Sunday, April 26, 2015

Here Is What I've Done Today...

...not that you would be interested but please allow me to say that retired life is great. So far, today, I:

Woke up at about 0530 and I am sure only because I was getting up each workday for the last few weeks at that hour.

Went right back to bed after taking a pee.

Slept until about 0730 and again went right back to bed after another pee.

Dragged my arse out of bed at about 0830.

Ate breakfast after I made it for myself. I had left over ham heated in a pan with butter until browned nicely on the outside, a couple of sunny-side up eggs, a couple of pieces of toasted Lithuanian bread slathered with butter and a couple of cups of Joe.

Signed onto the Internet during my second cup of Joe.

Sat on mine arse for hours at my computer during which time I read my email, paid some bills, looked up some stuff on my critters, blogged, placed a post on a reptile forum, did the Facebook things for a bit, looked over and read some of the news at FoxNews.com (twice) and accomplished absolutely nothing of any great importance.

I also fed my critters, did some tank maintenance on my aquariums, had a shot of moonshine, looked at my email and the news again and farted at least once.

I definitively decided against going to Home Depot to pick up the first ten or so bags of lawn soil that I will need to kind of, sort of, just about flatten out the other half of my backyard before we have a garden fence installed.

I explained away my not going to Homer's to my wife and she agreed, I should wait until tomorrow. Maybe that was because I also did some dishes and folded some wash.

I think I also scratched my package a couple of times somewhere in there and I took another piss and a dump too.

Yes, I washed my hands several times.

Sat back down at the laptop for awhile again and did a lot of nothing.

Other than that, I gave a few gifts to the family that I bought at Cabela's yesterday, gave my brother-in-law the younger an overdue birthday present, petted the dogs, fed the tortoises and bearded dragons and the fish and newts again and maybe scratched my package again.

Before dinner, by maybe an hour or so, I cooked up some fresh baby octopuses (or is it octopi - or both) that came packaged with a few pieces of red and green peppers (hot ones, I think of both of them) and garlic and some tomato paste of one sort or another that was also in the package. I added some salt and pepper, cooked it all in olive oil and butter. I forgot the scallions I had also bought to add to the mix but did not forget the oyster mushrooms. It was friggin delicious! My wife ate some and oddly enough she really enjoyed it; so did my son.

We had dinner after that, roasted chicken and that was scrumptious too. Had another goodly sip of moonshine (did I mention the first one) and am now enjoying a Golden Monkey Tripel Ale (which certainly has become on of my all time favorites) as I blog this post. It is available at Costco at an excellent price. While I do not get anything for giving Victory Brewing Company and their products a plug, I sure wish, that in this case, they would send me a case or three - which I gladly would accept and so note here on the blog.

Just poured and a starting the second beer right now. Am contemplating another wee dram of moonshine.

Lest I forget, my son and I sampled the moonshine cherries that I started to soak last night. I have figured that if I pay $22 for a pint of moonshine and put half of it into a jar with three jars of maraschino cherries, instead of buying Moonshine Cherries also for $22 per jar, I will be better off. Why? Because it takes about four jars of cherries at $1.49 a pop, added to half a jar of moonshine to make up a batch thus leaving me half a jar of straight moonshine left to sip. You do the math. As for the cherries, they tasted alright but have not soaked long enough yet for the full effect. I figure that should improve drastically over the next couple to few days - at least if we can avoid eating them before then.

Not an interesting life - today or possibly any other day - but it sure is great being retired because I can do more of the same, which is pretty much more of nothing, just about any day. As long as the gout (and any other ailments) stay at bay, and the wife does not try to kill me for being a lazy bum, I am okay with it.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

You Shoot An Armed Home Invader...

...the police arrive on the scene. They tell you, who possibly had every right to shoot the invader: 'Police don't move, drop your weapon'. What you do next could either save your own life or cause you to lose it at worst or be injured at best. If you were in a similar situation, to this, what would you have done?

All the best,
Glenn B

Another Pic Of A Woman With Her Finger On The Trigger

What is it with all these woman, with their fingers on the triggers of firearms, when having their photographs taken? Hasn't anyone taken a moment to teach them the rules of firearms safety??? By the way, this photo posted for your education relative to firearms safety and nothing else - yeah right!


Anyway, I would not mind being her firearms instructor as I am sure most men would not mind one little bit.

All the best,
Glenn B

Road Trip To The Hamburg Reptile Show & Cabelas

I took a short road trip to Hamburg, PA yesterday to attend the Hamburg Reptile Show. Normally the trip takes about 2.5 hours, it took me about 3.5 due to traffic in NYC. Once there, I spent a few hours inside the Hamburg Field-House debating whether or not I should buy any of the wide variety of herps that the many vendors had on display there. I badly wanted to pick up four or five Blue Tailed Newts and a couple or few of Iranian Newts, that a certain dealer was offering but declined; more on this later. There were a lot of other dealers offering anything from venomous species, like Puff Adders, Pygmy Rattlers and Gila Monsters to those offering the more mundane (and safer) herps like Sulcatta Tortoises, Pixie Frogs, Colorado River Toads, Corn Snakes and Ball Pythons. There were also folks selling non-herp species like several types of tarantulas, scorpions, and rodents.

