40th Ann. as a Leather Artist

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Jethro Tull: Back to the Family (Jan. 1969)

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Junior Brown - Broke Down South of Dallas

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Colorado Bob's Internet Tombstone

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NPR's Climate Connections




NPR & National Geographic have started a year long series on the Climate. All that hamburger money from Mrs. Croc is being put to work.

NPR's Climate Connections

A Bit of Clarification

I should have gone into some detail about my condition, but having shared it with my friends at Crawfordslist for some time, I slowly forgot that information wasn't tattooed here.

I am not suicidal, but I have the liver of Poppa John Phillips [Before he got his 50,000 drink over haul]. It's not really a bad way to go. Your liver doesn't have nerves, so pain isn't a big problem at this point. But my ability to sit up, and type has taken a turn in the past week or two. So I haven't been visiting the places on the web as much as I once did, and I haven't had the energy to do all those things with my MAC that are so much fun.

One thing about the web, it saves lives. I ended up on the web because my lower disks gave up a few years ago, and needles invaded my legs and feet. I started looking around the web, and ended up at Crawfordslist .... That move has kept my mind going for the last couple of years. Brain Rot is far more deadly than Liver Rot. Pin-Heads like Chris Matthews think the web is populated by guys like the one in the MAC commercials. But there's a hell of a lot of people like me who use it as a line to minds that keep them going. Someone should do a post about this, it's a fertile subject.


I'm concerned that in the not too distant future I won't be able to write any more. That's why I posted the one below. I've never been a big fan of mysteries ... I'm a Virgo, I want to know what's going on, hence my reason for these comments.

Many thanks for the concern, and kind words... But I water skied under a helicopter, and danced with a lot of beautiful women. Some even took me home. What more can a man ask for ?

Piss and Vinegar

The mind is a funny thing, take Art Buchwald for example. He fought depression all his life, but last year when he decided to quit fighting the effects diabetes, and moved into a hospice to play out his string, he turned into the Energizer Bunny. The surrender to that fate was something that probably kept him going and going and going. A sense of peace with his decision was no doubt a big factor.

Like Art, I was a manic/depressive all my life. Most of the time it was just "Piss and Vinegar" that kept me going, when that failed, I relied on just dumb luck. Back in December, [8th & 9th] I wrote that my string had run out too. At the time .... I was pretty sure I didn't have much left in me. But this site, and the interest in foolin' with it had a real medicinal effect. But in the past couple of weeks my energy was been flagging, and I'm afraid that my posts are going to be few and far between. It's getting hard to sit up right for any length of time.

I set-up this site last year to spin out some of my stories, along the way another idea occurred to me. That it could be a sort of tombstone.
With that in mind, I have a graphic to go along with it. I didn't want to put it up, and freak out everyone, but don't be shocked when you see it.

No pity please, I'm a guy who had one fine trip through this world, even when I didn't know it.

The Deadliest Massacre in U.S. History


December 29th 1890-Miniconjou Chief Big Foot

Today was not the deadliest massacre in US history. Just off the top of my head here are two :

Sand Creek November 29, 1864

Colonel Chivington and his 800 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of First New Mexico Volunteers marched to their campsite in order to attack the Indians. On the morning of November 29, 1864, the army attacked the village and massacred most of its inhabitants. Chivington proclaimed before the attack "Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice." Only 9 or 10 soldiers were killed and three dozen wounded. Between 150 and 184 Cheyennes were reported dead, and some were reportedly mutilated, and most were women, children, and elderly men. Chivington and his men later displayed scalp and other body parts, including human fetuses and genitalia in the Apollo Theater and saloons in Denver.


Wiki Page for Sand Creek

Wounded Knee December 29 1890

By the time it was over, 25 troopers and 300 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children.[2] Many of the dead are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" as the shooting took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions, and most of the Lakota had previously been unarmed.[3] Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, of which many likely died from exposure.


