Happy New Years Eve.

With todays win, the Patriots have sealed home field advantage during the AFC playoffs. This is important only because, hey, who doesn't like to play on their home field.

⧫

I didn't do anything with the network hard drive today because I didn't feel like messing with it.

Well, that, and I spent some time trying to shovel off my mother-in-law's driveway. I lost all feeling in my hands, toes and brain, which made me want to do nothing but sit on my couch and recover my senses.

Besides, the Patriots were on at 1:00. Ain't no one got time to work on no hard drive when the Patriots are on.

I'll probably work on it tomorrow.

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I'm going to eat some horsed overies and watch some of the Twilight Zone marathon while I try to stay awake long enough to see the New Year arrive.

Maybe I'll just pretend I'm Australian where the New Year arrived at 8:00am EST.

Here are some links:

• This was all over a freakin' noise complaint. Listen up boys and girls: Keep your head on a swivel, watch each others back and wear your damned vest.



• I don't know what gods the Cleveland Browns pissed off but they must have really pissed them of good. On the upside, they have secured the number one draft pick in the 2018 draft.



• Only in Florida.



• The latest member of the A-Team is named Daniel.

Close but no cigar.

I have discovered that the router does not like to use a USB connection for large drives. It keeps timing out. Fortunately, both the drive and the router support sata so I switched over to that.

I am currently at a point where the router says, "Hey! There is a 3TB drive hoked up to me but no one can access it because you screwed up the security!'

So next step is to reformat the drive with correct configuration & settings and it should work fine. Once I see the drive and can map it on my mac, I can make the mac believe it's a TimeMachine drive and it should work.

The operative word in that last sentence is "should".

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Here are some links you might find interesting:

• Aren't these the same people who protested against the Shah and overthrew him?



• Calling in a false report of a crime that results in the death of an innocent human being should be punishable as premeditated murder in the state in which the death occurred. In this case, Kansas, where they have the death penalty.



• It's a little cold around here.

Busy evening.

I purchased a network drive from Pat this afternoon and I've been working on getting it set up on my network. So far, it's being pretty damned particular because I'm forcing it to be something it's not meant to do.

Apple provides backup software called Time Machine on all Mac's but it only works with a special Apple router/hard drive called...

...get ready for it...

...a Time Machine!

And since Apple wants about $400 for their special Time Machine, I figured trying to do what I want to do using a standard networked hard drive is worthwhile. I've managed to find several helpful websites and things are looking good but it's a lot of work.

So what I'm saying is I'm busy and I don't have a lot of time.

Here are a couple of links to lighten your day:

• Those Nigerian scammers actually live in New Orleans.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Year.

I hate novocain

I had an old filling that cracked on me a couple of weeks ago and when I went for my semi-annual cleaning last week, I made an appointment to get it taken care of. That appointment was for 7:45 this morning.

After getting shot up with a bit of novocain, the dentist waited a while, then jabbed my gum with one of his medieval-looking tools and asked if I felt it.  I told him it was a sharp little jab so he decided I needed more novocain.

Five hours later I finaly regained feeling on the right side of my head...

I was also able to eat & drink without having food & beverages all over my shirt.

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Here are a few links you can visit while I digest the chinese food we had for dinner:

• Prime terrorist target....



• Sounds like they were planning a hell of a New Years Eve party.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Week.



• She's what is known as "a classy dame".

Good day for flying with my instructor

It's been a year since I got my pilots license and all of my flying during that time has been mainly sightseeing. I always do two or three landings before venturing off to stare at the world from 3,000 feet but that's about it.

Today I went up with my instructor to practice some things that I haven't done because, well, I'm a cautious coward and didn't want to kill myself by trying them alone.

We did some steep turns, some slow flight, some approach (simulated landing) stalls and some departure (simulated takeoff) stalls. Then we did five touch & go landings.

It was a good workout and I throughly enjoyed it.

