Old and tired, old and tired.

It doesn’t help that my office keeps swapping flu back and forth like that scene from the movie Lifeforce where the entire town of London keeps sucking the vitality out of their neighbors.

Blech.

I recently bought a new house, my first one, hooray. I haven’t moved in, because there’s a lot of work to do before I want to move in furniture and start living there.

I received my first water bill from the Birmingham Water Works Board, and they claim that in 22 days I have used 4488 gallons of water.

This seems very high to me, since the only water used is for 2-3 workmen to occasionally flush a toilet, and a few paintbrushes getting washed by me.

No showers or baths. No dishes washed. No lawns watered. No dogs bathed.

My home inspection certifies no leaks, and this was tested under pressure. Besides, the little triangle on my water meter isn’t spinning, so no leaks.

So what the heck?

I’ve called their customer service number numerous times, and it keeps hanging up on me. I’ve emailed twice now, with no response.

I guess when you are have a monopoly and you’re crooked as an Alabama creek, you really don’t have to give a damn about customer service or “being right”.

I’ve got a big back yard, on the slope end of a hill, and I’m going to look into alternative methods of collecting water, if there are any. Bunch of jerks.

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If you’re interested in alternative water sources, including potable water sources (drinking and bathing) here are some links:

http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/iwt/rainwater/docs.html

http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/Alternative_Water_Sources_Intro.aspx

This is really cool: http://www.lakotawatercompany.com/joomla/content/view/16/28/

http://www.rainwatermanagement.com/

http://www.rainharvesting.com

http://www.azstarnet.com/business/316435

More as I can find it.

I know, it’s easy to pick on someone for bad spelling, but it’s actually much worse than that… well, you’ll see.

See if you can tell what’s wrong here. (Forgive me for bad phone camera work, I have shaky hands).

The last is actually the correct product (or an attempt at it), but it made me laugh the most.

I love Walmart, I really do.

Naked man causes disturbance in Helena

They’re speculating that he might be mentally ill, but it’s a really, really hot Alabama August, and I contend he might be the only sane person here.

(Not really).

Here’s the article: David Brooks needs to name names now

I questioned why he let his hand stay there in my comments on the article. They haven’t been published, so I’m posting them here! Woohoo!

My comments on the article:

I agree with all your points, but I find myself wondering about this part of the quote:

“he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, eh, get me out of here.”

Eh, get me out of here?

Unless this function featured assigned seating by gunpoint, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have to sit there quietly enduring this public molestation. Other than standing up and finding another seat, I’m pretty sure that there were a host of options that were at Mr. Brooks’ disposal that evening. To name a few:

1) A polite slap to the hand, accompanied by “No! Bad Senator!”. Rubbing his nose in it would of course be at Mr. Brooks’ discretion.

2) Fork to the hand. This one is powerful, it says “I’m from the streets, and I’m not afraid to draw blood. Unnh!” If you’re going to eat your salad, use the fish fork if it’s available. Otherwise finish your salad before impaling the Senator’s hand. Afterwords, clean the fork with your napkin or handkerchief, place the knife fork on your salad plate, and give complements to the host.

3) When coffee is served after the meal, accidentally spill your piping hot beverage into the Senator’s lap. This normally will reduce the personal satisfaction that he normally feels when fondling journalists and will cause him to focus his attention upon himself. Apologize profusely.

4) Ninja smoke bomb. This is a last resort, and will result in your being outcast from the secret society of Journalist Ninjas. Assuming, of course, that you are in such a secret society.

5) Finally, and more seriously, lean over and whisper into the Senator’s ear: “You do realize I am a journalist, and I’m going to be reporting your wandering hand tomorrow if you don’t remove it from my thigh immediately.”

Obviously, we’re not in the Wild West and Mr. Brooks could not break a chair over the Senator’s head for his indiscretions, but even in polite society it’s quite permissible to tell someone to STOP doing something that you find offensive. To sit there, just letting it happen? That’s a little odd.

End of my comments… except for this last part.

He’s either a big fat liar, was bragging and not complaining, or he’s a rather irresponsible journalist. Either way, nothing and I mean NOTHING explains why he would let the Senator leave his hand there if he didn’t approve of it. Okay, maybe chicken-sh%t terror would explain it, but then that’s just sad, and I wouldn’t recommend spreading that sad, sad story around.

I’ve pulled my lung.

This post is unnecessary, read something else. I wonder if I get to delete it later.

This, of course, was right after the dream I was having about my shoulders hurting. Kind of dull really, you’d think my subconscious could do better with that sensation.

Lets see:

1) A dream where I’m being lifted to a giant nest by a huge bird, intent on feeding me to her huge baby chicks.

