All posts by James DeVol

August 24th

Well….feel pretty crappy today so this one is going to be short…I’ll be back later to add to it but right now I am in need of ice water and the couch….

Okay, went out for coffee and the papers and feel a little better….but not that much better…I had an okay day yesterday but didn’t do much…have just been in a malaise for the past few days and nothing has interested me so I’ve just been going with it and existing instead of living…but that should end here in a couple of days and I’ll get on with it….not much to do today…I should go out for groceries since I don’t really have any food but I think I can make do with a couple of chicken legs…don’t need to eat much anyway…maybe I’ll make tomorrow errand day since it is kind of gloomy today…more later….

A couple of little ones…

Well….I think I’ll give ole Rick a rest for the day and just muse about a few things…first, can the repubs get any more blatant about their disdain for working people? They pledge to fight to the death to continue tax breaks for the rich and business but when it comes to the extension of the payroll tax cut for workers, they have pledged to fight it’s extension….just more evidence that they have no idea how the economy works…workers will spend that money while the rich will just bid up the prices of luxury items like paintings, Maseratis, etc. and other non-productive uses…when do we get back to the America where we think big and do big things? I was heartened to hear Warren Buffet come out and say that he knows that the super rich like him are undertaxed and he can’t understand why the repubs are lined up one and all to give him more breaks….we all know why they do it…the repubs have been bought by these people and that’s what money does…it distorts the political process and puts people into office that know they can ignore the people that vote for them and continue to steal the rest of the country for their owners….okay, that’s enough for now….I may be back later if something grabs me….

August 23rd

Well…a day yesterday that started out kind of boring but then I went out to have a couple with G and that broke the day up quite well…I did watch a movie that was kind of cool….but odd…”Sucker Punch” and just finished it up a few minutes ago….I wasn’t good last night and feel a little slow today but I am going to ride to the coffee shop….wait, have to check the temp…it’s only 57 but it’s not raining so I think I will ride the bike….not much to do today….might go and have a new muffler put on the car but probably not….think I’ll just kind of veg out today and send resumes….

Back to the idiot Rick Perry…

Well….have a couple of things that I want to talk about and, as I said, Rick Perry is going to be fun…first, I still marvel at the way the repubs keep chanting “get government out of the way”, but in Texas, over 500 million dollars of “government money” has been handed out to Perry’s cronies that are his biggest campaign contributors; a “pay for play system” that says that if you are not ready to give millions to Perry’s political campaign, stay out of Texas because you won’t get any government contracts. Politicians used to go to jail for that kind of stuff and now it is held up as a miracle? Now, we have the idiot stand up and calling Obama the greatest job killer in the history of the country….never bothering to do the math that more jobs were lost in the last year of ole GW’s term than there has been in Obama’s term…so how are you going to blame that on Obama? That companies were cutting jobs in anticipation of Obama getting elected? Just more nonsense from another Texan who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple….geez….

August 22nd

Well….a pretty lazy day yesterday and I was good all day so I feel okay this morning…not much in the way of sleep, though, and no dreams of course, so nothing to report there. I was going to do a political one yesterday but the inertia of a lazy Sunday got the best of me and all I did was watch races and cook…it was good to not think about what is going on in the world but the events in Libya grabbed me later in the day and I broke down and watched a little news…..but only on the Libya story…nothing else. Not much to do today….I do need to go over to Target a look at a new printer…they have a Canon all in one for 33 bucks and with the little I print, it should last a couple of years….the ink is about 40 bucks, though….so that will be my big day…more later…

August 21st

Well…running late again this morning but it is by choice instead of an accident….just wanted to read the paper and have some coffee first…I did have a nice day yesterday with a surprise outing to hang out with K at the mex place for a while…it’s nice to get out one on one with her…she had some things she needed to talk about and I was glad to listen…have to remember to not offer advice since my life didn’t turn out as I expected and I don’t know if I’ve earned the right to be listened to…the phrase that comes to mind is “those that can’t do, teach” oh, well….I am still worried about T, too, but there is not much I can do for her other than send good thoughts and that gets frustrating….not much to do today…after I finish this I’m going to get on the bike and put in 20 miles or so…it is such a nice morning and I am going to make it a no sprint day and just enjoy for a change….I know I haven’t been too prolific on the politics front lately but it’s just not grabbing me right now…and the car thing might just be more interesting….more later…

