Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

The following post relates events that occurred or may have occurred this summer at a group of small fishing cabins in Rockaway Beach, MO. The names have altered to protect the innocent.
It was in a small fishing cabin in Rockaway Beach, MO, where John Pettijack was served a beaker of orange juice whose flavor delighted him.

"Bus," he asked his host, "where do you get your oranges? Never have I tasted such delicious juice."

"From the Taneycomo Market, at the bottom of the hill," answered the Bus.

Pettijack bought an entire crate on his way back to town. But when he sampled the juice, the taste definitely was not the same. He phoned the Bus to register his disappointment.

"I can't understand it," admitted the Bus. "Your oranges are the same as ours. What gin did you use with them?"

Speaking of Orange,

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Go on, google it. You know you want to.

Broke My Glasses.....

Painting the front bumper of the red S-10, lying on the ground to get the underside painted, my glasses fall off.

I pat my hand around the ground to find them, can't find them, so I stand up and ....

you guessed it, Mr. Klutz

I got an old pair with the same frames around here somewhere, maybe I can fix these.

Nothing worse than breaking your glasses on a Friday night.

Well, at least I didn't put my eye out.

What I Learned, I Learned On The Radio Ga-Ga

1987 Chevrolet S-10 4WD

I tried to buy this truck back in 2002 or 2003 but the neighbor wanted to keep it for his grandson. Flash forward six or seven years and Elmo comes over and asks me if I still want his truck.

He and his wife are moving into a retirement home and are downsizing. Yeah, I still want it. V-6, 4WD, auto, sport interior, 118,000 originial miles, and a bedliner. I asked how much he wanted for it, he told me, I bought it. We closed the deal today.

When son Jim got his driver's license, I bought an almost twin to this truck from my brother Bob in Texas. It was white, had a bench seat and was a 1988. So now, we got another one. Since the white truck still carried Texas plates, Lil Jim deemed it appropriate to wear his cowboy hat while his picture was being taken. Like all Ozark attire, shoes were optional, socks not.

The following pictures are taken in the twilight while I was buffing out the paint. I painted the white letter tires black, I like blackwalls.

Yeah, jeepjunkie, 3 of the four tires are Goodyears!



I like the wheels on the white truck better than the wheels on the red truck.

Sara drove the white truck when she first turned 16. She wasn't a happy driver. I found her a 1987 turbo charged Volvo wagon with a broken gas gauge. I seem to recall Sara was always running out of gas. And when you run out of gas in a turbo charged engine....

I sold the white S-10 to a friend of hers with some misgivings. When the boy and his mother came to pick itup, I told them I was selling it as is, where is. I had every receipt for all the service work done on the truck since new and everytime something needed fixed, I fixed it. But, I said, you may get in this truck and it will blow up in the next block.

you guessed it, the boy drove to Clinton and threw a rod. His mother called me up and, well, let's just say she was hot! I told her I had had that truck for six years and had all the documentation on repairs, etc, etc.

What I think happened, I think the boy was driving to Clinton and decided to see how fast the truck would go. And he found out. I offered to split the cost of the repair but she wanted her money back. I told her I would go 50/50 on the repair. I never heard from her again.

A Good Saw Cuts Both Ways...

From a recent blog post on Ozarks Law and Economy:

The idea of traditional zoning is to segregate land uses. For example, zoning should protect the value of ownership of a retail or residential real estate from the effects of a tannery locating next door. In a sense, zoning is a mechanism for separating land uses that could be considered nuisances to neighbors.

A Good Saw Cuts Both Ways....

My Lai: "I'm Sorry"

This didn't get too much press, but an emotional William Calley made a rare public appearance and discussed the events of and subsequent to March 16, 1968.

Calley said, regarding the orders he received,

If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them - foolishly, I guess.” He said that was no excuse, just what happened.*

*Allegedly an operation of Phoenix Program, 26 US soldiers, including 14 officers, were charged with crimes related to the My Lai massacre and its coverup. Most of the charges were eventually dropped, and only Lt. Calley was convicted.

If Cheney Had Allowed This Enhanced Irrigation Technique...

