Recommended

I've mentioned… more than a few times… that I'm a C-SPAN junkie and, more specifically, a C-SPAN2 "Book TV" junkie. When my teevee is powered up on any given Saturday or Sunday evening it's most likely tuned to C-SPAN2. I saw something definitely out of the ordinary this weekend… this woman:

Ms. Burana spoke for about an hour (44 minutes, actually) and read passages from her book "I Love a Man in Uniform." Here's the C-SPAN blurb on the program:

Lily Burana talked about her book I Love a Man in Uniform: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles (Weinstein Books; April 14, 2009). A former punk rock artist and exotic dancer, Lily Burana's book deals with the challenges of her life as the wife of a Military Intelligence officer who served in Iraq, coping with his post-traumatic stress disorder, living at West Point, and making new friends. She read from her book and responded to questions from members of the audience.

So… the segment is available on-line at C-SPAN's website. Lucky you, if you go watch it. Ms. Burana is articulate, funny, touching, and honest to a fault. Her readings and comments certainly provide a rather different take on the life of a military wife and they're guaranteed to make ya smile. Ms. Burana also has a website.

As the post title sez: Recommended.

A Very Slow Sunday

We're still drinking our morning coffee as the noon hour passes... and we still have two cups to go before the pot is done. Some days I can go almost directly from the morning coffee to Happy Hour. Not all that often, mind you... just occasionally. It looks to be a near-run thing today.

So... thinkin' about Sunday Mornings Past... I found myself wishing I was here:

That would be the front door to my apartment in San Ramon, California, about seven or eight years ago. One of the better things about that apartment was its location, specifically the fact it was but a four minute (or less) walk from that door to the local Starbucks. I used to spend Sunday mornings sitting on the patio of that Starbucks with a couple o' three cups of The Daily Brew and the Sunday New York Times.

(Aside: I never did any of those frou-frou drinks, like "a Soy Caramel Macchiato with a double shot, Barista, if you please." Nope. That ain't me. But I did read a frou-frou paper on the weekends, dontcha know. This being before the WSJ started publishing weekend editions.)

Anyhoo... It took me near forever to read the paper on those sultry Sunday mornings past, coz the people watching was so good. Not up to European cafe standards, but pretty danged close. Especially the women (and this is where the "sultry" adjective comes in) -- there's a reason Brian Wilson and Mike Love wrote "I wish they all could be California Girls." The boys most certainly did have a point.

There have been other Sunday morning places that were every bit the equal of San Ramon, but let's not jog too far down Memory Lane. One should live in the present, no?

―:☺:―

I made my first-ever 911 call in the wee smalls this morning. I'm sitting at my desk around 0130 hrs, watching C-SPAN, windows open, when I hear this crash... followed by a moan and a soft "help me... somebody help me..." I look out my window and see a crumpled body near my neighbor's front door. I know the neighbor isn't home... he works nights. So, I grab my flashlight and my phone and run out the door. This guy is writhing on the ground, semi-coherent, but I make out "I'm a diabetic... I need my medicine." So I dial 911.

I'll make this short... the paramedics took the guy off to the hospital; all seemed to turn out well... here's yet another reason I love P-Ville: there was a cop car on the prem in about three minutes flat, followed by another cop two minutes later with the ambulance right behind, all this in no more than five minutes, total. That would be between the time I dialed 911 and all the arrivals. This is a Good Thing, especially for us geezers.

―:☺:―

Today's Pic: YrHmblScrb inside that apartment in San Ramon... I'm in my work clothes and getting ready to head out for work, believe it or don't. To say the dress code at my place of employment was relaxed is an understatement of massive proportions. And I was "management," too. But, Hey! San Francisco, yanno? It was pretty nice, actually... and one HELLUVA change from EDS (note the coffee mug from my previous life), which was about as uptight a company... dress-wise... as one could find in America, at the time.

I know all this about the photo coz I looked up the day/date, which was a Tuesday in 2001. Further...the pic was shot at 0459 hrs. Ya gotta love EXIF data. It remembers when you can't.

