Still waiting for for The End | Updated WordPress to 3.2 beta 1

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Kirk M

So here I am still waiting for The End to arrive. The lawn’s mowed and the place is generally neatened up, can’t look shabby when The End comes you know. But so far it’s just been a mixture of rain and…er…more rain just like it’s been for the last two weeks although most of my neighbors in this little valley of ours are out there madly mowing their lawns despite the wet.

This could be a sign?

To be honest about it though, I’m getting a little bored with this whole waiting on Rapture thing and when I’m bored I tend to do unwise things–mostly to my computer and this site. The first thing I did was update Just Thinkin’ to WordPress 3.2 beta 1. What the heck, I asked myself. It could only completely hose the thing and then I could get in some re-familiarization training with completely reloading WordPress, it’s databases and such. Something I haven’t done since the “bad ol’ days”. Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case may be), updating the site to pre-release software undoubtedly filled with bugs and unpleasantness went swimmingly much to my disgust so I had no choice but to write a post instead.

I also updated my badly out of date “2010 Weaver” theme, which has been out of development for awhile now, to the new “Weaver” theme (just Google it, you’ll find it) by the same theme author. In the process I managed not to lose my monkeys but I did lose my barn boards which is fine by me as the barn boards really didn’t have a lot to do with monkeys anyway. I also decided to make the look a bit turquoise-y. Not too sure why I did that but if any of you folks find it too terribly hard to read or just generally annoying, please let me know and I’ll try to find something even more annoying.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. Since nothing as far as the dead rising from the grave, earthquakes, volcanoes, raging breezes and the like seem to be happening right at the moment I think I’ll squeeze in a bit of lunch just in case The End arrives this afternoon. I’d hate to be Raptured on an empty stomach.

Yet Another Judgment Day Approacheth

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Kirk M

I heard that Judgement Day is coming this Saturday so I figured I might want to squeeze in a post before the end. Yup, yet another end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it approacheth and it’s sure to come this time due to planetary alignments (again), something to do with the number of days since Jesus was crucified, the possibility the Mayans got the date wrong and it may or may not involve zombies. And in the case that this Saturday does indeed involve zombie attacks then apparently this is the car you want to survive them in (click on image for more anti-zombie car pics and the article).

No matter how It (The End, Judgment Day, Armageddon, Ragnarok, etc) comes all the devout will undoubtedly be heading to heavenward sometime on Saturday. But what about all their furry little friends left behind? Sorry but all these devout individuals wafting skyward are not Egyptian pharaohs–you can’t take ‘em with you so what happens to the poor creatures who have depended on you for their very survival, for love and affection, who have looked upon you as their mothers and fathers, their loving families? What happens to these poor creatures once they’re left behind by those they depended on? Well, no sweat, the atheists will take care of them for you.

Absolutely, the atheists have made a serious offer to take care of Fluffy, Polly and Ol’ Dog Tray after they’re left behind on the 21st of May, 2011. For a very reasonable fee of course and some services will even prorate your contract to 2012 just in case the Mayans got it right. So it looks like most things are covered here.

Back on the local front though I have some more personal type questions about this coming of the end of the world. You see, no one really actually knows if this is the coming of the Christian “Judgement Day” or the actual end of the world as predicted by the Mayans or due to planetary alignments throwing the earth out of it’s orbit and either freeze drying all of us by flinging our planet out into space or burning all of us up by tossing it into the sun. I mean, knowing the difference is really important here. If it’s the former then all sorts of questions arise:

Will I have to mow the lawn after the 21st of May? (I fully expect to be one of those left behind for those 1000 years of peace the Bible talks about)
If so, will it be beautiful and sunny and only sprinkle at night so I don’t have to wait on the rain to cut my grass?
Will I still have to shovel snow?
What about the mortgage, bills, etc? Are my creditors Christian? If so, what happens when they’re carried off? Do I still have to pay?
Can I stop paying my bills now or wait until Sunday to be sure?
What about the VA and the Feds? Can I still receive medical care and my medications through the VA…oh, wait…this is the federal government I’m talking about–they’re bound to stay so no problem there.
Does 1000 years of peace mean lower gas prices?

Of course if it’s the latter then I guess there’s no sense asking any of the above questions is there?

Now there’s probably a lot more I could enjoy writing about on this subject but it’s way past lunchtime and my stomach is beginning to be severely annoyed with me for neglecting it. And in it’s current, re-plumbed condition it’s not wise to ignore it so that’s it for now. See you all after The End…

…or maybe not.

Feeling a bit better?

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Kirk M

It’s been awhile since I’ve felt good enough to post here at the ol’ blog. As you may know from my last post I’m having to deal with a lot of chronic pain of late plus feeling extremely tired all the time. But there may be hope on the horizon.

