Al Gore's Utility Bills

[Twig from my Apricot Tree]

RE: The hit piece on Gore has been something in the political war that I've bee waiting on, and right on que it came 2 days after his Oscar wins.
7 weeks ago January 10th I posted about Climate Change here :
El Nino, Global Climate Change, and Bi-Polar Logic

Now, on the last day of February, I went out and got another twig off my apricot tree. My apricot tree doesn't give a rat's fuzzy bottom about Al Gore's Utility Bills. I'm making an educated guess that we will see our 1st fruit trees blooming here today or tomorrow.
For the 57 years I've been in this county, apricot trees that bloomed in the 2nd week of March ran a good risk of being frosted so the fruit would be lost.
As the right wing rails against Climate Change with some of the most desperate and pathetic arguments in the history of any debate anyone has ever had.

Spring has come to the southern plains of North American 2 weeks ahead of when it used to. Last year at this time I was counting how many times we had set all time temperature records since Christmas day. The number was around 5 or 6. And when we weren't setting records our temps. this time last year were running 15 to 20 degrees above average nearly everyday. 100's of thousands of acres of Oklahoma and Texas were on fire as James Inhofe stood in the well of the U.S. Senate and railed against Global Warming.

Now, the right wing may throw all the crap it can on the TV screen, but people all over the world ..... step outside into the proof everyday. Everyday all over the world there is a torrent of data points flowing in that say Al Gore is right. Last week we learned that:

THIS JANUARY WAS THE HOTTEST EVER RECORDED WORLD WIDE !

The sad terrible truth is that in 5 more years these people are gonna look as stupid on this issue as they have on Iraq. And a lot more people are gonna get killed by Climate Change than this stupid little war in Iraq.

More Leather Work-Vests

I have no idea how many vests I made over the years. At one point back in the mid 70's in Estes Park, I was making 36 at a whack.

The one on the right is made of Elk with buffalo nickel buttons. There's a little story about this style of vest. I had made a set for a little cowboy boutique, and the owner had gone to San Antonio to a show with them. When she returned, I got a call from her saying that a Texas Ranger had come up and bought 3 of them. He was in town, and wanted to meet me.

At the time, I was working in the Tandy Leather store here. I said sure, send him over. He came in the store, and after the introductions related the following :
Wearing a vest is part of our "uniform", and over the years, I've had dozens of vests. I wanted you to know this is the nicest vest I've ever had.



<-Ladies vest .... Lamb skin with mercury dime buttons.
























<- Deer skin with hand-made silver concho buttons. This vest is completely hand sewn with 2 colors of thread. [White/Black]

More on Slide.com

Another skin.

These skins affect the scripts in the right hand column, as they move down the page,
the links are disabled opposite of the post that contain the skins.

Screen Shot @ 2:05 cst.

Web Wabbit Wholes

So I'm poking around at the CNN page,
looking for quotes on the "Market Slide",
and I come across these guys :

They're listed in this story on :
25 Startups to Watch
This is their chrome skin for U-Tube, several more designs.
[I fooled with the code and you can take those buttons
a long the bottom out.]

Up Date :
Now, that I've fooled with it.
The Slide Skin script is messing up the script
on the right that run my email and
those buttons that open my Pages I Painted links.
It also messes with the layout on the blogger.

New Button in the Link N' Logs

I put this site-up 6 mos. ago. Monday is it's anniversary.
I didn't know a gif. from a Johnson Rod. But I had a "Brand New Rod Computer", and an Imagination.
I've added what I had on the back of my business cards on the right hand column. And since I've been learning for 6 mos., I got to update it with Web Artist. I may not be very good, but that's in the eye of the beholdbeholder.
I've been foolin' with getting my friends here onto the web with their new project. And I got it working good enough, and show it off. Idea Works

Butterflies and Tractor-Trailers

I found something profound .....

Sat Feb 24, 9:25 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will enforce a "zero tolerance" policy against logging that threatens to wipe out the monarch butterfly and will act to stop a rare and ancient oasis from drying up, President Felipe Calderon said on Saturday.

