Eighty-eight and six tenths percent pure

That was the result of the assay on the Alaskan Gold.

About what we were hoping for.....maybe a little less. Still not too bad considering I've seen lower results down in the 70% range.

The young man I got it from (well, young to me, anybody aged 69 who will wrestle a 5 inch dredge in the cold waters of an Alaskan river, wearing a heated wet suit and weighted belt to enable him to suck through 12 feet of over burden to get down to the bedrock, gets to be called young. No fat on he, looked friendly enough but from the looks of his hands and arms not someone I'd be arm wrestling anytime soon) drives up every summer in his Ford 4-door flatbed pulling a camping trailer, accompanied by his girlfriend, to live out in the wilderness, far from tv and cellphones. Now that would have to be an adventure. To come back with any gold would be just icing on the cake in my NSHO.

The older I get the more things I add to the nebulous dreamy sort of wishing things I'd like to try.

Civilization and society......work and all the things necessary to put the necessities on the table for a family can put off any dreams of getting into a hot air balloon and dashing around the world in 80 days.

Still I'm not sure when you reach the point where you start saying it's too late for any of those things you want to do. Depends on what you are willing to do to reach those stars, I guess.

Maybe I'll start looking in my scrap metal pile to see what I have that will work on my personal moon rocket.

What's your dream? Hmmmmmmmm?

Old Time Country Wisdom

Guy over at Charming just Charming sorta squirted oil in amongst the two brain cells in my noggin and got 'em rubbing up against one another and I tried to comment on his post.

Unfortunately for reasons unknown to me, as I'm no computer expert, I was unable to, but he always has something that makes me think in his blog.

He's giving thought to quitting this mental masturbatory mastication, and if he does, while not slowing the turning of the earth around the sun one whit, it will seem to dim the blog-o-sphere for a while to me.

So I'll put my comment here and chew over it for a while.

Ol' Hank spoke truly when he sang, "no matter how we struggle and strive, we never get out of this world alive".

But perhaps the struggle and strive is the purpose of it all. We all get our chance to choose, and those chances and choices determine our paths, for we all walk many paths, not all of which lead to our destination, but perhaps.....preparing us for it.. Or not. Therein lies the mystery. Many there are who claim to know where they are going. I'm just trying to figure out where I'm at.



Do those strivings and struggles determine more than where we are as our finale breath is given back to the universe?

Guess we'll see........each in their own time.

Whatta you think?

UPDATE on the Pooch

We got word from the Vet today that the pooch's knot on the side is benign (as in not malignant).
This is great news as the wife would never let me put him down the old fashioned way and doggie cancer treatment is as expensive as human treatment.
(And NO I have no intention of preforming any such deed on the pooch, although I would if necessary and feel no guilt, only an immense sadness. I have done the deed many times; all necessary and all distasteful, no matter the necessity. Who decides... I do. Didn't you watch Ol' Yeller?)

They say a Dog

.
...will love you even when you kick it.

That may be true, although I haven't kicked one lately, I have been guilty of speaking sternly and even running my dog Gracie off when she wants to be petted and scratched when she becomes annoying or I'm trying to get something else done.

Still when I walk into the back yard she will come flying up to me, bouncing and flouncing, her ears flopping and her bi-colored eyes (one blue, one brown) a-sparkle; to all appearances totally happy to see me and desirous of only being close to me. If I try to shoo her off, she'll wrinkle her nose and pull her lips away from her teeth to show me she's submissive to me, but still wants to be invited closer and petted. Only a deepening of my voice and a stern NO! or Go Away! will convince her to leave off trying to cadge a pet or belly rub.

The wife's dog on the other hand is a little less demonstrative, certainly towards me, as she is the person he's chosen to give his total affection to.

Oh, he'll want me to scratch his back or rub his fat tummy, and if I sit too long here in front of the computer in the evening while he and the wife are watching TV, he'll come in here and give a little growl indicating I'm to follow him, and if I do he'll lead me to the living room and jump up on the couch beside his mistress and watch for me to sit by him.

