Goat Lady Diary

I am going here on Sunday. They are having on open house Sunday afternoon. It should be pretty cool. They have great cheese. I have bought there Feta style a few times at the market and it is amazingly smooth and pretty dam yummy. Camera time.

http://www.goatladydairy.com

Happy Birthday Tia

Well today my dear niece Tia turns 21. Still a child and also a adult. You have grown from the little girl who tormented her brother into a fine young lady with the world at your door.

Always with a little bit of an independent streak, always caring and kind, your future is bright and the world is waiting for contribution to mankind.

Watch your step, the road is bumpy and full of potholes. Travel them with care.

You have done well and made us proud. Enjoy your first day as an adult and know we all love you.

Happy birthday Kiddo. Cut the cake and have drink.

Paul Simon Willie Nelson Homeward Bound

Happy Humpday. Hope this makes you smile.

The scamming Damsel

I recently signed up for Yahoo Personals to give it a shot. Along with the real ads there are more than a fair share of women, maybe, who want to engage you in emails through hotmail and send you pictures of themselves and their undies. Then it seems their profile goes away. I have not gone down that road because I suspect that many of these are some sort of internet scam. I wonder how many of these are people out there attempting to get some sort of financial gain or whatever. I find it disturbing to have to weed through this.

Finally got a decent nights sleep last night.

All is good in Greensboro land. Fairly quiet and uneventful.

Goodbye Weekend

Well its Sunday evening and for the most part the weekend is over.

I went to the flea market and the herb fest yesterday. I ended up buying an old bench at the flea market for $35.00. That was a steal compared to the prices I saw for most benches. It was a very large flea market and there were a decent amount of people there. The one thing I was surprised about was the prices. I thought for the most part that the prices were high. I did not see a whole lot of buying going compared to the amount of people that were there.
However I am happy with my purchase so that it what really counts.

I did go to the herb fest after the flea market. It was very small, 7 people selling. I did get orange mint and chocolate mint. They are already potted and sitting on my bench.

I did go to the pottery fest, almost did not go, and was disappointed. Not that many dealers really. However they were much more disappointed than me. Horrible horrible attendance. The show goes from 12-6 Friday, 9-6 Saturday and 12-5 today. As of close of business yesterday that had a total attendance of 1400 people. There was a tiny crowd today. Last year the attendance was 5500 for the same time frame. The dealers were clearly not pleased. However i did buy something. It is a business card holder in the shape of a hand. I need this for my desk at work and had been looking for something that was not like everyone else's.

Overall an ok weekend. Slept like crap, again. That is another thing I am going to talk to the doctor about. That and my headaches and a few other things.

Have a good Sunday night.

Weekend

Looks like a decent amount of rain this weekend. Hopefully it holds off during the day tomorrow. I am going to the Herb Fest in the morning and see what cool herbs I can find.

I want some things that have a great scent. Mints for sure. Then in the early afternoon I am going to go to the Liberty Antiques show. This is a twice a year show. All antiques, no new items or crafts. I want to see if I can find something to put my plants on. Sunday is the pottery show.

The great thing is herbs are cheap, I do not pay a lot for antiques and I look for great deals on pottery.

A couple weeks ago I went to a little pottery show and bought this tall jar with a lid. This potter had this jar I liked and when I picked it up and looked at the tag it said $2.00. It thought it was mismarked. I asked the guy "is this right" and if it was correct why just $2.oo. He said it was right and was going to put free on it. The reason, he did not like the lid. It is not perfectly tight but it is more than adequate. I bought it. Now I am using it for my coffee. It looks good on the counter and it is better than any $2.oo container you will ever get at the store.

Picture was taken at Zion National Park. This is a park I really want to go back and visit. Very beautiful. Also very very hot during the summer. The great thing about this park is that you are at the bottom looking up. Most of the parks in the area have you at the top looking down. There are streams and waterfalls, deer and other great wildlife. Very cool place.