Update, Monday morning: Darryl, in comments, talked about my commute into The City, to which I replied (offline):

Actually... it was south on 680 to Dublin/Pleasanton BART and then into The City. The Montgomery BART station was in the basement of my building (44 Montgomery)... and if I wanted I could go directly from the train to my office and never hit the street, i.e., go outside.

Except on the odd Saturday or two when I went south on 680 to 580 and then west into The City. A slightly longer route but there seemed to be less traffic, thus quicker.

You piqued my curiosity... so I googled the route. And came up with a way-cool street view of 44 Monty (attached). You have NO idea how much money I dropped in this Starbucks store over the course of two-plus years, LOL!

And here's the pic I was talking about (click for larger):

I love Google's Street View! The cool thing is the pan feature in street view. You can also go to full-screen mode and look up... like this:

Heh. I'm such a freakin' geek. That said... the view of The City from the top floor of 44 Monty was just spectacular. Not as good as from the top of the Trans-America Tower, perhaps, but good enough. Speaking of "enough..." we're done with the nostalgia trip.

Right Now

Gin and Tonics (plural) under balmy New Mexico skies (with stars!)... and Talking Heads:



Well, not quite like that. More like Pandora:

"You may ask yourself... 'How did I get here?'"

Or, mo' betta: "Same as it ever was, same as it ever was..."

Ya hadda be there (here).

Today's Funny

From... yet again... the Usual Source.

I'm really out of step on this "Cash for Clunkers" thing. It seems like every pundit I read (or see on my teevee) thinks the program is just peachy... i.e., a government incentive that actually works... including most all our congresscritters on both sides of the aisle. I find the program appalling and an offense to my sensibilities. Blog-Bud Morgan put up a post on this subject... kinda-sorta, before he went off on a tangent... and for brevity's sake I'll just post the comment I left over at his house. To wit:

Clever libertarians now hot-rodding around in their ‘65 Mustangs and ‘71 Camaros are no doubt very grateful to…the taxpayers who paid the tab.

I find the very frickin’ thought of clue-free individuals abusing the public fisc in this manner to be supremely frickin’ offensive. REAL libertarians would buy their Camaros or SUVs with their own g*ddamned money. Rant against the Nanny State and then go out and shovel Nanny’s money into the trunk of your Camaro… yeah, THAT makes sense. Fucking hypocrites.

The italicized bit is a lift from Morgan's post. You'd have to RTWT to understand the full context of my comment, but suffice to say I didn't like the concept being discussed. That's putting it mildly. Now... about gub'mint health care... (insert smiley face thingie here)

Broadening Our Horizons V

The Brown Truck O' Happiness dropped these off a few minutes ago, just in time for today's Happy Hour:

Earlier this week I responded in the affirmative to an e-mail from my Good Friend Tim at cigar.com, quoted in part:

Well, here's an incentive to try this new brand. Through this email deal you can buy a box of Nica Libre in the Imperial size (6 x 54) for just $50 with free shipping to boot!

Featuring a dark, oily San Andres maduro wrapper (almost identical to the wrapper used on Padron's Anniversary Maduro), if you like maduro cigars you'll love this medium-bodied beauty

The price, as they say, was right... at about a third the cost of our usual, customary, and reasonable cigars (per stick). The packaging is certainly pleasing (with a nice brass clasp and hinges on the all-wood box); one hopes the cigars will live up to their presentation.

So. I do believe it's time to pour a beer and road test one of these puppies. And you know a nap won't be all that far behind.

Update, later that same day: I'm pleased to report the cigars are every bit as good as the packaging. Great flavor... which is to say mild-to-moderate in intensity and "feel"... great construction, easy draw, with a most-pleasing aroma, all of which make for a fine, fine smoke. These Nica Libres won't displace the cigar-of-choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but they are quite nice as a change of pace.

And now I hear the couch calling my name...

Update, Part Deux (Saturday): These Nica Libres really are quite good! I usually only have one cigar a day but I broke my "moderation" rule last evening and burned a second Nica Libre with my after-dinner whiskey. The brand might become a permanent addition to the humidor. We'll see.

More Odds and Sods

New to me, maybe not to you... Auto-Tune The News:



Politico has a good backgrounder on Michael Gregory, the guy behind Auto-Tune the News. The vid above is but one of six on Gregory's YouTube Channel. Great stuff be there!

―:☺:―

I am NOT alone! From the NYT:

Wake up, America! Fully one in three adults admit that on any typical day they take a nap, according to a national survey released Wednesday.

The proportion of self-proclaimed nappers was even higher among adults who had trouble sleeping the night before and who had exercised within the past 24 hours. It was also disproportionately higher among people who are poorer, black, men older than 50, men and women over 80 and among people who are not happy.

Well... I'm pretty much a Happy Camper but I AM over 50 and I often find myself upside down where my sleeping habits are concerned. I'm also "poorer." Or at least a lot poorer than I used to be when I was gainfully employed. But what does it for (to?) me is a couple o' three beers under the awning in 90-degree heat. That makes naps kinda automatic, yanno? Happens nearly EVERY day...

The article also claims a lot of us lie about naps, as if napping was something to be ashamed of. Not according to Churchill or Reagan... who were famous nappers (and heroes of mine, too). I'm kinda-sorta an infamous napper.

―:☺:―

The Last Word on The Beer Summit (around here, anyhoo):

But it wouldn't be a contrived Washington event without a contrived Washington protest. Already, "Citizens Against the Beer Summit at White House", a makeshift gathering spearheaded by Baltimore pastor Dr. Emmett Burns, will picket the White House today between 12 and 3 p.m. "The president's actions are sending the wrong message to our nation's youth who are becoming alcoholics at young ages," reads an announcement for the protest. "This pernicious habit is also the reason for the large number of teen motor vehicle accidents throughout the country."

Ain't that America...

Beer consumption is also the leading cause of naps among poorer white men aged 64 in and around Portales, NM. We have THAT on pretty danged good authority. But we will not be joining any sort of protest group, Gentle Reader. Oh noes, we will NOT.

―:☺:―

Today's Pic: One of our periodic gratuitous baby pictures. This one includes YrHmblScrb when he was much better looking... which, of course, is speaking strictly about ourselves and relative to where we are today... and not to Male Pulchritude, in general.

If your name is Lou, Dan, or mebbe Bob you might be thinkin' you've seen this pic before. Nope. It's different. Same people, same place (Key West), same general time (March 1998), different day, different hat on SN3, different pose. Different!

It's Not YOU... It's Me...

OK, TWC. I've thought about it for quite a while and the time has come. We've been in this downhill slide, you and me, for several years now. I'm thinking it began with your frickin' incessant re-runs of "Storm Stories," all of which I've seen six times and God Knows it could be THIRTY-six times… EACH… if I'd chosen to watch all your damned re-runs. That's just for starters.

I thought you might could change after going to work for NBC. I mean, you did get rid of that Eco-Tart and all her friends… and that was a good start. I had high hopes that we could re-establish our former happy relationship, where you concentrated on… you know… reporting the weather, both on my teevee and on the web. But noooo… you had to flaunt cheesy advertising on your website and force me to hit refresh on your radar map every six minutes or so when we're getting our ass kicked with severe weather, all while forcing me to look at those damned Obama ads. And then you went and put that insufferable boob Roker on, first thing in the morning. I refused to watch his short lil segments on NBC… and now you give him a couple of hours of his very own? Dang.

That's the last straw. And, yes… now that I think about it… it IS you and not me. And we're OVER. Get yourself and your lame-ass WeatherStar the Hell outta here. We're done.

I have a new love. She's right there on the left. And in my sidebar, too… which is a place you never could hope to aspire to being. And she's so much better than you... her "current conditions" are refreshed every four or five seconds, she has weather history and statistics at my very fingertips, and her radar display NEVER needs refreshing - it's always on and always current. But… we did have some good times in the way-back and I'll always look back on those times with a certain fondness. Too bad you changed got old and complacent, not to mention political. I just can't frickin' STAND that.