Calderon said soldiers will be deployed to clamp down on illegal logging in a protected forest where monarch butterflies winter after migrating thousands of miles from Canada and the United States.

"We will work intensively to establish a zero tolerance policy to illegal logging in the monarch zone," he told villagers in the region at the launch of a five-year conservation plan.

Mexico vows to protect monarch butterfly

In the fall of 2000, I was west bound on the I-20 near Sweetwater, Texas. It was one of those days that we all know & love.... bright, clear, and still. I was in a Freightliner FLD, which for those who have never experienced it, puts your eye level almost 10 ft. off the ground.

My eyes glanced-up and a Monarch Butterfly was bravely beating it's way cross the 20 south bound to Mexico. As I proceeded down the road more and more of his kin began to appear. One had to be looking closely as the little guys were some 50 to 60 feet off the ground. But there it was, one of the great migrations in nature, moving unnoticed by us humans all breaking the speed limit on the Interstate. It took awhile for me to recognize what I was seeing, but as I went on I became more and more excited. I emailed my mom on the Qualcom that night telling her what I'd seen. She was just as excited.

The following spring I was parked on a small turn-out near Del Rio, Texas, taking a leak, and a north bound Monarch bravely beat his way pass me.

Screen Printing

I was searching for something profound to post about, you know that inner need to be "Deep", but I'm just all out of "Deep".

So back to past glories ....
I haven't written about my screen printing adventures. so here's just a bit of some of my better efforts. The model is Alice, she was my help for a while, we met a AA. A great kid.

My best seller. Artist-A.G. Blankenship

I got into the research, and printed lots of Southwestern pottery designs. Both as transfers, and as direct prints.

A Weather Post

Here's the National Weather Service radar loop for the Southern Plains.
We have the following forecast for Saturday Feb. 24. ..... "A High Wind Event" Winds of 45 M.P.H. with gusts to 60 M.P.H.
If this comes to pass, I can assure everyone down the line from this keyboard, that this is one hell of a storm.

Another Time Waster on the Web :

....

Peter Fonda's Birthday

Pete is 67 .... Yikes ! .... Name the movie this pic came from. Yes it's the The Wild Angels-[1966]

Life, Near Death, and Other "Feats of Strength"

dnd at Crawfordslist read the post below, and told me about his adventures setting transmission lines and towers on a helicopter crew. He spoke of loading injured people on an Alouette III.
[dnd I have a picture of an Alouette III somewhere, I'll post it here if I can find it.]

His story jogged my memory, I loaded some hurt people myself while the pilot did some amazing flying, and I saw some amazing flying even when nobody was hurt.

[Image taken in the Fishlake National Forest Utah. We have just finished loading the drills on on two semi "floats" ie: flatbeds. I am thrilled I wasn't crushed. This was the most dangerous part of a very dangerous job]

I took a lot of Squirrels to the field, I can only remember the names of a few, but one I will always remember. His name was Harlin King, and I only spent about 4 hours with him one morning in the Flat Tops of western Colorado. O.B. Oberlander, and I were having some dispute. We were both drunks and room mates so I'm sure the reason was pretty important whatever it was. But Harlin King picked up the tab for it that morning. The H.P. II Helidrill was an amazing piece of machinery, we could set them in some truly mind blowing spots, but there still many places they couldn't be placed.
It was the field co-ordinator's job to run the line and pick the set-ups as we moved a long, leap frogging from the back of the line to the front. My first move that morning O.B. set me up on a 35 degree rock slide made up of rocks the size of your head, a real chicken shit stunt. The only good thing about that morning was "Charlie Blaze" was flying the Lama. As we arrived at this location, Charlie brought us the fuel barrel, so we could get the last of the gas out, and he could take it to the L.Z. to be refilled. This thing was 150 gallon Eaton drum with a manual pump screwed into the side, and some bullshit little angles welded on the bottom for "Feet". The pump was the Old Timey kind where you pump the handle up and down. These drums were touchy, everything that has a round shape is touchy on a mountain, their long axis had to be pointed down the fall line of the mountain, or they would want roll off the thing.
We landed the fuel drum and I was busy chewing out O.B. on the radio about his stunt, as Harlin set about pumping our gas into our jeep cans.
To keep the geologists happy in Denver, we could off set these shot holes at right angles to the line, so I set off up the mountain to see if what looked like a "flat spot" could be had. I told Harlin that Charlie would be coming for the empty barrel soon, and when he set his hook down he wanted the drum. Pretty soon, I was on an out crop above our location so that I was just about even with the Helicopter. Sure enough, here comes Charlie to get the drum, and as I watched him hover nothing seem a miss. But as he pulled off, and away to where I could hear, over the radio came : "Robert how bad did your helper get hurt?"

