Halfway to a Three Day

Halfway through the week and all is quiet so far.

It seems my truck's a/c is working so far and that is a good thing.
The weather is making a welcome change. It will be in the low eighties for the next week or so instead of the mid nineties. Thank you.

My cayenne peppers are coming in very well. They liked the hot weather quite well and I will have quite a few of them very soon. I think I will make my own salsa and add some heat to it.

Gotta run time for breakfast before work. Not else on my mind this morning.

RIP

Last night two Tampa police officers were killed while doing a routine traffic stop.
Both officers were shot in the head by the passenger of the car. He is still on the run.
Senseless violence by somebody who just got out of prison in April.

Both guys were married. One with four children and the other officer's wife is due to have their first child next week. Both of them were 31 years old.

This is the third officer killed in the line of duty in Tampa in less than a year.

America the land of senseless violence.



RIP.....................................................................

Pet me

I charged my AC in the truck last night. It has been working very poorly for some time now and needed to be fixed. I bought a can of R134-A and gave it a charge. Hopefully it will hold the charge and not leak out. Although I do not use the ac a whole bunch there are times I like to have it.

My brother is in France on vacation for the next three weeks. Must be nice to be able to go for three weeks. They are going to be all over the place and are going to spend a few days someplace on the Mediterranean. His world has changed some much since he met Isabel.

10 Russian spy's arrested in the U.S. yesterday, wonder how many we have there.

Think happy thoughts today, its Tuesday.

Pet building downtown Greensboro.

SOS

Good weekend, very relaxing.

Well the 4th is coming up this weekend and I think I'll go to Walmart and spend some hard earned money so it can go to China. Ok, maybe not. Not really sure what I am going to do.
If Mike and Tammy were not 10 hours away I would head down for their party. I may just go to the beach someplace. Being at the beach that weekend is generally a good time and seems to me to be quite a good way to celebrate.

I suspect work will not be that busy as many people are on vacation and state budgets are ending this week. No money to be spent.

Going to recharge the AC in my truck today or tomorrow.

Had a match.com date yesterday afternoon.

Picture from a salvage place in downtown Greensboro. Not sure if it is even open for business.

Gov't Mule Beautifully Broken

Or end your weekend with some blues and feelings................

Gov't Mule Thorazine Shuffle

Rock out the end of your weekend my friends. I love listening to this hauling ass down the highway, windows open and tune a blarin'.

Its ........um Friday

Well it is Friday and as of now nothing is planned. I might be meeting someone for coffee one of the mornings and do need to bring some pictures to somebody at the farmers market. But really that is it. Need to find a mountain stream to take a dip in.

That's it for this morning. Got nothing else.

Neko Case and Josh Pyke Long Time Gone

Nothing heavy this morning. Just enjoy some good music.

Points of interest

Remember when Walmart used to tout that the "Made in America" phrase in their tv commercials, remember when most furniture sold in the U.S. was made in the U.S., remember when most of the clothing you bought was also made in the U.S. Well, of course you do. I ask this because many Americans blame illegal immigrants for taking American jobs. The fact is we have lost jobs because local, state and federal government actions have caused major industries to move their manufacturing facilities overseas, not because of the illegals coming here. The blame should be placed on Walmart for forcing companies to produce products at such low prices they could no longer make the products here and be able to stay in business. The blame should be placed on corporations for moving overseas to make products at a cheaper price and of a cheaper quality. The blame should be placed on government for not coming up with policy to make it easier for companies to stay here. The blame should also be placed on the citizens of the United States for wanting cheaper products, no matter what the cost.

The jobs illegal are taking today are not jobs Americans were working at before all these companies left and they are not jobs Americans are willing to work at today. Americans are not willing to work as pickers in the fields, make the bed in your hotel, work in the meat processing plants, mow your lawn, build your apartment complex, work in the kitchen at restaurants and do a whole host of others jobs that we have deemed to be menial.

