Category: General

Posted on

Time to get a chorein

HoarderGotta run errands, and then come home to keep sifting through the accumulation of crap.

Yeah, we all accumulate crap, and if it’s allowed to accumulate for 34 years, (Even after a fire…) well there’s a lot! I’ve been at this for 6 months now!

Before anyone gets judgey, I want you all to open that closet that you don’t use much. You know, the one in the spare room that’s the sewing / workout room. That closet that is behind the disused Peloton currently acting as a clothes rack. 

Go on, open it. Now look at the shelf and tell me you don’t have just as much crap as I do! If you don’t have closets that aren’t used much, go to your garage, basement, or your attic, and tell me you’re not accumulating stuff.

Uh huh. 

My place isn’t actually as bad as the photo, but there are times when I feel like it is!

Part of the issue is / has been that we were trying to do the right thing and properly dispose of stuff. Electronics to the E-Waste place, paper and plastic in the recycle bin except the plastic that can’t be recycled, then it’s figuring out what can and can’t go in which bin. Some metals can go in the recycle bin other can’t and to be really honest it’s all a pain in the ass!

So much so that the other half and I would come home tired, hungry, and wouldn’t want to take the 2 minutes to determine what went where. So shit would end up on any flat surface and we’d say we’ll get back to it. Uh NOPE!

Thus began the piles. 

The other half was always busy. There was always the next event to dash off to. I had more time but having to schedule a day to deal with loading the car up with e-waste then sitting in line to dispose of the shit and wondering if I’d destroyed all the data on any storage device is daunting!

All I wanted to do was get rid of some electronics, I don’t want to have the third degree going into the place, I don’t want to have to blow 1/2 of my day screwing around with broken shit that I’m probably disappointed about buying in the first place. Buffalo Technologies, I’m looking right at you!

There is shit in my garage and basement right now, that is almost from another epoch in terms of electronics or computer technology. Why is it there? Because it’s easier to stuff it in the basement or garage than it is to dispose of it properly!

Don’t even get me started on paperwork and bills & statements. I literally found a statement in my other half’s so called, “filing system” that was from 2000.

It was a phone bill from a company that no longer exists, having long since been purchased by a larger conglomerate.

My shredder overheats regularly!

But it’s time to get moving and hopefully get back before the freeway is a mess.

Who am I kidding? The freeway is always a mess and should be renamed to the obstruction way. After all we’re supposed to be fighting mis-information aren’t we…

Have a great day! 

Posted on

There are times…

IMG 2882When I’m very thankful for the Dog.

Sometimes, he’s an absolute pain in my ass!  Other times, I catch a glimpse of the world through his eyes and see beauty.

This morning was one of those mornings.

I did laundry yesterday. As part of that process I changed the bedsheets from the summer lightweight cotton to the winter flannel. 

It’s been cold enough here at night that I have run the heater a few times. I hate getting up to a house that’s 55°F. 

I was even able to pack the last summer sheet set, into its original package. That was cool.

There’s another chore that I need to do. I’ve got to match up the sheet sets. I think I lost one if not two top sheets back in January. That wouldn’t be bad except that they were from the king size sets, not the queen size sets that I thought they were. It doesn’t matter a lot because when the time comes and I move, I’m getting rid of the king sized bed and going to a queen. At that time I’ll buy new sets for a new life. Hey, I’m trying to put a positive spin on it. But in the mean time… I’ve got mismatched sets of sheets that I need to sort out and dispose of, to minimize confusion and frustration.

Anyhow, flannel sheets in place, I went on with the day doing just usual puttering around. I haven’t been sleeping well and my head has not been “in the game” for much of anything lately. 

Bedtime rolled around and I crawled into a nice warm bed. I’ve recently instituted a moratorium on bedside alarms on Sunday. Meaning, I’ll sleep if possible until something wakes me up or until I wake up naturally. This morning, I woke up completely naturally. The dog was curled up on the foot of the bed and there was silence. I sat up, looked at the phone next to the bed and it was after 8am. Sweet! I slept straight through the night. 

I got up, peed, and by the time I was done the dog was ready to do his morning rounds. I let him out, poured myself a cup of coffee, and pulled on some sweats. After a few minutes enjoying my coffee the dog is at the door. I let him in, he heads for his equivalent of morning coffee.

He’s asking for his morning Greenie. 

I give it to him, he starts to trot toward the back door again. “Fine,” I say, opening the door. He heads out trotting to his usual spot (The spot where Greenies are consumed,)  Then he turns back and sits at the door looking at me. He’s still got the Greenie in his mouth.

Because the behavior is “odd” for him I open the door and step out onto the deck to see if something is wrong. 

The dog starts tossing the Greenie at me then playing keep away. I set my coffee on a nearby outdoor table and engage in the game. He’s wagging his tail and challenging me, we’re having fun.

