Shouldn't Life Be Easier?

Well shouldn't it be easier? It is a constant balancing act. Money, Gas, Bills, Happiness, all a balancing act with a very delicate equilibrium. IF you spend too much on a weekend, you are short for the week and that sucks. Spend too much during g the week and the weekend is shot. Have a car break down and you are just screwed! Most Americans are just 2, count it TWO, paychecks from financial ruin. With 100+ channels of crap on the TV, no one can decide on what to watch. You could have 10 TVs sitting beside each other and there would still be an argument on what to watch on 1 of them! That is just life I guess.

I am Tired…

You know what I am tired of? I am tired of people living in the past. I had a friend that he and I went way back together, back to the 11^th grade. We became friends and did lots of stuff together. He would come over to my house and we would go to the lake and hang out or go the clubs in Beaumont or Louisiana. We were big party people back then. I was in college and so was he. He graduated and I did not. He then went to UT Galveston to get his PHD. I played around for several years. I would go to Galveston and we would party together or go to concerts and stuff like that. He started to mature and I did not at that point. He would call me in the middle of the night to talk about some of his projects dealing with the splicing of genes.

Now, he ended up in Baltimore working for the government and I did the "American dream: Married, kid, house" He stayed single but dated around. We would chat and talk, visit when we could as he was busy and we were moving around the country like always. Then it started. We would trade music, programs like always, and then he would lash out at me to be a responsible adult like him. He said that he wanted what was best for me and to stop being lazy, that he was always trying to help me. He would send me "gifts" in the mail and then later ask me to pay for a bit of them.

I was and had done a lot of maturing by this time and gotten my life straightened out, no drinking or the such. We would get into a fight over him trying to push his "high" morals onto me and act like a father to me. We really butted heads and would not speak for a while. Then without warning, I would get an instant message and he would want to talk and be friends again. This was the pattern that we had for about a year more and then we got into a huge fight. He would act like he was better than me and was on top of the world, but remember, we both used to party very hard in the past. I guess that he forgot about that. He wanted me to come to visit for the weekend and I did not want to.

As our "friendship" progressed, he got stranger and stranger, almost jealous of me being married. The huge fight was between my wife and him. It was very nasty and that was over a year ago. We have not spoken since then and I guess that we never will. Our lives took different paths, both good in their own rights. Do I miss talking to him sometimes, yes, In the beginning we had lots in common, music, mutual friends, partying, but in the end, all we had was music. I have not been able to find someone to discuss in person music to that extent and perhaps I never will; time will tell about that.

For any Interested...

RounTrey is the correct name and i have found the url for the development:

http://www.rountreyonline.com/masterplan.html

http://www.rountreyonline.com/plan.html



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The Weather...

Well my friends, it has gotten cold here in the "Ole Dominion" for a change. We just went to eat a Chili's and it was 45 degrees. We are supposed to be stuck in this weather pattern for a while longer. So i guess that we are finally going to get into winter here. It is about time if you as k me. We still need rain and lots of it but with the cooler weather water will not be such a factor here. People will stop watering their lawns and consumption will go down. I turned my sprinklers off about 2 weeks ago and cut the lawn down very low. We have had several freezes since then and hopefully the grass will stop growing. I do not want to have to cut the lawn again this year! Well, i am full and there are a few TV progs i want to watch, so i am out of here. :-)




Jim Duncan's forecast:
The weather pattern has taken a decidedly cooler turn, with the jet stream dropping south and a chilly high pressure ridge to our north. Overnight lows could dip into the upper 20s in some normally colder spots by sunrise Thursday, with highs into the start of the weekend not managing much more than the low to middle 50s.

Rain prospects may inch up slightly later Friday, with a little more moisture working in along a back-door cold front, but overall chances for any meaningful rainfall will otherwise stay very low through the 7-day forecast period.







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More BG night shots.

Part two in series

10*31*2007

Blog Move?

I might move all my services to wordpress.  I have a site set up called http://renigade.wordpress.com.

I am just not getting the traffic that I would like with blogger anymore.  Please go and have a look if you will.

Thankx,

 

 

RMStringer

________________________________

What have I done

What lies I have told

I've played games with the ones that

rescued my soul

Oh, have I come to the point where I'm losing the grip

Or is it still time to get into

The swing of things  - A - Ha   1986

 

Food additives ‘can cause hyperactivity’

A new study has indicated that some food additives can increase hyperactivity in children.Researchers commissioned by the UK’s Food Standards Agency looked at the effects of two combinations of E numbers on the behaviour of children who were prone to hyperactivity.

