RIP

Son Seals, Rodney Dangerfield, Ray Charles, Captain Kangaroo.

We lost a lot of good ones this year.

RIP

2005

and no New Year's resolutions for me. I can't seem to keep 'em.

May the new year bring Peace, health, and prosperity to everyone.

Low On The Scale

It would seem that Dr. Ramesh Krishnaraj, our recently retired Director of Health, got a raw deal.

He must be fuming to know that the $63,000. severance he got from the Guilford County Board of Health and the taxpayers of Guilford County, ranks so low on the resignation/ouster payscale. Maybe that was because Dr. K only worked one year vs. Raines working five. I don't know but surely we could have come up with a better package than this, now that we don't have to dole out the Dell incentives. After all, it's only taxpayer money.

I guess my ranting will be for nothing though. This week's Rhino has an article and makes some good points on why this whole arrangement might be illegal, but I won't hold my breath.

As I don't get all my local news coverage from the Rhino weekly, I am curious as to why the News & Record hasn't had much to say about this.

Welcome Home

My brother-in-law is now officially out of Baghdad and back home in Texas, safe and hopefully sound, with his wife and three kids.

Welcome back Harold.

Sometimes prayers are answered.

We'll pray now that you don't have to go back.

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you and yours have a safe and happy one.

I miss the Christmas'es past. I miss having little kids around.

I miss the first fire trucks, train sets. I miss the first tricycle, and bicycle. I miss getting woke up 15 min. after the presents had been put under the tree. I miss the excitement and the "screams" of joy of seeing what Santa had delivered under the tree.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Christmas. It's still a special time for me. A time to be with family and friends, and I cherish every moment.

My son is 17 now. His Christmas list consisted of, set of weights, clothes, speakers for his car, foosball table and punching bag and stand.

I miss the old Christmas'es.

God they grow up fast........

Terry Seems Exasperated

Looks like all the talk and media coverage about all of this violence is finally getting to Terry and he is ready to do something about it.

What, I don't know.

"If you expel all these children, they will be on the street or in the High Point jail."

So. If they really wanted to learn and be in school, that's where they would be. They wouldn't be fighting, cussing the teachers, throwing erasers at the teachers and being generally disruptive to the whole process.

"But they have a right to be in school in North Carolina."

Yes they do. And my child also has a right to be in school. In a SAFE, SUPERVISED, LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. That is not the case at Andrews High School at the present time. Especially when you have a hint of violence and 200 students leave campus.

Then, when there is a fight and the police are called, all you want to do is criticize the police for responding and taking care of the problem. You say they send too many cars? Six cars equals what? Six or at the most eight officers? I don't think that's too many when you have probably 400 students in the school and the possibility exists that the fight could escalate into something much worse than two or three kids fighting. Especially when you say that outside interference from the community was responsible for some of these fights.

Now the specialized programs at Bennett College, A&T, and Greensboro College.

I commend you for setting up these programs in Greensboro and hope they are working for you.

What I would like to know is while you were setting these programs up in Greensboro, WHY you left High Point out?? Did they not have a problem then or were they just put on the backburner like they have been so many times since the "school merger"? Or were you just too busy with your High Point Lottery or bus hub planning? Or were you just going to wait until the parents and the community said, "We've had enough of this shit!", before you did anything about it?

Seems like you dropped the ball on that one, Terry.

"The solution is education".

This may be Terry. One last question though. When 66% of these kids have parents or guardians at home teaching them not to let anyone "mess with them" or "push them around", what are you going to do? Make the parents come to school too?

Toney Baker

This in the USA Today this morning.

What Mr. Lemming failed to mention in the article is that with 10,241 career yards Toney became North Carolina's all time rushing leader and ranks 2nd nationally.

Although he didn't win a state championship ring while at Ragsdale, he had an awesome four years.

Congratulations Toney and Best of Luck.