Then he’s a little too rough picking up the Greenie to toss it at me and bites it in half. Game over! Now it’s time to eat it.

I’m standing out on the deck, the morning chill is being displaced by the sun and I’m struck by how pretty the day is.

In fact it’s a spectacular day. Not too cold, it’s clear and crisp and quiet. That’s one of the things that really strikes me… The silence. 

We’ve been living in a construction zone for most of the Summer. There’s been heavy equipment running from 7am to 4 pm every week day and some weekends. It’s annoying because of the dust.

I haven’t been able to paint the trim or the stairs of the house, and now it’s getting too cold at night to do the painting especially the back stairs and deck because they’re in shadow much of the day.

But the noise is also a factor even when the equipment is at the far end of the wash, the sound reverberates right back up the canyon, and it’s constant. Dumptrucks driving 25 or 30 feet from your front door all day long create a wall of noise that you can’t escape. The dust blowing off their loads, and being kicked up by their passing is quite possibly bad for us.

In the height of Summer we tend to have our windows open, most folks here don’t have air conditioning. So we’ve been living with never ending dust to the point that every morning stepping into the shower I can feel the grit under my feet. I vacuum every day and I simply gave up dusting. What’s the point? I have to rinse every dish or pot before using it, or leave everything in the dish washer. 

But breathing all this dust can’t be good for us. Not to mention the possibility of Valley Fever. The sides of the wash are populated by thousands, if not millions of rodents. Valley Fever comes from rodent poop, it’s usually something a person gets if they’ve been out clearing land and kick up a lot of dust. Folks weed whacking without a mask, or using leaf blowers commonly get it.

IMG 2886It’s not the county workers fault, they’re doing what they’ve been told to do. They get paid by the flood control district and even the supervisors think they’re doing the right thing. Although I contend that had they done what had been done in the 1920’s that lasted 70 to 80 years, everyone would have been better off and the county would have saved a shit ton of money.

Not that the county gives a damn about saving money or using it wisely. I have no reason to believe that the County of San Bernardino will take any more responsibility for health issues they’ve caused in this neighborhood than they will for the private roads they’ve damaged, the environment they’ve destroyed, or the degraded quality of life issues their poorly designed and executed “Flood Control Project” has caused.

As I think about it, enjoying my coffee and the beautiful morning on my back deck. I think that I should probably write a complaint letter to the County describing all of this, I suspect that OSHA would shut this down if the neighborhood was a worksite. But since we’re a neighborhood I doubt there are any regulations. Nonetheless I should get a letter on file so that if I develop some disease caused by breathing granite dust I can point to them as responsible.

In the mean time… I’m going to sit here enjoying my home for the first time in 4 months. I’m glad the dog dragged my ass outside this morning. He’s snoozing in the sun occasionally raising his head to survey the world.

Have a happy Sunday.

Posted on

I knew there was a reason I didn’t like the new Pride Flag

Aside from the combination of colors making me want to vomit… It kept reminding me of something, I just couldn’t place what I was being reminded of.

With the attack by Hamas on Israel, I connected the dots.

Flag of Palestine 1769629428The geometry of the new pride flag reminds me of the Hamas Palestinian flag.

It’s bad enough that if you put four of the new Pride flags together you get a swastika, or that there was someone in England who was arrested for publishing an image from someone else showing that it was true. 

I thought England had freedom of speech…

Oh RIGHT! They only have freedom of speech as long as nothing they say could ever in any way be taken offensively, by anyone in perpetuity.

In other words, our English brethren may not speak, they may only use their mouths to eat.

New pride flag 01 1569595309Hate speech laws seem to be a growing standard, people are trying to push hate speech laws even in America.

I’m amused and astounded when comedians have routines from decades ago reviewed and scrutinized by the new humorless thought police.

Then when offense is found, (as it always is,) the comedians must apologize for something that no-one 20 years ago thought was anything but funny.

By todays standards though, “It” is offensive enough that the scolds in our society try to cancel whoever said or did this offensive thing.

SwastikaprideflagI doubt seriously that any of these all too easily offended people were offended when half their genome was hanging in their daddy’s balls waiting to be jacked down a toilet! A lot of these humorless scolds should have been loads their momma’s swallowed. 

That’s just my opinion… It’s probably reflective of just how tired I’ve become of the perpetually aggrieved. The new pride flag is a symbol of the perpetually aggrieved, and in many ways the Hamas flag is the same.

The Palestinians have been pissed off about something or other for God only knows how long. They’re pissed at Israel over things like power, water, and productive farmland. I’m sure there are other political reasons but I honestly don’t remember and don’t care anymore. I suppose Israel maintains a secure border which hampers Palestinian terror attacks on school busses. That for sure, is going to piss off a bunch of terrorists!