Earth Day

Dear Mother Earth,

Thank you for being our friend despite that the fact that we rape you daily, strip your land, foul your air, poison your waters.

Thank you Mother Earth for being our friend despite the fact that we spoil your beauty.

Thank for letting us cut down your trees, and remove your mountain tops, and dam your rivers.

Thank you for letting us manipulate your genes, and for letting us kill your animals.

Thank you for letting us overpopulate you lands for our own devices.

We are sorry Mother Earth. Someday will learn to care for you and repay your kindness.

Nada

Nothing new going on here. All if fairly quiet this week. Going to dump some stop leak into the radiator and see if that works. I think the housing for the thermostat may have a crack. I hope that works. It is annoying to not be able to see where the leak is coming from. With so much crap on the motor you can not get a good view down into the block.

Powerball is 252 million dollars tonight and since nobody won mega millions last night that is at 166 million. Lots of money will be won by somebody soon. After I win I am going on a long roadtrip around the U.S.. Then I am going to buy a house in the mountains and one on the beach and open a little gallery and used bookstore. After that I am done spending on me.

Big Seagrove pottery show this weekend and the herb fest at the local market Saturday.

I have always liked vans of this style.

America

I remember this commercial very well from my youth. It is sad to know that in many ways we have learned so little about our planet that we continue to abuse it with no thought about it and our future.

What will be the tipping point?

Hi, its Monday

Fairly quiet weekend. Did not do a whole bunch really. Did do some picture taking, bought a toaster oven and a couple other things at Wally World yesterday.

Saturday morning I went to one of the local markets and bought some fresh bread, granola and goat cheese spread. The goat cheese spread comes from this local farm

http://www.goatladydairy.com/ . They are having an open house in two weeks and I think it may be a neat little thing to head over to and check it out. Shoot some pictures, buy some cheese and just be outside at a farm.

Work is going to be very busy this week. Six bids have to go out besides every other thing that is going on. Crime is paying me well.

If you have not seen or even heard about the video clip leaked to http://wikileaks.org/ please head over and watch the clip called Collateral Murder. You need to take in the whole thing and you can decide what you think about what you see. This is something I really encourage you to do.

Front row

Well I am bringing the truck into the repair shop. It seems that it maybe the upper radiator hose that was replaced six weeks ago that has the leak. Before I make any plans for the weekend this has to be fixed first.

It that goes well and cheaply then i can do a couple things. I do need to get myself some jeans and shirts for work. Maybe I'll visit a thrift store for the shirts. I do want to go to the Earth Day Event at Wake Forest but that depend on the truck. Also need to get another new toaster. Mine just about grew wings the other day. Why are they such pieces of crap? I also need to go grocery shopping.

Earthquakes, volcano's, are hurricanes next or massive fires. What is mothernature telling us?

Damm I wish I was at the Wanee Fest in Live Oak, Florida this weekend. Big time bummer.

Larry King you stud.

Thursday Thoughts

Last night I feel asleep watching tv. At midnight I woke and went to go to the bathroom. I got very very dizzy and had to sit on the floor. Now my side hurts at the back right side of my rib cage. Now I am wondering when I went to sit down when I was dizzy if maybe it was more like a graceful fall. I know I did wake up lying on the bathroom floor. HHMMM.

Why is Sarah Palin so popular? Absolutely astounding such a fool can be seen as a leader.

So I have bought a few books recently and those are on hold for one I just received from an Ebay purchase. The book is called "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Polan. In brief it is about four different meals and how the foods from those meals came to the dinner plate. From farm or field, factory or organic, manufactured or mothernature and the implications those foods have on us today. The meals are basically broken down into the standard meal we eat from the grocery store, organic meals and the a meal as a hunter gatherer. It is very well written and interesting.
If you want to read it when I am done I can loan it out.

I have been at my job for a tad over three months at this point. Guess what, I am actually enjoying my job. Simply amazing.

