JACKIESUE IS BROKEN HEARTED

I had a humorous post I planned to issue today; but Jackiesue has lost her companion, best friend, closest sentinel being: her cat Dexter. 

 It is strange this day and age of the internet that you can feel so close to people that you have never met; but following Jackiesue’s blog for years I feel close to her. 

Young people and families with a household full of people, friends and pets probably don’t understand the connection you make with an animal that shares your life when you are disconnected from family and friends and living alone.   

My wife and I have no close family or friends.  For almost forty years we have live a solitary life of mutual support, love and friendship.  For eighteen of those years we shared our life with a Rag Doll cat we raised from a kitten.  The cat was so much a part of our life that it was our family.  I didn’t cry when my Grandmother who raised me died or when my mother died; but I cried when I held that cat and it was euthanized.

I understand how Jackiesue feels. 

Even if you do not follow the blog Yellow Dog Granny you might access her site and leave a comment of support and understanding.

the Ol’Buzzard

   

MSNBC MORNING JOE

Turning on Morning Joe this morning (Dec. 26, 2018) I felt like I had mistakenly accessed the Christian TV Network. 

Joe makes no secret that he is a fundamentalist; but he doesn’t seem to realize that proselytizing with his continual dialogue about Jesus and Bible quotes is a turn off for Jews, Muslims, Buddhist, atheist and agnostics.  

We are a nation of a mixture of ethnics and beliefs and Joe Scarborough would do well for his audience to stick to the news and hold his religious comments for his home and church. 

the Ol’Buzzard

MADEIRA WINE

I am a wine drinker.   The first bottles of wine I bought was Paul Masson Madeira from Tess Market in Brunswick, Maine back in the early 1960’s.     I have been drinking Madeira wine every since.

 

Some consider Madeira a dessert wine, but I find it a comfort win, especially with cheese or snacks.  It is said that Madeira was the favorite wine of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

 

Madeira originated on the Madeira Islands of Portugal.   I have drunk the Portuguese Madeira in Portugal and a friend occasionally brings me a bottle from the Madeira Festival in New Bedford, Massachusetts. 

Good Portuguese Madeira start around twenty-dollars a bottle; these Madeiras are a little too sweet for my taste.    There are cheaper Madeira, good for cooking, but I find most of them inferior.

My favorite Madeira is American made Paul Masson Madeira at around seven dollars a bottle.  This Madeira has a good smell, is not overly sweet and has a somewhat nutty taste.

 

If you are just trying Madeira, I would recommend Paul Masson; but a warning: Madeira is a fortified wine about 18%.   Enjoy a small glass with a snack, or as an after-dinner relaxer. 

the Ol'Buzzard

I HATE THE WORDS: MAC AND CHEESE

When I hear the words Mac and Cheese, I think of some inferior pig slop offered to the public. 

Macaroni and cheese has been bastardized by Kraft Foods and commercial advertising, and especially restaurants adding everything from cheese whiz to lobster. 

This basic food deserves better.  It should be called Macaroni and Cheese, with respect. 

The recipe is simple and delicious.

·       Boil one cup of dry Macaroni for eight minutes, or until tender - drain

·       In a sauce pan melt one tablespoon of real butter

·       Add one tablespoon of flower and stir continually until bubbly

·       Add one cup of milk (room temperature) and stir until thicken and steaming

·       Add two cups of shredded cheese (your choice) stirring continually until melted.

·       Stir the cooked macaroni into the cheese sauce

·       Pour into a one-quart baking pan (I use glass)

·       Cover liberally with Panko or seasoned bread crumbs

·       Bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes

This will make four reasonable helpings.  Enjoy with a side salad or as a side with a meat dish.

the Ol’Buzzard

Winter Solstice

The Christian calendar declaring January first as the new year is just an arbitrary choice with no foundation in nature.

At our house we celebrate the seasons.    Winter Solstice is the most important; it is the beginning of the new year; it is a time when darkness ends and light comes back to earth. 

My wife and I celebrate the first five days of this new year.  We select five presents and exchange one a day, beginning on Solstice day.  

This year Solstice was perfect: a grey, overcast, mausey day with rain drumming on our metal roof; a perfect day to eat, sleep, read and enjoy each other. 

We send out our thoughts and best wishes for the new year to all who happen to read this.

Namaste

the Ol’Buzzard    

DEATH AND ETERNITY

A BITE OF REALITY

I am past my sell-by-date.   I am of the age that the reality is I will die within the next ten years – and I will be dead a long time.  

Two days ago, I hit an ice patch with my car and slid into an ice bank, resulting in a tear in the front plastic cowling and a dent in the back door of my RAV-4.  