I don’t want to get into discussing the war. I hope Israel wins. And since they’ve been accused and punished for all manner of atrocities… They might as well commit a few in their march to the sea.

I ran across this diagram that supposedly explained the variations of pride flags.

Pride Flags GuideRight off the bat I noticed a couple of historical omissions. They completely erased two of the three most common flags.

At one time, there were just three LGB Pride Flags.

Bear prideThere was the standard 6 color rainbow everyone is familiar with. There was the Bear Flag that came after the rainbow and there was the Leather flag.

The Bear flag was representative of men who, at the time didn’t feel that they needed to shave their chests, or adhere to the smooth muscle boy image that had become so popular and indeed almost necessary if you happened to be a gay man.

The Bear flag represented men who might not be the ideal weight, who might have and like having beards, who might be as hairy on their backs as they were on their chests and who weren’t ashamed of it. The Bear Flag, like the rainbow flag was counter culture, it was counter culture against the main stream gay culture of the time.

leatherpride.pngThe Leather pride flag was much the same. It represented the crowd within the LGB community that liked a bit more spice in their sex life. They too were underrepresented at the time. Dating was difficult, because they’d chat up a prospective bed partner only to find out that their “Date” for the night was only interested in vanilla missionary sex.

Don’t get me wrong, vanilla missionary sex is fine, but if you’re wanting a little more variety and all you have to choose from are missionaries you’re going to get bored pretty fast.

For years, (At least a decade) you’d see the rainbow flag everywhere in the “Gay Ghettos”. But some bars would fly the Bear Pride flag or the Leather Pride flag and those flags served to welcome folks who identified as one or the other community. Sometimes, it was just a matter of going into a bar that was flying what you were into, that particular night.

Some bars used the flag to advertise themed nights. So the same bar might on one night fly a Leather flag, then a few nights later a Bear flag. This was really convenient if you were driving down a crowded street because you knew at a glance what was up and where. It made fighting for parking easier.

It’s not unusual for there to be a bit of crossover between the bear and leather community too. But if you went to a bar flying only the Leather Pride flag, expect to be surrounded by men in leather who’d likely be willing to take you to Kinky Town for the weekend!

Likewise with the Bear Pride flag, be prepared to be mauled, cuddled, touched, and be welcome to return all the above to furry mellow cuddly strangers.

Why is it that some folks want to erase parts of gay culture?

How is that inclusive?

Gay Pride Flag svgCould it be that Bears, and Leather men once again don’t fit the narrative? You know, because they are CIS gendered, happy with who they are and not super worried about marching lockstep with a community that no longer represents them?

I actually see opportunity in the new flag versus the old flag.  I’m wondering if the standard 6 color flag will come to represent the LGB community once again?

It might be nice to get back to just 3 flags, and knowing that if you went to a bar flying the old flags, you’re likely to meet people who are more like you.

Maybe the folks under the old flags would be a bit more settled, a bit more conservative, and similarly uncomfortable with the direction the, LGBTQX+… whatever the fuck else they’ve added, are heading.

I’m planning on attending Leather Pride weekend in Palm Springs, (At least one day,) I’ll be avoiding the establishments with the new gay flag. My trip out there might be very short. I’m hoping that I can find at least one oasis and sit under the old rainbow flag with a drink in my hand one last time.

More optimistically, I’m hoping that I’ll be having that drink as the first of many, under the old flags with people who think and feel the way I do.

Posted on

Wow! The other half had a lot of musical scores in digital format.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of a filing system for either Paper or Digital scores.

Screenshot 2023 09 30 at 7 29 50 AM

I’ve been trying to collect up all the music (Digital and Paper), and sort it with the intention of making sure that it got to the people that could use it and who would appreciate the effort.

I’m using a 32GB thumb drive now and unlike previous attempts will hopefully not run out of space.

I’ve also been finding a lot of duplications. I suspect that is in part due to the lack of a filing system and in part it might be further evidence that he’d been “off” for a while and was doing a damn fine job of hiding that fact from me.

No, I’m not angry about it. I’m just a little sad. He did his life, his way, as do I. We called “Shotgun” on each other’s journey through life and rode together for a long time. It’s cool, even if I am a little sad about the way things went from time to time.

As an aside, I have no clue how music is supposed to be catalogued, or indexed, or anything else.

I’m just doing what seems “Right” with the music much the same way I’ve done with every other curveball that’s come my way over the past 10 months.

In addition to the actual musical scores, some of which are only identifiable by opening them. (I’m fixing that slowly but surely.) I’ve also run into actual recordings where he was playing and recording into GarageBand either via a MIDI connection or he was using a microphone. Hearing him play has been somewhat jarring because I recognize his style and technique. It’s okay, but I’m still prone to crying over stuff like that, because the memories of him practicing a particular piece come flooding back. 