I debated not only on those newts but also considered picking up some guinea pigs, ducklings and rats (the last two as snake food and the first as potential breeders for a colony of cavies for possible people food); I declined despite badly wanting those newts. In fact, I declined getting all but one herp - a normal appearing ball python, obviously a 2015 hatchling but of large enough size to know it has been eating well. I got that not for myself but as a donation to the Long Island Herpetological Society's annual auction set for June 7th.

All in all, I had a great time there with only one bump in the road so to speak. As a quick suggestion to dealers (of anything), let me say that you really ought to be careful about what you talk about in front of your potential customers. I was about to purchase at least 5 of the Blue Tailed Newts (from a dealer with whom I have done business before) and two or three of the Iranian Newts. That would have amounted to about a $200-$250 purchase depending on how many I bought and depending on if I would get the 5 to 10% discount for which I was going to ask for buying multiple animals. Suddenly, without even acknowledging I was standing there for a few minutes already, his apparent partner (the other guy working his table anyway and someone I have never met or dealt with before) started talking about people who ask for a discounted price when buying a few to several animals from them. His partner called those folks several derogatory names including: "...cheap fucking assholes..." for trying to get a better price when they were offering a good price already. The other dealer, the guy I have dealt with before, heartily agreed.

Then the first guy ranted on and on for at least five minutes about such customers, all in a very negative manner, as I stood at their table looking at their offerings and listening to every word that this loud mouthed slob (who had food falling from his mouth while talking because he was stuffing sandwich into his mouth at the same time) spewed from his blowhole. The guy with whom I have done business agreed with him every time he blasted those 'fucking cheap assholes' and he threw in a couple of choice descriptions of his own. They both totally ignored me, the customer waiting to be attended to by them. In the past, I have asked for and received such discounts from that same particular dealer on some newts that I purchased from him.

It is standard operating procedure among most reptile & amphibian dealers to discount the price somewhat when a good number of animals are purchased at the same time. Yesterday though, I did not even inquire about such a discount since they were so busy slamming customers who asked for a discount. I was about to say something like 'Hey you peckerwood dickhead, I was about to ask for a discount on five or more of these Blue Tailed Newts and on two or three of the Iranian Newts here, does that make me a cheap fucking asshole?' . I decided that instead of getting myself all worked up, I would keep my blood pressure at a decent level and not fuck up my remaining time at the show. So, I just walked away and ignored them. 

That means I also left without spending a dime on their stuff; maybe thy can afford to lost a $200-$250 sale but I figure that is bad business. I would have to have been a true asshole to have spent one penny there, so as it turns out - the real assholes were the two guys behind the table bad mouthing customers. I am going to post the above note about the dealers on a reptile forum that I know the guy with whom I have dealt before will have a good chance of seeing it. Fuck him and his big mouthed asshole business associate.

Anyway, I had a good time at the show, probably at least in part because I maintained my cool (for once). Besides the one snake that I bought, I also picked up some supplies that I needed for my critters at home. Then I went to Cabela's.

Ah yes, that is what makes the trip to this particular reptile show more alluring than most to which I have traveled - Cabela's is only a 5 minute drive from the field-house. While at Cabela's, I truly enjoyed the museum quality display of stuffed animals taken by hunters.


I also enjoyed watching the decent variety of live fish they have on display in their spectacular aquariums. Of course, I also perused their merchandise. I spent $185 at Cabelas. Truth is, I had not anticipated spending almost anything there and at fist purchased only$27.00 worth of firearms related stuff that I needed, like some  Breakfree CLP and a box of ammo. That ammo was a single box of 100 rounds of CCI Mini-Mag 36 grain CPHP ammo. It was a lone box only because there was a one box per purchase restriction on them.

When I got to my car, I decided I would go back inside and buy another box of the ammo. Well, I did that but also wound up purchasing some needed items and some gifts for my family. As for the needed items, I picked up two LifeStraws (one each for me and my son) for our hunting trips. I also got some candied nuts for my daughter, a jar of Cabela's dry rub mix for my son-in-law, a couple jars of spicy mustards (for my brothers-in-law), a sweater for my wife, a two pound bag of sausage ends & pieces (for me, my son and whomever), a couple of shake & bake style boxes of buffalo sauce flavored chicken coating, a toy for my dogs, and a bag of Andy Capp's Hot Fries - all that along with another box of the mini-mags. After all, I still had that $200-$250 that I had not spent, as I had planned to spend, on those newts at the reptile show.

All the best,
Glenn B