Not between him and her, by any means. If I do he'll climb over me and get between us. He simply considers me a part of his pack and when it gets along towards bed time he wants everyone together.

For about a week or a little more we have noticed a small knot on one of his left ribs. In the last couple of days it has grown a little larger.

This morning the wife carried him to the Vet. In a couple of days, hopefully, we'll get some word on what might be the problem. I've included him in a couple of heartfelt prayers. Hope someone is listening.



Meanwhile, whenever the wife leaves and he doesn't get to go, he'll sit or stand on the stool by the front window, watching and waiting for her return, whereupon he'll greet her as Gracie greets me.



Some might say they only love us because we feed them.

I'm not convinced

Ah hab a code in my node.

And it's aggra-damn-vating. Starting on the third day of dribblin; and snifflin' my nose is so raw from snortin' and blowin' that I have a blood blister on the end almost. Can't take much more of this.....I needs me some warm weather and a little brown sin-yo-rita with a case of Puff's Plus; somewhere with sunny beaches and lots of diet green tea.

Cold.....well cold for here.....stayed below freezing 'til nearly noon and the wind was snapping flags straight out and giving sharp little pops ever now and then when a particularly strong gust would come by. I was giving serious thought to putting a few cement blocks up on the polyethylene shelter I work under.

Not having a long scarf like my more northern cousins I grabbed an 18 inch long piece of jersey jacket sleeve to put over my nose, holding it in place with the hood of my jacket snugged tightly down and tied below my double chins so I could re-breathe warmer air to avoid the pain from my raw nostrils and sinus cavities.
Woulda been a good day to sleep before a Fisher brand woodstove
I'm just hoping these Tylenol Sinus Congestion and Pain tablets start to work before I turn in.

Gonna meet a lady and her partner from Alaska tomorrow who are bringing down some Alaskan Gold for me to assay. Generally not as pure as what we have here in North GA, but it'll be fun for the exercise. Maybe not as much fun as living in Palin Country during the summer and running a dredge in the creeks and streams, but then I don't have to move south for the winter either.

I've a couple of friends from Central America (one from El Salvador near Metapan and the other from Mexico City but with a farm northeast of Acapulco) who want to make a trip with me to their countries to seek out places to pan or dredge for gold. A little nervous though about getting out in the boonies and maybe tripping over some drug lord's pot field. Picks and shovels are only good for storming Frankenstein Castle and not going up against people with a more valuable commodity to protect.

Still it might be fun to go and see the sights, and if done in the wintertime the warm climes would be nice.

Global Warming Update.

Breaking news......

The local version of Global Warming has dumped a measured 4 1/2 inches of the frozen kind on the ground and decks around the KG (Kudzu Grotto).

All outdoor activities of any kind are forbidden, unless, of course, the pooch needs to go tinkle on a bush, until after I've awakened and had a yard egg or two in the AM tomorrow.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Friday night activities.

Here comes the Snow

While those of you living farther North or West of here have already said that, whether with joy or disgust, we in the upper Piedmont of East Georgia have only just started getting some of the forecast 3 to 5 inches of the rain of a frozen kind. It started maybe 30 minutes ago and has steadily increased in intensity every since.

It has been cold enough for it to stick to the cars, trees and grass all day and I'm sure as nightly steadily approaches we'll see it sticking to the highways and byways soon. The afternoon and evening newscast will be filled with idiots outside talking about all the snow up over their shoe soles and the finder-benders happening on I-285 around Atlanta.

As for me, the wife and ol' Grump.....we're stocked up on propane, heaters and a new camping grill in case the power goes out as it did last year. Of course then we got an honest 9 inches and were without power for 3 1/2 days..

The only thing I'm really concerned about is the polyethylene covered shelter where I work in the back of the lot. Last year saw many of them collapsed as the thin metal poles holing up the roof gave way to the inexorable weight piled upon them. I intend to keep close vigilance until midnight when this stuff is supposed to quit, and keep the snow brushed off.

One good thing about all the frozen parts of the world these days.......it has quietened considerable the eco-moonbats who have been barking about AGW (global warming) and driven that shithead Al Gore into the deeper recesses of his multi-million $, resource wasting mansion up in Tennessee. If it freezes him in for the rest of my life and I never have to see or hear him again it will be too soon.