Wiki Page for Wounded Knee

Technorati Now Counts 70 Million Blogs

How the hell did you ever find this place ?

The number of blogs or weblogs on the Web continues to grow at a breathtaking pace.

The Technorati blog search engine is now tracking over 70 million weblogs. The company sees 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. As Technorati’s David Sifry’ says: “That’s about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.”

Tornado Gallery Opening


Neon and ceramics by Tony Greer
Click the title for more pictures.

PLANET EARTH


The Discovery Channel's series is just some of the best television ever. Last night this fellow was on, he's a Tibetan Fox. Here's the link to the animal pages .... Some stunning images.
Animals in the Series

A Picture from Spiffy


Spiffy sent me a picture. He's still doing heli-drillin' with Xtreme Drilling.
This is from the Book Cliffs Utah. Last Oct.
Hell of a location ain't it ?

Best Buddies



Don't you just long for a simpler, more innocent time. With simpler, more innocent people ...

Charlie "Blaze"


Lama toeing in, High Uintas Utah. (Submitted by Laura Cullen) Via USA Doodlebuggers

I nearly cried when I saw this picture.
It could be the best shot of a Lama ever taken. Which brings up the "Best Long Line Pilot" I ever saw.
"Charlie "Blaze"
I, and all my co-workers put our lives in the hands and feet of these pilots. So, we were pretty good judges about how good these guys were. It was an interesting group of men. Mostly small in height, but never short on balls. We flew when the Vietnam pilots were all getting 10 or so years into their careers. That's mostly who we rode with. I did a little flyin' with a fellow that became a helicopter pilot from Korea, and one who put himself through helicopter school .... Charlie "Blaze".

We were drillin' in the Flat Tops of western Colorado. And like the name says, we were on pretty flat ground. Which was a treat. Plus it was a beautiful open meadows with little Aspen stands. So long about 2 or 3 in the afternoon I'm drillin' this hole, and I go down about 12 feet of easy footage .... and Boom I'm into this beautiful blue granite. Running on top of that granite, was the water table for one of these meadows. So I come out of the hole, and put on my :
Mission #3115 Down Hole Rock Hammer. [I always loved to say that phrase] It was a beast.
I change out the bit and go back in the hole, tag bottom, and start drillin' again.

Then granite starts making these great cuttings. Big Flakes of granite are coming up the hole mixed in with water ..... all being hurled in the air by a Gardener Denver Air Screw runnin' straight into a Chrysler 360 with this itsy-bitsy muffler.

Modern Man

Any way ..... It's was really a mini Spindle Top Moment. Now, that morning I had a dead battery on my drill. We screwed with more batteries. They just didn't like being in the out doors "bun-geed" down under that hot engine. As I'm watching this fountain of noise, water, and granite. A long comes B.J. Walker, our party manager and O.B. Olberlander the Field Coordinator. We chit chat away from the rig, and after a while we call Charlie on the radio and tell him to come pick these two birds up . B.J. knows there's a deposit to be had from my dead battery so he tells O.B. to get my dead one. So Mr. Oberlander gets two of my shop towels [paper], gets the dead cat out of my support basket, and moves off into the meadow to await the helicopter ride.

Pretty soon we hear the beautiful sound from that piece of French Engineering the Lama. By this time I'm back near the drill, and the two visitors are about 50 yds. away with the meadow rolling out behind them. Then that helicopter popped-up .... made this big sweeping turn in the meadow, and set down in the grass right next to B.J. He comes out of his crouch and runs around the front of the ship and jumps in the front seat. O.B. is trying to manage two paper shop towels and my dead battery. Charlie is watching O.B. in his prop wash fumble with this battery, and he tells B.J. to close his door......
Then he picked up that helicopter, and started pushing that battery around in the grass with the skid. Pushing it toward O.B. After a few moments of this and O.B. getting frazzled, Charlie cuts it...... and the ship settles back down in the grass. O.B. is just outside Charlie's bubble mouthing profanities ..... The shop towels are long gone, and everyone else is laughing their asses off. So O.B. finally grabs the battery and begins to run around the nose of the ship. When he gets to the very tip of the nose, Charlie picked the ship up again, and started to rotate around to match O.B.'s speed. O.B. peels off about 55 degrees on a circle him and Charlie are making, and stops again .... mouthing profanities ... Charlie sets the ship down. Charlie assures him through the plexi-glass .... he's through screwing around. O.B. runs another 55 degrees on that circle.