Big Box Attitude

What is it with the attitude of some of the "big box" retailers here in High Point/ Greensboro??

Yea, I know It's Christmas. Yea, Iknow you're busy. But don't you want me to get my shit and get the hell out of your store where some other fool can come in and put up with all your BS to hand over their hard earned money to you?

Case in point. Head into High Point this afternoon to electronics retailer called "Circuit City" to pick up a few more things on my sons Christmas list. First stop was for 5 1/4" speakers for his front car doors on his car. No problem. Had them. Pioneer. Just what he wanted.$49.95 but had to pay for them at the auto stereo installation area.

Well I got some more shopping to do so the clerk says "no problem, go get what you have to get and come back here and we'll check everything out here."

O.K.!

So approximately 50min later with 1 DVD player, 4 DVD's, 2 CD's, and a pack of blank cassette recording tapes, I made my way back to the auto stereo area to get the speakers and checkout. Speakers were already waiting, handed clerk my debit card, started checking out-------oops---can't check anything out but the speakers--everything else will have to be checked out up front. I said no problem. Give me the speakers and I'll check them out up front too. He said they have to be checked out back here. I just flat out told him that wasn't going to happen unless he bought them. Left the speakers and everything else laying on the counter and hit the door.

Can't believe a store would let a $50 pair of speakers lose a $500 sale. Why should I have to checkout twice to get out of a store. I am the customer and I am not, under any circumstances, going to put up with any bullshit trying to give you my money!!!

Proceeded to second electronics retailer (Best Buy) and bought exact merchandise that was attempted to be purchased at first store. NO PROBLEM THIS TIME! One stop checkout. Thanks Best Buy!!

A NEW THREAT

A new threat to our troops and the people returning to the city of Fallujah.


I hope things get better, but I don't know......

Fiscal Responsibility??

Another fine example of Guilford County's fiscal responsibility with the taxpayer dollars.

And they wonder why we bitch and gripe!

I hope things get better, but I dont know.....

SAFETY

I must be missing something here.

Automobiles on the road are supposed to have four wheels, right??

And if you are driving down the road and one or two of these wheels falls off, it would make for a dangerous situation, right??

Not everyone agrees with me here.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2004-12-10-durango-dakota-recall_x.htm

So what's next? Doors and fenders falling off while you are driving down to the coast. Maybe the steering wheel coming off in your hands. Can't wait.

I hope things gets better, but I don't know...

Dumbing Down

That's it! Just cut off your thinker. Don't know if the re-attachment will work. Brain may be dead from lack of oxygen. Let's hope not.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6692249/


I hope things gets better, but I don't know...

And The Truth Shall Set You Free

In response to comments made by Guilford County School Board members Deena Hayes and Amos Quick, as to why African American students were being suspended at a higher rate than white students, an African American teacher offers this little tidbit of information.

http://www.gotriad.com/forum/message/1766/?UserSectionID=13

Just takes some people a little longer to catch on I guess.

I hope things get better, but I don't know...

Ramadan

the Holy month. The month of contemplation, spirituality, and brotherhood. The month that unites all Muslims in fasting, feasting, worship, and prayer.

Well, not all.

http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/source/001327.html

I hope things get better, but I dont know...

Time To Act

http://www.news-record.com/news/now/andrewsfight120104.htm


http://www.news-record.com/news/local/hp/andrews_120204.htm

It's time for the Guilford County School System to act NOW to get these "thugs" OUT of our school system so the other students can do what they are there do to do. This kind of crap has been going on all year and it's time you do something about it. We have had teachers, students, and principals/asst. principals assaulted this year at school and what have you done about it?

The only thing I know of is assigned police escorts for the principals at the ballgames. Big F'n deal!! What you need to do is identify who is causing all this frigging trouble and get them the hell out of the school system. They know the damn rules, just like my son does, when they come in there and if they can't abide by them, out they go---simple as that. Might not look too good on your suspension reports to the State of North Carolina, and then again maybe that's why we're NOT getting anything done about the problem.