It Might Have Worked.....

Putting Families First....

Where Is Joe The Plumber When You Really Need Him?

RNC Chair and Jericho on the radio last Friday.
Transcript:
VINCENT JERICHO: “But I’ve also made my career here by challenging Baby Blunt [former Gov. Matt Blunt] and how he just absolutely, ah, betrayed every single Missourian that worked so hard to get him elected on the ridiculous stand he took where he redefined what cloning is. And this is supposed to be a Republican governor. He’s not governor anymore for good reason.

“His [Matt Blunt’s] daddy [Roy] screwed around with a tobacco lobbyist. Then slips language into the homeland security bill favorable to the tobacco lobbyist. I mean here is a guy that has committed adultery multiple times. Yet he had a senior position, and still does, in the Republican Party. Guys like Papa Blunt make us sick to our stomach. They aren’t conservatives, and they sure don’t reflect moral absolutes the way that we expect the Republican Party to stand up. You had the page boy scandal, you had all of that crap, and nobody stands up to it and says, ‘This is crap! What are you doing? [Steele tries to cut in; unintelligible] Behave like a man – not like, not like little boys who are running around with their little toy and can’t behave themselves.”

MICHAEL STEELE: Look, now don’t, don’t – I mean, I agree with you. And when stuff gets in the crapper, you gotta clean it out."

There May Be A Method To His Madness..But It's A Slippery Slope He's On

This morning, the PvtRn was reading the bus post on Roy Blunt buying a lot for 1.5 million dollars. She commented that he wasn't just buying the lot, he was buying a lifestyle.

Correctomondo PvtRN! It is sort of like buying a lot in Harry Cooper estates what with the gates and the covenants (no bus parked in driveways, no basketball hoops,no vegetable gardens, etc, etc, etc,) You the picture. You think Springfield P&Z regulations are stringent, check out Harry C's!

But why now? Why are Roy and Abagail in the real estate cycle now?

I started to blog these thoughts this morning when the son in law showed up to help me do some work around the bus garage. We worked on a brick sidewalk all day long!

Later this evening we went to the boys last baseball game in this league. YAY! No more Friday night games! The Shockers won, 8 to 3. Trey pitched, played short stop and first base. Trey is a good pitcher. Austin played left out and got a crucial hit that drove in the winning runs. It was a good game. Nicolas got a single, and stole second. It was a good game.

As I was checking my email, I picked up a comment from Painted Pine on the blog post Blunts Buy Lot in Washington D.C.:

Blunt is now letting the rest of MO know what we here in the Ozarks were aware of for a long time-he kissed our state good bye and he ain't coming back.

And that his real estate deal is an example of how extreme wealth is increasing while extreme poverty persists.

This comment brought to mind the conversation the PvtRN and I had this morning over coffee and the SN-L (yes, we re-upped our subscription, we like drinking morning coffee and reading the paper --old habits die hard).

Why is Roy selling the house now? What with the election just a little more than a year away, why go into more debt on a house when you may not have job in that city?

Wouldn't it be more prudent to buy a new house AFTER the election? This way, if you lose, you wouldn't be stuck with the house payments.

The PvtRN told me I didn't get it. Roy can't lose. IF he gets elected the next senator from Missouri (Olbermann thinks he already is a senator--he calls him Senator Blunt in his worst person in the word section)If he gets elected the next senator from Missouri he will need the big house --as he might think it is befitting of his station in life.

If he DOESN'T win the senatorial election and Robin Carnahan becomes the next Senator from Missouri, Roy will still need the big house to impress his lobbying clients for you can be dang sure that Roy will stay in Washington, either as an elected official (which seems to be less and less a possibility) but more likely as a lobbyist.

He and Abigail (his second wife) have all the connections.

What Roy doesn't have, he doesn't have a sense of his roots. He forgot where he came from.

Compare Roy to Ike Skelton. Roy likes to pretend he represents his constituents. Ike doesn't have to pretend, he does.

Southwest Missouri used to be called the buckle of the bible belt, (my grandson Austin hit a hard line drive that fouled off and hit the fence right in front of my seat at tonight's ballgame.