At this point I can see B.J.'s side of the ship, and he's eggin' Charlie on to make a full 360. Sure enough, O.B. Grabs that battery, and they both did a full 360 out in that beautiful meadow.
O.B. never lost his position on the nose of that Lama.
Then O.B. stops, gets on his knees, and pleads with the plexi-glass to please let him in. I'm still laughing as I type this.

This story is the God's Truth.

More drilling stories :
" HELLO LAMA " - 40 BELOW at STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR
How I Became A " Flying Squirrel "

I SPENT MY WHOLE LIFE in the 20TH CENTURY
Scroll down
Another Doodle Bug Story
Life, Near Death, and Other "Feats of Strength"

Big Earth Quake



This one is damn interesting have a look at the two epicenters.



Click title for the USGS page on this one.

Tornado Gallery





Old friends Open Gallery

One thing about living in the Real Tornado Alley, is that one can develop an your face attitude toward the things. My friend Tony Greer's father owned a business at the corner of 19th and Buddy Holly Ave .... for many many years. It was an iron works most of it's life, Tony grew-up in it.


Now, with some of his friends,
# Jennifer Greer
# Larry Simmons
# Randy Fisher
he's transforming the the ole' girl into an Art Gallery in part of the whole complex.



I stopped by yesterday and had a look, it's going to be a great space. Here's the web page for the over all project I've been puttin' together for them.

IDEA WORKS

Fish Rot From The Head


A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded.



The IG noted that MacDonald "admitted that her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats," despite her lack of expertise.

USA DOODLEBUGGERS


Lama toeing in, High Uintas Utah. (Submitted by Laura Cullen) Via USA Doodlebuggers

I got an email from Rick (Slip) Bonifer yesterday, he gave me the link to USA Doodlebuggers.
He mentioned that he had read my story on How I Became a Flying Squirrel.
If you have the time, have a look at the site, it's an alumni page of sorts and really a lot of fun.
Be sure to have a look at the photos section, dozens and dozens of pictures, many of folks you've never seen .... But many pictures of just how far and how high we went to find oil and gas.

God Damn That Man, God Damn Him To Hell



Inside the secretive plan to gut the Endangered Species Act

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is maneuvering to fundamentally weaken the Endangered Species Act, its strategy laid out in an internal 117-page draft proposal obtained by Salon. The proposed changes limit the number of species that can be protected and curtail the acres of wildlife habitat to be preserved. It shifts authority to enforce the act from the federal government to the states, and it dilutes legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining.

"The proposed changes fundamentally gut the intent of the Endangered Species Act," says Jan Hasselman, a Seattle attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, who helped Salon interpret the proposal. "This is a no-holds-barred end run around one of America's most popular environmental protections. If these regulations stand up, the act will no longer provide a safety net for animals and plants on the brink of extinction."

Connections by James Burke

"Telecommunications exist because the Normans wore stirrups at the Battle of Hastings- a simple advance that caused a revolution in the increasingly expensive science of warfare."

This is a series produced by the BBC 29 years ago. I saw it on PBS a few years later. If you love history, by all means bookmark this page [click the title], and watch the series as time allows. There are 10 programs , each about 45 min. long.

You'll never look at history the same way, after seeing these shows.

The first program is at the bottom.

Mt. Erebus Antartica


Another find from Stumble Upon

R. CRUMB


A massive Robert Crumb retrospective curated by Todd Hignite just opened at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. It runs from March 16 to July 8, 2007.