One other question. Why is it that Andrews seems to be the school that is having the most problems?? Thought with all this busing you were going to do, bringing in students from Southwest etc., we were going to have a "melting pot" of different ethnic and social classes. Seems to me like you still have a bunch of "thugs."

I hope things get better, but I dont know...

I'll 2nd This Thought----Any 3rd's??

It's time for some serious changes here.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB110185330853087227,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature


I hope things get better, but I don't know...

Drops of Gold

Just reading this article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6619114/ thinking of the thousands of dollars thrown away while my son was growing up and out of diapers.

Could've dug those "cute" little buggers out of his diapers and gold plated them. Glued to a block of wood they would have made a great paper weight. "Drops of Gold." Just what you need to go with a gold plated umbilical cord. Gold plated turds. Just what every parent wants on his/her desk.

Wish they would've thought of this a long time ago. Seeing as how he is 17 now the idea doesn't seem as interesting to me. LOLOL

Maybe some dad/mom out there somewhere can take this idea and run with it.


I hope things get better, but I don't know...

ROAD TRIP

Had a great Thanksgiving and hope all of you did too.

Took a road trip to the big city of Winston Salem on Friday night to visit the Rubber Soul Bar.

Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of legendary blues artist Lonnie Baker Brooks, was playing. Ronnie lit up the Carolina Blues Festival in Greensboro this year and was in fine form in Winston on Friday.

A must see for any Blues fan.

Marine Kills Wounded Insurgent

I'm sure by now you've heard about the Marine that killed the wounded insurgent in Iraq. If not I have provided a link to the story.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-11-15-marine-shooting_x.htm

And just as I thought the American media is having a field day over this. Just like they always do whenever they can trash our soldiers. Always the bad. Never any good.

Hell, even the Iraqis have chimed with "act of cowardice," which is something they're all too familiar with. Car bombs, beheading innocent civilians, hiding behind black masks.

For another perspective on this and from someone who is there read:
CAUTION STRONG LANGUAGE

http://soldierlife.blogspot.com/2004/11/marines-killing-innocent-terrorist.html

Finally, after reading, soul searching, deciding in YOUR mind who's right and who's wrong, where is the media's, the American's, the Iraqis and the World's outrage for this lady??

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-11-16-iraq-hostage_x.htm

Greensboro Massacre

O.K. What's the point here?? It's been 25 years. Can't we get on with our lives now or are you going to go back and try to change the past? Can't do that. So why the hell even bring it up?

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/march_111404.htm

Funny how in the article the group is referred to as the "Workers Viewpoint Organization" when every article I have ever read on the Greensboro Massacre has called them the "Communist Workers Party." Sounds like a little selective editing, or is there something I don't know?

And just what is the goal of the Truth & Reconciliation Comission? All I've heard from the powers that be in Greensboro is how they want the races to come together, to work together, to live together. It seems to me like all they are trying to do by bringing this crap up 25 years later is trying to drive more wedges between us.

Go Figure.

Toney Baker

Being a Ragsdale alumnus I did want to congratulate Ragsdale on their first round playoff win over Southern Alamance on Saturday.

As usual Toney Baker was the man. 25 carries. 313 yards 3 TD's

USA Today has him with 3,411 yds and 41 TD's this year.

Toney has over 10,000 career yards and did not play a full season his freshman year.

GREATEST RUNNING BACK IN NORTH CAROLINA HISTORY!
at least until someone can break his record.

Disturbing

Doing a little surfing around the web today and came across this website. I found it a little disturbing and if it's true I think we should have been kicking some Iraqi butt a long time ago.

http://www.jaynadavis.com/

Yassar Arafat

Yassar Arafat is dead. One less terrorist for the world to worry about.