The next cars…

Well…it’s been harder than I expected to remember all of the cars that I’ve owned but I think I’ll keep trying to get the order correct…after the 55 Ford wagon, it was either my 62 Falcon station wagon or the 61 Olds super 88 that I got from my brother…the wagon was a hoot since you could put 8 people in it to go cruising but with that kind of a load, the little six in it just kind of wheezed. The Olds was the definition of a “boat” with the 392 v-8 in it and weighing almost 4500 pounds…when we took that one out, we’d spend 20 bucks for gas and only ten bucks for beer for 6 of us (at that time, gas was still 25 cents a gallon and beer was around 6 bucks a case)….I think it got about 10 miles to the gallon on good days…when you floored it you could watch the gas gauge go down. I think the next car was a 63 Ford that I bought with another one of my brothers but he blew it up the first day so it was never on the road and I lost 150 bucks of my lawn mowing money. I did get an engine to tear down for shop class, though, and had the chance to see what bent valves look like. I think we’re getting close to one of my favorites, my 65 Ford Galaxy…but I think I’ll wait for that one…

August 20th

Well…had a nasty little surprise when I go home from HH with K yesterday…new people are moving in next door to me and there are children in the mix….I raised mine and just don’t want to be around them anymore…well…maybe that’s a little harsh…let’s just wait and see how it’s going to work out…I do have to remember to be the better person that I have been trying to be over the past few years….I guess it’s just too easy to have the knee jerk reactions that keep you from thinking and adapting…..I did have fun at HH and then was not good when I got home and feel a little slow today…it may be that I only ate lunch yesterday…falling back into the old trap of not eating enough but I do like the results…if I keep this up I just may make the goal of 160 pounds by the end of the year….hold on…need to look at the radar….okay…need to get going if I’m going to get the bike ride in before the rain comes so I’ll be back later to add to this one….

One last thing…happy birthday Robert Plant….

Had to come back to cars….

Well…I was really wrong when I said my first car was a 62 comet…that was actually my first road car…I did have a 1961 comet field car, as we called them…that was wrecked when my father spun it and hit a bus….so, the car was no longer usable on the road but it still ran and I used it when I was 14 to tear around the fields and plow over trees on our property and climb hills at the elementary school next door….I did have a 1960 Chevy before I got my license, too…but lost that one when my brother wrecked his car and needed a way to get to work……it seems like we all had so many cars when I was growing up and swapping out engines and transmissions was just another day at the office for us….I will come back to this one later….since I do want to get the cars that I’ve owned down on paper…..

Wandering, wandering, wandering….

Well…haven’t been able to come up with one topic to fill this thing so I think I’ll just muse a little and wander around in my head a bit….I just love ole Rick Perry….as I said a few days back, he is going to be a hoot commenting on over the next year or so and yesterday, he did not disappoint. He told a youngster in new England that they teach creationism in Texas schools….something that is illegal in the US…nice job, Rick, you don’t even know what is going on in your state…how are you going to run the country? Okay, that one sounded better in my head but you get the idea….

I did want to talk about cars a little today…it has been on my mind for a couple of days. What was your first car? I still remember my white 1962 Comet that I inherited when my father died…144 cubic inch straight six with a three on the tree as we used to call it…the laws back then would let you get your license on the day you turned 16 and take off in your car with no restrictions that same day…and that’s what I did…it was so cool to get in that thing and go…and gas was only 24 cents a gallon so the 55 cents an hour I made at the Dog and Suds in Ada would pay for both gas and beer….can you remember pulling into a gas station and asking for a bucks worth? The next car was the family wagon…a 55 Ford that I took over after the Comet died…but that’s another one for later….