Also, I did all of those things in a larger, more powerful plane than I learned in so I am now certified to fly that slightly faster plane. This means I am on longer restricted to the golf cart of planes, I can now fly the family sedan of planes.

I told him I want to schedule a night flight with him before the clocks change so one day in the next few weeks I'll schedule something and we'll do a circuit of the airports in the upper valley one evening.

Have I mentioned that I really like flying. Even when my instructor makes me work hard and I find that I have sore arms in the evening, I still love doing it.

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Here are some links you can visit if you want:

• Only in Florida where they got some strong butt cheeks.



• We have a saying for people like this. They are called "lower than snake shit".



• Another reason I don't understand "art".



• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.

I need a nap

It appears I have not gotten enough sleep lately because every day right around 4:00, I need a nap.

Then again, I'm old and maybe I'm getting plenty of sleep, I just need naps.

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I have a webinar to attend this evening on the latest equipment being installed in GA aircraft so this will be short.

While I listen to the FAA talk about AHRS (Atitude & Heading Reference System) and ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast), you can click on these few links:

• Oh Canada.



• Only in Pennsylvania.

Merry Christmas Everybody

And I do mean everybody.

If you are offended by my saying Merry Christmas to everyone, including people that don't practice the Christian faith then screw you, you anal-retentive douche-bag. No one cares about your feelings.

So once again, let me say Merry Christmas Everybody!

Maybe I'll do an update later today.

Maybe not.

We'll see.

I'm Back!

I have returned my mother-in-law safely back to her homestead and I am now comfortably ensconced on my websurfing couch.

Once again, I have eaten way too much food and I needed to get into my stretchy sweat pants.

In other words, it was the perfect Christmas.

⧫

Here are a couple of links:

• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Month.



• Only in Florida.

Today is the day!!!

At 8:00 this evening, the best 24 hours of the year begins when TBS launches 24 hours of A Christmas Story!

Thats right folks, 24 hours of The Scott Farkus Incident and You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid.

It's a great movie.

🎅

I noticed this image a couple of weeks ago when the sun hit my back window just right.

If you are having trouble figuring it out, here's a little help:

I'm betting that hurt a bit.

🎅

While we were waiting the start of A Christmas Story, we implemented stage two of our Christmas celebration.

We spent an enjoyable few hours hanging out with another set of relatives. It was a good time and once again, I ate way too much food.

One of these days I need to stop eating way too much food....

🎅

While I get ready to watch A Christmas Story, you can visit these links:

• Merry Christmas!



• Key phrase in this story: "Fraternity brothers and hipsters of the world rejoice!"



• And this is why I never became a cop.

Like I said....

Yesterday was the start of our Christmas when we all gathered over at my brothers house for pizza and fun.

Tonight there is no celebration, just baking and cleaning.

Hey, sometimes you need a break from the celebrating.

🎄

I managed to finish my Christmas shopping today and I don't feel too bad about being last minute. I ran into a friend of mine who is a retired trooper, with the operative word being "retired", and he was doing his Christmas shopping as well.

I figure if the retired guys are last minute, us working stiffs are excused.

🎄

Here are a few links for you to click upon:

• Stay classy England. Stay classy...



• Only in Florida.



• Also only in Florida.



• Key phrase in this story: "...you'll bleed out before any help arrives."

And I'm on vacation.....

I left my office at 1:00 this afternoon and I won't be returning there until January 2nd. I also won't be using a single minute of vacation time.

Have I mentioned that I really like working there.

⧫

The festivities have begun so I don't have a lot of webernet surfing time.

The few that I have found are here:

• Australia: What doesn't kill ya makes you laugh.



• Only in New Jersey.



• It's a case of "mistaken indecent exposure"...

I still haven't done my Christmas shopping.

I'm really hoping to have a free two hours on Saturday so I can at least pick up something for my wife.

If not, I'll just have to draw her a picture with a popsicle stick / macaroni picture frame.