I was on my way back down the mountain before he was finished keying his mic. As I came out of some trees, there was Harlin standing by the support basket. I was greatly relieved to see him on his feet, but as I got closer he looked just like some character in a Warner Brothers Cartoon, you know, they get hit in the head and Saturn and Jupiter are rotating their head with tweety birds. That is what Harlin had going on, and he kept saying "I'm O.K., I'm O.K.". His hair was hanging down across his forehead, and I could see a small drop of blood on his eye brow. I said, "Sure your are just let me have a look", as I raised his hair. There on his forehead, was cut in the shape of that pump handle's side bracket. The barrel had shifted when Charlie picked-up on it and it spun and smacked Harlin right in the noggin. By this time I could hear Charlie coming back, and he told me to take Harlin up to the spot where I had been when this whole sorry deal happened.
When we finally got up to the out crop, Charlie came in and set the tip of his left skid on a rock and I loaded Harlin in the front seat. On three sides of this rock it was 100 ft. straight down to more rocks. Charlie flew him into Meeker, and I never saw Harlin King again.
O.B. lost his coordinator's job for setting us in that rock side.


A Bell 204 or 205 landing in the Fishlake to pick-up some Squirrels. Note the pinhead on the left standing up. He's betting that the helicopter won't sink in the snow when the pilot cuts the power, and the full weight of the ship rests on the snow. He won that bet, but if he had lost this picture would be called "Pink Mist".
Here's another drilling story if you're interested, scroll down it's the second part.
I spent My Whole Life in the 20th Century

Another Doodle Bug Story

I decided since I spouted-off about the oil business on my last post, maybe it was time to revisit the topic again. I have written about my adventures in the "Oil Patch" here:
" HELLO LAMA " - 40 BELOW at STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR

and here: How I Became A " Flying Squirrel "
[Note the red objects in this picture ... they are gravel baskets]
I promised to write about "Next time ..What we didn't say at the safety lesson's" on my How I Became A " Flying Squirrel " post, so here goes.

As I explained in that post, helicopter's generate static electricity. One never knows from day to day just how much they will make, but if it's very dry or very wet there's a good chance you're going to get the shit shocked out of you. And by the way, the bigger the ship, the bigger the shock. The only way to control this is for the pilot to set the long-line on the ground, and the charge will discharge into the ground. Then, and only then, can you go over and pick-up the hook on the long-line, and hook it to whatever the pilot is after.
In the mornings one of the first things out of a good pilot's mouth would be this :
"Boy's the hook is hot today."

[This is a drill skid flying on a 150ft. Long-Line]


If we had a "Squirrel" [New Guy] with us, he would be introduced to this bit of physics in the following way .....

All our shot holes on the Heli-port-able crews had to be back filled with gravel. This was done to keep as much of the explosive's energy in the ground as possible. It also kept people from having their heads blown-off, but that was just a happy plus to the real reason. More "pop" that stayed in the ground ... better readings at the "Dog House". As a result of this, we flew gravel from our L.Z. [Landing Zone] everyday to every drill out on the line. It was some of the most expensive gravel in the history of gravel by the time it went down one of our 30 ft. shot-holes.