This is how it has always been in every wave of major immigration to the United States and how it will always be. Look at the history of Jews and Italians and Irish that came here and you will see the same arguments made then that you hear today. If we really want no immigration we need to close the borders to ALL immigration, bring ALL the troops home from every base in the world, change the tariff laws, pull the curtains closed and say goodbye to the rest of the world.

The Mexicans are here to stay so get used to the fact and learn to deal with.

If you want manufacturing back here with jobs they bring then stop shopping at Walmart and by American. You will pay more but your neighbor will get his job back, maybe.

And what about all the black people from all over the world brought here as slaves to do jobs that white Americans were unwilling to do.

After I just had most of my cable channels figured out they have now gone and totally revamped the channel lineup. With so many channels it takes forever to figure where the damm channels are.

Last week I got the Facebook page setup for work. On Friday morning we had 16 fans, after the Antler Addiction folks posted us on their page we now have 185 fans. This will become a great advertising tool as we go forward.

I need to go to the beach, soon. It is calling me.

My cayanne peppers are finally turning red.

That's it for now. Adios my friends.

Weekend in Review

It was hhhhoooottt this weekend. I went for a little roadtrip down do South of the Border on Saturday. Bought some fireworks and did some picture taking. Seems like an area I need to head back to when it is cooler and do some heavy picture taking for Fading America. Lots of small towns with some pretty neat things that fit the theme pretty good.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at Wally World. Bought a blender so I can make some smoothies. I figured I would also give a shot at my own salsa and hot sauce. My cayenne peppers are just starting to turn red and the banana peppers are doing fine. I went out to the big farmers market yesterday and bought peaches, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and corn.
Will make some type of smoothie with the fruit.

Today is the summer solstice. Celebrate Mother Earth and show her some love.

Very Busy Week

It has been a very busy week. Tom, my old boss at Law Enforcement Supply was in town the last four days. So I was the entertainment committee the last few nights. We went out and did some shooting and I think I got some decent shots.

Work has been very busy. Back several months ago we were contacted by a local hunting tv show about being a sponsor and they had several packages they offered. They had internet, and Facebook plans and plans offering spots as advertisers for the tv show. I lobbied hard for the tv show show package and it seemed we were going with that package. Like many hunting shows this one airs early on Saturday morning, 6:30 a.m. to be exact. Yesterday I was told we were not going with that package. When I talked with the tv show folks yesterday afternoon they were disappointed. They thought we would be a good fit for them, as I did. It would be a new market for the retail side of the business. Well they came back to us late yesterday and said they wanted to offer us 13 weeks of tv ads for free if we went with the full internet, Facebook, dvd package.

That got the attention of the decision makers. So today the tv team will be in filming a commercial. These will be 30 second spots. The show is called "Antler Addiction". This should bring us a whole new range of business. I also got our Facebook page up and running, under Southern Public Safety.

I have other plans I have made to get us business as soon as some new stock comes in.

Special promos for the local depts., officer of the month and Facebook fans only specials.

My head hurts.

Glad it is the weekend.

Running Late

The big thing on top of the lightbar is a camera system that reads your license plate, feed it through a computer and depending on how the program is configured can tell the viewer lots of info. Can read across three lanes of traffic at one time. Can be viewed remotely.

Very big brother. Coming soon to police near you.

www.skycopvideo.com

No thoughts

Really do not have much to write about today.

Two more payments and I will be debt free. That means a new camera by summers end.

Then it is time to look for a photography class. New camera and new skills.

I think I may do a little roadtrip to South of the Border Saturday and get some fireworks. It will also be a good place to get some great shots of classic Americana. It is about the same as going to Asheville so I can do it as a daytrip.

Why doesn't homeowners insurance cover hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters?

Just wondering if it is about profit and not caring about homeowners.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

It was a pretty decent weekend, although it was quite toasty warm in the afternoons. Close to records in Greensboro. We had some major thunderstorms Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. We also had a good one yesterday afternoon.