Now The Truth Comes Out

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/womanhurt_110804.htm

Now the truth comes out about the Muslim woman who claims she was so brutally attacked by one of Greensboro's finest while shopping at Wal-Mart. Seems she is NOT an American citizen as she first claimed but a permanent resident of the United States.
Therefore, in light of these new findings I will change my position and call for the City of Greensboro, the Greensboro Police Department, and Wal-Mart Corp., to immediately issue an apology to this woman in both French and Arabic (languages which she understands) for the unjustices brought upon her. Make them as lengthy as possible to make for a good explanation as to how this could occur, bind all three apologies in book form and give them to her right before she gets on the plane that carries her ASS BACK TO EGYPT!!!

An Apology???

This woman just has to be fucking nuts!

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/womanhurt_110804.htm

Does she really expect us to beleive she has lived here for 12 years and she cannot speak or understand English. Has she lived in a frigging bubble! We have no Arabic or French newspapers, radio stations, or television stations, so I am to assume that she does NOT COMMUNICATE WITH ANYONE AT ANY TIME! Excuse me. Don't think so.
Store employees and witnesses say the woman WAS speaking english until the police arrived. Then she forgot how. Would make a good COPS episode. No speakee english!! No speakee english!!
One of the requirement's to becoming a naturalized citizen is the ability to write, read, and speak English.
Sounds like somebody is LYING to me.

It's All Over. Or is It?

November 3. It's all over and Bush has apparently won the election although it hasn't been called yet. Seems Ohio is going to be our Florida this year. Bush has a 135,000 vote lead in Ohio but there is some question over provisional ballots that have been cast. If the margin of victory is greater than the provisional votes cast, there is no problem. If not they could possibly sway the state to Kerry but that is a long shot for them. In the campaign they said they would make sure that all the votes were counted, so they may drag it out for another 10 days until all the provisional ballots are counted, and further embarrass themselves. I hope not.
Bush won the popular vote by 3 1/2 million votes over Kerry and also became the first Presidential candidate to to win the presidency and the popular vote since 1988. No small feat.
So hopefully everything will be over this afternoon. Kerry will have conceded, and we can get on with our lives.

OOPS!!

Almost forgot.

Bye. Bye. Tom Daschle!

Halloween Party

Another road trip to Hillsborough to party with Mel Melton and the Wicked Mojo's at the Blue Bayou's Halloween Party. Had one good time.

Mel and the Mojo's brand of cajun, zydeco, and blues made for one hell of a party night and a good time that was had by all. Looking forward to going back in February for the Mardi Gras-CD release party. Should be a blast.

Awoke this morning and my 1977 GMC 4wd pick up was still in the driveway. Thank God. Nope, hadn't been stolen like the last road trip I went on. Maybe the pit bulls, 12 ft. fence and armed guards guarding my house had something to do with it I don't know.

Yes I Voted

I went and voted yesterday. Took care of my civic duty. Looks like everyone else was doing the same thing as the line was pretty long and I had a 35 min. wait. But that's o.k. It's over and done with now and all that's left is the wait until the count. Or if you're Kerry supporters the recounts you will be calling for if your man comes out on the losing end.
Yea, I voted for Bush. I'm sure some of you will probably want to slam me for it but I just can't see anything positive in Kerry to vote for. All I've heard from him is why I should not vote for Bush. Yea, I've heard him say he's going to do this, and I'm going to do that, but he hasn't said one thing about HOW he is going to do it.

There are a few things that bother me about Kerry and his party:

• Kerry has tried to blame the 17% Medicare premium increase on Bush when it was actually mandated by President Clinton's "balanced budget amendment" voted into law by Kerry and scheduled to come into effect during this administration with Bush having no authority to reverse what had been voted into law
• LBJ and the democratically controlled House and Senate took Social Security from the independent "trust" fund and put it into the General fund so congress could spend it, as has EVERY President since then
• The Democratic party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding
• The Democrats started taxing Social Security annuities with Al Gore casting the "tie breaking" vote as the Pres. Of the Senate while he was Vice President of the United States.
• Jimmy Carter and the Democrats elected to start giving Social Security payments to immigrants living in this country when they reached age 65 even though they NEVER paid a dime into it.