My wife wasn’t happy, but I refuse to be upset about some damage to the car that is repairable.  Shit happens.  

The snow scene up here in Maine is beautiful.  I have a nice home and a great wife, books to read and cats to keep me company.   This accident will cost me a deductible that I can ill-afford, but in the scheme of things: no big deal.

As far as eternity, that is the con of religions.   Religions promise a get-out-of-death-free card that doesn’t exist:   I will pay you tomorrow  for a hamburger today.

It would be great to think that when I die a biker club of big breasted Valkyrie women would roar down to earth to transport me to  Valhalla; where I could pick out my ride, where there is an open bar with Irish Whiskey and good English beer and bowels of ganja for the sampling, where all the women are beautiful and horny, where all the great bands eventually preform: the Stones, Dr Hook, Bob Seger, The Band…

But there is the same chance of that happening as sitting in some celestial heaven with the man-god Jesus. 

You walk through the cemeteries here in New England and find old tombstones with epitaphs and names like Constance Toothacher and Endeavor Bean; people who lived in Maine over four hundred years ago.   They are not sitting ‘up there in heaven’ or ‘down there in hell.’ They are forgotten and their bones are rotting in the ground like everyone who ever lived before them and everyone who has lived after.  Their dogs died, their cats died, their horse died, their cow died, their children died, they died.  There is life and there is death – full stop. 

We are here for a short while and then we are gone.  I can deal with that.

 If it were true that your life passes in front of your face when you die – mine would be a double feature.   It has been an interesting run.  And every day I have left I intend to live to the fullest.

the Ol’Buzzard 

SALAD DRESSINGS - MAYONNAISE AND TOMATOES

I really dislike commercial salad dressings.    To me, they taste artificial.  Their ingredients include chemicals you can’t pronounce, artificial flavors, dies for coloring and preservatives. 

 

The exception is, of course, mayonnaise – I love mayonnaise – just about anything is improved if you slather mayonnaise on it.   Makes any salad taste good.

But I digress:

Here is a list of three easy to make salad dressings that are my standards.

My favorite is Blue Cheese

For years I tried to make a decent Blue Cheese dressing by experimenting, and often using feta cheese … a mistake.  This one works.

½ cup of sour cream

¼ cup of cottage cheese

¼ cup of mayonnaise

¾ cups of crumbled blue cheese

Blend in a food processor until smooth – add some chunks of blue cheese of you like

Creamy Italian

¾ cups of mayonnaise (it is already starting good.)

¼ cup of sour cream

2 tsp of vinegar

¼ tsp each of dry mustard, dried basil and dried oregano

1/8 tsp of garlic powder

1/8 tsp of salt

French Dressing

2 tbsp of sugar

3 tbsp of vinegar (red wine vinegar is great)

¼ tsp of salt

¼ tsp of dried mustard

1/8 tsp of garlic powder

A dash of red pepper flakes

¾ cups of olive oil (a really good brand of extra virgin olive oil makes a difference.)

Vinaigrette are easy

3 parts oil to one-part vinegar and a dash of salt and pepper (experiment with the different vinegar to find what you like.)

You normally think of summer as a time for salads, but salads are great any time as a filler to cut down on the amount of carbohydrates and fats that are consumed in most normal meals.

Tonight, we are having meatloaf, rice, steamed broccoli and a green salad with blue cheese dressing – and of course wine.

I really miss having good tomatoes in my salads.  Those genetically engineered red things that sit on the supermarket shelf are a poor substitute for tomatoes.  We have a short growing season here in western Maine and only get locally grown tomatoes in the summer for a few weeks.  I was raised in the south and remember the big ugly acidic heirloom tomatoes with a taste that was out of this world: tomato sandwiches made with great big slices of acidic tomatoes slathered with mayonnaise.    I feel sorry for the young people today that have been raised on store bought tomatoes.

the Ol’Buzzard

CAPITALISM: THE DEATH OF THE ENVIRONMENT

GLOBAL WARMING: THERE IS NO ANSWER

BECAUSE

the Ol'Buzzard

1984 REVISITED

“The essential act of the party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty, to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any facts that has become inconvenient, …”

Trump and the Republican Party are turning back the clock, not to the 1950’s as some opponents say, but to George Orwell’s 1984.   We have gone down the rabbit hole of 1984 without even realizing the journey.

I fear that the country will not recover from the Trump fascism.  The expectations of a government of checks and balances has been permanently broken.  

The third of the country that is racist, homophobic, fundamentalist and easily manipulated have found their power and will control elections in the Republican party for decades to come.