But back to the "Squirrel", he would generally be one of the last people to catch a ride up on to the line, which meant that he was at the L.Z. shoveling gravel into one of these baskets. As the mornings tasks were taken care of the pilot's would be very busy getting everyone into the field, fueled, and making the powder deliveries. Some time around 10 A.M. he would have to land at the L.Z. and take on fuel himself, at this point he could begin to start screwing around with taking gravel up to whomever was running low. This would be the first time the Squirrel would get to stand under the ship and hook him up to a piece of "equipment".

Even under a Lama with a 150 ft. long-line the rotor wash is picking-up small rocks and gravel and throwing them in your face, and the whole affair gets your blood moving no matter how many times you've done it. The powder monkey would tell the Squirrel to "Hook-up that Basket" as the turbine on the ship would start to whine for the move .... And the first thing that would happen, as the 35 lb. hook moved near the Squirrel, would be his hat flying across the L.Z. at 60 miles-an-hour. Then the dust filling his eyes, and as the hook dangled like a crazy yoyo, he would reach out for it, and BINGO it would shock the crap out of him. And he would let go, but the charge builds up instantly, so the next time he touched it, Bam shocked again.
At this point he would be looking at everyone in the L.Z. and the following was always on their face :
"What am I doing wrong?"
And everyone in the L.Z. would keep saying "Hook it up .... Hook it up". With much waving of hands, Like they had never heard of static electricity. But usually the pilot would set the hook down at this point, and the poor Squirrel could walk over and pick the hook up off the ground and get it hooked on to the basket.
Now, this all sounds cruel, and it probably is, but men do this to each other all the time, and it has a purpose. You want to see what the New Guy is made of, and you want him to always pay attention to what that hook is doing.
A few more things about the long-line being "Hot"..... If you reach out and grab it, and don't let go, the juice goes through your body and you just get shocked once. But if you're under a big ship, like a 214 [Huey] you can feel that charge coming down the line every rotation the rotor makes. Even if the pilot sets his hook on the ground, a 214 is gonna make your weenie wilt. And a 214 hook weighs 50 lbs. The prop wash off a 214 picks-up even bigger rocks and throws them in your face, and it blows dead limbs out of the trees, and you never know where those are coming from. I hated working under 214's.

"IT"S THE OIL STUPID"

Something serious for a change.
[Click this map to see the BIG version]
In the ocean of electrons that are flowing through Senator Steven's Tubes, I found just one dog that has been chewing on this bone, week in and week out. That is Professor Smartass. Visit his pages, and you see that boy grasps the real reason for this war.

But let me add my 2 cents to the reasons behind this folly. Over the weekend there was this article about Study sees harmful hunt for extra oil. We are now drilling in 5,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico for the stuff. When Dick Cheney hosted his famous "Energy Meetings" in the spring of 2001, you can bet your last dollar that this was topic "A".

Let's break it into two camps :

A. Easy Oil
B. Hard Oil

It's easy to lose sight of just what this means to us, but try this on ....
You will hear something like this :

"We have plenty of oil" [A true statement]
BUT ...Ask your self, "Is this easy oil? Or hard oil?" Oil Shale in the Western U.S., Tar Sands in Canada, the Tar Belt in Venezuela, deep ocean deposits around the world. There is no question that there's a lot oil still around, but as Matt Simmons said,
"Worse, it takes vast quantities of scarce and valuable potable water and natural gas to turn unusable oil into heavy low-quality oil.”

“In a sense, this exercise is like turning gold into lead,”
And there's nothing cheap about drilling in 5,000 ft. of water.

Now, to the Mid East. In Texas and almost everwhere else, there is something called "Lifting Costs" .... That is the money that comes off the top to pay for those pump jacks. Their up keep, power usage, etc. In Saudia Arabia they go to the well head, and turn a valve. The shit comes out of the ground and on to the boat.
Easy Oil.
Iraq has either the #2 or #3 proven reserves in the world, and boys and girls ... It's the "Easy Oil", if we're just talking about the oil business.

So this morning over at Informed Comment the following popped-up:

Iraqi Oil Law Leaked
Here's the translated version
Iraqi Oil Law.pdf

I'm no lawyer, but I bet my last dollar that's the "Easy Oil" buried in all that "Where As" and "Where For"
I know this, and so did Dick Cheney and that hand puppet we call a president, back in 2001.