🎄

I'm going to watch some bad TV and then fall asleep.

You can click on these:

• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Month.



• Oh Canada.



• This just might be a very well-thought-out plan to get money.



• It was going to be a very Merry Christmas.

We've had a movement

My wife has successfully moved her mom out of her house into a place where she will be taken care of and be far better off. It's a very nice place and my mother-in-law will do well there. No stairs to navigate, people to spend time with and staff who can take care of her if she needs something.

Hell, after walking around the place the other day, having lunch and checking out the amenities, I'd like to move in there.

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I have been to several office holiday parties this week and each one involved a lot of food. My doctor has suggested that I try and lose some weight.

With all the eating I'm doing at these little celebrations, I don't think that's gonna happen in the near future.

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Here are some links that you should consider clicking on:

• A good friend will bail you out of jail. A great friend is in the cell with you.



• Loud Orgies of Mexican Fish would be a great name for a late 90s Seattle Indie band.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "1 p.m. A Kalispell man accidentally called 911. When dispatch called back to make sure everything was OK, the man apologized and said he was “trying to program my mother’s…” and then hung up again. Apparently, he wasn’t having a lot of success programming whatever he was trying to program."



• The fun just never ends at Chuck E. Cheese

I better do some Christmas shopping soon.

It has occurred to me that if I don't go Christmas shopping soon, my wife is not going to have much in the way of presents on Christmas morning.

Better do something about that.

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The small emergency backup dog likes to watch me type this stuff up:


She doesn't just watch, she takes an active part by using her nose to poke keys and use the touch bar thing.

It's a little annoying but she's cute as hell so I put up with it.

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You can click on these links if you want:

• If you don't think this is a cool story, you're a stone head.



• And we all know how tough that Dollar Tree wrapping paper is...



• Okay, this is more than a little weird....



• Oh my.

I'm a healthy guy.

I had my annual physical the other day and I took a picture of the chairs in the exam room.


I guess fat people need medical care too.

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So my doctor, who is a very funny guy by the way, says I'm healthy. He says my blood pressure is good, my eyesight is good and my reflexes are good. He also said I've put on several pounds. I blamed the three pound Merrill hiking boots I was wearing and he said, "Now we just need to figure out where the other seven pounds come from..."

I work with a couple of women who live to bake. They are constantly bringing in cookies, cakes, donuts, muffins, candy, etc... and I can't help myself. Besides, it would be rude of me to not partake of their fine epicurean delights.

So I blame them for my extra poundage.

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So the Patriots managed to pull last night football game out of their ass and you can bet I heard from the relatives in Pittsburgh. My cousin Paddy is particularly unhappy with the way things went and she let me know it.

I told her that I'm sure the Steelers will play the Patriots again and maybe the Steelers will win that game.

I don't think she was happy with that answer.

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You can click on these links:

• Buffalo Bills fans: Not the brightest bulbs on the candelabra.



• Only in Japan.



• Oh great. First I gotta worry about the fact the Red Sox didn't make any moves during the winter meeting and now I gotta worry about this.



• Apparently mom is not the only crazy one in that family.

And she's home

Our daughter and her little traveling companion, the small emergency backup dog, arrived home from Iowa this afternoon. Their first flight from Des Moines to Chicago was nice but the secdon flight from Chicago to Hartford was fantastic.

The flight attendants immediately fell in love with the dog and told my daughter that the last row was empty, if she wanted to move there. My daughter, being a smart young lady, said yes and she had all three seats to herself and her little dog.. Then, all during the flight, they kept checking in, offering water or ice cubes, petting the dog, getting kisses from her and generally having a good time with the little angel.

She is a charming little dog.

So now that they are home, everyone is happy. The large main dog is happy to have his little buddy home, mom and dad are happy to have their little girl home and my little girl is glad to be home where she doesn't have to open a book for at least 3 weeks.

⧫

While I watch the rest of this football game, you can click on these links:

• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Week.