Well, I thought I might be able to post something without getting snarky about some politician or other. Guess I was aiming a little too high.

You all keep warm and drink lots of hot chocolate....add a few of those little marshmallows if you got 'em.

Just go Here and read.

H/T to Yabu

Can't

...bring my self to do it.

It's getting along time of the day to avail myself of various medications supplied by all you wonderful taxpayers out there. As a recipient of assorted and sundry services from the VA in return for my not going postal all over the place I can understand the frustrations sometimes (very occasionally, I'm sure) provoked by having to deal with over-paid, and overly anxious not to have to do any kind of actual work for said over-payment, federal, state or local bureaucratic time waster appointed to deal with all us lower class citizens who come hat-in-hand expecting to receive what some other %#@&*! (sorry words fail me here, apply your favorite word for above said bureaucrats) has informed us we are entitled to.

In light of the current political climate and a natural upwelling of reasonable and rational people against it I can understand somewhat the discomfiture of my friend Fred down in what should by now be our 51st state.

Is it any wonder that ammo of most calibers and guages is disappearing from WalMart shelves nearly as fast as they put it up?

You can only push a person so far before they begin to push back.

Can't what? Can't bring myself to type the word for the embassy employee in Guadalajara that sprang unbidden into my mind. But you could change a couple letters in the title above.

What are your Rights?

With all of 7 lookers on a good day it avails me not at all to waste my time trying to explain anything.

But if you want to link over to Left Coast Rebel you can listen to the man on the video for a couple minutes and if you want more follow the link in the post.

If not, it will not affect me in any way; unless you try to stop my exercise of mine.

Inexcusable Omissions

It's said that there are two types of sin.......the acts of commission...and the acts of omission.

Sad to say I have been, and still am, guilty of both.

But there is no excusing the sin of omission I've been committing since the last update of my links in the side bar.

Hopefully with the addition of Paladin of The Reluctant Paladin as well as the beauteous as well as talented Joan of Primordial Slack my cries of mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maximus culpa will be slightly more believable.

Go forth and worship at their alters.

The end of another week

Another week of almost no postings (one on Sunday) and none worthy of comment.

A week of one nice day where the temp was 50's with sunshine and the rest progressively worse until today it's mid-thirties with cold, miserable rain that make the bones ache and runs you back inside pretty quickly.

I've been out twice for a few minutes and Gracie, the dog that loves me, wouldn't even venture out of her pooch mansion on the shop porch, a straw filled barrel with a gunny sack hung over the front for a door except to slip her head out when I stepped up on the porch. I gave her a quick pat and said, "good girl, stay there, you've more sense than I have".

I started the Au precipitating, covered it over and sloshed through the muddy rain soaked yard back to the house. I'd check the news sites on this here interweb but don't want to ruin a perfectly good keyboard by upchucking on another one.

One good bit of international commerce this morning. The Antique Bicycle lamp I had for sale on eBay with 4 people emailing me from Spain, Netherlands, England and Germany was won by a thrifty New Hampshire bidder.

See http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110487272357&ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT

The friend I listed it for will be very happy as am I.

Now I have to decide whether to refine the gold head off the walking stick I bought from him yesterday (made in 1900) or try to sell it on eBay.



Don't you think I'd look like Fred Astaire if I had on my Top Hat and Tails? His hair was a little thin on top also if I remember right.

Maybe I'd better cover my hair also:



Just Damn, the life of an itinerant junk buyer.

A drop in the bucket

I see where the president has miraculously found the grand sum of $20 Billion that can be cut from this years budget.

I'm very happy.

Well, somewhat.

I note with some little concern that the deficit for this fiscal year is estimated to be $1.75 Trillion out of a total budget of $3.55 Trillion.

Just a little playing with a calculator reveals that the proposed budget contains 49.29% more in spending than in receipts. Just Damn.