My nephew is getting out of control partying and my brother refuses to believe it from what I understand. The thought is either somebody, like me, needs to make my brother understand this or we let him continue his fall. I understand he is one ticket away from losing his license and that would make many of his troubles go away in a hurry. Do I make the call and have my brother and nephew super pissed at me. My brother and I now work together alot since he is the main contact with one of the companies we work with. Do we let my nephew fuck up and take a fall. He is going to college in Sept. and we all know what a mine field this could be.

Picture is from St. Marys, Georgia.

Taxman George Harrison Eric Clapton Live

No matter where you live in the United States and no matter WHO your leaders are in local, state and federal government we need to make them spend our tax dollars wisely. They have wasted our dollars and have not kept the roads up, our water systems, education system, not spent wisely on care for the poor and sick and yet they ask for more. This is not right.

We need to pay taxes to run the country, however the tax system needs to be fixed.
There needs to be a lower tax burden on individual Americans, less loopholes and we need corporate America to pay their fare share of taxes. Local governments should not be able to give any corporations tax breaks to get them to move to their town, county or state. Ultimately this forces more of the tax burden on the individual. In a sense we are paying their expenses. Simply wrong.

Substantial equivalence

Last evening I watched a documentary on the Sundance Channel about Monsanto. It is a French movie called "The World According to Monsanto". For me it basically confirmed most of what I already knew about them and how they have been able to use corporate power and influence to push its agenda in the name of financial gain.

As you may already know GMO, genetically modified foods, can not be labeled as such in the United States. They do not have to be tested to see if there is any potential harm caused my the modification. It would seem quite reasonable that testing should be done. Currently if foods have dyes added to change the color and other additives are put into foods they are tested for a variety of things, including cancer. Why would you not test a food where you genetically alter its structure.

In testing these foods it has been shown that the food has potential to do harm. They have tested the item being added to the food and the food itself before the modification and things seem to be fine. However it seems that when the two are put together there is cause for alarm because cancer and other potential health issues have been found.

Since it has been determined that foods do not have to be label there has been an explosion of GMO foods onto the market. This is all driven by financial gain and nothing else.

We have a right to know what we are eating and need to force to government to change the labeling laws to correctly identify what we are actually eating.

It is time Americans actually rallied around something that will make an actual difference in the way our foods are produced and the implications it will have for future generations. Unfortunatley I suspect that as long as food is cheap people just do not care what potential harm is being done. They seem to forget that if we forced them to grow and produce healthier foods that they would have to learn to do this in a way that we could afford as the public at large and earn them the profits they desire.

Please take a look at "substantial equivalence" and see what you think. I suspect that you will not like what you find.

Picture is of organic peppers at a farmers market.

Steve Earle and The Del McCoury Band--Mountain

The song and video say it all about the miners and their mountains.


Going to try and get my truck registered today. I do not have a copy of the title since Florida keeps electronic records and I found out yesterday that you have to pay them for a paper copy. Most likely a futile effort. But there is hope.

Another day and another headache yesterday. They had gone away. Now they have been back in the last week. Went to sleep at 10 last night. Hopefully I do not get one today.

Earth Day events are starting to happen. Maybe going to check one out Saturday over at Wake Forest University. I may decide to go to Bluefield instead.

Have some pepper plants growing on the porch. They are thriving. I was thinking of making some type of hot sauce. Of course thinking about it is most likely as far as it will get. :)

Happiest Girl in the Whole USA

I like this version. Very interesting use of this song in the HBO series "Big Love".
This is a very good series. This girl is not the happiest.

Sunday Morning Musing

As I sit here listening to the Grateful Dead on archive.org I thought I would pass along some tidbits of news, views and observations.

I spent all Friday night and 2 hours after work yesterday fixing the sound on my computer. I stopped getting sound from the mouse, startup and more importantly Youtube and other flash sights. It seems this is not all that uncommon. Some bullshit to do with Adobe Flash 10. I went through fix after fix recommended and not a damm thing changed. I did have sound through Winamp and such. After spending a bunch of time doing assorted things Friday night I finally decided to do a system restore and that really f'd things up. Now no sound anyplace. Ok now I am done for the night. After work yesterday I went through and did assorted fixes to the drivers and I got sound. Thankfully before my limited patience ran out.