2) Dream where I’m being crushed to death by Andre the Giant.

3) Dream where my arms are being ripped off slowly, by medieval monks with rat heads who speak a curiously harsh form of Italian.

Clearly, I have an imagination. My subconscious is more practical, I suppose.

Here’s my response to this, just in case they don’t have the guts to publish my comment.

The original blog post is here:  The GOP’s White Supremacy (Another zinger of a headline)

Here’s my response below:

“It’s important that African Americans stay as far away from a political party that believes them to be a substandard race of inferior beings. Especially if this party believes that African Americans are inherently incapable of taking care of themselves, and that believes that the best solution is to encourage people of color to develop an absolute economic dependency upon the good graces of that political party so that they can have a guaranteed vote from poorly-informed populace.

People of color should avoid such a political party like the plague.

Of course, I’m referring to the Democratic Party.

I’m not defending the Republican Party. They’re self-destructive, often stupid, goofy old white men (on the whole). But at least, unlike the “good hearted” Democrats, they’re not the party of economic slavery. (That’s welfare and public assistance, in case you didn’t know).

It’s amazing to me the groups of Americans who still believe that the Democratic Party still represents them.

Republicans represent people who want to be rich.

Democrats want to be rich, and represent poor people to get there.

They’re both crooked as hell, but if I were an industrious African American who wanted to make something of myself and quite possibly be rich and successful, I certainly wouldn’t hitch my ride to the party that thinks I’m too stupid to function, and therefore require a group of enlightened white folks to take care of me.

Of course, your average white Democrat in the rank and file believes that they are angelic and beautiful for caring about the poor downtrodden, but this just shows a lack of depth to their understanding of reality.

(Dare you to allow this comment? It strikes deeply, and stings… if not, I’ll post it on my own blog just in case.)”

There you go. I’ll be truly unhappy if there aren’t a bunch of fiery, angry responses that dispense with reason in exchange for raw emotion. But that’s just me.

“The intensity of Bridgeport’s racial feelings would be laid bare decades later by a small but brutally revealing incident. It was June 1961, just weeks after busloads of Freedom Riders had been beaten up in the segregated bus stations of the South. The old Douglas Hotel on the black South Side had caught fire, and eighty residents had suddenly been made homeless. Red Cross volunteers had arrived on the scene and — unaware of Bridgeport’s racial sensitivities — evacuated the refugees to temporary quarters in Bridgeport’s Holy Cross Lutheran Church, a few blocks from Daley’s home. Word spread quickly, and almost immediately a crowd of jeering whites was standing outside the church demanding the removal of the black fire victims. “They threatened to break windows in the church and screamed obscenities I can’t repeat,” Helen Constien, the pastor’s wife, said afterward. “They threatened to destroy the church if we didn’t get the Negroes out of the building.” The Red Cross quickly took the black fire victims out of Bridgeport.”

Read more here: http://www.wikitree.com/articles/Daley/racism.html

How about this?

“Well to be 100% honest chicago is probably one of the most racist places in the country save maybe the former confedracy. I can say this as some one who lived in chicago, and lived other places. Most people probably have no clue because they are white and so more times than not they are not on the recieving end of racism.
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I mean hell martin luther king couldnt make headway in chicago back in the mid 60′s and he made headway in selma alabama, burmingham, atlanta, etc. The reason i am rambling is because whats the point, there are 3 types of people. 1- those who see, acknowledge, and accept the complications of racism. 2. those who don’t or can’t see racism, for what ever disturbing reason. 3. Those so fargone in their own little world that they not only misunderstand and misdefine the concept of racism, but they misunderstand and misdefine virtually every other concept in life.”

Read about this discussion here: http://www.city-data.com/forum/chicago/31187-racism-chicago.html

Here’s a 1988 article about Chicago racism: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968701,00.html

Even more!: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1033.html

I could go on and on, but the point is clear. If you assume that ALL people of a color share the same characteristics, you are a racist. If you assume that ALL people of a color from the same state share the same characteristics, YOU ARE A RACIST. It’s easy to snipe at Alabama and claim superiority, but you’re really just revealing your own prejudices and ignorance.

You name a place and time, just about anywhere, and you can probably find racism and hate there. You’ll also find intelligence, stupidity, fear, love, division, unity, etc, etc.

To sum up, maybe Marsha Collins’ Husband should curve his accusing finger homeward. Perhaps add a little think-before-you-type and maybe a dash of shut-the-hell-up.

P.S. Despite my linking to these articles, I do NOT characterize all Chicagoans as racist. I would never be so ignorant as to assume that the entire populace of Chicago were racist. I’ll bet the majority of them are just regular people with a wide variety of lifestyles and opinions.