To put that in perspective that I can relate to, that means that this year out of a projected income of $32,876.00 I would spend $63,577.64. Hey, maybe I can take that trip to visit the pyramids of Mexico for a month or two. Shoot...maybe I can move up from hamburger to Ground Chuck.

If I would reduce my budget by the same percentage (0.005633% or $358.13) I would only be in the hole $30343.51 instead of the projected $30701.64.

Well...that's do-able. All I have to do is cut back about 40 or so whopper value meals. Oh, wait. I don't eat that many whopper value meals a year. Oh well, I'm sure I can do it even if I don't exactly know how right now.

This still doesn't address the fact that I'll spend $30 K more than I'll take in this year. I'm sure all my friends and neighbors won't mind chipping in a little bit......especially since I'll be sending my goons around to collect it at the point of a gun. They don't mind when the Government does it.

As the ol' Carrot Eater says, "What's up Doc?". How can we possibly allow them to spend nearly twice what they take in? I guess if you are working for the government or getting your sociable insecurity from them you don't mind.

Testing

testing

I'm Not Jealous

...really I'm not.

But Pam just has a better way of writing and describing someone than I.

Partying Pig Pelosi at the Taxpayer Trough: Hundreds of Thousands on In-flight Booze and Food

ROTFLMAO

The Saturday Report

We dodged the bullet on the icy weather last night. Not sorry in the least about that. Just a little coolish this morning with a misty bit of rain. Not too much to do outside but will be doing that under shelter all wrapped up in a hand me down coat some kid left at the school the SIL works at a couple years ago and when summer break came and no owner came to claim it she passed along to me. Just damn...some middle school kid was as big as I (nearly 200 lbs). It must be all those steroids in the hamburgers these days.

The Big News is that I found when I checked my bank account online this morning, our bank has been closed and taken over by another. I'm not too surprised by that as a friend called yesterday with the rumor, which was one of a long string, and I was expecting it. Supposedly there had been a little drug money laundering going on along with some foreign loan losses.

The good news, so they say, is that everything will go along as normal except they have a new owner. Of course I have about $249,800.00 less than the amount FDIC will cover in there so the government will be insuring my accounts. Doesn't make me feel all that much safer, I have to say.

Money backed by nothing but the full faith and credit of the United States doesn't make one feel secure in these days and times. Basically they create money out of nothing, sign an IOU to the Federal Reserve and pretend it has some intrinsic value. We can see on the financial news each night what that is worth.

Wonder how many people lost their jobs last night?

Tell me again why we keep on electing these critters.

The Complete Perversion of the Law

But, unfortunately, law by no means confines itself to its proper functions. And when it has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.

How has this perversion of the law been accomplished? And what have been the results?

The law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy.

The Drudge Report has this Article about the Illustrious Madam Speaker of the House.

Starting Over

Rough weather ahead for tonight. Supposed to just miss us to the north; sure hope so. I generally don't pay the weather much attention now-a-days. Not like I did years ago while running the dairy farm. Back then I carried and listened to a weather radio at least twice a day, especially in the summer and fall when we were cutting hay or getting in other crops.

These days if it's cold I either stay inside or put on more clothes....if hot I stay inside in the air-conditioning and dress a little more lightly when venturing outside...although through habit of many long years and in remembrance of my skinny legged youth I never wear shorts...
today the whiteness of the skin would blind anyone within 300 yards...back then I didn't want to be teased about my knobby knees or be told only sissies would wear shorts. Try bucking alfalfa hay while wearing anything less than denim jeans for a while and it begins to make a little sense.

Oh yeah......Starting Over.

A couple years ago I thought to start anOther Blog chronicling the efforts to start over from nearly scratch and the thoughts on what it would take and any successes or further failures.

Didn't last long as I often have not much to say here less success there. Mostly just a little ranting or observations.

Today, however, the starting over has been much in my mind as when turning off the by-pass onto 441 N I had to stop on the exit ramp behind a semi waiting for the light and noticed a young woman standing in the cold shivering and holding a very small sign made of a single sheet of notebook paper. As I stopped behind the trailer I shouted out the window, "trying to get somewhere"? She shook her head No.

