August 31, 2009

Rosanne Cash

The daughter of the man in black
'Seven Year Ache' 1981 (Could it be that long ago?)

August 29, 2009

Hyperbolic Headlines

Man Bites Dog.

Candle Use Linked to Cancer Risk.

Cancer Deaths Among Catholics on The Rise.

Congress Bans Votive Candles.

King of Pop Sired Hundreds of Children.

Breeding Barn Discovered at Neverland Ranch.

Profanol Addiction on The Rise.

Brain Tumor Implanted While Ted Kennedy Slept?

Obama’s Birth Records: Born in Beijing?

Was Obama The Manchurian Candidate?

Sex Addicted Pedophile Dies in Fiery Inferno.

Fiery Infernos on The Rise.

Elvis Disinterred For Autopsy.

Elvis Dies Second Time in Fiery Inferno at Memphis Coroner’s Lab.

Congress Bans Fiery Infernos.

JFK’s Eternal Flame Eternally Extinguished.

August 25, 2009

The Village

My last post was in part about the Pitino scandal which generated the comment from fellow blogger Bill Stankus “Just what is going on in the land of Boone?” That left me thinking about the moral depths we have dropped to in America.

Daniel Boone or most any man who lived in that era would be disgusted and shocked at what passes for decency and respect today. We are now the land which values immediate gratification and the quick buck over most everything else.

It brought to mind the movie “The Village”, where a group of people who had violence touch their lives, started a “wildlife preserve” in which they start a village, hidden from the outside world. The first generations of the founders know nothing of the modern outside world from which they are insulated.

If there where such a village I’d be tempted to sign up.

I Love Italian

After getting home yesterday from work, wife and I walked a few miles. When walking the last leg down to our house we were descended upon by the neighborhood brat pack of young girls who’ve taken a liking to us, through our granddaughter, who plays with them whenever she visits.

Lately they’ve been coming over almost every evening, usually while we’re eating dinner, and hang out in our backyard or drape themselves on my truck bed cover, speaking that mysterious, borderline hysterical girl language.

One of the girls has a mouth on her.

“Where did you go to college?”
“U of K.”
“Ewww! That school is sooo lame! U of L is way cooler than U of K.”

Speaking of U of L, Rick Pitino is the basketball coach and is on public opinion trial for having an after hours drunken orgy at a local restaurant called Porcini’s, with a woman who tried to extort money from him to keep it hush-hush. Now she’s claiming Pitino raped her…uh huh, yeah, right.

Pitino held the obligatory public apology press conference and although his contract contains a public morality clause he’ll never be fired and he’ll never resign. He disgraced himself, his wife, his family, and U of L, but hey, he wins basketball games and that’s all that matters.

There’s a new entrĂ©e at Porcini’s…. aged red snapper stuffed with Italian sausage.

August 19, 2009

Tilt

There's always that feeling which happens every year, when you hear the chorus of crickets make at dusk, sunlight looks a touch lower than it should, and the deck has a few more dry leaves tucked into the south facing corners. Fall is coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

The fence is all but finished, only about eighteen more feet of dog-ears and I'm done.


August 14, 2009

Privacy Fence

I’m off work next week to put up a privacy fence; that’s nine days to do it.

8) 4 x 4 posts to put in the ground two feet deep, using concrete.
24) 2 x 4 x 8 rails to fasten onto the posts.
140) Dog-ear pickets to fasten on the rails.

Think I can do this in nine days? I have my doubts but we’ll see. I’ll post updates, including what the mean old lady has to say about the fence. I know she’ll say something hateful.

August 12, 2009

Overheard At Chicken Manor

Our kitchen has a chicken motif; there’s a lamp with a carved wood chicken base, a rug with a rooster on it, chicken tiles on the wall between the microwave and oven, and a various other chickens depicted throughout.

Hailee was giving her seven-year-old friend, Marly, a tour of our house and when through Marly had a question.

“Why’s the kitchen so chickeny?”

August 10, 2009

Posts Post


Those suckers are in there for good.

Baby Shower

My hands are sore from the weekend, mowing, digging two, two foot deep holes, mixing concrete and planting the posts, putting up the baby shower tent with Ben’s help, cleaning the deck, and watering the flowers. Most of this for a baby shower wife was hosting.

I kept a glass of ice-water and a towel handy. We’re not used to hazy heat in the 90’s anymore and it didn’t take long to become soaking wet in the sun.

Wife said the baby shower was a big success despite the heat. Wife and the girls made benedictine sandwiches in the shape of baby bottles and pacifiers. I left shortly after Amber brought the cake, and fondant icing affair that looked like a baby gift box wrapped in a ribbon.

Last night we took the tent, tables, chairs, and dishes back to Lamb’s End farm. Bruce showed Tristan a prize winning lamb. He was fascinated. There’s nothing like farm animals to bring out an intense curiosity in children. He asked a million questions.

Oh yeah, the entrance posts look great. I haven’t had time to take a picture of ‘em yet.

Cartoon by Lelievre

August 6, 2009

Helmet Hair

Remember this?

Bobby Goldsboro 'Honey'

Is This Puget Sound?

A new weather record for Louisville has been set for the month of July. It didn’t get over 89 degrees for the entire month. This “low-high” record hasn’t been broken since weather records have been kept for the city. It’s been a real treat for us. Usual days of Louisville in the summer, you see only mad dogs and Englishmen out in the noon day sun.

Last Tuesday brought our city a freak thunderstorm that dumped seven inches of rain in just over two hours. This combined with the large amounts of rain we had in July, caused a lot of flash flooding throughout Louisville. The Churchill Downs track looked like it could have been used for boat races.

Now that we’ve been thoroughly spoiled by the cooler summer of July, it’s time to pay the piper; this weekend will be well into the 90’s with high humidity. Can you say swelter?

August 4, 2009

This and That

Some of our hanging baskets around the deck; The weather has been unusually cool with lots of rain. The best all our perenials have ever looked.


This was a bronze angel over a grave at Eastwood Cemetery, close to where Abe Lincoln's grandfather was killed by Shawnee Indians.


My grandson Tristan helping bake cookies

These are the entrance posts I've been working on. The 4 x 4 between the posts will have a weather vane perched up top and planted in one of the gardens; Wife will choose the exact spot while I carry it around;

"Here?"
"No."
"Over here?"
"No"
And so on and so forth.


August 3, 2009

Totems

I’m putting in two six by six posts as an entrance to our side garden. I went to our local mega hardware store and bought a twelve foot treated six by six and they were kind enough to cut it in half for me. I wrestled them into my truck bed, drove home, and wrestled them onto the sawhorses.

As per the boss wife’s instructions, the posts will have decorative molding and end caps on the post tops. The caps I bought were your basic generic pyramid shaped caps which said “for 6 x 6 posts” Of course they didn’t fit so I chiseled the post ends to make them fit.

I have an antique Stanley Tool miter box & saw which I inherited from my late father-in-law. I’m guessing it was made in 1914 and sold at the time for sixteen dollars. It’s now worth around 350 dollars and is a collector’s item. I’ve thought of selling it and buying a compound miter saw, but I just can’t part with the antique and I love using it.

I cut eight pieces of baseboard for the post bases and eight pieces of chair rail stops, a total of thirty-two, forty-five degree cuts on the miter saw. It’s slow going but I could do this all day. I use six penny finish nails to nail in the caps, the chair rail stops, and the baseboard pieces.

They look like midget contemporary representations of ancient totem poles in rehab resting on the saw horses.

All that’s left is to paint and plant. Pictures to follow.
And after this I’ll start the anti-mean, nasty, old lady privacy fence.