Saturday, July 17, 2010

Gone Fishing...

...or so the sign should have read. I got my salt water gear ready late this afternoon. Actually it was ready and has been in that state since last year in my shed. I just gathered up what I needed. Then after dinner I headed to Point Lookout to go out on the Super hawk. I had called them last weekend and they said they would start going out on night trips this weekend. As I arrived at the dock, there was the Super Hawk just offloading from their afternoon trip. I asked a mate about tonight and he said they were not doing any night trips. He recommended the Captain Al in the next berth.

I have been out on the Captain Al many times over the years. I like that baot and the crew, it is one of the slowest boats around but they stay out longer to make up for that. About 10 people were already aboard and I boarded and was able to get a spot on the rail in the stern. That is great when they drift or anchor for blues and strippers. I left my gear aboard and went to the store, grabbed a big can of Heineken and some peanuts and headed back. Climbed aboard again and waited. I noticed there was no crew and that was odd. At about 6:50 PM, the captain boarded, came to the stern, told the people gathered there that there would be no trip tonight because his crew had not shown up, gave out $5.00 off tickets and said adieu and farewell. He also said the next trip would be 7AM tomorrow for bottom fish (Sea Bass, Ling and the like).

I grabbed my discount coupon and fled. I headed to my car quickly and then drove about 25 minutes Captree, hoping to catch a boat there. As I arrived, I quickly drove past the fishing boats, I saw one was readying to go fishing, the others had either left already or were not going out. I made a quick u-turn and was about to park when I noticed the boat was no longer in the slip. It had, in fact, slipped away in the 30 seconds since I saw it there and was making way to the fishing grounds without me! Crap, crap, crap close but yet so far!

I headed home but stopped at the supermarket, picked up a 12 pack of St. Pauli Girl and a package of double stuffed Oreos and headed home to enjoy both. Beer and coolies - health food. Hopefully, I will fall asleep early enough to feel refreshed at about 5Am, so I can leave by 5:30 to go back to the Captain Al for a day trip tomorrow.

All the best,
Glenn B

Do We Live In Friggin Bizzaro World...

... you know, the place where everything is ass backwards, upside down or just not set to normal standards - an opposite of the way it should happen on planet earth. It sure seems like that is the world of today, in these United States, under the current presidential administration; heck under the last three presidents for that matter. They are/were all so liberal as to make ones head spin and along with all the head spinning of this countries citizens must have come a vortex that sucked us right out of the normal universe and into the alternate reality of Bizzaro World.

Some examples to illustrate what are mean follow:

We are in an economic slump, a recession, with unemployment at the highest it has been in a long, long time. Yet our president and vice president tell us they have saved millions of jobs. Okay so they saved millions but also lost millions, that is why we have such high unemployment rates. It does not matter how many they supposedly saved if we keep losing jobs - don't they get it??? We need job creation and their policies are failing miserably.

The government, with an extremely high deficit, and in debt to many other nations, including Red China a communist tyranny, keeps spending money like it grew not only on trees but as if it magically appeared from thin air. The tarp and bailouts are fine examples, so is the amount they plan to spend on such things like universal health care. In addition they keep allowing our economy to be sucked dry by illegal aliens (note I did not call those bloodsuckers immigrants).

Instead of legislating tough anti illegal entry laws, and stiff penalties for employers of illegal aliens, what does the government do - sues a state that is trying to keep the scourge of illegals out of our once great country, and that despite over 60% of American citizens and legal alien residents supporting tougher immigration laws including those enacted by the state of Arizona.

As this goes on in government, what do private corporations do (and mind you they have been doing it for years)? They keep hiring illegal aliens instead of U.S. Citizens and legal resident aliens. In addition they keep outsourcing jobs to places like Pakistan and India and to many African nations. To what purpose, to make a buck? Don't the realize that as we have fewer and fewer jobs here, we have less and less money to spend here, and the profits they make here will get smaller and smaller?

But of course, if citizens and legal resident aliens try to do anything about these last two situations, they are immediately branded as racists by groups with names like La Raza; that name alone implying that said group is actually the group of racists. Think about it. They scream and holler when we talk about a border fence, or jobs for citizens instead of illegal aliens, and tell me - of what ethnicity are over 85% of those illegal aliens? They could easily be life members of La Raza.