Social Security is going to have to be fixed. Kerry said he isn't going to touch it. Bush has a plan. It may not be the best, who knows. I kind of like the idea of getting to decide where to invest some of my money. If it don't go fine. But the fact is SOMETHING'S GOT TO BE DONE SOON.

Another thing is this shit about Bush re-instating the draft if he is re-elected. Mr. Kerry better back way up on that remark. There have already been two bills introduced to start the draft back up and they were introduced by-----wait a second-----looking-----here it is. Charles Rangel, D-NY and Fritz Hollings D-SC. So I don't believe it's the Republicans looking to start the draft back up.

Which brings me to my next point. I just can't bring myself to vote for a traitor. Anybody that did what Kerry did in my book is a traitor, and has no right to serve as President of the United States of America.

• He testified under oath before congress about atrocities committed by American troops and admitted to committing some himself
• He worked with Jane Fonda aiding the enemy
• He left Vietnam early (4mos) with 3 scratches leaving his men behind and joins Hanoi Jane
• He traveled to Paris twice to co-ordinate with and give hope to a communist delegation from Hanoi

These activities by Kerry and Fonda used to be called treason. Now you want him to be President??

Now the Iraq war that we are in now. I do agree that it hasn't been handled the best that it could of been, but we are there and we are going to have to see it through.(And yes I have family over there and he will tell you the same thing)

What I think is truly ironic is how Kerry can sit back and bash Bush on how he went over there without a coalition of allies and sent the men in without the proper equipment to fight the war they went in to fight.

I guess as far as the equipment goes it may be because Senator Kerry has voted AGAINST every defense measure and weapons system that has come before him since he has been a Senator.

As far as the allies go, we had 34 allies with us during the first gulf war with Iraq. We have 30 allies with us this time. Who's missing??

France, Germany, Russia, China

And who had sweetheart deals with Hussein and had just been stung by the UN scandal over food-for-oil in Iraq

The UN, France, Germany, Russia

AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT!!

First They Steal, Then They Rob

Well, what was a great road trip to the Michael Burks concert in Charlotte turned into a big pile of doo on Saturday afternoon when I finally crawled out of bed.
I woke up about 12:30, with one hell of a headache, to the sound of a friend of mine mowing the yard. He's been mowing it for about a month now since someone decided they needed my riding mower more than I did. I figured I'd let him do it the rest of this year and buy me a new one next spring along with a building to put it in instead of the carport.
Anyway I get dressed and go out to talk to him and there it wasn't! I mean it wasn't where I thought I had seen it when we came home last night. My Dodge was in the carport but my 1977 GMC 4wd pick up that me and Jr use in the snow, to haul junk, and for a back up in case the other vehicles break down, was gone. I wasn't too worried then because I knew my ex-wife was moving that Saturday and I figured Jr had come and got it to help her move. Well Jr comes home at 4:00 to get ready for work and I ask him if he got his mom moved. He says "Yeah" and I ask "Where's the truck?" He says "I don't know."

Time to get worried!