"Praise the Lord", said the man sitting next to me, "That that ball didn't come through the fence and hit you in the head."

The Lord had nothing to do with the ball not coming through the fence. Carnahan-White, on the other hand, had a LOT to do with it.

Anyone else remember Roy, Bill Webster and Wendall Bailey's campaign in 1992?

08202009 Worst Person In The World!

What Happens When You Pave Paradise....The Water Has No Place To Go...

Fungus Amungus
Tonight, 7:00 PM Planning and Zoning Commission Old City Hall, Council Chambers, 830 Boonville Contact: Mike MacPherson, (417) 864-1831

Blunt Post Plethora To Taper Down

As the Blunt posts plethora tapers down, it seems fitting to post this.

Blunts Buy Lot In Washington, D.C.

Earlier posts questioned what Roy and Abigal were going to do after their home in Georgetown sold.

Now it is known: They bought in this planned development The 16-acre new community of 46 luxury single-family residences of unique design and character will feature residences in the 4,500- to 9,000-square-foot range designed and constructed by recommended architects and builders. Generous home sites measure from nearly 9,000 to over 17,000 square feet.

From what I can tell, they didn't buy a house, they just bought a lot.

How much did they pay for the lot? 1.45 mil. One million, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars and that's just for the lot? Please, some body tell me for that money he got a house too.

I know there are bus riders in Washington, one of you guys leave a comment and tell us he got a house for that money.

Either way, house or lot, we're paying this guy way too much money or he's got a side income.

Go Fast, Turn Left

From MSNBC:

Race car driver Jimmie Johnson, who last year won his third straight Sprint Cup Series championship, will be honored at the White House this afternoon by the president. He will be joined by 17 other NASCAR drivers.

They are: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty and Juan Pablo Montoya.

What do the Republicans have to say about all these drivers, past and present, coming to meet President Obama?

"While President Obama is meeting with some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, he may come to find out that the only thing he has in common with NASCAR Nation is a shared love for steering hard to the left," said Ken Spain, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. "The president is currently trading paint with the American taxpayer over his dangerous healthcare takeover, taking needless victory laps celebrating a failed economic stimulus bill, and if he and his fellow Democrats don’t start listening to middle class voters, his agenda is going to end up in the wall."

This presents us with an excuse to run a favorite training video:

Guns Don't Belong At Townhall Meetings, Regardless Of Intention-

I could care less about guns. I own one, I've had one stolen. I bought my son a shotgun that cost more than most of the vehicles I own. Guns are not appropriate at political rallies. I was born in 1949 and, in my lifetime, more than 83 persons are known to have attacked, or approached to attack, a prominent public official or public figure in the United States.

Clunkers: No Cash For These

No cash for these clunkers.Speaking of clunkers. Longrooffan has a post about an $8 million dollar Ferrari (that's almost 3 Roy Blunt houses) tapping the wall at the race track: a really, really expensive tap!

Like Arguing With A Dining Room Table, Or 6.

Blunt House Sells! Blunt In Hurry To Send Wife And Kid Back To Strafford And Move To C Street, Can't Wait For Movers!

Roy Blunt shows us that while he may not know a truth from a lie in regards to the Health Reform , he does know how to move furniture! The following photo shows Blunt sharpening up his furniture moving skills so he can get his stuff out of the house quickly! Matt and the other kids are supposedly going to bring up their trucks and help them move even though both their trucks have the bumper sticker, "Yes, I have a truck, No, I won't help you move" pasted on them. It's there, next to the nobama and my pit bull wears lipstick bumper stickers.Roy Blunt and his second wife, Abigail, have listed their three bedroom, three and a half bath home in Washington, D.C., for sale.

It may be that Roy and Abbie don't want to be stuck with the property when he loses his job in 2010, as expected. Or maybe they are just house flippers.(It ain't got a garage! Where's he park the bass boat, the four wheeler, the pickemup truck, the minivan?)

When the house sells, are plans underway for Abbie and the kid to stay in a trailer on the farm in Strafford while Roy moves into the C Street house?(Here's a story on the C Street House from last July.))