  “Ingsoc successfully manipulated the mind to the point that a person thinks the opposite of what is true”

Even with a Democratic majority in the House, regardless of the crimes Trump commits, cries for impeachment are like an old man yelling at clouds.   Impeachment would require a vote of sixty-six senators and that will never happen: it would require 14 Republican Senators to cross over and all Democrats to vote as a block. 

The way Senators are elected – two from every state – it is not likely that Democrats will take over the Senate anytime in the future: California (thirty-seven million population) has two Senators, North Dakota (seven hundred thousand population) has two Senators.

The best-case scenario is that the permanently angry, poorly informed, easily manipulated base of the Republican party, controlled by rich capitalist, will continue to elect Senators that will permanent block any progressive agenda.   

The worse case is that the Republican party of Trump has so normalized malfeasance that the United States will never recover as a nation of laws that has been the underpinning of our society. 

the Ol’Buzzard

  

A MERRY YULE TO ALL

AND A HAPPY SOLSTICE

the Ol'Buzzard

NEVER MEDICARE FOR ALL

Why don't we have universal health care?

the Ol'Buzzard

Michelle Obama for President!

IT WAS RAINING SO THE PRESIDENT COULDN'T VISIT THE MILITARY CEMETERY

Shameful
the Ol'Buzzard

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS

What he said
the Ol'Buzzard

WIND CHILL CHART

Today the temperature is seventeen degrees with a wind of twenty to twenty-five knots; about minus three degrees windchill.


I have posted a windchill chart before, but thought I would put it up again as this is the season....

WINDCHILL CHART LINK







the Ol'Buzzard

VOTING IS A JOKE

We have a manned space station circling the earth; GPS that tell you your location anywhere in the world within a couple of feet; computers you can talk to and can answer back; robots replacing workers in factories; space probes that can circle the moons of Saturn and send back data; wrist watches that can tell you your heart rate, deliver you text messages and make phone calls; My little Tom-Tom GPS can guide me to any address in Canada or the United States; we have cell phones with apps that have unlimited capabilities; we have cars that can drive themselves; and we are within ten years of unbelievable artificial intelligence… 

And I had to stand in line for one hour to feed a paper ballot into an antiquated scanner when I went to vote.

This is ridiculous in a time of advanced technology.   We should be able to register on line and select a secure password and identifying data; and then on voting day fill in our ballot online on a secure government network.   A super computer should be able to spit out the results by the voting deadline.   

The know-how and technology are available.

And Hand Counts?   You’ve got to be shitting me!

the Ol’Buzzard

IT IS TIME TO BE THINKING OF 2020

DO DEMOCRATS REALLY WANT TO WIN THE PRESIDENCY BACK IN 2020?

There are people in the Democratic Party that feel it is their time.   The same old lifetime politicians that want to keep the status quo in power.

This is a recipe for failure.    Even with all the hype, young people did not turn out and vote in this election.   Even the people that are sick and tired of Trump were matched and canceled by the Trump cult voters.    It was a Black turnout and a gender turnout that probably saved the mid-term for Democrats. 

Elizabeth Warren is not the answer; Bernie is not the answer; just selecting a woman like Kristen Gillibrand is not the answer; there is no one presently holding political office that can garner the enthusiasm needed to defeat Donald Trump and his cult minions.

We need a rock star; and at the same time, someone that is qualified to hold the office.    Someone who can appeal to women voters, to non-white voters, someone who can bring out young voters, someone who is articulate, bright and respected.   Someone that can kick ass in a debate.

We need Michelle Obama to run for President in 2020.

I don’t do social media, but I urge people that do to tweet – hashtag/ Michelle Obama for President 2020.

Let’s start a movement to elect a Democratic President in 2020 who will bring back respect and decency to the office of the President, and to the image of the United States worldwide.

Draft Michelle Obama!

the Ol’Buzzard

OLD DOG NEW TRICK

This morning I went to drive the car and found three inches of frozen snow on the windshield.  I couldn’t locate my ice scraper and in desperation grabbed the plastic dustpan from the shed.

Screw my ice scraper, from now on it’s the dustpan for removing snow and frozen snow from my windshield… I still might need the scraper for ice. 

 

the Ol’Buzzard

WHY DEMOCRATS CAN’T WIN THE SENATE

This past midterm election the Democrat Senatorial candidates received seven-million more votes than the Republicans, but the Republicans hold the Senate.  

The Constitution of the United States has Gerrymandered the elections of Senators.   Every state in the U.S. gets two Senators.   North Dakota with one-half million population gets the same number of Senators as California that has 39 million population;

½ Million = 2 Senators

39 Million = 2 Senators.

There are more Red States than Blue States and with the Cult following of the party of Donald Trump, the Senate will for the future likely remain in the hands of the Republicans.

