My Brain Is Full and I'm About To Empty It

Greetings and salutations from this little slice of heaven we call Dawsonville.  After surviving Snowmaggedon we have been blessed with a truly beautiful weekend.  The mercury topped out at 70 degrees here yesterday, and I am sitting on my back-porch in shirt sleeves this morning as I type.  Birds chirping, squirrels playing, and Ike barking at the neighbor's cat.  How does he know he does not like the cat.  He sniffs, not barks at, other dogs.  Do animals have an instinctive sense of "bigotry"?  Is it that simple?  Are all of God's creatures wired that way?

Anyway, my first thought for this blog was a simple one.  People are dumb.  I choose the word dumb here because I truly feel most people are not stupid.  Most people have some idea of wrong and right, some idea of white and black, and some idea of how to survive.  However, a lot of us (the human race) are just plain dumb. We don't pay attention, we don't learn from our mistakes, and then we can't figure out why we get stuck in the situations we get stuck in.  For example... On the morning news was a story about a drug bust.  The lady that got caught with 79,000 ecstasy pills was actually shocked at what was in her luggage.  Apparently a Greyhound bus was stopped and searched right here in Georgia on suspicion it had a passenger transporting large quantities of illegal drugs.  Anyway, they pull the lady off of the bus, and she states "My boyfriend gave me the bag to deliver for him; I didn't know what was in it."  If only I knew someone so trusting.

People also need to pay more attention when they are talking to people face to face.  I realize we live in Atlanta.  I realize that the left has gone out of the way to make the feminization of men and the masculinization of women an OK thing.  But when I take my daughter to the store and you see us in line pay attention to what SHE is wearing.  Telling me I have "such a cute little boy" when SHE has on a pink top, pink pants, and pink Nike's ($1 at consignment thank you) only shows me that you are an idiot.  It also tells me that you deserve to get hit by the car you did not see before you crossed the street.  And, I have a pretty good idea that you live your life with your head jammed up your...

But there are other things on my mind too; Egypt for one.  It makes me smile to think that men of power, no matter how secure they feel, are subject to the will of the people.  All it takes is for the people to actually care about something.  When people live in fear they will do about anything.  When people live in an information vacuum or propaganda state they will tolerate or begin to believe anything.  But, and this is a big but, when the human spirit is fed, and fear becomes anger, and anger becomes solidarity then the powerful are shown to be at the mercy of the people.  Isn't that the way is supposed to be?  Or is that the naive American coming out in me?

I also want to recommend an author to those of you that read spy fiction.  I had read Spy by Ted Bell, and just finished Tsar.  Good easy and exciting reading.  I give it a thumbs up.

What parents feed their 4 year old alcohol?  Sad events in Alpharetta.


Drug smuggling by catapult...I give it an "A" for effort!

I have not used this platform for pushing God in the past.  I have tried to keep it 85% Gracie and 15% rambling thoughts.  However, I was watching Charles Stanley this morning and the man still has it.  He gave a very educational and inspiring sermon.  For any of you needing a voice on the wilderness I recommend checking out InTouch.org.  Maybe it has something that can help you out.

Finally, a breath of fresh air from professional sports, Gil Meche is/was a pitcher for the KC Royals.  He was guaranteed $12 million this year if he just SHOWED UP to spring training.  Instead he called a press conference and retired.  He stated that he knew his shoulder would not last all season, and it would be wrong to take the money.  Wonders never cease.

OH, I hope the Packers beat the steelers 58-0.

Keep Smiling,

Rob

And this is what dinner looks like now!

Snot!

I am SO glad the power is still on!  Here we are at Ice Base Bozicevich waiting for the spring time thaw so we can get our supply ship in.  Seriously, one day of not being able to get out of the house and I feel like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" already.  At least I get to sit here with Em and watch "The Bachelor".  I am truly sad that our television programming has sunk to this level; makes me miss "Flavor of Love".  Please just put a bullet in my head right now

The great thing about this whole ice age we are experiencing this week is that Gracie and I are both sick.  How great is that?  Not only can we not get away from each other, we are both whiny and bitchy.  Now, most of you might say that is normal for me, but you do have to admit that it sets up for some fun living for the next couple of days.  Especially for Emilee! She has already asked me what the chances of me shoveling a path so she can get to work Wednesday.  I told her she just needed to drink A LOT and it would make it better.

