat and I had Gellato which was okay but didn't compare with the really good stuff that we had in the Italian section of Boston.
Nancy had a sundae that had a little bit of everything on it.
After lunch we browsed the shops in town and I found some anti-George Bush buttons and got three. I will send one to Todd.
We stopped for gas in West Point and Pat said," Hey! Buy a lotto south ticket . It's worth $20,000,000." So I did and the rest of the way home we divided our winings up with the kids and various charities. It's nice to imagine being rich, but I have a feeling that all changes wouldn't be positive.
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

hints of spring

It was a beautiful warm day here today, and there were hints of spring every where. Camelias are starting to open, there is a slight hint of green in some of the grass, and one of my favorite signs of spring, the Spring Peepers were peeping there little hearts out in the marshes and ditches around the area. I just sometimes stop what I am doing when I here the Peepers. They bring such joy. The real harbinger of spring will arrive any day. They are the Ospreys, and I love to watch them on the nest box in the creek in front of the house. The pair that nest in this box have raised 3 chicks each of the last two years,
Glenn and I picked up a load of horse manure in Gloucester and brought it home to our gardens and compost piles, and I worked on trying to remove some of the stumps left over from hurricane Isabel. The woods along the highways are still filled with fallen trees. I imagine that it will be years before the woods look normal again. I am completely worn out tonight from plain old over exertion.
Ol' Curmudgeon

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

fishing equipment and George Bush, our presidunce

My brother-in-law Glenn and I made a trip today to Bass Pro Shop down in Newport News to pick up a new Cobia and Tarpon rod and reel for myself as well as a few odds and ends for him. I also picked up an assortment of lures for our Florida Keys fishing trip. We leave on March 12th for two glorious weeks in the Florida Keys sunshine. Every year I look forward to this trip more than in the previous years. We know where to catch the big Tarpon if only the wind lays down long enough for us to get to them in our small boat. I would love to be able to get my big boat there, but it is simply to big to tow with my van.
We talked about our presidunce George on the way down to Newport News. There is one thing that Glenn and I agree on for sure and that is that we simply can't understand how anybody that carrys a lunch pail could possibly vote republican. We came from eight years of prosperity in this country with a very small national debt to the biggest debt this country has ever seen! All of this with a republican countrolled house, senate and a republican presidunce. There are no democrats to even blame here. We also decided to invade a country that wasn't doing a damn thing to us simply for oil. Bush, our illustrious presidunce said that we were going to spread democracy to the world. Well then why in the hell didn't we attack North Korea? The simple answer is that North Korea doesn't have any oil and they are a tad scary. Why pick on some one that may be able to fight back.
Oh yeah! Let's talk tax cut while I am on a roll here. Let's compare the guvment to a household. Let's say that the household expenses are $3500. per month. All of a sudden some event happens that jumps your expenses $700 a month more. Do you say to yourself, " The way to solve this problem is to cut back on income!" Isn't that what our presidunce did when he cut taxes?
How about social security? If those taxes( which benefited the high rollers) were reinstated and the money generated was put into social security That problem would be solved also, but know Ol cowboy George, our presidunce, wants to go private investment, and mark my words, reduce benefits to some poor sob who has busted his ass his life for little or nothing!
Well. that's enough bitchin' for today
Ol' Curmudgeon

Monday, February 14, 2005

Valentines day.

It's raining here today, and it is also quite cool the combination of which makes for a miserable Valentine's day. Pat and I went to the gym and worked out and then went grocery shopping. All in all it has been avery uneventful laid back kind of day. I have been working on a couple of new poems lately but so far they haven't jelled. I did write this one for Pat several years ago.

I passed a romantic restaurant
and glanced in through the door.
A piano was playing softly.
It made me miss you more.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

switching news papers

I quit the Richmond Times Dispatch news paper and started The Daily Press from Norfolk. The Times dispatch got to where they didn't seem to care if the paper got delivered or not, and they were the most politically biased paper that I ever read. They were 1000% Republican and didn't even try to be fair at all. They made me ill! We will try the Daily Press for a while. I know one thing for sure already. They said that there would be a paper here this morning and they were right. It is to early to tell whether they have any political leanings yet.
I feel that the nation lost one of the minor joys when Dave Barry stopped his humor column. I really looked forward to reading him on Sunday mornings, and would sometimes cut his column out and mail it to my daughter Nancy. It was a blow when the comic strips Outland, and Calvin and Hobbs went out of publication, but we all survived. The Daily Press has picked up Berkeley Breathed's strip Opus which I am glad to see. Berkley Breathed has one fine comic mind.

The Ol' Curmudgeon

Saturday, February 12, 2005

writing course

I started a short writing course today and enjoyed it. The course will be spread over three Saturdays, four hours each session. One of the things I learned today was that I must write every day. It helps to train my mind. There were several techniques suggested for getting from my left brain to my right brain where the creativity lives. The teacher also talked a lot about the critic that lives within us. The one that tells us that we aren't worth a shit as a writer. Techniques were given for stifling this critic during the creative stage, and for controlling the critic in the crafting sessions. The course will be beneficial. I may not attempt to write anything serious now or ever, but the tools that I am learning will certainly help if I ever do decide to do any serious writing.
In the mean time here is one of my poems which was written for my seven year old granddaughter who has a very typical little brother. I always heard that in the south you can say anything you want about someone if you preface it with," Bless her heart."
My little brother, bless his heart,
snuck in and tore my room apart.
I didn't tell mama bless my soul.
Instead I dug a great big hole,
and put his toys in nice and deep.
I did it while he was asleep,
and then I put the hose in too
and filled it 'til it all was goo.
After this he'll surely see
he doesn't want to mess with me.

Friday, February 11, 2005

tax time

Tax time again. Time to give up all of our hard earned cash to the great beuracracy in Washington so that the damn republicans can try to fund more wars. My mother used to say that we will have a war every time the republicans get in office, and that taxes will rise every time that the democrats get elected. She seems to be right. Taxes have to be raised when the democrats get back in office simply to pay for all of the mess that the republicans cause. We went from a major surplus to the biggest deficit in our history in four years with a republican house, a republican senate, and a republican presidunce. I ask you, Who's to blame?

The Ol' Curmudgeon

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Our glorious Politicians

I Have been reading my latest AARP bulletin this morning. I really shouldn't do that before breakfast as it has a tendancy to take my appetite away. I always feel, after reading the bulletin, that our legislators are owned by the big businesses in our country. Where does a politician get the mega-bucks that it costs to run a campaign? I certainly am not giving him any, in fact, I don't personally know anyone who is giving money to a politician. Big business is paying for the campaign and if a politician wants to get reelected he had better pay attention to the needs and desies of his owners, big business!
There is some suspicion that Canada will cut drug supplies to this country. It is suspected that the Bush administration is going to lift the ban on beef when Canada cuts the shipment of pharmacueticals across the border. Big business will win again at the expense of the senior population of our country.
The Ol' Curmudgeon

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

A second attempt

I will try again to enter a blog.

Ol' Curmudgeon figures it out

I posted my first entry and then realized that I didn't have a clue about how to do it again! My heart started to race a bit and then my brain said," See! I told ya that ya had no business messin' with this computer crap!" I started hitting buttons, and all of a sudden I hit the right one, and BINGO! Here I am again.

First Blog

Well I did it! I believe that I am blogging. It's hard to tell for sure yet. We Ol' Curmudgeons are a little intimadated by all of this computer crap so I will just have to see if I can comprehend all of the gobbledygook connected with it. I guess that the test will be when I go back in to my Blog address and see if my writing appears. Oh well. This ought to be enough for now