With the Senate in Republican control the chance of impeachment of Donald Trump, regardless of his crimes and misdemeanors, is zero.  The Republican Senate is still in control of appointments of judges, including for the Supreme Court, and the confirmation of any Trump appointments.

It seems we are now down to two branches of government: the Congress and the Executive-Judicial

Reality sux

the Ol’Buzzard

NANCY PELOSI

I am so sick of the fucking suck ass sniveling Democrats and their automatic capitulation to Republicans. 

 

The Republicans have demonized Nancy Pelosi as the potential Speaker of the House and run campaigns using her as a boogiewoman.    The reason they have been so opposed to Pelosi is that she is effective.  She keeps the Democrats in line, passes democratic agenda and takes no crap from the Republican legislature.

  

So, what do Democrats do?   They grumble that Pelosi is divisive and if she becomes Speaker of the House Republicans won’t work with her, and she won’t be able to get bipartisan legislation passed.

I would like to take a hot burning stick and shove it up the ass of any Democrat that utters the word ‘bipartisan’. 

Republicans don’t give a shit about bipartisan.   Since the very first day of Obama’s Presidency the Republicans have been obstructive.   They have no intention of working with Democrats; and their wet dream is having Chuck Schumer as Speaker.    Their worst nightmare is Nancy Pelosi.

 

Why can’t fucking Democrats stand up on their hind legs and face down Republicans; instead of their mealy-mouth “our friends on the other side of the isle” and ‘bipartisan’ bullshit.  You will never hear Republicans utter that.   Republicans laugh at us, and rightly so.

If Democrats take back the House they need to fart in the face of the Republicans and elect Nancy Pelosi back as Speaker. 

the Ol’Buzzard

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

the Ol'Buzzard

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS AREN’T WORTH A SHIT WHEN YOU ARE DEAD.

Shooting at a synagogue, two black people shot in Kentucky: I am not shocked any more. 

I quit being concerned about mass shootings after Sandy Hook Elementary School killings.   If the nation was not horrified enough to enact gun control legislation after twenty, six and seven-year-old children and six adults were butchered in a school by a man with weapons designed specifically to kill people; then this is the country we have elected to live in.

We will bury our dead, and then move on until the next mass shooting when we will feign horror and outrage; and send our thoughts and prayers.

  the Ol’Buzzard

  

DOES GOOGLE WANT MY ON-LINE BROWSING HISTORY?

For the past month I have been getting a notice stating:

Norton Security toolbar has been removed.   Our new Google Chrome extensions offer similar protection.....    

I am asked to download their extension, but so far have not done it.

Is Google wanting my on-line browsing history - or do they already have it?  Is this just added protection?  Why would Google remove my Norton protection without my permission? 

Anyone have any insights?

the Ol'Buzzard

A WRINKLE IN TIME

Einstein’s calculations show time duration varying according to the speed of an object.  He also proposes that space-time can be bent in reaction to the gravitational pull of planets and stars.

Neil deGrasse Tyson simplifies time as a fourth dimension:  If you meet a friend on the corner of Front and Main you are at a two dimensional address; if you meet the friend on the fifth floor of a building on Front and Main you are at a three dimensional address; if you meet your friend on the fifth floor of a building at Front and Main at two-o-clock you have now entered a fourth dimensional address.

It has often been the belief in many cultures that there are people who can manipulate time.   During the sixteenth-century time manipulation was one of the charges levied against women accused of witchcraft.  Supposedly, a woman could leave her bed at midnight for an all-night romp with Satan and his minions and be back in bed with her husband at one minute after midnight. 

Twenty-two years in the military has made me a time person.  To me time is fixed, I adjust my actions within the confines of time.    If I have an appointment I will get up at a certain time, allow myself a certain amount of time for a shower – to get dress – breakfast, I will leave the house at a defined time and arrive at my appointment fifteen minutes early. 

My wife is never concerned with time; she seems to bends time to conform to her actions.  She never refers to a watch or clock.   If she has an appointment at ten-o-clock she will get up when she is ready, feed the cats, do any number of things, spend time on her exercise bike, make the bed, get out her clothes, leisurely have breakfast, spend up to an hour showering and doing the other mysterious things women do in their bathroom, walk out dressed, put on her jacket, get in the car and drive to her appointment and arrive at exactly ten-o-clock. 

This use to drive me crazy.  If I tried to remind her of the time of her appointment, or ask her ‘Do you know what time it is?’  I would be told in no uncertain terms to fuck off.  