THIS JUST IN! The house is under contract! Sighs of relief all around the Blunt household this evening. They sold the house! Designed to Sell and Flip This House ideas actually work!

Here is the listing: Exquisite 3BR/3.5BA Federal that was JFK's first home in Georgetown when he came to Congress in 1947! Beautifully renovated w/ a gourmet Kitch w/ high grade appliances & Breakfast Rm, large Formal Dining Room opens to rear two-tiered patio w/ retractable awning, grand Living Room with wood-burning fp, incredible Master Ste, spacious BR's w/ en-suite BA's, great flow for entertaining on all floors. (look at the pictures!)

Oh yeah, Blunt's house, it is under contract for One Million, Five Hundred and Ninety-Five Thousand Dollars! That's $1,595,000.00!

Fool Me Once, Won't Get Fooled Again Or Something Like That....

Aw heck, no wonder we keep electing them, they lie better than us.Recently, the SN-L editorial board met with Roy Blunt (pictured above). It was during this meeting that Roy Blunt told the SN-L editorial board that because he was 59 and lived in either Canada or Great Britain and he broke his hip, he couldn't get it replaced.

Blunt told the same thing to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Fortunately, the Post fact checked.

In a similar vein, KY3's David Catanese reports that Billy "Long has a tendency to make some statements that could come back to haunt him. He mocked the plight of the uninsured ("Get out the crying towel") and claimed that 26 million people under 35 probably don't want health insurance anyway. Claiming that President Obama's healthcare plan might have taken his mother's life back in March of 2008 is also quite a strong charge. It's all done in the loving-aw-shucks Long way.." but these statements need to be fact checked also. (Our condolences to Billy Long, his mother passed away last Sunday.)

Personal

This is a message to the Bus Rider who sent me mail via the USPS from Manosota, FL. I received the mail and acknowledge receipt.

ps---you addressed the mail to son Jim's house, I live next door.


PS---no matter what's in the bill, the Republicans won't vote for it. So pass it without them.

Backyard Train Photos

It's been almost a year since I posted this post about the backyard railroad train my Mom and Dad owned.

Today, while going through some papers, I came across several more photos of the train and nieces and nephews. The little boy and girl sitting in the train are now in their mid-thirties. Chris lives in Tennessee and Ellen lives in Florida.
The photo with the house in the background was taken in the backyard of the South Jefferson house as the same time the photo of Chris and Ellen was taken. That's me holding son Jim as he attempts to engineer the train.
The engineer in these two photos of the train full of kids is "Longrooffan" ---well it's either him or "Jeepjunkie" -- back when they were teenagers.

This is a photo of the bell that has played such a pivotal role in our family dynamics. Orginally on a steam locomotive, our Grandfather, who worked for American Car and Foundry in St. Louis, borrowed a co-worker's pickup and brought it to home. I went with him to pick it up. This would have been in 1956 of 1957. The pickup he borrowed was a light gray 1947-1953 Chevrolet with a floor shift. I remember how heavy the bell was at that time.

That bell got hauled from Granny and Man's house to the farm, to the house on Jefferson, to the house on Jewell Street in Repubic (where this photo was taken). The bell got lost after Dad died.

Death Panels, From The People Who Brought You Swift Boats...

Dang, they're good.This slipped by most of us....

"We need a grenade launcher," he said.

Certain deputies also have issues with the recoil of the .40-caliber handguns.

"Certain deputies"?

Man carrying assault weapon attends Obama protest

By AMANDA LEE MYERS and TERRY TANG, Associated Press Writers
– Mon Aug 17, 6:22 pm ET

PHOENIX – About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday — the latest incident in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.

Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Phoenix police said the gun-toters at Monday's event, including the man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, didn't need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.

The man with the rifle declined to be identified but told The Arizona Republic that he was carrying the assault weapon because he could. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms," he said.

Phoenix police Detective J. Oliver, who monitored the man at the downtown protest, said police also wanted to make sure no one decided to harm him.

