Black Friday - a commentary on what is wrong with us!!!

It seems to me that more and more every year we hear stories of the melee they happens on Black Friday. My favorite one this year, not because I enjoyed reading it but because the sadness that it represents, was a woman looking for an Xbox who sprayed the folks waiting in line at Wal-Mart waiting with her with pepper spray. All so she could get in there and get a freaking video game at a discounted price. I cannot even fit this inside of my head, what was the thought process here? OK, I know they only have 12 of these games and since there are 13 people ahead of me I am going to take them out, not figuratively, literally. I am going to get some industrial strength pepper spray and hose down these unsuspecting idiots. I am positive that this is the way that will get me that game. Did she not think past her short term goals to determine the causal effect of that action?? I am not optimistic that even while sitting in the jail cell that she understood the complete F’ing stupidity of her actions, so she could play a video game. REALLY – you idiot!! One of the victims of this dumbasses Wal-Mart Xbox rampage had to go to the hospital.

Then I read, as if the pepper spray incident weren’t bad enough, shoppers in California had to contend with something even more frightening: an actual shooting. A man was found shot and bleeding in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in the Bay Area just before 2 a.m. The man and his family had apparently been the victim of an attempted mugging, as “several” people with guns tried to take the family’s purchases by force. Meanwhile, police in Fayetteville, N.C., reported gunshots fired near the food court of a local mall at 2 a.m., but no injuries were reported.

And then there were the fights– after all, what Black Friday would be complete without the fights? In Kissimmee, Fla., two men fought at a jewelry counter at a Wal-Mart, and one of them had to be dragged away by the police, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Other customers captured videos of shouting matches in line, skirmishes in stores and showdowns between shoppers and protestors affiliated with Occupy Wall Street and put them up on YouTube.

Sadly, Black Friday violence is nothing new, though the actual number of injuries this year seems higher. In 2010, one shopper in California was arrested for carrying a handgun and ammunition to stores and another was arrested for threatening to shoot those in line, though neither actually hurt other customers. Then, of course, there was the infamous stampede at a New York Wal-Mart on Black Friday three years ago that resulted in the death of one employee.

This level of insanity begs the question – what the fuck?? How is that our world has become so obsessed with the material possessions that are made overseas that we do this. I myself have never been and have no plans to ever go shopping on black Friday. There is nothing for sale in any store that would cause me to pitch a damn tent on the sidewalk in front of the store – NOTHING!! The few bucks we might save on that TV or game console is not worth the risk of being freaking pepper sprayed or shot in the freaking parking lot so someone can relieve me of my recent possessions, not happening!

I researched a bit on black Friday and found that the term has been used since 1966 when it was coined in Philadelphia, PA. By 1975 the term was spreading outside the Philly area, although I do not ever remember hearing that term until at least the 90’s. it seems so crazy now that Wal-Mart is starting the day before, not just at 4 in the morning, or even midnight. I still think the after Christmas sales are better. Not quite as much craziness and they are dumping stock from the inventory so they don’t have to spend the money to count it or to have it sitting on the shelves.

I myself am looking for a new TV and I think I am going to wait until after Christmas to buy it. You can be sure that I will be packing the big .45 to compete with those who are armed and I will be carrying some pepper spray and a long wire Taser for the unarmed. So there you have it, consider that a warning, if you see me – DO NOT get in my way, that damn TV is mine!!!

Thanksgiving - I am truly blessed!!

So today I celebrate my 46th Thanksgiving day, and they have all held their own meaning to me.  This year I am most thankful that Bride has tolerated my idiosyncratic dumbassedness for a long time now and we still love each other.  She has overcome some HUGE hurdles this year and I have never been prouder of my best friend.   We lead a great life and are so lucky to have fate putting us together in Annapolis Maryland 23 years ago.  We are as happy as we have ever been and our relationship seems as if it gets better every day – I love that woman with every fiber of my being, her love is my greatest blessing. 