I have long since concluded that my wife is a witch, and one of her many attributes is not being constrained by time.  

 I am sure she considers me some sub-creature she has to put up with; ruled by my most base instincts, controlled by conventional limits of time and space.

But somehow, we are compatible.

the Ol’Buzzard

WARNING: THE CARAVAN IS COMING AND IT IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK.

Republicans, They Are Coming To Get You!

We are in the midst of a real government cover-up.  Donald Trump is trying to warn us, but the deep state intelligent agencies are preventing him from disclosing the real threat!

  

There is a caravan of more than two-thousand black and brown people moving through Central America, creating destruction of a pandemic proportion.

Have you wondered how a body that size can walk across a country without food or water or resources?   And what is more, the size of this ambling hoard grows each day instead of depleting?

The government doesn’t want you to know that a Zombie Apocalypse is heading your way.   Two thousand Zombies, men and women and children, genetically engineered by George Soros, are eating their way across Central America headed for the United States southern border.   People who are bitten but left alive in their wake are turning, and infecting their friends and neighbors, and then following the hoard north toward our borders.  By the time they arrive the numbers could be in the millions.

You might arm yourself and prepare a temporary bunker, but time is on their side; eventually you will have to emerge and face annihilation.  There is not enough ammunition to defend yourself from the millions of brain eaters that will be feeding on the unprotected population. 

 

There is a way, however, to protect yourself and you family.   This plague was designed and executed by Soros, Obama, Hillary Clinton and the National Democratic Party to insure a Democratic takeover of the government in 2020.  This November 6^th the Democratic selections on the voting ballots have been infused with nanobots that can protect you from the liberal Zombie army.   If you mark your ballot straight Democratic you will be inoculated with a DNA link that will protect you and other members of your immediate DNA matched family. 

 

These zombies are designed to eradicate themselves in two years, just before the Presidential election, leaving only Democrats to elect the next President. 

 

If you love your family and want to protect yourself, and if you want to be around to reelect Trump in 2020, then you MUST vote Democratic on November 6 before the Caravan of Brown Mexican Zombies arrive to eat your Republican brain.

This is a public service message from

the Ol’Buzzard.

  

MAKING BREAD

My wife and I have been making our on bred for thirty-five years.  We have gone through numerous bread machines, but years ago settled on the Breadman Ultimate.

 

Our fall back recipe, the one we make the most, is wheat germ bread.   It has a great consistency, easy to slice and is delicious toasted.

Wheat Germ Bread

• 1 cup Buttermilk (we use the powdered buttermilk available in the baking isle of the supermarket.)
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour (we don’t use bread flour.)
• ½ cup if wheat germ
• 1 ½ tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of butter (not margarine.)
• 1 teaspoon of yeast 

The buttermilk and egg mixture goes in first, then the dry ingredients: the sugar on one side of the bread pan and the salt on the other.   The yeast goes in last in the middle of the dry ingredients. 

An hour and a half before the bread is done (just before the final kneed) we take out the dough and remove the paddle, then place the dough back into the machine for the final rise and baking.  This way you do not end up with a hole in your bread from having to remove the paddle after baking.

Note:

You have to bake a few breads to discover the best consistency of dough.  The biggest mistake most new bakers make is adding too much water and ending up with a wet, sticky dough.   If you measure carefully you should get the right dough.  If I still see flour in the bottom of the pan during the first kneed I will add 1 tablespoon of water – only one!

Better the dough be a little dry than too wet.

Homemade bread is a simple pleasure

the Ol’Buzzard

WINTER IS COMING

Fall is over. 

Yesterday I woke to find a light coat of snow on the car.  Day temps are now in the forties and night temps dipping into the thirties. 
   
This is my time of year.

My fire wood is in and my fuel tanks topped off. 

I am a winter person.
the Ol'Buzzard

IT IS NOT ABOUT US

I am living in a kaleidoscope of color – it’s breath taking.  The color peaked two days ago then yesterday it rained and today the wind is stripping the trees.  Outside there is a carpet of copper dotted with gold and red; the trees are in their final yellow and gold dispersed with orange and vermilion, and it is raining gold and yellow and red as the trees give up their leaves.

While in the southeast death rode swinging his scythe of destruction and leaving in his wake ruin and sorrow. 

Is there a lesson to be learned from this?   Only if we think everything is about us. 

We are only observers on this ship earth that charts its own course; and when we have past, the ship will move on without us in a new evolutionary winding – or not.   Perhaps it will be content to be a ghost ship looking at the past epoch as a failure.

the Ol’Buzzard