The scientists took two mixes of artificial food colours and the popular preservative sodium benzoate, which can be found in foods in like soft drinks, confectionary and ice cream, which are popular with children.

They found that the combinations did increase hyperactivity among children and recommended that those who are prone to hyperactivity or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder should eliminate these additives from their diet.

The study added that there are many factors associated with hyperactivity including genetic factors, being born prematurely or environment and upbringing.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland says it is aware of the study, which covered Sunset Yellow (E110), Tartrazine (E102), Carmoisine (E122), Ponceau 4R (E124), Quinoline Yellow (E104) and Allura Red (E129).

It is also recommending parents to read food labels when buying products for their children.



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Mack: L'Affaire Bagdad

Thanks to Mac Hall for letting me publish this commentary.

 

 

L'Affaire Bagdad

 

"I shall have to delay you for a few minutes.  You see the Legation is only just open and we have not yet got our full equipment.  We are expecting the rubber stamp any minute now."

 

-- A diplomat in Evelyn Waugh's Scoop

 

The American diplomatic corps, the envy of the world of pallid wine and crumbly cheese, is afraid to go to Bagdad – so afraid that no one is volunteering, and diplomats may have to be dragged out of cocktail parties in Ottawa and the racing season at Epson Downs and ordered to report to The Cradle of Civilization.

 

Working Americans whose taxes support civil servants can certainly understand the reluctance of diplomats to serve civility in Bagdad.  What towboat captain or steelworker cannot appreciate the difficulty in finding a really good tailor in Port Said Street?  And, after all, embassy soirees in Bagdad are more likely to be explosive rather than sparkling, and the paucity of wine merchants is appalling, simply appalling.  Worse, the shopping along Muthana Al Shaiban Street is simply not up to Paris standards, m'dear.  Picnicking along the Tigris is quite impossible given the heat, and trying to punt through the bobbing, malodorous corpses is so, so tiresome.

 

A with-it diplomat in Bagdad can only resent the sad reality that so many of his personal bodyguards are not Harvard or Yale, and don't appreciate amusing anecdotes about yachting with Walter Cronkite off Martha's Vineyard and tittering about people who actually have jobs and love America.

 

And then there are the Christian priests in Iraq.  In New England, anyone who's anyone keeps a tame bishop or two for amusement.  In Iraq, though, priests and bishops are not much fun at parties, didn't go to the right schools, and suffer a tendency to be martyred by the sort of people American bishops like to be palsy with for the cameras.  Yawn.

 

Doesn't anyone understand that stern diplomatic notes can be exchanged just as easily after one's afternoon nap in Brussels as well as after one's afternoon nap in Iraq?  And the embassy in Brussels is so convenient to the theatre.

 

And then there's the bother of domestic staff in Bagdad.  When interviewing and hiring a suitable kitchen staff (soooooooo exhausting), one must check references very carefully so that one does not hire a pastry chef who might bring explosives into the morning room.  The maids, the housekeeper, the porters, the gardeners – can one find staff up to scratch in Iraq?  Yes, a life of public service is terribly demanding.

 

Entertaining can be quite a bother too.  In Europe one knows that a grand duke l'orange takes precedent over a charge' du flatus, but how does one seat a Sunny mahdi and a Shirty sheik at dinner without causing a row?  Gracious!  And what is the proper dress for receptions during a rocket attack – black-tie body armor or white-tie body armor?

 

And must those beastly American soldiers get blown up in the street outside the embassy?  Can't they go out to the countryside and get blown up there?  An American diplomat needs his sleep, after all, and having all those persons from the flyover states fighting and dying just outside is so unseemly.

 

The American diplomatic service – always a step and six feet of reinforced concrete behind our fighting men and women.  Why should they have to serve in Bagdad – or anywhere else?

 

-30-

 

The glory of modern people is that they really do feel. Their only danger is that they cannot think.

-- G. K. Chesterton

Smoke on the water.

Very cold morning @ 36 degrees with sunrise on the lake.

Mountain Biking Total

We did Poco Red and Blue today and ended up with 8.84. SO for the weekend, I have a total of 24.49 miles over 3 rides.  My legs are very sore for the activity but I feel very good and it was freaking cold, 36 degrees when we hit the trial head!!

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif