More Alaskan Nuttiness From Palin and Co.

Well, I just heard, the Republican'ts are at it again! If it were not for bad news, they would have no news at all. So, what is the deal with Sarah Palin - she resigns with no explanation? I think we are going to eventually find that she was forced out for ethics problems; just my guess but, $10 says we find out in the next week or so. With only 18 months to go to complete her term, it has to be more than - I'm tired of this job and this hockey mom is going home, you betcha! Be watching for Fox to identify her as a Democratic Governor as they did Sanford last week.

Here is a thought, maybe she just wanted to spend more time on her front porch to help Obama keep an eye on Russia ... you know, in case Putin rears his head. Then again, maybe something scandalous between Palin and Joe the Plumber? ... I'm just saying. My gosh, to think, some people voted for this pathetic idiot! McCain is just as bad for selecting the moron, as Todd Purdum so eloquently pointed out in Vanity Fair earlier this week.

In these troubled times, isn't it nice that, for a change, we finally have an intelligent, thoughtful, President and Vice President? Ones that we can truly trust to have the best interests of the American people at heart. Looks like the Greed-Over-People bunch is going to have a hard time making any kind of comeback for the foreseeable future.

Old Hippie (cover)

Well, it has been 105 degrees around here every day for a week - too hot to go outside - too hot to go anywhere - so, wth, we have just been staying in working on our music. We came up with this today and, I think, you will agree that we have come up with a very unique arrangement of the old Bellamy Brothers song, Old Hippie. You may not like it but, it is unique. LOL! Anyway, hope you do like it.



By-the-way, we may have some new stuff over on our YouTube Channel that you have not seen. If you are interested, check it out at: Our YouTube Channel.

Remembering Neda Soltan

 If you have not done so already, you might consider viewing the video of Neda's murder by the Iranian government. We are not leaving a link here but, you can easily find it online if you are interested. It is very graphic and you should only watch it if you really want to understand what the protesters in Iran are going through. Seeing it is very hard but gives some hope that this senseless act will be the undoing of this repressive regime.

We have been watching events unfold in Iran with great interest over the last week or so. Normally I would expect to refer such events as "student protests" but, in this case, it has come to involve all aspects of Iranian society. These protesters deserve the world's help in the only practical way it can be offered, moral support. And, that is why we are blogging about this today.

How an educated society such as Iran ended up with their theocratic mess of a government is something we have trouble understanding but, we think they now regret their mistake. Since the protest began, we have been messmorized by the ham fisted way in which the Iranian government has handled the problem.

One other thing I saw in the news today really caught my eye. It is not often that I find something to admire about the French but, today President Sarkozy stated that the Burka had no place in France. He is absolutely right, this symbol of oppression of women has no righful place in any country.

We are back in business!

I hear you ... some are saying you haven't seen us do anything productive in the last decade so what business are you talking about? I am talking about the business of ending my horrible neglect of this blog. You notice I didn't say one word about the business being "productive", although that could change at any second. We now happen to be bringing in about $1.00 per month off this blog, and it is all profit!! Wooo Hoooo!!!! Cha Ching!

We actually have quite a few things to update about. Been videoing the Grand Daughter while teaching her to ride her bike. Happy to say, she has it down pat now. Of course, I've been going through my workout routine (clearing cedar off this land) everyday. Peggy and I have been working on our music every day and looking forward to playing the jam sessions next winter in the Rio Grande Valley. We have trips planned for the Dallas area, Abilene, and Rio Grande Valley over the next month or so.

Grand daughter tells about the Wooly Booger!

What is the point in having grand kids if you can't fill their heads with a bunch of crazy stories that will make their imaginations run wild? I figure I have maybe two years, at best, before this one has me figured out, so I am not wasting any time. Here is Peggy interviewing one of our six year olds about the Wooly Booger, Bigfoot, etc.:




Here is a link to our YouTube Channel in case you are really, really, really bored and want to see our other videos. You can "subscribe" or "friend" us over there and make us so happy we might just pop.

Precious Time (cover)

Here is what we have been doing the last couple of afternoons: learning the classic "Precious Time" by Van Morrison. Of course, "learning" is one thing and "performing" is something else all together. Anyway, hope you enjoy - we tried to put a different spin on this song than what you might be used to hearing.

By the way, here is a link to our YouTube channel: Our Channel. We would like it, very much, if you "subscribed" or "friended" us there.




Several have asked where we are going with this endeavor? Your guess is as good as mine, Ha! It is just fun for us. We do like to get together with others and jam. After we get eight or ten songs down pat, we might do some gigs. Who knows?