• Proof that humans are a disgusting species.



• Key phrase in this story: "The driver is suspected of being impaired at the time."



• Key phrase in this story: "Shazam was very friendly..."

A lot got done today

We started the process of moving my mother-in-law today. She hasn't moved yet but we spent some time setting up some stuff at her new place and chatting with the staff. My wife and I like where she is going and we like the staff.

Doing this kind of thing at any time of the year is difficult at best. Doing this kind of thing during the run up to Christmas is a freakin' nightmare.

Suffice to say that some things are going to suffer this year.

⧫

The Red Sox don't seem to be doing anything to improve themselves this off season. I'm hoping it's because Trade 'Em Away Dave is working on a big deal and we're all going to be shocked when it happens.

They need someone who can hit the ball. Hard. And far. They have guys who can get on base, they need someone to drive them home because as I always like to point out, the winning team is the one who steps on home plate the most.

⧫

While I contemplate the fate of the Red Sox, you can contemplate these links:

• Only in Florida.



• This headline is very misleading.



• This right here? This is some funny stuff.



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of our society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen? We report, you decide.

I don't have a cold.

Thanks for asking.

⧫

It has occurred to me that now that the webernets isn't neutral anymore, I can charge you to read my musings!

Then again, who in their right mind would pay money to read this crap.

⧫

You can visit these links while I watch Gold Rush:

• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Month.



• Apparently Taylor Swift is dating.



• Yea, this is why I stay out of strip clubs. Well, that and the $10.00 beers....



• This headline is very misleading.



• I don't believe this.

Not much to cover today.

Apparently the only thing that happened today was something about the interwebsnet no longer being neutral.

Trust me folks, the drama and horror being expressed over this is way out of line. No one really knows what is going to happen so I recommend everyone chill out a bit and wait to see how things go.

While you are waiting to see how things go, you can go look at these non-neutral websites:

• Looks like the Netherlands is clean out of virgins.



• The continuing story of feet continually washing ashore in Canada continues.



• Only in Pennsylvania.



• I guess it is possible to go to jail over a cup of coffee.



• On this date, a long time ago, America stopped being The Biggest, Baddest Kid on the Block.

I think I'm getting a cold. Again.

I have a sinus headache and my nose is running.

I think I'm going to blame a guy I work with who was sick last week.

⧫

Here are some important dates:

I have a quick little computer script that I wrote that shows me that every day. It's a nice reminder of what's to come.

⧫

I'm going to go take some aspirin and then watch bad television.

While I do that, you can do these:

• Another reason to not go to Europe.



• I don't use Uber. They're kinda expensive.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "3:02 p.m. A Kalispell resident called police because a man named Joel turned off his phone, and, according to the resident, Joel’s not allowed to do that."



• This is why I got my pilots license....

Lunch with friends

I had lunch with two friends from my previous life and it was enlightening.

One friend is retired and loving his life. He essentially hangs around with friends all day while his wife goes to work. The other friend is still at my old employer and she hates it there. She says it has gotten very stressful and petty. For some reason, this makes me happy.

I'm not happy that my friend hates her job and is stressing out. I'm happy that I'm not there anymore.

⧫

Here are a few links that you can click on:

• They finally locked up that creepy-assed Burger King.



• Two of them? What, the second one didn't learn from the first one?



• I'm betting either drugs or insanity were involved.



• This is what is known as "car-ma"...

The democrats have gone to hell in a handbasket

I've been watching the senate race in Alabama and one thought keeps going through my head: How screwed up are the democrats when they can't even find a candidate who can win against a alleged pedophile.

This guy has been accused of everything from molesting a 14 year old girl to playing grab ass with high school girls when he was in his 30s yet his opponent can't rally enough people to give him the votes needed to win the election.

That's bad.

⧫

Southern California is burning to the ground and everyone is shocked.

Don't be shocked, be amazed that people live there.

It's a freakin' desert and every so often, it burst into flame.