Why do toasters today suck?

I really do not like my granite countertops. They look nice but they streak so damm bad when you clean them. I also hate my black stove top. Again looks nice but always wants to streak unless I use papertowels to clean them.

So I recently had my radiator flushed and had a new upper hose put on. I still seem to be losing a little fluid. However what is very odd is there seems to be some radiator fluid getting into my windshield washer fluid. When I wash the windshield I get a very strong smell of radiator fluid.

How the hell is that?

My apartment complex is gated and for non-residents to get in they call your phone and you press number whatever and the gate opens. Well there is some fuckhead taxi driver who keeps calling my number asking to get in. I have now started to berate him about calling my number. He has called in the middle of the fucking night. I want to beat his ass. How fucking stupid is he. Call the number of the person who called you. I am about to fucking lose my temper with this sheet stain of humanity.

The weather is quite nice and I am going to head out shortly. I need some new shirts and jeans.

Also going to head to the farmers market. That is starting to get a little busier. May head to a pottery show near downtown. I really need a good vacuum cleaner. However since I want to pay off all debt very soon I am trying to keep spending at a minimum.

I hope Tiger wins today and Gloria Allred has a mental breakdown.

I am Dixiefied

It is official, I am now a resident of North Carolina. I passed my drivers license test and registered to vote today. Of course you actually do not get your license the same day here. They actually mail it too you. Why you ask? Illegal aliens is the answer. It seems they were going and getting a license and they actually had no legal address here. So now you have to have an address and they mail the thing. I actually had to bring the following: Florida license, social security card, a bill with my address, proof of insurance and because both my license and social security have my middle initial and not full name I had to bring my birth certificate. WTF, seems a little excessive in my opinion.

I am working tomorrow. Since the manager of the store is out and we only have person for the store he can not be alone on a Saturday. So my plans for tomorrow are fucked. That is two Saturdays in a row. Of course this did not come about until about 3 p.m. today. The only that gets me is this situation should have been resolved on Tuesday. Oh well, I'll be learning about guns. We had this old wack job in the store today talking shit about Iranians and Blacks. he doesn't trust them. How to hold ones tough from giving these people my thoughts is quite interesting. You should see me. You would be proud.

Legalize it, don't criticize it.

Peace, love and yogurt.

Eye of the Beholder

It looks like rain is coming today and the pollen will be washed away.

I feel so mellow cause my car is coated yellow.

I have actually not seen the pollen so heavy, ever.

It seems the fan in my computer power supply decided to stop making noises.

Running late, overslept, feeling good, gotta run.

I love this picture.

Out the door, ya bums

So now the latest screwing off the flying public comes from Spirit Air. They are going to start charging people up to $30 for carry-on luggage. The CEO of Spirit Air, Ben Baldanza, stated "Nobody brings a package to Fed-Ex or UPS and expects them to ship it for free". Hey dumb ass maybe you did not know this, WE ARE NOT FLYING WITH THAT PACKAGE AND YOU ARE NOT A MAIL DELIVERY SERVICE. It is about time that we the paying public start pushing back against corporate greed of this nature and refuse to do business with companies who continue to reach into our pockets and not play pocket pool, but steal our money. Why do we continually let them get away with this? If we start to push back and hold our ground they will have to give in or they will go away.

The next corporation that needs a slap is Massey Corp. If you listened to what Don Blankenship, Chairman and CEO of Massey, has been saying you might think the miners are at fault for what happen at the mine. This corporation continues to be a poor corporate citizen and they continue to get away with. If you wonder why they get away with the things they do maybe here are some reasons.

I present the corporate board. You may have heard of some of the people.

· Don Blankenship chairman and CEO, Massey Energy

· James B. Crawford, former chairman and CEO, James River Coal Company and former President and CEO of Transco Coal Company.