I went up to Pelham, NC yesterday to visit a small goat farm. They make excellent cheeses.
I meet Jon, one of the owners, at the local market and we just started talking and he his pretty cool. They had an open house yesterday and I went up for a visit. They have cheese tasting, and you visit the cheese making room, the adult goats and baby goats.

Shortly after I arrived a few of us were in the field with the baby goats and a major thunderstorm started brewing. We got inside before the thunder and lighting arrived. Just in time. The power went out and stayed out the whole time I was there. The generator kicked in and all was good. They need the generator for the coolers where they age the cheese. When were tasting the cheese there was a bolt of lightning right outside and a few of us saw it hit. That ended up hitting the electric fence and blew out the power boxes for all their electric fences.
Crazy weather as the storm front moved through.

I also had unpasturized goats milk. Goat to refridge to me. Very good.

Pictures in a day or so.

All in all a good time on a typical small American farm. A lot of farms around here have open houses to help drum up business. Pretty neat concept. Think I'll visit some more before the summer ends.

www.sleepygoatfarm.com

Question for Authority

When is the revolution going to start?

Where is the change?

When will it be WE before I?

Where are our real leaders?

If we are a such a Christian nation why is everything about money and not love for others?

Why is the education budget the first thing that cuts? To keep us uneducated sheep and easier to control?

How do we get back control from corporations?

Why does the government let so many chemicals into the food chain?

Why not legalize it?

Have we lost control to Big Brother?

What happened to the 40 hour work week?

Whatever happened to real idols?

What if all of us us are wrong?

Gram Parsons EmmyLou Harris In my Hour of Darkness

One of my favorite songs, ever. I can listen tthis one over and over, and have.

Confederate Dick

Well this week has seemed to be very long. Glad it is the weekend. It has not been a bad week, just way too long.

Not sure what I am going to do this weekend. I have an idea of a place to go and shoot tomorrow and I suppose I may to do that. Otherwise I am not really sure what to do. Maybe I will look for art events of some type and see what is going on close to here. As long as it is free, it is for me.

Maybe I can finish my book for the contest this weekend and get that entered. That seems to be the best thing to do.

Watch "Whale Wars" tonight on Animal Planet. Cool show.

Went and shot an AR-15 yesterday. Kinda cool. However we were shooting at 100 yards and you can not see if you hit the target without some type of large scope. I would rather shoot cans or something so you know right away. 100 yards is a long darn way.

Photo at Whitsett Men's Hunting Club.

Thin Lizzy Still in Love with You

If you do not know this song, you should. Give it a listen.

Things to Ponder

Maybe one of the reasons so many Mexicans are coming to the United States is because of our failed policy on drugs and the stupid war on drugs. The combination of a barely functioning gov't in Mexico and the high demand for drugs in the United States has allowed the drug cartels to become a very strong component of Mexican society. Many Mexicans are leaving because the violence the face every day at home is much less than anything they will face here on an every day basis.

When a free country like the United States has the largest population of people in prison in the world and we put people in prison longer for drug possession than we do for murder there is something wrong with our priorities.

We need to change our drug laws. They clearly are not working and will continue to fail and we will continue to increase our prison population with the wrong type of criminals.

We also need to actively work with Mexico to stabilize the country. We clearly have a vested interest in having them become a legitimate nation. If we do not fix this then I predict the country will fail and the floodgate of immigrants will be blown wide open.

As the oil leak continues to grow and more evidence comes to light everyday we are being shown how a corporation operates. They continue to hide facts, lie, spin and hide behind the legal system.

Remember this is how most corporations do business everyday. We can only hope that as a nation we wake up and start to hold corporations to the fire. They do not care about us. They only want your money. With the way banks, mortgage companies, and now oil companies have been shown to operate over the last couple of years you would think that as a nation we would be outraged. We should start to demand they start to act morally and if they do not then we should put pressure on them financially. The only way they feel anything is to hurt their pocketbook. The revolution starts now.

Closed gallery in downtown Greensboro.