I am thankful for all the friends I have, I treasure each and every one of you.  Some are closer than others but sometimes, I am thankful for that as well.  I am thankful that one of my best friends got a clear PET scan after going through a brutal round of radiation treatments that killed some of his saliva glands as well as his taste buds.  I was thankful that he still held the “Goode's Turkey Fry 2011” which I think is in the neighborhood of a 15 year tradition.  Knowing he would not be able to enjoy the festive meal made me sad, until I reminded him I was going to enjoy it enough for both of us!  Love ya brother and that turkey was KICK-ASS Goode!!

As I sat on the beach this morning thinking about the things I am thankful for all that could come to my mind was how blessed I am.  I posted on FB “I am thankful that I am sound minded and able bodied enough to recognize the truly countless blessings I am fortunate enough to have received - I hope each of you have a great day!!”  I am thankful that I can go to beach and watch the sunrises in the morning, it allows me time to reflect on my life and work through whatever issues I might be dealing with.  Most times I try to just sit and stare, like I would any other piece of art.  Trying to find the meaning of it, not anything else but the meaning, to me, of the art.   That is when I can begin to truly appreciate the sheer beauty of it.  It seems impossible for me to come away not feeling small and insignificant.  I thankful for the time to make those trips to the beach, it refreshes my soul.

I am thankful to all who are or have ever served in the military of our Great Country.  These young men and women are the bravest souls among us and are deserving of our respect and gratitude.  I will say that during my time on the military when I was deployed we ALWAYS had a pretty damn fine thanksgiving meal, I was always thankful of that.  I have made some lifelong friends when I served and I am thankful for Facebook bringing us all back together, at least in a new fangled electronic way.

Seems weird that I could write all day and not cover all the things I am thankful for, none of them could be purchased on black Friday either.  We seem to sometimes get all caught up in the materialness of our lives, those are not things to be thankful for.  Most of them just bring us suffering anyway when they don’t work or don’t work correctly anyway.

Lastly, I am thankful for this electronic shoebox that I can climb up on and pontificate every once in a while.  I hope everyone has a great day and a great weekend! 

Toasters - one of those innocuous appliances!!

So the other day, I was making Bride a chicken sandwich on a bagel thins, she like them toasted so I attempted to toast the thing.  Well imagine my surprise when the toaster did not pop up.  I went to look and low and behold about two strands on one of the four elements was glowing a VERY dim orange.  As I stood and stared, I wondered, when did we get this toaster, how much had we paid for it, what caused it to stop functioning correctly?   I was standing there long enough that Bride came in to ask “what’s wrong”.   She eventually enjoyed the sandwich on a very partially toaster bagel thin.

Now since that time I have thought a lot about the origins of that toaster.  It was like an old friend in some ways.  You sometimes never even know when the friendships started, it just seems like it has always been there.  I will inject another toaster story here that is unrelated but funny all the same.  Bride and I were at my Sister’s house for Christmas one year.  My Mom was there as well with her husband.  My Mom was well known for odd Christmas gifts but this year we had an all time winner.   So Bride was opening a gift from Mom, she pulls out a screaming red toaster.   I immediately that, wow, a toaster is such an odd gift and what was even odder was that it was screaming red. Bride and I had not one red appliance and this thing was no doubt red with chrome accents.  Well as Bride was looking at it she turned it over and a ton of crumbs dropped out.   We were all kinda shocked by that but it got even funnier.  She then told us she has picked it up at a yard sale (bad enough) and then to ensure it worked she used at her house for a while.  HAHAHAHAHA, it makes me laugh to this day to think about that.   There were years of crumbs in the bottom of that toaster, we laughed and took it home with us.  My intent was to give it back to her the following year but it was not to be.

