Do give this a listen.

I tried to copy and paste this from YouTube but it not worky.  First played in 1987.  White guy wearing a suit, singing in a very raspy voice, very jazzy.  I loved it.  Do go look it up.  I think you could dance to it.

"Walking Spanish"  By Tom Waits (spelling?)

He's got himself a homemade special
You know his glass is full of sand
And it feels just like a jaybird
The way it fits into his hand

He rolled a blade up in his trick towel
They slap their hands against the wall
You never trip, you never stumble

He's walking spanish down the hall

Slip him a picture of our Jesus
Or give him a spoon to dig a hole
What all he done ain't no one's business
But he'll need blankets for the cold

They dim the lights over on Broadway
Even the king has bowed his head
Every face looks right up at Mason

He's walking spanish down the hall

Latella's screeching for a blind pig
Punk Sander's carved it out of wood
He never sang when he got hoodwinked
They tried it all but he never would

Tomorrow morning there'll be laundry
But he'll be somewhere else to hear the call
Don't say good bye he's just leavin' early

He's walking spanish down the hall

All St. Bartholomew said was whispered
Into the ear of Blind Jack Dawes
All the Baker told the machine
Was that he never broke the law

Go on and tip your hat up to the Pilate
Take off your watch, your rings and all
Even Jesus wanted just a little more time

When he was walking spanish down the hall

And now of course, I must try to Google just exactly what the meaning is of Walking Spanish.  Some kind of latino strut?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Walking spanish - phrase meaning and origin - Phrasefinder

https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/1099.html

Jan 24, 2002 · Walking spanish. : Walking (someone ) Spanish [Walking Spanish ] 1. To force someone to leave, usu. from a public place, by lifting him by his coat or shirt collar to a walking position and propelling him toward the door (Dictionary Of American Slang, Wentworth/ Flexner ) 2. Being in the act of doing something you don't want to do.

Not sure what it mean in 1987.....

POST MODERN DEATH IN AMERICA

Here are some scary numbers for American deaths in 2017.

• Heart disease: 647,457
• Cancer: 599,108
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
• Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
• Diabetes: 83,564
• Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,633
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

n 2017, among 70,237 drug overdose deaths, 47,600 (67.8%) involved opioids, with increases across age groups, racial/ethnic groups, county urbanization levels, and in multiple states.

Traffic deaths 2017 over 40,000, included in accidents above.

Approximately 5000 murders. 


Those are impressive numbers and I kept to 2017 because the CDC numbers are only officially up to that year.

My point being that the Islamist extremists such as ISIS, Al Qaida, Taliban, Al Shabob  and other of that ilk are devoted to the destruction of the Great Satan.  That is you and me, boys and girls, in case you were not paying attention.  These people spend untold amounts of money making bombs and plotting how best to bring the United States to it's knees.  Well, if they would only be a little patient, I am pretty sure we will get there at the rate we are going.  

From what little I know, it seems that the diplomatic efforts in regards to the middle east has failed to deal with a fairly obvious way to smooth the way for much of our bumbling in the region.  

It is apparently customary to offer recompense for death or injury by the offender in that region.  The USA has never opted for that method (Er that I know of...) because it is not a usual custom of Americans to pay other than property damage perhaps and usually after threat or actual law suit, local, national or international, 

The idea of paying wergild has been around since the dark ages.  The Saxon's had a system of payment for a serf (barrel of wine maybe a pig) or death of a noble (much actual moola).  This was also a part of War settlements.  We have called it other things in modern times.

Couple suggestions:  

1.  Some one in the Government could look into the wergild system within the Arab world.  See if any of that would apply.  

2.  Perhaps restriction of recruiting/hate sites on the internet.  Pretty sure a lot of them are being monitored but shouldn't there be a little bit more degredation of signal and interference or something? Lots of eye strain possibilities there.  Pretty sure some bright young coder could write a program to do that sort of thing.

3.  Some one invent a personal force field that repels bullets.  Pretty sure people truly bent on murder would find a work around. Sadly enough. 

Product review

In July 2016, the company, Improbable Foods,  launched its first meat analogue product, the Impossible Burger, which is made from material derived from plants. The company says that making it uses 95% less land and 74% less water, and it emits about 87% less greenhouse gas than making a ground beef burger patty from cows.

Inventor Patrick O. Brown

The above is the Wikipedia entry.  I watched a television show, possibly 60 minutes, perhaps some other entity talking about this food.  

It was discovered that the reason meat tastes good is the presence of Heme.  The scientists involved discovered that plants produce Heme as well.  They tried out several version and arrived at the present burger patty.  It fries up exactly like a burger patty.  It looked delicious.  I wanna try one!

I heard an advertisement that Wendy's (?) was selling the Impossible Burger, but It would take an act of God and a spontaneous hijacking to get the car to turn into Wendy's, not even the promise of onion rings would sway the driver.

Next when I cast my eye and see...Amazon!!  Yep, they've got it all right for $175.00 and I didn't even look at the quantity.  I ain't paying that much If I have not sampled it.  Yuck!

Yesterday I went shopping at McKay's and asked the butcher if they sold Impossible Burgers.  He said look in that freezer case if there were any left they would be there.  Oh Goody!  There they were in all their frozen glory.  Only the packages were not labeled Impossible Burger but Improbable Burger.  It was 3 bucks for two (Count 'em TWO) patties.  So I bought one package.

The information said that the inside would still be pink, it was done at 160 degrees.  I fried in on medium low five minutes each side.  It fried exactly like a nice big juicy hamburger patty.  Unfortunately the patty developed an outer coating of a crumb like texture that stuck in the pan  So it definitely does not cook like a patty.  

I made up a bun with tomato and pickles and it tasted just fine and smelled absolutely wonderful.  The mouth feel was good and had a very meat like chew.  

Now I am determined to purchase the Impossible Burger because I want to know if it is mo bettah than it's imitation

Over all an adequate buy. 

Progress report

Well lemme see....

The triplex project continues in bits and pieces.  The seventh dumpster is still filled and waiting to be hauled away.  The gentleman have hauled out several large defunct and no doubt smelly appliances; stoves, refrigerators etc.  Noise level is very considerate.  

We drove to Eugene yesterday to see the Nurse Practioner, Heidi who came in the looked at my wound.  Got the bandage thing removed and have permission to shower entire person without elaborate arm covering.  Just no vigorous scrubbing.  Do exercise the arm.  Have to go back for ultrasound late in August.  Ugh.

If it weren't for doctors appointments between the two of us, we would never see much of the outside world.  Wish AI was intelligent enough to drive the car.  Please!  Can't Amazon get into that bidness?  I want to tell Alexa to drive me to the store.  

I have been watching "Home Fires" on Masterpiece theater.  Wonderful stuff.  Set in England WWII.  The Women's Institute were very busy making 12 MILLON jars of jam, raising money, raising veggies, taking in city refugees and troops.  They ran their homes, their husband's jobs as they went to war and generally held the country together.  I am currently reading the book originally titled "Jambusters" written in 2012.  Most interesting.

The series had village characters and there is all sorts of romance, drama, tragedy and hard work.  Give it a try, you may like it.  

Neighborhood project, postop progress and sumpin' sumpin'

Well, let me give a little history about the goings on next door to us.  There is a tri-plex that had been rented occasionally, sold a few time, remodeled  and for the past COUPLE OF YEARS mind you, has been occupied by squatters.  Or people who didn't exactly have permission to live there.  The tribe, as we called them, also lived in a tiny house right in back of it as well as occupied a trailer thing.

As far as we knew, Mike, our neighbor was a bit of a shade tree mechanic. There was dozens of cars that came and went over the last couple of years.  He also had a couple of young men who stayed with him.  He was blondish and these young men were twin like brothers in their early 20's.  One of then, Schyler, was nonverbal.  He would wonder around the neighborhood, perching on steps and what not.  The other one, I never saw, but I sure heard him. He had Tourette's syndrome and we would hear all sorts of anglo-saxon terms at all hours of the night.  Very disturbing when he was on a rant and obviously not on medications.