Our American Idols

This is our six year old Granddaughters, Alyssa and Robin, singing the Donut Song and Ralph Stanley's, Oh Death.

Huge dead snake

This has to be the biggest dead snake I ever saw.

Blacktop (hot mix) driveway paving

Well, we decided to do our part to stimulate the economy, whether we could afford it or not! The contractor, M. Carroll Blacktop Service was here in the North Lake Travis area doing a much larger job and had a few truck loads of hot mix left over and made us deal we couldn't refuse. He stopped by our place about 1:00 PM and by 5:00 PM we had 450 feet of driveway installed and they did a very nice job. You can see the whole process in the video below:

Earth Hour - tonight - March 28, 2009 - 8:30 PM local time

Here is a symbolic gesture you can make tonight that is, essentially, casting your vote in favor of a more sustainable energy consumption policy. Tonight, beginning at 8:30 PM local time simply turn off everything in your home that is electrically powered; TV's, computers, lights, etc. and leave them off for one hour.

Some background from the Earth Hour web site: "Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday."

Our plan is to put the hour to good use by teaching our granddaughter about the need for all of us to try to do our part to reduce energy consumption. Get our your candles and make a fun event and learning experience of Earth Hour for your children and grandchildren. Teach them about fuel economy, overly large houses, dangers of imported oil, global warming, excessive consumerism, polution, etc.

Make yourself into a Simpson character

Here is a fun site for the rabid Simpson's fans like ourselves: Simpsonize Yourself. Have you always wondered what you would look like with yellow skin, blue hair, blue pants, three hairs on your head, and three fingers? Click the link and Make a Character of Yourself!

A little preparation is in order. Have a fairly high resolution photo of yourself, taken looking directly into the camera, and crop it pretty close to your face. Here is our result with a little tweaking:

Lloyd and Peggy Morris as Simpson Characters

So sit back with a large box of multi-colored donuts and have fun. If you make a mistake while customizing your character, just give it a big "Dohhh!" and hit undo. Notice I added what has been my daily uniform for the last couple years (black t-shirt) and Peggy's funky, retro glasses.

I recommend that, if you what to get the true Homer Simpson experience from this, you should do this at work on your office computer. Then, take a good long nap after you finish.

A Milestone for This Blog - 10,000 visitors

Yesterday's hail storm created a pretty good surge in traffic to this blog and carried us past a significant milestone. Today we recorded our 10,000th visitor! We were very happy about that, especially in light of the fact that we recently changed our hosting domain from blogger to our own domain, austinweird.net. That change caused our google search rank to suffer for a few weeks until the web crawlers caught up with us. Actually, it is still down somewhat after nearly a month at the new domain.

Austin Hail Storm 3/25/2009

We had a pretty major storm pass through the area yesterday. It was actually a lot of fun since the hail really dumped! We didn't get much damage here but there were some windows knocked out all around the area. The fun part was our six year old grand daughter who was here with us when it hit. She had never seen anything like this and the noise on our metal roof was just incredible! She was running around screaming, "This is the most fun day of my life!" Next, she wanted to know if school would be canceled the next day so she could play in the ice all day?

Here is a video we did during the storm.

New Approach to Life Extension

Here is a little something to consider for those of us wishing to live as long and healthy a life as possible. No doubt, you have seen dozens of products that claim to make you live longer. The fact is, for now at least, they are all either snake oil or claims with no scientific basis. The only proven method of extending life, possibly as much as 20 - 25 %, is calorie restriction. This has been proven in studies beginning with C. Elegans (a small 1mm worm) all the way up through primate studies, now on going for nearly two decades.

Calorie restriction (eating about 30% less than your body needs) works, we know it works but, it is extremely difficult and not something most people will ever do for an entire lifetime. However, there is probably an alternative that is not too terribly difficult. In the last couple of years there have been some animal studies that suggest that intermittent fasting works just as well, if not better than, full time calorie restriction. In other words, stop eating one or two days each week.

Peggy and I decided to give this a try about two months ago and have found it to be very easy. The way we do it is to take two 24 hour periods (Monday and Thurday) each week and do nothing but drink water on those days. We start the 24 hours after breakfast and go to breakfast the next day. Admittedly, we feel a little hungry around dinner time but, it is no big deal and, by breakfast the next morning, we are really not even hungry. This is something, unlike calorie restriction, we can realistically do for years and years until something better comes along. And, rest assured, there are many things in the works that are going to completely change the equation on aging. The idea is to be around long enough to benefit from them so, intermittent fasting is something you might want to consider as an easier alternative to calorie restriction.

Fraulein by Bobby Helms - Sung by Lloyd and Peggy Morris

Peggy and I finished up a new music video today and I just wanted to get it posted. Sooooo .... here it is:



This is our version of the old Bobby Helms song, Fraulien. We learned it because it is one we really like to dance to. It is great triple two-step beat. Some perform it little slower but, we pushed it up to 120 beats per minute because we think that is the perfect dance tempo.

The Tea Sipper Blues

Here is a little old blues thing Peggy and I wrote a few days ago. This came up because we were talking about whether or not we could legitimately sing the blues in light of our relatively comfortable lives. Below the video I have listed many of the generally accepted qualifications to sing the blues and most people know we meet almost none of them. Somehow, the name Paris Hilton came up in the conversation and we got the idea that maybe, if the blues were about the right subject, we could sing the blues.Obviously, we had to write our own song and here it is:


 

Here is a pretty good list of the methods and qualifications of the blues:

 by Lame Mango Washington
(attributed to Memphis Earlene Gray with help from Uncle Plunky, revisions by Little Blind Patti D. and Lloyd Morris)

1.  Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning."
2.  "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line, like " I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes ... sort of: "Got a good woman - with the meanest face in town. Got a good woman - and she weigh 500 pound."
4.   Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUV'S. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die. 
5. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, " adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis. 
6. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City still the best places to have the Blues. 
7.  A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg cuz an alligator be chomping on it is. 
8.  You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster. 
9.  Good places for the Blues: a. highway b. jailhouse c. empty bed  d. bottom of a whiskey glass
   Bad places:  a. Ashrams  b. gallery openings  c. Ivy League institutions  d. golf courses
10.  No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old black man and it's the only one you own.
11.  Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if:  a. you're older than dirt  b. you're blind  c. you shot a man in Memphis  d. you can't be satisfied           No, if:  a. you have all your teeth  b. you were once blind but now can see  c. the man in Memphis lived.  d. you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
12.  Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.
13.  If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the Blues.  Other acceptable Blues beverages are:  a. wine  b. whiskey or bourbon  c. muddy water  d. black coffee        The following are NOT Blues beverages:  a. mixed drinks  b. kosher wine  c. Snapple  d. sparkling water
14. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction.
15.  Some Blues names for women:  a. Sadie  b. Big Mama  c. Bessie  d. Fat River Dumpling
16.  Some Blues names for men:  a. Joe  b. Willie  c. Little Willie  d. Big Willie
17.  Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, Auburn, and Rainbow can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis. 
18.  Make your own Blues name (starter kit):  a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)    b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi,etc.)  c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)  For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.") 
19. I don't care how tragic your life: you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues.

Ibanez acoustic/electric - hours and hours of fun!

I mentioned, a few weeks ago, that I had this new acoustic guitar that I wanted to talk about so, here goes. How about a photo to start off with?

It was about a three month search for this guitar. I have spent many many hours playing dozens of guitars at Guitar Center stores in Austin and Dallas looking for just the right combination of sound and playability. As you can see in the background of this photo, I like electrics. That is a Fender Stratocaster, a Peavey Raptor, and a Fender Precision Bass sitting next to a Peavey 212 XXL and Fender G-DEC 30.  I wanted the acoustic so I could have something to play quietly while watching TV at night. If you pay attention to TV commercials you are going to hear some great music. Unfortunately, I can hear some great riff or some awesome rhythm and, by the next day, it has evaporated from my head. Now, when I hear something, I can just sit and play it over and over and over until Peggy begs for mercy, but I remember it.

IMHO, there has never been an accoustic instrument that can not be improved with the right electronics. This one is no exception. There is a pickup under the bridge going through a battery powered pre-amp with three band equalizer, tuner, phase change switch, and notch frequency adjustment. The later two items used for eliminating feedback so, you can play it LOUD!! Run this through that big Peavey amp you see there in the background and you can blow out your windows.

One last thing I wanted to mention, because I just found it interesting. This guitar was one of the display models they leave out for everyone to play in the Guitar Center stores so, naturally, it showed a little wear from handling with a few light scratches. I sat and played it for about and hour and a half and just fell in love with it. So I told the sales person my search was over and I wanted to buy it and he said, "Hold on and I will get you a new one out of the back." So, he brings out the new one in a box which looks identical, except in absolutely perfect condition. So I tune it up and get ready to try it out. From the first note, I could not believe the difference in sound coming from this seemingly, identical guitar. I swear, it sounded like a cheap, $100 guitar and those dead notes could not hold a candle to those beautiful, mellow tones coming from that display model. Naturally, I said I wanted the one on display and they said, "no problem" and threw in an extra set of strings and I have been one happy guitar picker ever since.