"Just by his presence and people seeing the rifle and people knowing the president was in town, it sparked a lot of emotions," Oliver said. "We were keeping peace on both ends."

Last week, during Obama's health care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a sign reading "It is time to water the tree of liberty" stood outside with a pistol strapped to his leg.

"It's a political statement," he told The Boston Globe. "If you don't use your rights, then you lose your rights."

Police asked the man to move away from school property, but he was not arrested.

Fred Solop, a Northern Arizona University political scientist, said the incidents in New Hampshire and Arizona could signal the beginning of a disturbing trend.

"When you start to bring guns to political rallies, it does layer on another level of concern and significance," Solop said. "It actually becomes quite scary for many people. It creates a chilling effect in the ability of our society to carry on honest communication."

He said he's never heard of someone bringing an assault weapon near a presidential event. "The larger the gun, the more menacing the situation," he said.

Phoenix was Obama's last stop on a four-day tour of western states, including Montana and Colorado.

Authorities in Montana said they received no reports of anyone carrying firearms during Obama's health care town hall near Bozeman on Friday. About 1,000 people both for and against Obama converged at a protest area near the Gallatin Field Airport hangar where the event took place. One person accused of disorderly conduct was detained and released, according to the Gallatin Airport Authority.

Heather Benjamin of Denver's Mesa County sheriff's department, the lead agency during Obama's visit there, said no one was arrested.

Arizona is an "open-carry" state, which means anyone legally allowed to have a firearm can carry it in public as long as it's visible. Only someone carrying a concealed weapon is required to have a permit.

Paul Helmke, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said people should not be allowed to bring guns to events where Obama is.

"To me, this is craziness," he said. "When you bring a loaded gun, particularly a loaded assault rifle, to any political event, but particularly to one where the president is appearing, you're just making the situation dangerous for everyone."

He said people who bring guns to presidential events are distracting the Secret Service and law enforcement from protecting the president. "The more guns we see at more events like this, there's more potential for something tragic happening," he said.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said armed demonstrators in open-carry states such as Arizona and New Hampshire have little impact on security plans for the president.

"In both cases, the subject was not entering our site or otherwise attempting to," Donovan said. "They were in a designated public viewing area. The main thing to know is that they would not have been allowed inside with a weapon."

Representatives of the National Rifle Association did not return calls for comment.

E. Coli

The SN-L reports:

A site on Wilson Creek in Christian County has excessive amounts of E. coli bacteria and people should not swim there, according to the Christian County Health Department.

The site is the Wilson Creek Slab, according to the department.

The health advisory will be removed after two consecutive samples show fewer than 200colonies per 100 milliliters of water, according to the department.

Bears?

Lost In The Woods

We were wondering where you were.

Anybody Can Have A Bad Day

Yang Takes Down The Tiger!
Somedays golf can be more exciting than NASCAR.

He Wore Blue

A race card from the right wing.

Don't Shred Those "Cash For Clunkers" Just Yet....

I have been thinking about opening a recycled auto parts dismantling/recycling center.

I'll save all those cash for clunkers clunkers from being shredded and shipped to China and coming back to us as fence posts or toasters.

You never know when you might need a door handle for a 1992 Ford Explorer.

What with a new Mercedes E Class costing over $48,000 for a base level model, I am sure there are many citizens who want to avoid the high cost of car payments, insurance, personal property taxes, sales tax, etc, and keep their older cars on the road a few more years.

I'll be helping the less fortunate in our community by giving them the opportunity to obtain low cost, recycled auto parts.

Since I can only store so many cars on my corner lot before I run out of room, and the demand for these 1992 Ford Explorer parts (and other models) will be high, I suggest that we look into using non-productive land and vacant lots for the storage of these vehicles.

Why, I may even let purchasers buy shares in cars and let them pull the parts themselves. See, it will work like this: You own, or want to own, a 1992 Ford Explorer. I have one, or better yet, I have access to one (having access to one is better than actually having one because you don't have to buy it until you actually have a demand for one-sort of like Just In Time manufacturing). You buy a portion of the rights to pull parts from the Explorer and, with a small additional fee and a tool deposit, come over to the formerly non-productive or vacant lot where we store the cars, and pull the part you need.