As you also may know I have to take a fair amount of medication, something my body is very intolerant of and after the last several weeks of feeling increasingly worse I began to suspect one or more of the medications was at fault. You see, I’m at that point in life where the better (read: healthier) years are behind me. Not that I’m a crotchety old bugger…er…yet but it’s about the time the body starts changing ~~for the worse~~ for the last period of it’s life. And in that lies the root of my suspicion that one of the medications that used to work so well in the past might not be working quite so well in the present.

So I followed my suspicions to my pill box last weekend and to the pill in question and promptly removed them from their daily compartments. Now, 3 days later, the jury is still out but it looks like things may be a bit better or at least my outlook on life is a bit brighter anyway despite the lousy weather. The chronic pain will always be there of course but at the very least I felt good enough to write up this short post and that has to count for something?

Anyway, if anyone is still reading this thing wish me luck on my quest for betterment if you would. It would be much appreciated.

Not quite a month

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Kirk M

It’s been almost a month since my last post and I probably should have let it go for another 5 days just say I did but since this period of not posting was not intentional on my part I probably don’t have much of a say in the matter.

As an explanation as to why I have not posted I’ll draw your attention to Just Thinkin’s tag line at the top right of this blog above the header image. It states the following:

Thoughts and Ramblings of a Disabled Vet

The key word here being “disabled”.

Now this post here isn’t meant to be any cry for sympathy or anything like that. Veterans are usually adverse to such things as that, I know I am. We tend to go more for silent empathy as it were from those we actually allow close enough to give such a thing. And although I can still walk, talk and chew bubble gum (but not at the same time and consistency in any of the 3 is not guaranteed) while still appearing mostly normal for all outside appearances this does not mean that the injuries are not there. Not all those labeled “disabled” ride a wheelchair or have missing appendages. I keep having to remind myself of this even today.

So here it is, short and sweet. I feel like shit (or ‘shite’ rather for all friends from the UK) and there’s no sense sugar coating it. Actually I’ve felt like shit for quite a number of years now and it became bad enough that it eventually it forced me out of the work force 4 years ago after 30 years of keeping my nose to the grindstone which probably explains why it’s so sharp looking. And all this feeling like shit falls under the category of “chronic” and it becomes more chronic as time goes on. Or is it the pain becomes worse over time? I forget. All I know is for the better part of a month now I’ve felt bad enough to the point where I haven’t been able to write anything. Chronic pain tends to dampen the creative spirit you know. I also take a serious pain med at bedtime that allows me to get some semblance of sleep during the night and function somewhat normally during the day, the effects of which are also not conducive creative thinking.

So I’m taking this time to let everyone know that posting to this venerable old blog of mine is probably going to be catch as catch can from now on. I’m simply down to the point of taking one day (one hour?) at a time from now on and if the day comes along where I’m feeling good enough to post something then I will. And not being the type of person who likes to drag things out…

We now return you to whatever it is you were doing before you came here to read this.

Too late smart

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Kirk M

oldmonkey I understand that aging is inevitable but as this process continues in my case I’ve become increasingly aware that humans do indeed grow too soon old and too late smart (old Dutch saying). I mean it just seems to be a person’s lot in life that when they finally gather enough experience and live long enough to actually learn from those experiences, even the bad ones, by the time we finally learn enough to smarten up, we find ourselves too old to remember what we learned in the first place.

For example, take this poor young lady in the image here:

Now I recognize this poor thing. The name of the sculpture I mean. Not only that but I absolutely know that I knew the name of the artist who sculpted her as well. It’s just one of those things I never thought I’d forget—everyone has those types of unique memories, right? But when I ran across the image of this unfortunate young woman the other day (who “has her own face” as it were) these two aforementioned facts of knowledge properly cantered out from my past memories to the virtual tip of my tongue but completely refused to move any farther. I sat looking at this poor, overburdened female who had fallen under her stone and drew a complete blank.

I was stunned. All sorts of things came immediately to mind like “she has her own face” and “crushed under her burden” and “valiantly struggling still” but for the life of me I couldn’t actually come up with “The Fallen Caryatid” or the name, Rodin.

It’s like the memory of the sculpture and the artist was sharp and clear in my mind and stuck behind a wall at the same time. Something like having paralysis of the thought process that might be grouped in the same genre as the bag of candy that drops but refuses to make the final trip to the dispenser.

Perhaps that’s what the afterlife is all about. Pretty much the same kind of thing we have here now except that we don’t lose our ~~minds~~ memories when we grow old? (or our teeth, hair or overall good looks either, yes?). Perhaps we, as humans, might even be a bit more sensible in our way of thinking as well but let’s not push it. But one thing for sure, it would certainly eliminate an awful lot of blank looks and embarrassed silences on the part of those over 50 now wouldn’t it?

Northeast Kingdom Snowpocalypse

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Kirk M

Most folks by now have read about (or actually experienced) that rather nasty storm that came through the East coast this past Sunday through Monday (March 6-7). And while most of the Eastern seaboard got rain out of the deal, we up here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont were hammered with snow. Nearly 3 feet of it actually and that’s on top of the 2 to 2-1/2 feet that was already there. It took my wife and I all day to dig out from under it and believe me we’ve been paying the price ever since (moan, groan, stagger, stumble).