Snow in Austin

Well this is something that you don't see very often in Austin. Last night at around 9:00 PM it started snowing. The temperature was about 38 degrees, so it did not stick but, it was still fun. By-the-way, the temperature dropped 47 degrees in 9 hours yesterday.

One of the grand daughters (Robin - 6), who has never seen snow, called last night from Abilene to tell us they were expecting snow there. She wanted to know if we were aware that you could stand outside with your mouth open and catch snow in your mouth? We will have to call her today and tell her we ate some snow last night. Unfortunately, they did not get any in Abilene.

Try to curb your enthusiasm

Finishing the gate leads logically into the next project - road improvements, and we might as well start at the new gate and work our way into the property. Here is what we have done, so far:

We have 450 feet of road to build in this first project and have decided to use a ribbon curb system. These 12" wide concrete curbs will line both sides of the road and be filled in with caliche up to within about 1" of the top. The final inch will be filled with whatever material we choose to make the final road bed, asphalt, gravel, crushed granite, etc. We are leaning toward crushed or, as it is more commonly known, decomposed granite. It makes a good, hard, relatively dust free surface, and is a nice color. The distance between the curbs is 13'9" and the curb on the right is set 3" lower than the one on the left to aid in water run off.

As you can see in the photo, the left side is already poured and the right side is formed. One thing that is interesting about this project is that we are using, what I call, caliche concrete. Rather than purchasing sand and gravel to make our mix, we are simply using caliche, which we can dig right out of the hillside with the loader. We then add 12.5%, by weight, Portland cement and enough water to make our concrete. It is finished off just as you would normal concrete. I have never seen concrete made this way before but, it seemed like a good idea. We made some test batches first and were pleased with them. It does not have the strength of regular concrete but, is more than adequate for applications that do not require extreme strength. I would guess it is 75% of the strength of regular five sack mix concrete.

Installing a new gate

I mentioned earlier that we were building some interesting things with concrete. This is not exactly the most interesting thing I was talking about but, we did make some pretty great posts upon which to swing a gate.

First, we started by forming the posts 9" X 9" square. Each has two pieces of 3/8" re bar running longitudinally in diagonal corners about 2" from the surface of the concrete. There is also a 3' piece of the same size re bar which is bent double to form a loop which sticks out the top of the post a couple of inches to form a lifting eye. Keep in mind, each of these posts will weigh about 400 pounds so, a lifting point is pretty important. One last internal detail is to provide for the gate hinges which are the through bolted type using a 3/4" bolt, about 10" long. We pre-made a couple of holes through the posts by positioning 9" long pieces of 1" square tubing laterally through the forms making very sure they were in the correct position for the gate hinges and that they would be in absolute vertical alignment when the post was set. They were poured right here on the floor of the shed where I park the Caterpillar so that I could work in the shade. Here they are after the forms are removed:

 

Living in the Texas Hill Country is great and it is very beautiful, however, there is one big draw back and that pops up any time you want to dig a hole. You don't use post hole diggers to dig a post hole around this part of the country. Those are only for cleaning out the debris which is, hopefully, loosened after you have pounded away with your rock bar. There are times you hit something you simply can not get through. I can recall a couple times using a skid loader mounted rock bit with carbide teeth and and turning for 20 minutes with the front wheels of the loader completely off the ground, without cutting one inch into the rock. Fortunately, stuff that hard is rare as it is mostly limestone.

Here is how you set a 400 pound post in the hole and a closeup of one the hinge holes:

Here is the way I like to permanently set a post. We dig this caliche right out the hillside with the loader and mix 5 shovel fulls with 1 shovel full of portland cement and dry tamp it very tightly in the hole. You just can't believe what a rigid post this makes!  Here are the photos in order - caliche, portland cement, mixing it all together, tamping it in the hole:

This is closeup of one of the hinges in place:

And here is the finished gate:

This is a 14 foot, 2" tubing gate purchased from Tractor Supply and it comes pre-painted. I would have liked to have built the gate myself but, you simply can not justify building one when they only cost $155 at Tractor Supply. There is about 100 feet of 2" tubing which would have probably cost more than the completed gate. By the time you add in hardware, painting, welding rod, etc., it is a no brainer.