Doing the News

A/C unit royally buggered but at least the fireplace works and the illumination from the new ceiling fan seems about three times brighter than it’s predecessor! Tonight’s wrapping music so far… Toccata and Fugue in D minor — JS Bach Piano Concerto No 2, op 18 — Rachmaninoff YouTube’s selections are wise! :)

So a couple of days ago, the light kit on the ceiling fan in the living room decides it wants to arc inside the casing and trip the breaker merely because I had the temerity to flip the sodding wall switch and actually desire the room to be illuminated. Not that it happens very often because I prefer the dark but if you're going to be hanging ornaments on the tree that has made its…

As my "Favourite Troublemaker of the Absolute Very Best Kind"(tm) has reminded us, today marks the start of Hanukkah. I was intrigued a couple of years back by the notion of the shamash candle (the "servant" or "attendant" candle that is used to light the eight candles on the Menorah)…the idea of celebrating that which serves the needs of others is something I think this world could do a fair bit more often. So in…

After dropping Alex off at school, the return to the house was a bit more interesting than is usual. The Knightdale Bypass (I-87) was already massively jammed due to a MVC for luckily for me, the jam didn't impede my ability to get off at the usual exit at the New Hope Road. As I'm waiting for the light at the top of the ramp to change, one of the fire trucks dispatched from Fire…

And no, it's not about the bloody coronavirus though those numbers are horrific as well as heading in the wrong direction. 137mph. 53 G's. That's what the telemetry is saying Romain Grosjean's car was experiencing right at the point of impact with the safety barrier that the cockpit ended up slicing through to the other side. By comparison, astronauts riding the Saturn V would experience 4 G's and the Shuttles would routinely max at 3…

All the best to Romain Grosjean who had more than a few angels with him whose survival cell ended up piercing the safety barriers in a massive fiery crash in Bahrain. That he managed to be conscious enough to extricate himself from the front half of the car that detached from the rear of the car in a head-on crash well over 100mph was nothing short of a miracle. Massive props to the medical car…

The battery swap on the 2014 Traverse isn’t as easy as it once was… :(

The FAA has just put up NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen) designating an one-mile radius TFR (temporary flight restriction) marked VIP/SECURITY over Joe Biden's house in Wilmington, DE. They don't do that this close to a general election unless they're darned sure they have a presidential successor in that area, especially given that he's smack in the middle of a very congested air corridor from DC to NYC and very close to KPHL which tends to…

Mr Trump gives us probably one of the best takes on herding 330M+ cats…in spite of everything, I couldn't help but laugh at this unexpected and delightfully witty take! :) “They’ll go, 'Mr. President, tell me: who is the country that's most difficult to deal with? Is it Russia, is it China, is it North Korea?'"“No, by far the most difficult country to deal with is the US. It's not even close.”President Donald Trump on…

2020 has been a brutal year and this election has certainly had more than a little to contribute to the strife and anguish and division we are all feeling. COVID-19 is bad enough but eventually we will find a vaccine for it and life will return to some semblance of normal. But the intense hatred and violence and threats of more to come? Our society has survived more than a few crises for almost 250…

With best wishes for all those wandering about in fancy dress canvassing their neighbourhoods for candies and treats...this evening is for looking at history back some 39 years. My father was stationed at Ft Sam Houston near San Antonio TX and Halloween came round as it always does. But this year was going to be special...I'd found out a while earlier that Mom was pregnant and due in October and Lee finally made good on…

I ordinarily don't do the "share memories" thing but in this case given last night's announcement by their excellencies the Wake County School Board vis-a-vis band activities which effectively renders impossible the normal functioning of a band by banning woodwinds and brass that make up the majority of the instruments from playing, I give you this picture of the Fuquay-Varina Marching Bengals featuring Miss Savannah Coley as one of two colour guard members performing at…

To all of my friends and family who are celebrating the New Year...a very sincere wish for one far more sweet than the one we've endured and a hope that all of the people can eventually find peace and love for each and for all.

I never imagined a month ago as I stood near this iconic building tucked behind the US Capitol that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would no longer be with us. After all, she'd fought many health issues these past few years with a courage only a few of us could ever imagine and she seemed like she'd outlast them all through sheer force of will and perseverance. And whether you agreed with her positions on many…

It's been somewhat amusing watching the various political parties and lobbying groups carpet-bomb my mailbox for the last month or so and I'm pretty sure the next seven weeks will be more of the same. I can't even imagine how much postage the Republican Party or their surrogates has wasted sending near-daily advertisements with the occasional "survey and personal appeal" from President Trump (actually, it really comes from the Republican National Committee) who seems more…

Random video in the YouTube recommendations list…George Carlin busting a rant in one of his HBO specials with visible subtitles in Italian. He's a laugh riot in English but in Italian it is next-level awesome! Oh, YouTube…you know me so well! :)

This lovely phrase comes from the Magyar language (modern day Hungarian) and it literally means "NO, NO, NEVER!" Amongst the older generation of Hungarians back in the day, this would refer to the hated Treaty of Trianon imposed upon Hungary from the victorious powers of WWI that saw Hungary reduced to one third it's historical size and made the country the land-locked country it is today. The Treaty was so resented by the Hungarians of…

Finally the new series of Top Gear is upon us which once again allows us to follow the boys larking about in cars and generally delighting silly petrol heads. But in the first episode, it is clear that someone in the production team has a right buggered sense of humour or they don’t particularly fancy listening to Lancastrians. So Chris Harris, Freddie Flintoff, and Paddy McGuinness are tooling about in convertibles they bought on a…

This really blows…Sergio Perez has given his all for Force India / Racing Point but it looks like he's getting the push so that Seb can take his seat. I can't be the only one that thinks that not only does that completely suck rocks but that Seb Vettel is a daft choice to replace Checo. Just goes to show you that billions can buy you a F1 team but it ain't worth a hill…

Nick finished up the required six hours of behind-the-wheel training clearing the way for him to seek his learner's permit under graduated licencing. Today's session was very early this morning and apparently he did a bit more "drifting" today on the motorways than he had the previous two days. Of course, the first image that popped into my head was him doing a fair heap of oversteer and letting the rear of the car slide…

Today was Nicholas' first official day behind the wheel for the first two of six required hours of check rides before he can apply for his learner's permit from DMV and experience the joys of graduated licencing. To say he was more than a little bit nervous was a grand understatement. Very excited to be taking yet another step toward adulthood to be sure but very nervous just the same. Truth be told, he has…

OK, I will stipulate for the record that traveling I-40 was pretty much a monumental amount of suck pretty much from the east end to past the mess that is White Oak just west of the county line. But only the first third of it can be blamed on that scary wall of water descending in one fell swoop from those nasty rain clouds. Once we got past that epic waterfall that people who have…

It seems almost unreal to imagine that my daughter is 14 years old and much closer to when she flies away from the nest than she used to be! It seems like it was yesterday that we were taking the most notorious picture of her we've ever taken. It was taken two weeks after she was born and the boys are hovering over her where she's laying on a pink boppy pillow. Nicholas was fixated…

Today's excitement came in two waves starting off with the joy of logging onto the credit union's bill paying application and sending a "kiss off" final payment for the Traverse to the rat bastards who bought the loan six months from maturity with very little warning that I've done a couple of deep dives on earlier this year. I can assure you they and that payment will not be missed! Now hopefully they'll keep their…