Anyway, back to my current toaster, the Proctor-Silex model - T4400 type T16 with a serial number of A1249.  And if you know anything about toasters, you will know that is the wide slot model to allow for toasting fat bagels.  After discussing with it Bride, we were unable to determine when or where we got that toaster.  I do remember back in the day when you opened a bank account you could get a toaster or some other little appliance.  We wondered if we may have gotten that in that way when we lived in Maryland.  I am pretty sure that toaster is at least 20 years old and most probably a bit more than even that.  One of us may have owned that bad boy before we got together.  I seem to remember having some appliance when I was living in the barracks in Annapolis.  I do remember a microwave, a fridge, a crock pot and a hot plate.  Seems only logical that I would have had a toaster. 

So I immediately decide I would write a letter to Proctor-Silex and complain about the shoddy workmanship of this particular toaster, I mean they are supposed to last forever.  This toaster has seen some milage, the heat resistant plastic that made up the front and rear covers where chipped and broken on the corners.  The bottom looked horrible, burned on bits of toast from over the years.   I was just saddened by the loss of my old friend.  I wonder how many bagels and slices of bread had made its way through that toaster.  Too bad there was not a computerized counter that would keep track of the usage.  That would allow one to determine the cost per slice over the lifetime of the toaster.  Imagine, 20 years of toasting, lets say one slice of toast per week.  That comes to 1040 pieces of bread toasted.  Now if I use the price of the replacement toaster that would work out to roughly two and half cents per toast, not a bad return on the investment when you think about it.  I know I have toasted way more than that though, so I bet my return was closer to about .75 percent of one cent per slice.

I know toaster don’t or won’t keep track of such things, who would care about such an inane thing, other than me??   I do remember a the coolest toaster I have ever seen and had the great pleasure of using.  It was the mid-seventies and the toaster was a Sun Beam model T-20.  I did not know that at the time but a few minutes with Google and I found it and this video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BiAFTkkZKc

This toaster would automatically lower when a slice of toast was put into it.  How cool was that??  This was before the days of some code being written on a computer chip.  This was 100% mechanical!!  I remember then wanting to take it apart to see how that worked.  I have never before or since seen a toaster that operated like that.  There was no handle to push down or pull up to get the toast in or out.  Its real appeal is in its performance, Sunbeam called it Automatic Beyond Belief. There are no levers to press down. Just put the bread in the slot. The weight of the bread activates the heating elements, causing the center wire to lengthen microscopically and the bread to be carried into the toaster under its own weight.

Inside, the Radiant Control thermostat monitored the heat radiated (not conducted) from the outer surface of the bread, which is directly proportional to its color change. There are no timers. The toast is raised only when it is properly toasted; no sooner and no later.  Hahaha, how freaking cool is that??  When the thermostat opened, the elements cool, and the center element wire contracts. This movement is very small — on the order of thousandths of an inch — but a mechanical linkage multiplies this movement approximately 175 times. This is sufficient to operate the carriage and raise the toasted bread from the toaster.  I was able to find modern day automatic toasters but I do not suspect I would be willing to pay over a hundred and fifty bucks for a toaster.  That would raise the cost per slice to well over 14 cents per slice, not a cost effective solution in my opinion. 

So my new model is the Oster model TSSTRT2SST, and they do not assign a serial number to them anymore.  I suspect that there is no need as they are mostly disposable.  I wish I understood the logic of that model  number, the only part I know is that the “2” indicates that it is a two slice model.  If that number were a four, it would be a four slice model.  I know this because the owner’s manual covers both models and it shows me a picture of both on the cover.  After reading the user manual, I was amazed that the operation of a toaster needs to be explained at that level to anyone.  I am pretty sure I could figure out how to use a toaster even if I had never seen one before in my life.  Anyway my favorite part step six under the  “preparing to use your toaster for the first time”.  It talked about the fact that when you first turn this bad boy on, you may get a bit of smoke coming out of it.  We are to preheat the device and as the elements heated up it would “burn off any dust which may have accumulated during storage or manufacturing".  Seemed odd but sure enough, when I first pressed the lever down some smoke came out of it.  Hahaha, since I was assured this was normal I thought OK – we are ready to go.