It was not until she stepped closer that I could make out the sign that read "Homeless need help". Not an apparent derelict, wino, druggie, just a young woman probably less than 30 years old and the clothes were neat, if perhaps a little less than the weather might have called for.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out a couple sawbucks to give her..to get a 'God bless you' as the truck pulled out and I followed.

As I pulled away heading about a mile north to AirGas to pick up a set of new regulators for my torch I caught myself doing a little mental ass kicking....both wondering if she was just a moocher or if I should have done more like call my buddy who's tied into the local shelters and churches which might have been of a little more help to her.

I decided to make my return trip go past the intersection to stop and ask her if she wanted me to contact my friend........but, she was no longer there. Perhaps the $20 was all she needed to get her next hit or she'd gone down to the convenience store to warm up with some coffee, or maybe something warmer at the package store next door.

Whatever.....I wish her well. But the incident made me think of how close we've been to that same scenario and of all the people in the country right now who are in the same boat or only one paycheck away.

It can be hard to start over.......or it can be a very liberating experience. One can literally put everything but your thoughts behind you and strike out to stand or fall by your own efforts........or perhaps the charity of others.......and in this country now-a-days the generosity of the government who have no compunction about taking the fruits on your labor through the force of law to give however the bureaucrats decide is most politically productive.

I'll probably mull on this some more here in the world wide web. I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Perhaps I will look at that other blog again.

Tango, Mike Mike

There are days on end that go by and I begin to think that I have at least most of my shit in a sock. Got things together so to speak....the locals can sleep safely in their huts tonight...
th' demons have been beaten back to outside the firelight and the watchmen are on the towers.

Don't get me wrong....I don't regret one f***ing minute

Then while checking the websites of a few unmet friends I run across something like This..

"I don't respect your right to take the Fifth Amendment. Not at all," Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-New Jersey, told the couple.


A damned dim-o-crit from New Jersey. Wouldn't you know. The man stood up placed his hand on a bible and swore to uphold the Constitution of The United States which includs the Bill of Rights. Either the asshat has never read that divinely inspired document or he was lying through his teeth to the people of his district and by extension the people of America when he said, "I do".

For that simple sentence alone he should be immediately escorted from the halls of Congress and banished for life from this country and made to live in Haiti.

I suppose you could defend him by citing the 1st Ammendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


and I'm sure he would be the first to proclaim his right to free speech, but to my mind the willingness to strip the protection of another's right under any of the Constitutional Protections invalidates all of his.

I hope the people of his district are happy with the scum sucker they elected to office.

For over two centuries brave men and women have fought, bled and died to secure those rights both for the citizens of this country and other peoples of the world.

Men like Master Sergent Roy P Benavidez



Bill Pascrell Jr, you scum sucker, I hope I never bump up against you, your stench couldn't be removed even by Clorex. It's such a shame that he's not the only one like that up there.

A big hat tip to Mike and LL for all they do.

If you don't like the weather in Georgia...

.
....Just wait a while.

That was today. What started out as a sorta nice temperature wise day with a bit of rain devolved into a wind, almost blustry, day that would drive you inside to more inviting climes.

Still I did my duty and then after lunch traveled up to Lula intersection on 965.

On the way back home I came across a Ford Ranger pickup truck with only the right front wheel off the pavement and as I went around caught sight of a woman with bare arms carrying a two gallon gas can. A determined set to her jaw she was headed about a mile up the road for gas.

I stopped and offered to help push the truck out of the road a bit more, but she only wanted a ride to the store and back....."It won't take a minute". Loaded up and off we go only to meet a sheriff's car as we were almost at the small country store.

"Bet he'll be there waiting for you when you get back", I said. "Oh Lord", she moaned.

Two dollars of gas is not a lot anymore. That's what she bought, and off we rolled back down the highway, where sure enough the deputy was waiting with lights flashing. No harm -- no foul. He watched out for other cars as she put about 3 quarts of 87 octane in the truck and rumbled off back to the same store to get enough more to reach her destination.

Friends, there are some sure enough redneck wimmen out there. If you see one with short blondish orange hair and hippie beads around her neck, make sure she has enough gas to get back home.