I haven't quite worked out how we will police these areas, I mean we wouldn't want non-shareholders coming in in the middle of the night and taking parts off of cars without permission. And animals, squirrels mainly, I am not sure how we will keep the squirrels from nesting in the seats and upholstery. Maybe we'll get a dog or put up a big fence?Nay-sayers may call it a junk yard and complain about oil and antifreeze and transmission fluid seeping into the ground. We look at it as recycling and saving the environment by allowing those less fortunate to have the opportunity to preserve their autos and, as a side benefit, keeping the weeds down.

"Urban Garden Task Force Considers the Pros and Cons of Retail Produce Sales in Residential Neighborhoods"

I am shocked and stunned at how few people actually have ever weeded a vegetable garden before!

My Mother, God bless her little pea-pickin' heart, liked to tell a story about how we weeded the gardens. When we were growing up we had two vegetable gardens, one was on some farm land* near Defiance, MO my folks owned and another one at the original B's Nest near House Springs.

It was my brothers and I who were responsible for watering and weeding. Bob, Tom and I liked sweet corn, so that got weeded ok. We sorta liked tomatoes, so those got weeded and the suckers pulled off regularly. We liked green beans, radishes --both white and red, and potatoes, these all were weeded and watered.

Bob didn't like lima beans, I didn't peas and I think Tom didn't like squash. You can see where I am going now, can't you?

But Mom, we thought those were weeds!

Jackehammer has some information about the Urban Gardens concept and how it may apply to Springfield.

*It was here that I learned what happens when a sow has a litter with more piglets than teats she has.

How Did It Feel To Be On Your Own, With No Direction Home, Like A Complete Unknown, Like A Rolling Stone?

The incident began at 5 p.m.

Police in Long Branch, New Jersey, received a call that a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

A police officer, who was in his 20s, drove his squad car up to the elderly man, who was wearing a blue jacket.

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," the man said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the man replied.

The officer called for back up.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded. He also was apparently unfamiliar with whom the man claimed to be.

The officers asked the man for identification. He said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before he had to go to work that night.

The officers asked the man, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched that the man was, indeed, Bob Dylan.

(When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.)

He May Be From Monroe But I'm Not Sure.....

Years ago, and I mean maybe 31, 32 years ago, we were playing the Civic Center in Monroe, Louisianna. Nephew Fred, his Dad and I were in a grocery store and Fred, who was maybe 5, said something about being in Monroe, Louisiana.

The checker said, "You're not in Monroe, honey, you're in Mun-Row."

Somewhere I have a photograph of Lil Jim, Peggy and Tillie sitting in their car seats that was taken while they were eating spaghetti in Monroe, Louisiana. But I can't find it. They were barely a year old.

In those days it was like this, first we all got mobile homes, then we all got new pickups, then we all got babies.

We would go to Louisiana every spring and work. Somehow, we always ended up in Monroe, Louisiana, eating Johnny's Pizza. Then we'd go to New Roads for the Mardi Gras celebration.

One year, Sam, who was leading the convoy, decided that instead of heading west ot Opelousas or east to Hammond and crossing the river at Baton Rouge, we would take a short cut and head straight south to St. Francisville and take the ferry across the Mississippi which would put us right at New Roads. St. Francisville was on one side of the river, New Roads was on the other side.
View Larger Map

Unfortunately, some of our trucks were too big for the ferry and we were not allowed to board. I was the last truck in line. I couldn't turn my truck and trailer around so I started backing up the levy road.

Now, backing a trailer ain't the easiest thing in the world to do and I backed into the ditch. When I tried to pull out, I snapped the u-joints on my truck and couldn't move. I was blocking traffic. No one could get off the ferry, and no one could get on the ferry.

So there we were, Sam pulling a joint trailer, Frankie pulling a house trailer, Leonard pulling a joint trailer, Jan pulling a house trailer, Ganey pulling a house trailer and me pulling the machine gun trailer. I was broke down on the levy road....blocking traffic getting off the ferry and we couldn't get on the ferry.