I’ll be a little sad over not being annoyed and hiding out in the office as he played the same measure over and over again trying to get it just right. In a way it was like RAP with Classical music!

I hate RAP!

As I typed that, I was smiling through misty eyes.

I’m sorting the music as best I can. If something has Hebrew characters in it, then it’s obviously going into the Jewish music folder. If it’s written in Russian It’s probably a fair bet that too is going to be Jewish Music. That is also true of German and Spanish.

I’m so out of my depth!

I’ve been looking for keywords in the scores. If I find anything that is recognizably Hebrew or Yiddish I know where to file it.

Christian music is a little easier because there I only have to scan for “Jesus” or Holy Ghost or Father, Son and Holy Spirt. You don’t find those kinds of references in Jewish Music.

Things start to get dicy when there are no lyrics, only the musical notation. If the title isn’t obvious, then I’m in a bit of trouble. 

If I can sound it out and recognize the roots or the rhythm of the piece  then I’ve got a shot at getting it in the right place. Some music is instantly recognizable as Jewish when you hear it.

I recognize the names of many classical pieces, or at least the composer so those scores go into the Classical Folder.

But wait! There’s more…

The harp music, the organ music, the piano, harpsichord, and even accordion music is all in one big assed digital pile.

For him, this presented no problem. He’d open an arrangement and know exactly what instrument it was for just by looking. Hell, I think sometimes he didn’t care what the score said the instrument was supposed to be. I think he’d just figure it out on the fly. That’s what a classically trained musician can do. It’s a skill built up over a lifetime and it’s amazing to watch in action.

I’ve been trying to sort the Harp and keyboard music into separate folders. Some of the folks that will be looking at this are classically trained musicians, but others aren’t.  Some of the amateur choir members can carry a tune and read music, but I know the other half curated very carefully what he gave to the choir.

It wasn’t about him disrespecting them, it was about not wanting to frustrate them with super busy scores. Sometimes he’d sit down and manually do choir only notation as a new file that he’d print here. Then we’d assemble the choir books if he wanted or needed my help.

I was probably next to useless because I didn’t read music. But I could follow instructions, run the printer, punch holes in pages, and we’d be spending the time together.

I know I could just hand all of the over to “Real” musicians instead of a hack like me. One reason that I don’t is because also mixed in this big pile of musical scores are receipts, and medical evaluations, and all the usual documents that one accumulates. So I have to be the one that filters all of this stuff out. 

Some of the pieces of music where he’s actually playing are in Apple only formats. Not a problem for me… But the Synagogue and Church are Windows based. So I’m letting my super fast computer handle processing the music into something universally playable. That takes time. Not much in the way of computer time, but time listening to the various edits and editions to determine which one is most likely to be the “Final” version that he’d want distributed.

Perhaps I’m doing all of this as much for me, and the other half, as I am for the Synagogue and Church.

It’s tedious, and time consuming. But I’m hoping to construct something that he’d be proud of. 

Posted on

Dianne Feinstein is dead.

Condolences to her family.

Unlike the radical left, who dance on anyone’s grave that they disagree with,  I’m not going to jump for joy or say nasty things about her.

I didn’t agree with a lot of her policies. I really took offense when she was questioning a Marine a while ago and took him to task for politely using M’am instead of Senator. As in “Yes M’am” not “Yes Senator Feinstein”

I thought she was being overbearing and demonstrated how out of touch she was not only with Southerners (which the marine in question was,) but also with the Marine Corps itself who taught a level of decorum which included the use of the term “M’am”.

It was at that particular moment that I lost respect for Dianne Feinstein. At that moment she looked like she was more interested in badgering and bullying a young Marine than hearing his answer to her question. In that moment, I interpreted her entire career as about power not public service. 

I’ve thought for a long time that she should go. I thought she was losing touch with the realities of the world today and California in particular. She’d been in the Senate for far too long and had become isolated in the rarified air of Washington D.C.

It often seemed that she was more about the Washington Politics than about the people of California whom she was supposed to represent.

Over the past year or two it had become clear that Feinstein wasn’t doing all that well.

I thought it cruel that she was still being propped up and wheeled around while so obviously ill. The poor woman should have been home, enjoying her view.

Then again, having spent so much of her life in Washington D.C. it’s possible that she was more at home there, than in California.

For me Dianne Feinstein was a poster child for term limits. There have been many others, but she stuck out for me because she was one of my state senators.

Regardless of my personal opinions formed over the past decade or so… I’m sure that she did a lot of good in her idealistic youth and early years in Washington D.C. before politics consumed her. 

I sincerely hope she rests in peace.

Dianne Feinstein 1933-2023

Feinstein 1600