Well, I suppose I am going to have to start building a friendship with this new guy, I spent some time in quiet contemplation about my old friend but, we must move on.  I don’t know how long it will take me to get through the stages of grief but I am hopeful the performance of the new kid will speed the process. 

One year into sharing the names of those who died - Veterans Day to Veterans Day

It was last Veterans Day that I decided to start posting a picture and small bio of each fallen hero from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  That has been tough for me at time, so much loss and for what?  Since I started I have written and posted on Facebook 513 deaths, mini eulogies is how I see them.  When I started I warned people that I was doing it and if they need to unfriend me that was fine.  I do not know if anyone did but I have received feedback from one end of the spectrum because of it.  Most are appreciative that someone is bringing it to their attention, since the media does not do a very good job of it. 

One group of deaths have affected me and heightened my anger at our Government.  That was the deaths of a lot of seal team 6 in a helicopter crash.  I have not been able to find it now but when that accident first happened I remember reading that it was Seal Team Six on that chopper.  Since that time I have not been able to find one reference anywhere to Seal Team Six in relationship to that crash.  Since then the ones killed were described as being in an East Coast-based SEAL team.  I found my conspiracy minded brain kicking into overdrive.  I believe these are the men how got Osama Bin Laden and the fact that we don’t know – scares me.  I can understand not wanting the public to know that Al-Qaeda might have gotten the men who Got Osama.  Each of their pictures are below, they look just like any of our friends might look, smiling like we were cooking out and telling stories or something.  It makes me sad that on August 6^th these 31 hero’s all lost their lives in a helicopter crash.

So, since I have been writing (a lot of copy and pasting) and posting them on Facebook I have seen many reactions and many comments.  Some comments anger me and others have made me cry.  Some have made me laugh and others made me sit in quiet contemplation.  I want to thank everyone for all the feedback, it is what has made this self-assigned task do-able.  I just can’t understand how it is that we (as a Country) can continue to justify, to ourselves, our involvement in these faraway places.  Don’t be mistaken, that we are convincing or justifying this for other countries, we don’t really give a shit about other countries or their culture, unless of course it affects our lifestyles.  Why have we not called for the removal of the troops from Afghanistan and Iraq?  Make no mistake, congress (the ones working for us) have it within their power to end the funding for this insanity.  They also have the ability, and are the ONLY ones who have the ability to balance the budget so when they get up and talk about not being able or blaming the President or anyone else – remember back to your school days and remember it is congress who creates the budget.

I was not sure where I was going to go when I started writing this, I did not think I would wind up here though.  Funny how that happens, sometimes I just start writing and I wander around where ever my mind takes me.  Anyway, I also want to take this opportunity to thank all the folks who have or are serving or is the Mother, Brother, Husband, Father, Sister, Aunt, Son, Uncle, grandson or Sister of someone serving.     

Here are the pictures of the 31 men who died on August 6^th of this year in a helicopter crash, the men I believe to be the Men who “got” bin Laden.  Even if they did not, they still made the ultimate sacrifice in our war on Terror, please honor them and the other 482 Military folks who gave their lives for the cause this last year.

Beach re-nourishment, what the heck is that??

So for those who don’t know I live in Jacksonville Florida. I live close to the beach and the Atlantic Ocean, I go there a lot and I really enjoy it. I was there this morning to watch the sunrise, and the ocean was angry today. It was a magnificent sunrise all the same. While I was there I noticed we were at high tide and the water was WAY up, within 20-30 feet of the dunes. I remember back earlier in the summer the Army Corp of Engineers contracted to have the beach re-nourished, it had been 6 years since it was done last. They skipped last year (normally done every 5 years) due to budget constraints.