"It's The Oil Stupid"

Introducing the Book

BOTDA

"Even a blind pig, finds an acorn every now and then."

[I'm speaking about me winning something, not them giving this.]

stones-you got me rocking

I was a pitcher down in a slump,
I was a fighter taken for a sucker punch
I was a hooker, losing her looks
I was a writer, can't write another book

The Best Damn Script You Can Get

Sounds like a lot of Hype huh ? Well, here it is .... Click any link on the is page and what happens ? Go ahead, click one. You didn't get steered away from this one did you ? This page stayed on your screen didn't it .... Here's the place to get this script, paste it just above your closing body tag < /body >. Open offsite links in new window

I Always Won the "Big Hat Contest"

Here's the 1st post I ever made here :
Saturday, August 26, 2006
"NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO....THERE YOU ARE"

The only thing I learned in college.

I had a work study grant in college. 3 days a week I worked in the ceramics lab with George Soco. George had been tricked into coming to Texas Tech by the administration there. George wasn't happy about that. They promised him a modern lab to teach glass blowing to grad students, he ended up in the government surplus barracks teaching education majors ceramics.

Everyday when I showed up, my first duty was to ride my bike to the student union and get Prof. Soco 5 packs of Marlboro green 100's. Then my day could begin. On days we emptied the kilns after a firing, he would stand by wearing a big asbestos glove. Should a particular ash tray or coffee cup catch his eye, he would step forward, take the offending object, and hurl it across the court yard into the barracks wall that contained offices of other art profs. The pile of broken bisque ware was 3 feet deep.

In the late April of 1970, while sitting in a biology lecture, something snapped in my head and I got up, rode my bike to the administration building and dropped out of Texas Tech. I was bound for Colorado. When I went by the ceramics lab to say good-bye Prof. Soco said the following:

" Bob, if you forget everything I've taught you remember this....No matter where you go, there you are."

About my garb .... The hat band is bead work, and hand sewing on black deerskin. The shirt is brand new. Mule deer with brass buttons. Chaps are moose hide, they're the nicest pair I ever made. They had brass zippers and Buffalo Nickels on the pockets for fasteners.

Enough is Eough

Anna Nicole :

The Winston Churchill of "Reality" TV

MSNBC Contacts : Just click it'll open your email

• dabrams@msnbc.com



• KOlbermann@msnbc.com



• countdown@msnbc.com



• letters@msnbc.com



• viewerservices@msnbc.com

If you have a site, please ....E-Mail me and I'll send you this code. It makes writing emails a snap for your readers. Let's stuff Dan Abram's email inbox by 6 A.M. Monday morning.
You know what to say ... just don't use "No Bad Talk" as Stubbs used to say.
Write them and tell them to stop, please urge your readers to write them.

Good Stuff

When he's not playing with his Photoshop, Mur 38 has nack for finding some amazing stuff ..... like finding catfish swallowing basketballs, and this. Click this link and see one amazing picture Perth Comet. Click Mur's link for the explanation.

Dexter at Crawfordslist sent me this, it's a link that let's you paint like Jackson Pollock. When you get there just start moving the cursor, and clicking the mouse.



Best Music on the web ..... RadioIo Click the Red Button

This Bear Has Something to Say .... Version II

Photo: Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage/AP

To protect the Bear's next of kin, I'm calling him Bear #339 for now.

BOB TV

Well, here's what I got so far :
a. I got a clip 127 sec. long.
b. Background sounds.

Plot lines so far :
a. Bear is Hostage
b. Bear being Interveiwed
About Rush L's remark
c. Bear with second banana [Voice over]

I need a name for the bear.

This Bear Has Something to Say Part IV

Photo: Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage/AP

Study this clip ..... send me dialog. I know it's backwards from what REAL animators do, but I'm no real animator.
You get a writing credit at the end of the editorial. If you just see a passage that the lips sync to your words, make a note of how much time into the clip it is, and let me know.

I'm not in any big hurry to lay down a sound track, so this little project is still on going.