· General Robert H. Foglesong, retired four-star general, U.S. Air Force (including commander of U.S. Forces in Europe and Vice Chief of Staff at the D.C. HQ of the U.S Air Force).

· Richard M. Gabrys, former vice chairman, Deloitte & Touche LLP

· Admiral Bobby Inman, former director, National Security Agency has been a director since 1985. He has been a tenured professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He is also a former Deputy Director of the CIA.

· Barbara, Lady Judge. chairman, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, is a member of the Trilateral Commission and Chairman of the Governing Body of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

· Dan R. Moore, the chairman, Moore Group Inc., owns five automobile dealerships in Williamson , WV. He is the former President/CEO of Matewan BancShares which was sold to BB& T in 1999. He is a director of the WVU Foundation Board · Baxter F. Phillips Jr., president, Massey Energy, has served in various positions at Massey (such as Executive VP/CEO) since joining the company in 1981.

· Stanley C. Suboleski, a former commissioner of Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission served in that position 2003-2006.

Here is Blankenships Twitter page. You'll love his tweets. Classic bullshit.

http://twitter.com/DonBlankenship

This guy has considerable power and is not somebody to back down in a fight. However you would think that some compassion for the miners who put money in his pocket would be a nice option for him.

Just remember that while the coal industry wants you to think coal is the best thing ever for WV please remember that this part of the country is one of the poorest areas in the United States.

Coal has not been good to the people of WV. Yes it provides for the families of the area and provides us with vital energy, however they have treated these people very very poorly.

Just do a little research and you can come to your own conclusions.

Drats

Well it was a great game last night. I just wish Butler had won. Both teams played very well.

I found a great bookstore in Boone on Sunday. I posted the three new books I bought on Shelfari. Boone was very cool. Weather was great and there were lots of people out and about.

Need to get the DMV book so I can take my NC drivers license test this week. Then I have to get my truck inspected. What a waste of time. If you have no points on your license you should be able to transfer the thing. You also can not make an appointment and have to wait in line forever.

Miners have a brutal job. You would think the corporations would do all they can to make the mines safe. Seems they can avoid big fines and continue bad practices. Yet they continue to get away with the same problems. A non-union mine.

Peace For Sale

Why does the government give control of community water resources to corporations? Since water is essential to life corporations should not be allowed to profit from this resource.

Why should corporations be allowed to patent the genes in your body and then control how medical research and medical decisions are made in relation to that gene.

Why should corporations be allowed to patent seeds?

Why do corporations have the same rights as an individual?

Why do local governments continually give tax breaks to corporations to move into their community? They should be paying the bulk of taxes and if a tax break is actually needed it should go to the citizens of the community.

Why have we forgotten the it is "Government for the People, by the People". We need to start demanding the government does what we want and need them to do, not what corporate America wants. We need to take actual action, not just sit back and wonder what is going on.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me.
My bones ache and sinus problems are bothering me.

Wow, 47 years old today. Crap. I guess in many ways I am not young any more.
My mind feels young and that is a great thing. I just feels weird to think I am 47.
After work today I am going to go downtown. They are having "First Friday". So many of the galleries and other stores will be staying open late. There are other things going on. It should be fun and crowded since the weather will be great.

Going to have to work tomorrow, so no Bluefield. I have to get the store ready. I do not trust anybody else to get the store set like I want it too be. Oh well, what you gonna do. At least it will look good.

Time to run. Going in to work early.

What

Yesterday the powers that be at work decided we are moving our store today and tomorrow so they can be open Saturday. Holy Crap, there is lots to be done, moving the store and still trying to do office work at the same time. We are only moving one store over but damm this is a little rushed. It will not be how I want it to look at all. I guess its move things over, set it up, and fix it next week. Crazy.

The visit with my parents was good. They enjoyed Florida and now they get to go home to all that rain they have had in Ct. They seem happy.

The 80 degree weather is here. Woo Hoo.

Gotta run. Long day at work.