There were some hot marks there, let me tell you!

I ended up un-hooking the trailer, Leonard unhooked a trailer, we got a chain and pulled my broke down truck out of the way.

The rest of us backed up over the levy into a farmer's field. I took the drive shaft off the truck and went to town to find a welder to fix it.

I got lucky, the high school vo-tech teacher was at the one gas station in town and he welded up my drive shaft. I asked how much I owed him, he said nothing, it's on me. I put the drive shaft in the back of the pickup and got ready to leave.

The gas station owner came up and said, wait a minute, you owe me for the use of the welder. That'll be $25.00.

In those days, $25.00 was a lot of money. I paid him and went back put the drive shaft back on the truck and we continued on our way without going across anymore ferries.
View Larger MapWe had to double back to find a bridge. I don't remember where we crossed the river at but I do remember we were all mad at Sam and wouldn't let him plan the route anymore.

To add insult to injury, we got rained out at New Roads and the lot turned into a mud pit. Look at these pictures and all the mud and boots. We was counting our change, that's how broke we was!
This is a picture of Nelson Lee looking across the lot at his cousins, Evelyn Giles and Sammie Crable. The mud is thicker than Louisiana gumbo!
Look at the mud! We had to have a farmer come and pull us out when the spot ended. Louisiana mud stinks, too.
One year, instead of pickups, babies or house trailers, we all got beards.
That's Nelson Lee walking across the lot in the above picture. He's long gone but he was a good man who cut up a good jackpot.

Anyhow, I think this guy is from Mun-Row, but I'm not sure.

On Craigslist Now...

right now.
Yes, I've been busy.

AG Koster Says DNR Broke No Law In E Coli Delay

no sh*t. Good thing he's wearing boots

The Billboard He Doesn't Want You To See

BLUNTED BY ROY BLUNT: THE BILLBOARD
THE CONGRESSMAN DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE

Springfield, Mo – As the debate over health care reform heats up, an effort to place a billboard in U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt’s home district has been, well, blunted.

The billboard was to have featured a picture of Blunt with the words: “Roy Blunt has taken $556,682 in contributions from the insurance industry. Is that why he won’t take our side on health care reform?”

USAction and its Missouri affiliate, Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, had arranged to place the billboard in downtown Springfield. However, the groups were informed Thursday that it was being rejected based on political content.

“Roy Blunt, the target of this smear campaign, is a local politician and has been a strong proponent of Outdoor Advertising in Missouri for a number of years,” Lamar Advertising Company said in an email message. “As much as we would always love the business, we will have to respectfully decline.”

The move comes after Blunt tried, and failed, to have a radio spot taken off the air pointing out that the senior Republican congressman has taken more than half a million dollars worth of campaign contributions from the insurance industry and is working to defeat health care reform. A second radio ad – currently running on four Springfield stations -- also points out that Blunt has questioned the worthiness of Medicare.

USAction Program Director Alan Charney said alternate plans are being made to get the word out about Blunt’s connections to the insurance industry and refusal to support quality, affordable health care for his constituents. “We’re guessing that there are newspapers in Congressman Blunt’s district that would welcome our business and won’t discriminate based on content,” Charney said.

Julie Burkhart, executive director of Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition, added that Blunt should stand up for his constituents’ ability to afford health care as strongly as he has stood for Missouri’s outdoor billboard industry. “After all,” she said, “Billboards don’t get sick or get dropped from coverage or see their premiums double. People do.”

(This is a news release from USAction. I don't usually post news releases without citing the source, but I've been really busy.)

I've Been Busy...

No, really busy. Not going to the lake busy, but really busy switching out truck beds, putting stuff in the loft, trying to get a tractor started after I powerwashed it, fixing voltage regulators on two John Deere's, replacing gas tank on pickup, fixing fender on Sara's little red car, getting ready to get the PvtRN's car to the body shop---someone backed into her in Cox's parking garage, getting stuff ready to remodel the bathroom, spending money, trying to sell stuff on Craigslist, I've been busy.

Working On The "B's Nest" Truck