The day after I decided to take some photos in and around our place and I set up a gallery here for your viewing pleasure. And if you want to see what our place actually looks like when it’s not buried under 4 or more feet of snow take a look at this post for comparison (will open in another window/tab).

This is what it looks like at present though (Now ask me if we’re looking forward to Spring):

A year ago this week

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Kirk M

It occurred to me by the way of my wife reminding me that is, that it was a year ago this week when we were given notice that the house we were living in was being put up for sale when the owner of said house promised my wife, as a friend, that “she would have this place to live in the rest of her life”. He only made that promise because it didn’t want to hassle with having strangers as his renters but that was besides the point. He gave his word.

Anyway, the series of events went something like this:

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010:

Former friend waltzes into my wife’s quilt shop and announces that he’s going to to sell the house and walks outs. Truth is he had already put it on the market. About the same time I glanced out the front windows of the house only to see one of our local realtors hammering in a “House for sale” sign on our front lawn. She called me before I had a chance to call her.

My wife comes home that evening in shock and proceeds to look online for possible rental availabilities in town. Finds instead a house that’s for sale right nearby for a very reasonable price. We discuss what the chances were of getting approved for a mortgage which I figured at 5 to 1 against but what the hell, there was no harm in seeing it.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010:

I call the realtor in the morning and arrange for a showing which was set at 1:00 PM that afternoon. We got there right on time, saw the house, fell in love with it, went home and called two different local banks. I mean at 5 to 1 against we needed to spread those odds around a bit. I arranged for appointments with the respective mortgage officers of each bank for the next day. One in the morning and the other in the afternoon.

Thursday, March 4th, 2010:

We show up at our first appointment around 10:00 AM and sit promptly down with the mortgage officer, a woman about our age, who wasted no time in getting down to business. Once she verified my status as a veteran and checked that my VA rights were in place she began the qualifying process. Thanks to my wife who has one heck of a business sense about her and with a bit of help from me the process moved right along and 45 minutes later, with our mouths literally hanging open in disbelief, it was announced that we indeed qualified for the mortgage, with a low fixed interest rate and a monthly payment that was nearly $300 cheaper than what we were currently paying in rent. You could have knocked me off my seat with a feather.

I won’t relate the events that took place at the second appointment that afternoon at the other local bank (yes, we went to that one as well, mainly out of curiosity) as we dealt with some young twit who informed us within 10 minutes that we didn’t qualify at all and to come back in 6 months and try again.

Then a quick call to the realtors office to see if our (future) real estate agent was in and, with bank approval letter in hand, we scrapped every bit of change we had everywhere and anywhere to put down as a “good faith” payment and presented our offer. We then went back home to wait.

Friday, March 5th, 2010:

A call from our realtor confirmed what we had been waiting to hear. Our offer had been accepted with a tentative closing date of May 14th. A date which we actually managed to hit square on the head, by the way.

And so, one year ago this week, within a matter of 4 days we went from having our “home” imminently sold out form under us when it was never supposed to happen in the first place to being imminent future home owners. One year later the house we were living in back then is still yet to be sold and here we are snug and cozy in our wonderfully quirky little house nestled in the Clyde River Valley.

Oh, and the cats like it too.

A wood stove. The cat's drug of choice

When memory fails

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Kirk M

It’s become rather apparent to me of late that I can’t remember nothin’. As contradictory as that last statement is I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Not only is the day to day process of remembering things and short term memory failing little by little but the act remembering years past is also getting pretty foggy. And here I thought the older a person got the clearer those old memories were supposed to become.

Apparently not.

I found this out over the last year or so when the my old shipmates finally tracked me down via this site and invited me to join the USS Silversides page on Facebook. Once there the story swapping began in earnest and of course, I joined in. I thought I hadn’t forgot a single detail of those days aboard the boat but after several months of “recalling” events that occurred back then I’ve found out otherwise.

Names of guys whose faces I’ve never forgotten alluded me. Remembering certain events clearly but mixing up the people involved and insisting it was those people only to find out I was wrong. Things like that that kept repeating on a constant basis. Those who never served wouldn’t realize how bothersome this is to someone who has, especially if that person served in an environment as intense as the Cold War submarine force. You never forget. It bothers me that I have.

Forgetting things, being reminded of something I need to do or take and forgetting 3 minutes after being reminded I figure is all a part of the here and now–a part of getting older. It’s not supposed to happen to the past as well.

Not much more to say about this I suppose and I figure some would say that it is, in fact, all a part of growing older but the fact is I’m not that old–yet. I know I feel much older than my years in many ways but in a few ways younger as well. I figure that’s the way it’s supposed to be? I for one have no idea. All I know is I seem to be forgetting more and more as time goes on and though it may sound strange–I miss my memories.