The show includes over 200 of the best examples of Crumb's art, spanning his prolific and rich lifetime body of work.

Here's 81 photos taken on the opening day.

R. Crumb's Underground

ART & LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA


[At Work]

A Thank-You note to PhillyBits
Philly said some kind words about my images. I didn't do a very good job on the latest one, but I saw someone on the Vine posting about "Returning to Their Principals" ..... I'm afraid I couldn't find just the right image of the Constitution for this one.



Still my favorite one.

Some from storage :


MY IMAGE SHACK PAGES
MY PHOTO BUCKET PAGES

EARTH TO PHIL SPECTOR


Jury Selection To Begin In Phil Spector Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES (March 18, 2007) -- For decades, famed music producer Phil Spector was a recluse, hiding in his hilltop suburban castle. It took the gunshot death there of a glamorous actress who starred in a cult movie to force him out into the Hollywood spotlight.

ATTENTION PHIL :

I'm not sure the "Side Show Bob" look is the best one for court.

"We All Steal, but If You're Gonna do it ..... Steal From The Best"

Who Said that ?

Supposedly Pablo Picasso about art.

With that out of the way I steal from The Cariboo Ponderer

Vic on Walmart :

# At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.
# This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!
# Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.
# Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.
# Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer.
# Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the World.
# Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.
# During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy (including Winn-Dixie).
# Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.
# Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; this is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.
# This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion).
# 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart.

Dr. Toni, Lucy & Ethel, and The Hawaiian Starman

I knew absolutely Zero about web pages last August when I unpacked my New MAC. I didn't know a GIF. File from a "Johnson Rod". So last Oct. when I cleaned out my Safari cache', I had no idea that it would effect my ability to upload images to the Blogger. But MAC users have a great support system, and I went to it to try and solve my problem. There the Hawaiian Starman walked me to a solution.

There's nothing like being in a dark room, and having a complete stranger show-up with a candle, and some matches. Then, as the dim light takes hold you find ..... You're standing next to the light switch.

So the thing that's really a hoot about these little clubhouses we construct of electrons, and ones & zeros, is that one never knows who's going to pop in to say hello. A few weeks ago, I bumped into Lucy & Ethel, took a look, struck a match, and they were off to the races.
Last Saturday, Dr. Toni dropped in. She has what I think will be a great clubhouse to visit, and she's about to find her light switch.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us


Thanks Off the Grid

Google Loves Me

I was looking at my site meter tonight, and found these referrals :

mexico's tractor trailers - 1,210,000 hits

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mexico%27s%20tractor%20trailers

working vests - 1,200,000 hits

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-12,
RNWE:en&q=working%20vests

salt wells fallon - 437,000 hits

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B2GGGL_enUS176&q=
salt%20wells%20fallon&btnG=Search

picture hudson bay blanket coat - 189,000 hits

http://www.google.com/search?q=picture%20hudson%20bay%20blanket%20
coat&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&start=30&sa=N

I have no idea why my posts about these subjects are popping-up so high on these searches, but it's O.K. with me.

19th Century Shipping Posters


Via : Boing Boing
Five pages of shipping posters, dripping with flags, Davey Crockett water skiing on alligators, and romance.
From Putafla

Language Lesson



The Grrlscientist found this beauty .... Warning, don't have a mouth full of coffee when you watch this.

Harry Nilsson - Coconut [1971]

I don't drop in on Vanilla Birdies as often as I should. She posted on Harry Nilsson which led me to this great clip :

Sex and Republicans .... "Let's review, shall we "

Who among you can recall the Mayor of Spokane, Washington ? The one who was using his office as bait to troll on the internet for young men. As he spoke out against guys.
Until the good people of Spokane, organized and threw his lyin' Republican butt out of office.

Then came Jeff Gannon, planted in the White House press room to ask "Little Scotty Mac from Texas" softball questions ....... when Scotty needed to catch his breath. Now Jeff was a find, 2 careers, stooge reporter, and Male Prostitute !