Then we have the NAACP screaming that someone at a Tea Party Rally held up a KKK Sign and they say it was a tea Party member. Who was it, where are the pictures, how do you know it was not an anti-Tea Party agitator? TICSMYD!!! (talk is cheap show me your data). The fact is the Tea Party has repeatedly reached out to prominent members within the black community (you bet I will call it the black community as opposed to the African American community until they call another ethnic community the European American community), and that reaching out is well documented, but the black leaders have mostly shunned the tea party and tried to call it racist! Why would that be? Why especially for a group like the NAACP? I mean look at it, we have a black president (well half black at best), a black Attorney General, many Hispanic leaders, many other black leaders, and the NAACP still is trying to say we are a nation divided by racism. Give it a break - no they will not. Why not, because they will lose money once people realize that - 'hey, why are we giving to the national Association for the ADVANCEMENT of colored people when there is no further advancement possible' - I mean look - the president is a black man! Blacks and Hispanics are in every major industry and type of job imaginable - as are other people of color - so how much more can they advance? So they, groups like the NAACP and La Raza, try to make others look racist when they are not to keep the money flowing from the people who historically have supported those groups. They are using racism as a way to take advantage of well meaning folks. I mean, what else could they want, what other advancment could they expect, no please don't say they want to become the masters! That would be bizzare beyond the scope of imagination.

Then we had the oil spill/leak in the Gulf. What was up with that? Over 80 days to cap it to make it stop. Why wasn't the US Navy sending down mini-subs with engineers aboard to try to figure out how to get it capped within the first week or two? Why didn't the Army Corps of Engineers and the Sea Bees take part in this effort by getting down there to stop the leak. Of course now we face cap and trade and you can bet the president will use this oil disaster to push that through Congress. Heck he has already made it almost a completely political event for himself, so why would he want to see it shut down any sooner!

We also have just seen a finance reform act passed. Watch out folks, now the federal government can check every credit card transaction that anyone makes in this country. People thought that the Patriot Act was intrusive - you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until the finance reform, the health care reform and cap and trade (with electrical power (because of remote controlled electric meters and circuit boxes) controlled by the government, how much power do you think you will get to use when there is a heat wave, how much do you think you will pay for it, and if you pay by credit will the government keep track of it and spank you later if you spent a little too much on credit? Maybe they will decide to tax you more, or maybe they will cut off your health care since they will be in absolute control. of course, you may just not be able to use your credit card because you will not be able to get credit after having to afford sky rocketing fuel, electrical and health care costs.

And what has our president been doing throughout all of these crises? he has been golfing, and partying, and taking brief trips here and there and rolling up his sleeves and doing almost nothing to actually help America. Oh yeah, and he stood on the White House balcony looking something like a dictator from a Banana Republic, and that was on Independence day when he put down the fonding fathers and implied that our government was not made right until Lincoln.

There is more, such as ending the war in Afghanistan but actually extending it and gearing up for conflict under a new general when the old one could have gotten the job but was not allowed to do so because of the lamest rules of engagement ever. Yet then when he complained and was fired, it now seems the result is that those rules of engagement are apparently soon to change. And yes there is more bizzaro behavior out of Washington and their supporters. Damn, I think I feel an artery in my heading pounding and I do not want it to explode so I will stop now. Just tell me this: If we are not in Bizzaro World, please tell me where are we?

All the best,
Glenn B

Hey Hornady - The Only Thing Worse Than Instructions Printed In China...

...when it comes to trying to assemble something that requires some assembly, is not receiving any instructions at all. So when I eagerly opened my brand new Hornady Classic Reloading Kit today, that I received on Wednesday or Thursday and my wife took until Friday to tell me it had arrived, I was pretty disappointed. I had thought for sure that I would set it all up to see, first of all, if all the parts were there, and secondly to see if it looked like it was working. No luck either way.

There is a manual enclosed with it that apparently tells you how to reload with it but not an instruction manual on set-up. I do not mean the Hornady Reloading Manual, with all the specifications for different cartridges, powder weights and such but a skimpy little pamphlet that tells you the basic steps of reloading with the kit. Of course the Reloading manual is in there too, the big hardcover manual but no set-up instructions. The thing is, there are at least 7 or eight parts in the box and for some of them I have absolutely no idea how to attach them to the main press nor do I know the purpose of one or two of them. That sucks. I do not want to take a chance of getting it together wrong, then finding out at the range when a bullet I reloaded explodes in my face as that would suck even more.

Come Monday, I will call both MidwayUSA and Hornady to see who will be more helpful to me in getting it set up. I have already heard disappointing stories about Hornady customer service, but I am hopeful they at least will know how to set it up or will have available a set-up reference chart or instruction manual to send to me. I will make it a point, to point out to them, that I would rather have had an instruction sheet printed in China and maybe even in Chinese than none at all!

All the best,
Glenn B