Here's the U-Tube link :
This Bear Has Something to Say

This Bear Has Something to Say Part III

Photo: Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage/AP

We've made a big break through, when the bear heard what Rush Limpballs said about these bears:

He broke his silence, and is now quite willing to begin speaking out. We're working on script for him, but any thoughts on just what he should say will be welcome.

Big Audio Dynamite II - The Globe

Dancing With Mr.D

This Bear Has Something to Say Part II

Photo: Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage/AP
I'm teaching this Polar Bear English, but it's slow going. And his breath smells like seal.

The West

I was in a small debate yesterday with a twit from New York City on the pros and cons of burning wood. I didn't care who won, I just enjoyed poking him in the eye with my stick. But the whole affair did plunge me back into the past, and the gathering of the firewood for the winter, and then it dawned on me that I've been meaning to post about the West again.
This is a very small section of the back wall of a ruin in Chaco Canyon. It is called Chetro Ketl. It was shot by a fellow named Dave Rintoul who has a very cool set of pictures at Ancient Pueblo Sites and Archaeoastronomy Tour - Winter 2006-07
[Dave emailed me and informed me that he didn't sleep with Gracie Slick either, and I was forced to change my tag line.]
I saw Dave's great pictures at another very good place called Grrlscientist. I visited the Chaco Canyon back in the 80's. It is most well known for Pueblo Bonito, and more recently for Fajada Butte and it's Sun Dagger Calender
But the back wall at Chetro Ketl is one scene that I have always remembered. When it was done, it was 4 stories in some places, and longer than a football field. Some of the rows of stone work, have pieces of rock as big as your index finger. As you walk along the wall you are just over whelmed by the care that was used to build this wall. Each stone was ground down, so that the exposed side is flat.
Chaco isn't easy to get to, and that's good, it keeps the riff/raff away. If you ever get the chance to visit, make a note of the educational level of the other people you meet there. No Glenn Becks is this crowd.

This great shot was taken by "Mo" a friend of one of my best friends,Larry. "Mo" lives in Northern Utah, or "Behind the Mormon Curtain" as I'm fond of calling it. "Mo" works for the government, and would have to kill us all if we knew what he did. But when he's not doing that, he goes out into places most of us can only dream about, and he's got a great page mo4.org.

That's the thing I really love about the web, going places we've never been, and returning to places we've missed.

Let's Dance While We Can to Duran Duran !!!

This Bear Has Something to Say

Photo: Joseph Napaaqtuq Sage/AP

Stay tuned for updates.

UTAH PHILLIPS

An audio clip of Utah Phillip's story about making MOOSE TURD PIE
This clip came via dnd posting at Crawfordslist

The Sex Lives of the Founders Part IV

The Money Shots

One of my favorite founders. blackdogg reminded me of this Franklin message ......
Franklin tells one of his would be mistresses that his "little willy is getting lonely!"
The sad thing about Ben was, he wasn't much of a "family man". In 1730 he acknowledged his illegitimate son William, whom it seems never got on with his father. Then there's Deborah Read, no not the fact that they had a common law marriage. The fact that Ben just treated her kinda shabby. I won't even get into his years in Paris, or his living with Margaret Stevenson and her daughter Polly in London.

That's four founders who have more in common with Bill Clinton than George Bush.

The Sex Lives of the Founders Part III

The Money Shots

This good looking dog is Alexander Hamilton. Our first Sec. of the Treasury, and the man generally credited with saving our economic system after the Revolution.
In 1791 he was approached by Maria Reynolds with a sad tale of money woes. Hamilton let his "Little head do his big head's thinking", and started an affair with the married Mrs. Reynolds, which continued for three years. All this time Mr. Reynolds was blackmailing Hamilton. When the whole tale was exposed in the press by Hamilton's political enemies IE Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. Hamilton wrote a pamphlet admitting the whole thing with the catchy title :

Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V & VI of "The History of the United States for Year 1796," In Which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, Is Fully Refuted. Written be Himself

That's three founders who have more in common with Bill Clinton than George Bush.