Here's a prediction: Now that all of the vegetation planted by man has burned to the ground, they should expect landslides and floods in February or March.

It's what happens in the desert.

⧫

Here are some links you can give a click on:

• I wish we had a Krispy Kreme around here.



• When the Founder said we had the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances", I don't think this is what they were talking about.



• Attention Massachusetts Marijuana Commission: This isn't really all that hard to figure out.



• If you are planning on going to Depoe Bay Oregon, you might want to wait a few weeks. Or maybe bring a gas mask.



• The Segways are a nice touch.



• You gotta love dogs.

New network.

I have a new router and that means I have a new network. So far I have managed to get everything hooked up to it and it seems to be working just fine.

My old network consisted of two Netgear WNR2000 wireless routers with one serving as the internet router and serving wireless to the main part of the house and the other acting simply as a wireless access point for the family room and porch.

About a month ago, I noticed that my laptop was having trouble staying connected while in the family room so I started watching the network connection. It worked fine for a bit and then suddenly the access point would disappear and then pop back on. This caused my laptop to break it's connection and fail over to the other wireless network served by the router.

My new router is a pretty heavy-duty gadget and it appears to be serving my entire house without any problems. This means I can eliminate the access point and have only one network instead of the two I ha previously.

The new router also has two USB ports. I can plug two hard drives into those ports and share them out over the network. This means my wife and I can use these drives as backup devices and not worry so much about losing data.

After what my wife went through last month when her hard drive died, having a facility where her laptop can do scheduled backups would be a very good thing.

⧫

While I read up on this Apple Time Machine thing, you can visit these links:

• Good girl! I hate them damned elf's.



• We don't pay cops enough.



• Oklahoma boys - don't mess with them.



• Apparently feet are still washing ashore in Canada.

Christmas party tonight

Tonight was the annual neighborhood Christmas party and we had a good time.

You however, can have a good time visiting a couple of links:

• Only in Florida.



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen. We report, you decide.

Presentations

My boss is all excited because I decided it was time to start giving presentations. Seems that my giving presentations is something they were hoping I would do when I started this process and they have been hinting for the last 5 months.

So when I told him I thought it was time, he immediately sent out an email and a signup sheet. Within a few minutes, there were more than a few people who signed up. He's thinking we'll fill the room and have to schedule a second one. I'm a bit more realistic and I expect that maybe 10 people will show up.

Hey, at least I'm making the boss happy and that's really all that counts.

⧫

Here are some links you can visit and who knows, maybe you'll even enjoy them:

• Squirrel, 1 - Allegedly intelligent humans, 0



• I would have though that people from all over the area would have showed up to help with the cleanup.



• Here's a sentence no one wants written about them: "...cemented his head inside a microwave."



• Only in Florida.

Jury Duty

Yesterday I neglected to tell you about my exciting day of jury duty.

I got there at 8:00, sat around until 9:15 when the judge came in and said, "Hey, things are going along pretty well. Looks like we'll be doing things around 10:30 or so. You guys can tale a break but be back here by 10:00"

I went over to McDonalds to get some bad breakfast and was back in the jury room by 9:50.

At 10:30, they took us all (There were 18 of us) into the court room, had us raise our right hands and swear that we would be good jurors. Well, the words were a bit different than that but that's the gist.

After we swore to God about how good we were going to jurify, we all sat down and they called us up to meet the judge & the two attorneys (prosecutor and defense) at "side bar". I was excited by the prospect of going to a bar with the judge and the attorneys so you can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that "side bar" meant standing to the side of the judges desk.

So anyways, they all had the questionnaires we had filled out explaining about what we did and who we knew and where we hung out and they asked me questions about what I had written. They were specially interested in the fact I had attended the Mass Sate Police academy and spent three years on the WENC Campus Police Dept.

After they asked me their questions and we all had a good chortle at something the judge said, I was told I was Juror Number One!!! and I that should take a seat over there in the jury box in Seat Number One!!!

