Road Trip

I took a road trip to Eagle Pass on Wednesday. I Left here at 0415 with one of my doctors to do access rounds. The trip was uneventful until the return drive. While on Hwy 57 I saw the biggest owl that I have ever seen. I looked to be about 2 feet tall sitting in a tree. I looked up Texas owls but I am still not sure which one it is. I also learned that there are lots of owls that live in the area. During my research I found a site that had instrustions for making an owl house. It would be so cool to have owls nesting in the yard. I have just the place for one in the large oak tree in my back yard. The article said that it can sometimes take several seasons to have owls move in. Once completed I will post pictures. I hope to have tenents soon.

Mass Killing

Pardon me while I wipe away the tears....When I got home after work today I saw that my Koi was up side down in the pond. Upon closer inspection I noticed that all of my small minnows were dead as well. What could have caused this I wondered? Did someone poison my fish? Who would have done such a thing? Then I saw the cause of death......ELECTROCUTION!!!! The hot wire that runs arround the pond broke and the end was in the pond. I have had that Koi for 3 years. He was 13 inches long and was just starting to come over to the edge for hand feeding. I will winter the pond and start fresh this spring with new plants and fish. Maybe I will try a different type of fence to keep out the wildlife.

Bad computer

A few weeks back I started up my laptop and and started to get dll errors. Oh joy, what fun! i could not get the log on screen to come up. So, I go to the desk top and look up the problem. It looked sooo easy. Just put in the recovery disk and restore the OS and you will not loose any data. Wow, even a caveman can do it. So, i put in my recovery disk and follow all of the prompts as required and then restart the system as asked to do. Everything looks normal, it looks like it is going to work...then it gets stuck in a resetting loop that i can not get it out of. Well, I have gone this far, I may as well look up that problem too.( Google is very dangerous) I found the exact problem that I was having and the geek went into removing a boot ini file and something else in computerese. I thought long and hard, but in the end I sent it off to my IT department. I got an e-mail saying that the hard drive is toast and they were only able to save 2 gig for files that they will send me next week. CRAP!!!! Well there goes my i-tunes and my pictures. I had most of my pictures backed up on CD so not all is lost. Lesson learned, back up more often. Oh well.

Vote, Vote , Vote

I just came back from the library where I cast my vote. The line was not too bad, about 50 people in line ahead of me. It took about 45 minutes to make it through the line and when I left there were about 50 people in line still. I sure did not want to be in line on November 4. I waited over 4 hours to vote in the primary and I really didn't want to do that again. So on the fourth i will be kicking back with my Shinner Bach watching all the people who didn't vote early wait in very long lines. I don't care who you vote for but make sure you make your voice heard.

My trip to DC

I made my first visit to Washington DC last week. I had a conference on Monday and Tuesday so I booked my flight to arrive the Sunday before. My flight arrived at 11:30 and the first function was a reception at 5 o'clock Sunday night. I stayed at the Ritz-Carlton (At $699 a night, no I did not pay for it, I shared a room with one of my doctors). I walked to Georgetown and looked at the store fronts and all of the different restaurants in the area. Then I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Mall. That was a nice walk as well. I saw the war memorials and took lots of pictures. I have some pictures in a slide show from Picasa.

You know you're a redneck.....

I was cleaning off the counter and I have three containers of coins. They have been sitting on the counter for the better part of four years. So I sorted out the coins and made some rolls of nickels, dimes, and pennies. When all was said and done I had 2 dime rolls and 5 nickel rolls and more penny rolls than I care to count. Ashley wanted a pumpkin pie from Bill Millers and Melanie wanted some coleslaw. I grabbed the rolls and told Ashley to head to the car. Only when we were on our way out of the neighborhood did Ashley realize what was going on. "Aw Dad, your not paying with THAT are you?" Why not, it's money isn't it? "But it's not real money. Nobody pays with change!" Not true, I do. "You're going to embarrass me" Well, we pulled up to the drive through and there were several cars in line. I recount my coin rolls that I brought with me, 10 dollars in nickels, 10 dollars in dimes and 7 dollars in quarters. I looked at the menu and placed my order, a whole pumpkin pie, 4 chopped beef sandwiches, 2 ice teas, and 2 orders of fries. I look over at Ashley and she is mortified. "You've got to be kidding me?" Well while we were out may as well get something for dinner. She was really trying to make herself small and disappear. I pulled up to the window and the lady said that will be 20 dollars and 91 cents. Perfect I exclaimed. I handed her the rolls of nickels and dimes along with a dollar bill. I heard the lady ask the manager, "Do we take these?", holding up the rolls of change. At that point Ashley rolled her eyes and avoided eye contact. "Sure do" the manager said. She handed me the food and gave me my change. As we were driving out I said CRAP. "What's wrong?" I should of told her to keep the change!!! "Dad, you're such a redneck!"

To HELL with the people

The American people have just been stung by the scorpion. It is in the nature of the politician to look out for self interests. The people spoke VERY loudly that we did not want this sell out of the American people. This bill is the same bill that congress voted no to before. So what was different.... About 150 billion dollars in ear marks and pork barrel spending on typical Washington bullshit. Congress had this bill for less than 48 hours to read through and dissect and digest. That is 451 pages of lawyer speak crap to sort out. How in the hell can anyone vote on a bill if they have not even read it. What the hell is wrong with these people? Every one should look up to see how their Senator and Congressman voted for this bill and keep that in mind when voting in November. The market spoke on the bill passing today. The DOW was up about 250 points before the vote and ended down 150 for the day. We the people can either roll over and bare our necks in submission or we can send a message to our ELECTED officials in this great country by firing each and every one. Time will tell. I for one will not take this sitting down. I will not vote for anyone who has proven will not vote the will of the people. A spending of this magnitude should go to a vote of the people. Raise your voice. Remind YOUR elected officials who is in charge!