But I did not start this work of literary excellence to expound on the trials and tribulations of a young man; I started it to tell ya'll about....SNOT.

Snot is such a fun word.  It is from the french, meaning; running from your nose like we run from the Germans.  It is an amazing substance.  Flowing freely from a 10 month old's nose it has the properties of a lubricant and an adhesive.  When you try to wipe it away the Kleenex slides right off of it.  Yet things stick to it like super glue.  It gets EVERYWHERE!  It works like a hydraulic plug in the nostril when solid, but nothing can stop it in its "liquid" form.

It also comes in several colors.  Clear being preferred and the most prominent.  Fortunately, we have not seen much of the other classic colors.  Yellow for a nice starter infection.  Green for a nicely progressing infection.  Brown for an "OH Shit" infection.  And of course the swirl; a combination of the above.

It also comes in different quantities.  We were on about a gallon an hour flow of yellow.  Now we are on a trickle of clear.  I just wish she would not get so worked up about little things.  We have her settled and she breathes fine.  Something small happens and the wailing begins.  The wailing brings more snot.  I wish I spoke 10 month old.  I would tell her "ooh. may dadada ha"! And she would know that calming down would let her breathe.

She also loves it when we try to suck out her nose.  You guys have seen the blue bulb syringes.  All she has to do is see it and the adventure begins.  I hate the fact that I have to trick her.  She thinks we are going to play and then BOOM, she is in the "here comes the nose probe" position again.  She flails, wails, and screams...more snot. And, I have been truly amazed at how much snot you can get out of a 10 month old!  It's like a game trying to guess quantity and color!

Anyway, I hope all of you stay warm and safe.  If you get stuck go ahead and call 911.  I'm not working on the truck anyway!

Stay Safe,

Rob

Taken

At long last today...a moment of peace.

Today started off early and I had much to do.  Emilee was working today so little "miss breakdown" was going for the trip with me.  Fortunately she kept it together and managed to plan her naps for the big journeys in the truck. I do have to apologize to Clay though. I am pretty sure my karma dished him a cardiac arrest.  The EMS gods must have sensed my presence in the station and thought they could catch me.  They caught Clay instead.  And after looking through facebook and talking to a few more of you it seems like today was busy with dead folks.  Sorry about that.

Anyway, after a two hour nap this afternoon, Satana arrived.  It amazes me that at 150 decibels laughing is cute, but at 75 decibels crying and whining makes you want to go on a five state killing spree.  What is it about the different tone that is so annoying. I can't wait for the days when she can look at me and say "Daddy I want....".  I just want to know what will make her happy and then decide yes or no.  The screaming to scream thing is a little irritating.

SO now to my moment of peace.  Emilee and I are sitting in the play room politely ignoring each other as we play around on the internet when Taken comes on.  This is an awesome movie!  Even though I have seen it 20 times it is still captivating and I catch new things every time I watch it.  It got me to thinking, which we all know is dangerous, about which movies are the best in different genres.  Netflix has opened my library up a bit and I want to expand my movie base a bit.  Most of the time however, I end up disappointed by the "professional" critics picks. SO I come to you fine folks to help me.

Here is my endgame.  I give you my top 3 in each of the categories and you give me as many as you want.

Suspense: Taken, Silence of the Lambs, Seven
Action/Adventure: Casino Royale (2006), Raiders, Die Hard
Antihero: Falling Down, The Professional, Reservoir Dogs
Horror: The Exorcist, Jaws, The Shining
Drama: Oceans Eleven (Both Makes), Rounders, Shawshank Redemption
Mob: Donnie Brasco, Goodfellas, True Romance (The Godafther I & II are too obvious)
Military: Saving Private Ryan, Patton, Red Dawn (I know some cheese)
Sci-Fi: Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek (2009), Aliens
Random 5: Tombstone, Black Hawk Down, The Usual Suspects, Snatch, The Departed

Ended up as a random blog, I know.  But maybe we can have some fun with it.


Keep Smiling,

Rob