So I thought I would take a look about when this trend of beach re-nourishment first started. I say trend because the ocean has been placing the beach and coastline where ever it wants to place it for about 4+ billion years. That was all without any human intervention. I remember the first time I saw it done was some years ago, I remember thinking, and asking, what are they doing and why?? It did not just not make sense to me to take sand from a mile or so out and bring it in and dump it one the beach. Water finds its own level and simple physics tells one that what’s in the way of the ocean will be eroded, regardless of what composition that obstruction may be made of. The force of the ocean has eroded rocks and islands and anything placed in its way, sand being about the easiest for it to move.

I have suspected since then that someone at some time in the past thought, I can get someone to pay me to move sand from here to there. AND the best part is, the ocean will move it right back over there so the job will never end. They must have been related to or knew the genius of King Camp Gillette, the inventory of the disposable razor. That was the first real thing made that had to be purchased again. Before that time razors lasted a lifetime. Anyway creating a market by making and selling a consumable product is the way of our world now but it was not always so. Anyway……..

So first a little about what beach re-nourishment is. It is basically a process by which sediment, usually sand, is lost through erosion is replaced with material from outside the eroding area of the beach. In the case of Jax beach they had a dredger type ship that would go out over the horizon and suck up a load of sand and then return to the coast and pump that sand back onto the beach through gigantic pipes. Once it is back on the beach bulldozers move it around. That sounds simple but I would bet that there is a very specific plan and the bulldozers are probably controlled by GPS to ensure every grain of sand winds up in the correct position. That in itself is kind of funny to me. I can just hear the conversation of the company doing the work - Since we are bilking the community out of a shitload of money we had better make it appear that we have injected some science into this process. One guy with his butt crack showing said, hey, what about GPS controlled bull dozers, that will convince the locals that we know what the hell we are doing. Makes me laugh and I wish I could be a fly one the wall of the marketing group of the folks who perform this service.

So the first instance of a beach re-nourishment was in 1923, it was at Coney Island, New York. Since that time it has becomes a common shoreprotection measure utilized by public and private entities. I am pretty sure a fortune has been made since that time moving sand back onto the beach, waiting a couple of years and going to get it and move it back to the beach again. There was a project in Miami that took 5 years, 76-81, and cost $64,000,000, yeah that is 64 million dollars moving sand about. That project was 10 miles long and took 5 years and cost 64 million dollars. How crazy is that.

Nourishment is one of three commonly accepted methods for protecting shorelines. The structural alternative involves constructing a seawall, revetment, groin or breakwater. Alternatively, with "managed retreat" the shoreline is left to erode, while relocating buildings and infrastructure further inland. Which, by the way, seems to me the only real choice. This re-nourishment moved about 700,000 cubic yards of sand from about 8 miles out right up onto the beach. Keep in mind that for an 1800 square foot home it only requires about 30 cubic yards of concrete. 700,000 cubic yards of sand weighs about 1.8 billion pounds when it is dry, and they pumped it off the bottom so it was probably closer to 2.4 billion pounds. That number does not even fit inside my head and I wonder if moving that volume of weight changes the spin dynamics of the earth.

The Army Corps awarded the $11 million contract to Great Lakes Dock and Dredge of Chicago in April. The project comes after years of effort to restore the beaches, which have been depleted of sand over the past six years from repeated tropical storms and northeaster winter storms. What bullshit!! I hear the Politian’s talking about how it worked, it protected our beaches from erosion. Of course they would say that, what elsecould they say after spending 11 million dollars a few months ago and all the sand is gone already. The Army Corp explains that a Beach re-nourishment is a complicated process. The Army Corps plans to use the same offshore borrow pit it tapped for the 2005 project. Barges go to a sand shoal about 8 miles offshore and the sand is delivered to the beach with a hopper dredge. More bullshit!!

One of the unintended consequences were our little sea turtle buddies. It is well known that through the months of May through October the sea turtles take to the beaches in Northeast Florida to lay their eggs. So we started our re-nourishment in July. They found some nests, 23 of the 27 nests found so far this season had to be moved north of the projected project area. I wonder how much that cost??