I called the Guilford County Sheriff's Dept. to file a stolen vehicle report and was informed that mine was not the only vehicle stolen in my area that night. There was one stolen about 3/4 mile from where I live but was abandoned after a chase and the car was run into a ditch. I was also informed that they felt like they knew who had my truck so it should not be too hard to find. Seems like they used my truck as the getaway vehicle to get away from the sheriff's dept.
I get two messages on my answering machine from the sheriff's dept. on Monday wanting me to call them. I work from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm and they have my work number, why the hell can't they call me there. I get home at 6:00 and try to call the number they left, guess what-----our hours are from 8 to 5 blah, blah, blah. I take the number to work on Tuesday and call four times. The officer I need to talk to is ALWAYS out of the offic so I leave a message. I Finally hear from him at 7:45 on Tuesday night. They have found my truck and he explains how I go about getting it back. Go by sheriff's dept. uptown, pick up release form, go by towing co. etc., etc., etc.
So now I have to take a couple of hours off of work on Wednesday to pick up the truck. I go to sheriff's dept. to get release form from them and while I am there I get a copy of the police report. I figure I am going to have to pay some money in this thing and I want a police report to file with my auto or homeowner's insurance to try to recoup some of the money. I get my release forms and head home to pick up Jr so he can drive the truck home. Get him and head to the towing service that the Guilford County Sheriff's Dept. so graciously called in service on my behalf, walked in and found out I owed them $240.00. I said WHAT!!! They said $240.00 CASH. No checks. No credit cards.

Brokedown like this:

• $115.00 towing 13 miles (cost me $65.00 to have Dakota towed 9 miles about 2 months ago)
• $50.00 dolly (didn't need a dolly on the Dakota, why on the GMC)
• $75.00 storage (2 nights on the lot--sounds like Motel6 rates during the furniture market)

Didn't have that much cash so we head out to find an ATM. While driving Jr is looking at the police report and lo and behold there is a suspects name listed on the report and he reads it to me. Doesn't register. He reads it again. Doesn't register. He says first name about 4 times in a row. DAMN!! That SOB used to date my stepdaughter about 5 years ago. Been at my house several times. Mother lives about TWO MILES from where they found my truck. And he hasn't been arrested. So much for justice and helping the little man.

Well took the cash back to my friendly towing service and got my truck and it's home now. Sounds like something fishy going on between them and the sheriff's dept.

I'd almost bet my house that the SOB that stole my truck is also the SOB that stole my lawnmower too. What you think??

Road Trip

Drove down to the Double Door Inn in Charlotte last night with some friends to see Michael Burks play. One fantastic blues guitarist and you should go see him if you ever get the chance.

Rough Day At Work

Man what a day at work. Back to the grind after the usual seven days off and all hell breaks loose. People everywhere losing there jobs and total mayhem. What the f#%k is going on!
A Little Background:

About six years ago upper management came up with this wise move to get more production out of us by going to a 12 hour rotating shift. There would be 4 crews, 2 AM and 2 PM, alternating weeks. We would work 3 days on 1 day off, 3 days on 7 days off. Work days would be Thurs, Fri, Sat, off Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, off 7 . Pissed everybody off because they cut our pay 10% off the bat because we worked 36 hrs and got paid for 36 so that was 4 hrs less than what we were used to getting paid for.
Anyway everybody kinda buckled down, went to work, quit their bitchin and got to liking these hours and the 7 days off. Hell you could go on a vacation every other week if you wanted to (and you had the cash).
(Well known national "corporation" buys out family owned business in 2003 but does not offically take over under it's name until January 2004).
Now fast forward to September 2003. Plant busy as hell. Memo goes up--mandatory overtime until further notice. Now we're working 7 on 7 off.
October 2004. New owners decide we are going back to an 8 hr, 3 shift, 5 day work week after working 24 hrs a day 7 days a week for over a year. The new hours start January 1st. That meant they had a whole crew of people that were going to lose their jobs and that came today. What a bitch. But I guess it was better than waiting until Christmas.
I'm going to miss those seven days off.

At least I still have a job.

Jump Right In

Well here we go. Something I have been thinking about for a while now. After surfing around and reading all the other blogs, thinking about starting one of my own, here it is. The "kahunas" have finally gotten big enough to try this .
Probably wont be a lot of posting right off until I get used to working with this thing and figure out what I am doing. Hope it will get easier as time goes by.
Usually a pretty mild mannered and quiet tempered guy but I do have my days, so I will warn you now that I probably will have some posts that may have a few, shall we say, "off color" words used in them and I hope I don't offend anyone. If I do don't read 'em anymore.