I can't breathe

Man, my sinus problems have been bad the last few days. Trying not to use over the counter remedies. But damm if they don't work well. You would think that there would be some type of spray that would work and not be addictive. I have Never got anything real relief from anything from the doctor. It might be time to look for an ENT whose can get this problem fixed once and for all. I know half the time my crappy sleep has too do with sinus problems. One thing I will not do is wear some shit on my head like was suggested to me in the past. I want the god damm congestion to go away.

Other than that all is good. Weather is perfect this morning. Wish I was camping in the mountains. It would be a good morning to be having coffee around a small fire.

Who wants to go camping?

Sparta, NC.

Hot Hot Hot

Yesterday I meet my brother and his boss, Phil, who run Whelen motorsport program for the Nascar Modified series. I went up to Martinsville Speedway and we roamed around the pits, went to the drivers meeting before the race, we were on the track for the driver intros and in victory lane after the race. It was a good time, except it brutally hot. Since we were in the pits, except for the race, I had to wear long pants and it was not fun. In the 90's sitting in the sun was so darn hot it zapped you of energy. But it was fun.

My brother looked good. He has lost 130 plus pounds in a year. He did this by changing his diet and going to the gym twice a day. He now weighs less than I do. Amazing, he has not weighed less than me in many, many years. Congrats to him. Hard work and dedication to a goal has paid off for him.

Picture is from the Moses Cone mansion on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Feather in my cap.

The Grand Re-opening was very successful. The store had its best day in well over a year and they had never had that many customers in the store before, ever. The bosses, vendors and customers all were impressed with the whole event. Score on for Mark.

I am off to Martinsville today to meet my brother and catch some of Nascar's modified racing tour that they sponsor. It should be a blast. Pit passes and a pass to the owners suite. Also should be a good day for pictures.

Here is my first picture for the Megashot contest. I think this is pretty darn good.

Happy Sunday kids.

Grand Re-Opening Day

Well today is the Grand Re-Opening of the new store. We have vendors from a bunch of different company's scheduled to show some different products, free bbq, giveaways of two guns and other products. We advertised in the local paper and sent blast emails to many many agencies. We hope to get people from 50 different agencies at the store today. Who knows how it will turn out. I hope it goes well. These things are always hard to predict. I put a lot of effort into getting the store ready and arranging the vendors so I hope it goes well. I think we are going to have a great turnout.

Will be heading Martinsville to see some racing this weekend. Going Sunday for sure, not sure I am going to be able to make it for qualifying tomorrow. Hopefully I can. It is only about an hour from here so I hope to head out of work early tomorrow and catch some of that.

Trailer photo is from Apalachicola, Florida. Florida's oyster capital. I bet these folks are working there ass off to get as many oysters as possible.

Book

I still have not decided what pictures to us for the book contest. I have a couple of ideas. It is so hard to decide since there will be many people who are very very good entering and need to figure out a theme of some sort. Any idea of a theme will be appreciated.I still have not found an area here that consistently yields me the shots I want. I guess I need to get to Asheville soon. Asheville always seems to work for me. Its a bummer when go out to shoot and really do not find whatever it is you are looking for.

If you go to this link you can see what has been submitted to the contest so far.
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/pbn



Peppers are coming along fine. A couple banana peppers ready to be picked, waiting on the cayenne to turn red.

That's about it for this morning I suppose.

This is a song I want played at my funeral.

Enough

Between BP and the gov't there has been quite a lot of poor and inept reaction for this whole mess. How can this really have been going on for so long, stunningly poor reactions from all party's involved.

The thing I wonder about is, where is all the oil? How much of this is still below the surface just floating and drifting along with the currents. I suspect that there is quite a bit that we have not seen. There needs to be some group that goes out and reports the full scope of the oil that we can see. If you watch the news they are basically reporting the same story each night and never really give any information about the full scope of the slick. They show images from satellites, but nothing from anybody out any distance from shore. Why?

The gov'ts reaction is pathetic, no leadership. Wake up you bums.