Well, I suppose all this and those decisions are above my pay-grade. It will not stop me from wondering, what the hell are people thinking, 11 million bucks to move sand around??? Oh well, good for the Great Lakes Dock and Dredge company for coming up with a plan, executing it and keeping some folks employed. Regardless of whether there is sand from 8 miles out or just the same old sand that the ocean places there for me is all the same to me. Enjoy sitting there watching the sun come up over whatever sand is there and the water that is slowly moving what is left of the re-nourishment back out to sea. 

Friends – what does that really mean to you??

The other day a great friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook.  Here it is.

MY DEFINITION OF A FRIEND...

"Friends" on Facebook is a very loose term. To Facebook, everyone is your friend. I see however that even Facebook recognizes that not everyone is really a friend by creating a "Close Friends" list.

For me a friend is someone that would never intentionally cause you harm or grief. A friend is someone I can enjoy having a conversation with, joking, laughing, sharing, and whom you don't need to take life quite so seriously with.

A true friend is someone that when you are faced with adversity will respect your privacy, reach-out to help, and listen openly without passing judgement while offering advice. A true friend knows when you need a hug, knows how to comfort you, and can be trusted with your most private thoughts.

I want to publicly thank my true friends: Sue, Mark, Dee, Sandy, Velora, Patti, Smitty, and Vickie... Thank you guys for being you. You each have a specialness and a place in my heart.

Now just for some background my buddy and I served together on shore duty in Annapolis Maryland, the Naval Radio Transmitting Facility (NRTF) NSS-9.  He was my boss, work center supervisor it was called in the Navy.  We worked and played and drank together, it was a small base and there was not much to do.  He was a volunteer firefighter at the local fire department.  We both ended up meeting girls at that base, there were the only two that were eligible.  There were others available but they either had an excess of facial hair or were complete and very unpleasant women.  I say that in the most polite way possible.  We were stationed there together in the late eighties and we each met our Brides.  At the time I don’t suspect that either one of us would have still been with those same Girls 20 some years later, but we both still are happily married to the same women.

I say all that to get to the point about friendships I have made over the years when I served in the United States Navy.   I am not going to say that friendships I made before or after are better or worse but the friendships I made when I served are some of the strongest bonds I have.  Rob and Jen and Bride and I had lost touch with each other many years ago.  We often wondered where they were and what they were doing, I am sure that over the years they had the same thoughts.  Anyway, some time back we reconnected, right here in Facebook.  It was like we were still stationed back in Annapolis and before long they were at our home in Jacksonville Florida.  They were on vacation at Disney in Orlando and I was sad we only got to spend part of a day together. 

Now we did not speak for nearly twenty years and we reconnected a couple of years ago on here and he still considers me one of his true friends.  I have the same feelings about him, but sometimes I do not think I do a very good job of expressing myself.  I look back on those times when we hung out together at that little 277 acre peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay called NRTF.  We watched the sun come up over the bay and played a lot of volleyball, first on the beach and then later on a court right up by the barracks.  We cooked out all the time at a little club house not 100 feet from the barracks.  We threw parties out there where we drank all night and listened to music too loud.  We would go to this little shithole bar on the Naval station and drink whiskey until we could barely walk, or at least I could barely walk.  We worked on very important and VERY large systems that provided one way communications to submarines in the Atlantic Ocean. 

He was there the night I drank myself silly while cleaning for a barracks inspection, almost literally silly.  That was when I quit drinking, the skipper of the base made that recommendation as well.  It was not much after that when I met Bride.  They were great times at that base, all made better by my GREAT friend Rob, I love him like and brother and am so happy that after nearly 20 years we were able to reconnect with each other and it was like we picked up as if we were at that little shithole bar the night before.  Hahahahha, I love that guy and over the last several years I have learned to tell my friends that I love them, life is too fucking short not to.  So if you have made it this far in this blog then you must be a friend as well so - I love you and you have a special place in my heart as well.