I want to thank the "Party of Family Values" for having Rep. Mark Foley [R] Fla. "Champion OF the Rights of Children" keep a close eye on our congressional pages. While the Republican Leadership held his coat.

Rep. Foley could have called Ted Haggert for consul, but he was in Denver in a motel room with a Male Prositute ..... "Speedin' His Young Life Away".

Now it's time to enter a new entry in our history. It seems that Ann Coulter, that skinny butcher knife of the right, has used that expensive Conn. Prep School education ......To make an joke, that in an 8th grade hallway would get a high-five. When she was at that gig, she posed with young man , who David Horwitz has been dragging around telling everyone how mean colleges are the right.

Because they "Support the Troops" this guy is a Sgt. It doesn't get any better than this .... a threefer.
Sgt., Student, and Male Prostitute !

Then, to rescue the day .... WE have Newt get a confession from Dr, Dobson for adultery ! And just like Bill Clinton, who's sex life the Republican Party still is fixated on ....... Newt's lover was a Federal Employee. Will we get a refund from Newt for "working" on the clock. I paid the salary of the woman while she gave Newt a B.J.
Newt's a history guy, you know he got a B.J. in the Capital, if he didn't then I'm a Texas Polar Bear.
He better have, or he's not much of a man.

In closing, as we start the 08' bid for the brass ring, the top 4 Republican challengers ...... 2 who are adulterers ....... have had 9 wives. The mormon is the only one that's just had one marriage.

Tell us all about "Family Values" in 08'. By then then newest Washington Madame may have put out her phone records. She started up her business in 93' with the "Republican Revolution."
Dr. Dobson may be very busy around then.

Please sic Sean Hannity on me, his smilin' face with all the hookers at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada are here on the site. Look under "Manufactured Outrage"

See the poll for this post here :

Live Poll

Sex and Republicans-Whats the Deal With All These Male Prostitues ?
Republicans a have good speed.
Republicans pay good.
Thank God for Newt !
Rudy Too !
Vote Here & View Results

politics, republicans, tom-delay, ann-coulter, male-prostiututes, newt-ginrich
Colorado Bob

Stumble Upon & Other Sites

I found the following places that are pretty cool :

First, StumbleUpon, I guess you'd call this a search engine that looks for just the stuff you want, but it does it randomly. Say you set the preferences for antiques, web design, and web artists. Each time you click, a random site from just those topics appears.
Warning ! This thing will waste a lot of your time, it's absolutely wonderful.

These two sites came from just such a session :

Web Sketch

The image on the page was created with :
Thinkature

The Best Line I Ever Heard

Salt Wells Nevada

Sean Hannity's photo album from the Bunny Ranch set me to thinking about my trips to the bordello. There's was one east of Fallon Nevada, on U.S. 50. Waayyy out in the desert at Salt Wells .... The Salt Wells Whorehouse. I got on a rig drilling out of Fallon in the spring of 1980. We were drilling a geothermal exploration hole at Austin, Nevada, which is a 150 miles east of Fallon. We were staying in Austin, but on weekends we drove back to Fallon. The bar at the Salt Wells Bordello was the first place to get a beer coming from Austin, and we would stop to get one there every time we made the trip.

The first time we stopped, I was at the bar talking to the driller Tom, and after a bit I sensed someone had taken stool next to me. I turned, and there was a great looking employee of the bordello.
She smiled and said, "It's all your fault."
I said, "Excuse me ?"
She said, "Your eyes, it's all your fault."

Manufacturing Outrage

As long as we're getting everybody on the morally correct path, Why is this man smiling ?



These are screen shots from the Bunny Ranch's own page.

As far as a caption contest ..... Well this is like shooting cronies in a barrel.

I'm going with :

"A room full of Bimbo's"


Note to the Reader:
This catch was made as usual by The General

I have warmed to this subject, and posted expanded version of this nugget here :
Manufacturing Outrage
Don't forget to take the poll .