The other people who seemed to come and go was an older woman and man who had a couple of dogs.  The dogs mostly stayed in the upstairs apartment and used it as a kennel.  They barked constantly. They were not big dogs but the were noisy.

The two downstairs apartments were occupied from time to time by a young woman and a couple of kids.  I think there was male partner but not too sure about that. 

Occasionally there were so many cars parked around there that the parked them on the front lawn.  

The lady living in the trailer in front of the smaller house went away never to been heard of again.    Now, don't get the idea that I had my binoculars out checking this stuff out every day, the houses are so close that we can clearly hear conversations next door through the windows.  Sometimes the conversations were VERY LOUD.

We are hoping that once the place has been renovated that the will rent the thing out to working folk.  The housing shortage is here in Coquille as well.  I chat with the hairdresser and they are looking to rent a small house in Coquille to get away from the commute and they just can't find anything for a decent price.

Update on surgery:  I have been following the postop instructions.  I have not changed the dressing but am keeping the bits and piece around it clean.  I am itchy,  can't scratch inside my muscles so I  am thinking this is fluid and bruising be resorbed into surrounding tissues.  I have been squeezing my pink flamingo ten times each hour or better. I have a glorious bruise parallel to the wound and it looks ghastly but it will resorb as well.

We will be going back on the 23rd for a wound check and bandage change.  Yay! Not looking to another drive to Eugene but it is getting to be more familiar territory.

Hubs just got good news, Unca Sam sent forms for him to opt out of part B.  Just fill this out and return the whole thing, thank you sir!

A couple days ago we noticed two young men and a porta-potty and big commercial dumpsters suddenly showed up. Hmm.

We watched several dumpsters get filled up.  I heard noise in the backyard and stepped out on the back porch.  I chatted with one of the young men.  

He told me they had filled four dumpsters so far.  I asked about the little house and he said it was full of trash up to his chest and it would probably get torn down there was so much water damage.

His boss bought the property as a foreclosure.  I asked about the bigger house and he said there were some foundation issues that they would take care of. I suggested that with the little house gone that space would make terrific parking.

This morning there is an older guy using a back hoe machine to literally much up the trailer thing and well, who knows what he will start on next!?

Also yesterday they cut down most of the bushes away from the house.  We are hoping that they rebuild the fence as it is pretty shabby. Keeping fingers crossed anyway it will be fun to watch..

Well THAT was educational

We has survived the trip to Riverbend for the AV fistula. We drove up the day before and stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn place. 

The surgery was at 8am.  I needed to be there at SIX A.M.!!!!  Well there isnt much traffic that early.

The anesthtist lady put a nerve block in at a sumpin sumpin nerve and asked me if I felt a zing. yep going down the arm.  Oh good it is working.  Chatted and wore a nice warm blankie.  Some one gave me a cocktail of feel good stuff and I woke with some one giving me a soft drink to bump up the blood glucose. Then I got dressed and Tim us drove home.

Stopped in Myrtle Point for a very late breakfast. And we have to go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed.  Met some nice folks there. Really hope we are done. soon....




















877

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

This is a picture of the Capitol building in Salem, Oregon in 1876, obviously a build to celebrate 1776, USA! USA ! USA !

This current Capitol building in Salem, Oregon was built in 1938.  It was the tail end of the depression.  The older building just was not Art Deco enough so this edifice was put forth.  And to top it all of the architect decided that a gold statue of a man holding an ax would be a good topper.

I think the gold man is leaning against either a tree stump (logging) or an ax handle (legislation I know it was an L word).

My impression of the upper part of the building that the Goldman is standing on has always looked like a large cement bathtub stopper.  So apparently the good people of Oregon have a built in mechanism to enable them to  Drain The Swamp.  

… miles and miles of marble...

Now, relax, enjoy what ever fireworks someone else is setting off, keep the pets safe and if at all possible. STAY. OFF. THE. ROAD.

Happy Fourth of July!!!