After they had seated seven of us (the jury is six members and one alternate), the long-haired hippie looking defense attorney went back to his goatee & man-bun sportin' client to confer with him. They were mumbling about things & looking at our questionnaires and I knew they were talking about me because I heard my first name get mumbled a couple of times.

After about 30 seconds of mumbling and head shaking, the defense attorney said to the clerk, "Number One".

With those two words, I was relegated back to my previous status of non-juror, told by the judge that the commonwealth appreciated my service and then sent on my way.

I'd like to say that I enjoyed serving my civic duty of being a jury of someones peers but I can't because to be honest with you, it was boring as hell and I'm glad I don't have to go again for another three years.

⧫

While I savor my 10 minutes of jury glory, you can click on these links:

• Yes, alcohol was involved.



• Yes, even more alcohol was involved.



• Good safety tip.



• Only in Pennsylvania.

Three years

I had jury duty today. That means I won't have it again for at least three years.

I'm good with that.

⧫

Here are some links:

• If you're gonna steal something, it might as well be something that brings you pleasure.



• This explains Congress.



• Only in Ireland.

I'm contributing to the annual report

The President of the university I work at asked me to contribute my accomplishments to the 2017 annual report.

My previous employer wouldn't even let me read the annual report, never mind contribute to it.

I really like this job.

⧫

Todays links are here:

• Did she not know she could buy that stuff here. And it's pretty cheap...



• Only in Florida.



• Tragic Comedy at it's best!
  (Trust me, watch the video.)



• Penis-shaped Stress Ball is a fantastic name but not for a child's toy.

Busy day

It was a busy day at work.

Who am I kidding.

This place is no where near as stressful or busy as my old job. A busy day at this place is what used to be call "lunch" at my old place.

So I had several meetings to cover phase two of my plan and I gotta admit, it's pretty damned nice working at an organization that not only appreciates me, they also respect my opinions.

I made the right decision when I said I was never going back to work at a large corporation.

⧫

Enjoy these links:

• Key phrase in this story: "...the shooting was justified and the death of the robber does not count toward the city's total homicides."



• Only in Florida.



• Oh Canada.



• Only in Pennsylvania.

We have lights

We managed to get some of our traditional outdoor Christmas lights up today.

I also took care of the back yard and did some things for my mother-in-law.

Then it was time to watch the Patriots defeat the Bills with the occasional brief nap.

Life, my friends, is good.

⧫

Here are some links for you:

• I'm beginning to wonder if the original Star Trek movie might one day become a documentary.



• Seems like they could have waited until his terminal disease ran its course....



• You just keep on being you North Korea...

Computers and leaves.

Today I replaced my mother-in-law's computer with a new one. This is a good thing for me because her old computer was running Windows Vista and that is out of support. That meant she was getting popups all the time from Microsoft telling her that her computer wasn't secure.

She would call me and tell me, "Charter is trying to do something to my computer." and I would tell her to just leave it until I could come over and look at it.

Now, the popups are gone and she seems happy.

Unfortunately, it came with Windows 10 and I kinda had to mickey mouse it a bit to make it look exactly like her old one. The toughest part was shutting it down. Vista still had the old button that would simply shut the machine down while Windows 10 has a multi-click process that she found difficult.

I installed a shortcut toe shutdown.exe on her desktop that with one click shuts the computer down.

I'm a freakin' genius.

After that, I was able to get my lawn cleared of all leaves so that I can put up the Christmas lights tomorrow.

⧫

Here are a few links that you might enjoy:

• She's probably someones grandma....



• Criminals just aren't that bright.



• Smelly Socks would be a fantastic baseball player nickname.



• Yes, alcohol was involved. And waffles.



• Only in China.

Friend of mine retired today

My friend Bill retired today so I spent time with him and a bunch of folks consuming adult beverages.

That means I have nothing for you.

Enjoy!