First let me say LW I'm not trying to hijack ... as you know I can't comment. I live in Shreveport, LA. We are far north and west of the situation in New Orleans, however, we are not removed from this horrible situation. I volunteered at the Red Cross Shelter last night. At the height of the donations we were taking in nearly 500 cars an hour. It was all that we could do to just pile all this shit up and sort it out later. While we are accepting donations people are backing up their tr...
I work in the oil and gas industry. We have quite a few operated production facilities south of New Orleans. I have visited these places and shared a meal with the folks who keep it all pumping. While many people are out of work, these people now have no place to go to work. This facility and all of the men who work there are out of commission. This particular pump station contained four compressor engines. They were responsible for several thousand barrels of oil production per day. It i...
This is my new Catahoula Cur. His name is Indiana Bonz, Indy for short. He had a rough couple of first months. He was in the company of a homeless man and a wonderful woman bought him a meal and some clothes and offered to give the dog a good home. She immediately took little sick Indy to the vet and got him all patched up. He had hook and tape worms. He needed some minor ear surgery and he desperately needed to be vaccinated. We picked him up last Saturday from this very nice lad...
I know that I have been confined to my blog. I can assume it is for the points situation. I have emailed a couple of people to try and understand why, after telling on myself privately and publicly, I got confined. I am not complaining. I know what I did was wrong. I don't, however, think that I made my motives a secret. My intentions all along were to prove a point. The system was and still is easily manipulated without using any special tools outside of what is already on the site. I co...
I have commented on other threads before stating that I 'fostered' children. That statement isn't totally true. I took in my brother-in-law's four children. I have been told many times that I should write this all down and I am finally motivated to do so. My wife and I were trying to help her brother out of some financial difficulties. He and his wife have four children. They aren't the brightest of folks or the kindest. They were into almost every family member they had for some amou...
I always amazed at the things we do to the old people of our generation. I watch my grandparents that never had much struggle just to survive on what they are allotted each month. Now I find out the my uncle, a combat veteran who was promised that his medical care would be taken care of through veterans affairs, is left hanging. My aunt is a very dear and kind woman. My uncle is her second marriage. She has taken care of him for as long as I can remember. My uncle has Alzheimer’s and has ...
I have a 94 Ford Explorer 4x4. It has a lot of miles on and I know I should expect some trouble. My Check Engine light came on last week and I tried to diagnose the problem myself. I bought the little computer reader and plugged it in. Only one problem, I was more confused after I plugged it in than before I started. I called my mechanic yesterday to ask if I could drop it by his shop so he could look at it today. I went over with my wife following in her car about 5pm yesterday afternoon. We...
We have just been allowed to leave our building after being held captive here for the past 2.5 hours. Local police found a backpack sitting on a gas main in downtown Shreveport, LA. As it turns out, the local Fire Dept had a press conference scheduled today to show off their new bomb robot. Instead of a press conference they got to 'give him a try' while the cameras were rolling. As it turns out, the used some sort of explosive to open the bag and sifted through some poor homeless person'...
I work for a small company (about 100 employees). We have spent a lot of time trying to secure our network from external threats. We use an outside filtering service on our email to protect us from SPAM and virus threats. We have an excellent firewall. The services we offer to our clients and employees outside of the office are closely guarded so that if a problem arises we know of it quickly. We simply ask a few things of our users. Don't check you personal email. Don't browse the web fo...
In his 4th of July address from West Virginia University, Bush has give the exit straegy for Iraq. As I have said in other threads we need to finsih the job we started there in Iraq. I don't care if you are FER or AGIN the war. We have a job to finish. Bush anounces: "As Iraqis stand up WE will stand down" Sounds like a good exit stratgey to me. Happy 4th of July!
Have you ever thought ... What if I had ... instead of...? I have, a lot. It is just as interesting where life takes us as where we take life. I met my wife maybe by coincidence or maybe by some cosmic order. We both transferred with the same company to a new location. She was in a bad marriage and wanted to get back to her family. I just wanted to be close to mine. We both made decisions that could not, in any way, have predicted the path that we took. Call it God's will or whatever you wan...
I just don't understand what is going on with the current trend of kids going out of the country unsupervised as a graduation thing. When I was in high school, not all that long ago we went on senior trips ranging from a hundred miles or so to at most a Florida or bust trip. Did we do stupid things? Hell yes! We acted crazy, tried to get away with illegal things, and were generally as stupid and irresponsible as we could be. I can't imagine what might have happened if we had gone out of the c...
I think that being consistent in whatever you do is important. I am not saying change isn't good but if you take a stand, be firm. I have learned over my time on earth that you must pick your battles. If you try to fight them all you won't win very many. I stick to the things that I have a good hold on or think that my opinion is the totally correct one. I don't start many wars and I don't go looking for trouble. For the most part, I will hold something in for a while even if it is a battle I...
Official release from Sirius - Link "I first listened to SIRIUS' incredible programming in my car and my boat," said Buffett. "We had designed Radio Margaritaville after the old pirate radio stations that sat offshore and played what they wanted. When I saw how SIRIUS is changing the way radio is being heard, I welcomed the opportunity for Radio Margaritaville to join them." I have been a Buffett fan for most of my life. I grew up just outside of Mobile, AL. His music has always brou...