summertime blues

Friday, July 9, 1999

i've never been a big fan of Summer; too damned hot and humid. I don't give a flying rat's rear end when (June 22nd) the so-called "Official Start of Summer" is; July 4th Weekend is it. Definitively. Oh, I guess when I was a kid, there was always a swimming pool to jump into to relieve the heat stress. Ditto Winter; too cold. Although I'm a pretty fair ice skater, skiing or ice fishing hold no fascination for me. As I get older, I lean more toward AC and less activity during the scorching months of July and August. Spring and Fall are my favorites, but it doesn't always work out that way. Leaving for work at 6am and seeing the temp already at 84F or higher makes me wince: it's gonna be another scorcher here in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Hey, at 9pm and 96F, that's too damned hot. The latest national heat-related, death toll was 49; all elderly and toddlers. We did get some ultra-heavy duty thunderstorms and rain last weekend, thanks to someone; we appreciated it. Can you send some more? ASAP? We're still in a drought for the 3rd year. Rain? Yeah sure; I'll believe it when it happens. Even as we celebrated this Nation's 223rd Birthday, our basic freedoms are still being eroded by insidious Executive Orders. July 4th Weekend was moderately busy, as compared to the nine previous years' holidays, so I actually closed on Monday. And it is still very, very hot and humid: 103F. Hey yeah, Summer's here.

Problems, Problems, Problems.
With a building and facility complex of 20 acres, there's plenty that can go wrong.
Plants blow over in the strong wind and don't get irrigated by the overhead sprinklers at night. If they're not vertical, they don't get any water, so they must be hand-watered with a hose promptly the next morning before they dry out completely and die. If they've started to burn up, they go up into Greenhouses 5 or 6 to recuperate until they saleable again.
Though we were in for 3+hrs watering on Monday morning, it wasn't enough: Greenhouses 2-3-4 suffered badly from the excessive heat after I'd closed up and left for the day. On Tuesday, we discovered dozens of fried and badly wilted plants. They were quickly watered and will have to be cut back and moved to GH-1 to recover. Lynn and her daughter, Jessica also came in to water Greenhouses 1-2-3-4. Her younger daughter, Ashley was in on Saturday, watering and transplanting. Both young ladies have proved invaluable; Lynn as well. At 11:30am, it was already 97F. I'm staying inside for the day, yessiree-bobba-doody.
One of the two 60" cooling fans in Greenhouse 4 has slowed to a crawl; seems the fan belt has loosened up and isn't pulling its weight anymore. As a result, the GH is overheating and plans are drying out faster than normal. This requires extra watering until I can get back in there and do maintenance on the motor or belt. When I shut the fans off to work on one of their motors, the temp easily hits 140F and I'm wiped-out in minutes; sweat pouring forth and I'm drenched. It's smarter to do it on a cloudy day. I'll have to pick and choose one down the road. Meanwhile, the overhead watering system in GHs 2-3-4 will keep the plants cooled off until the heatwave breaks.
Sunday through Tuesday's Heat Index ranged from 115-120F, one of the hottest July 4ths on record in this area. I couldn't help but feel sorry for all of the elderly people without AC, living in the cities, afraid to even open their windows because of the crime. It would be so much smarter to eliminate all of the subhuman criminals, and allow society's innocents to flourish. Liberal cretins can't seem to fathom that simple concept. They want layer upon layer upon layer of bureacuracy to care for the stinking criminals. Imagine that.
The combination of hot wind plus the brilliant sun makes the nursery pots dry out extremely fast; something container-grown plants don't like. With something like 8,000 10,000 plants in pots, it's a daunting task to get them all watered. My overhead irrigation system isn't getting optimal coverage with the high winds. Many marginal spots go unwatered and hand watering must be done.
Dry clothes are a distant memory; the hum-didity is hovering around 94% and any physical movement brings forth rivers of salty sweat. Yuk. I go through 2-3 shirts per day now and still stick to the office furniture. July and August will be taxing upon my resources.
The Dog Days of Summer have arrived just a tad-bit early. Maybe this will cool things temporarily off, just a wee-tad bit.

A Rarity.
Seldom if ever do I agree with our Liar & Rapist In-Chief, William Jefferson Clinton, but I do on this one: leverage the economic good times to as many people in the US, as can be accomodated without creating huge new programs and bureaucracies to administer them. Let the freemarket take over and good old fashioned capitalism reign; something I'm afraid past history will show the liberal idiots have a difficult time with.
Instead of taking economic development to some shithole, third world country, develop our own country's poorest areas in the same business model structure. Keep the Wal-Marts, KFCs, Mc-Ds and auto factories et al out of Guatemala or Bosnia or Asia; build them here at home in the poorest areas, induce jobs and hope, influence the local economy, create a future start. Heck, it can't get any worse than it is now for them.
When my family lived in a upper middle class neighborhood in Huntington, West Virginia, in the early 50s, I remember seeing pockets of poverty so grinding and debilitating that it made me wonder if these were American people or from some other world. The contrast was so stark, I've never forgotten it. I played Little League baseball with black and white kids whose families had to save for months to buy the uniform which made us all equal on the playing field. But when the games were over, they would again dress in the rags they'd been wearing for many years. Been there, seen it all 40+ years ago.
Maybe it sounds fascist, communist and socialistic; but it isn't. It just makes good economic sense to redirect the wealth internally, instead of externally, like we've done for 50+ years. Why spend the billions overseas when we can spend a fraction of it right here and upgrade standards of living? It's one of my moderate views.
So is this project a great idea. Nicely coincides with my view of IPM vs chemicals. And this is inevitable, so quit whining Naturalists and move on. Wait until laptops and PalmPilots get there en masse.
JFK and LBJ couldn't get it accomplished with their so-called "Great Society" programs. Do it, if you can, in the time you've got left, Bubba.

Lynetta's Holiday Bummer.
Lynetta found me in '98 through the Net. She had to have an English Trug. We both liked cats et al. We became friends. She's got a dilemma and it's heart-wrenching.
On July 2nd, she was given another cat by a passing local who found the cat sitting in the middle of the road — she already has 11 and is known widely as The Cat Lady of Ranier, OR,— and it appeared sick at first glance. And after 3 days of feeding and care and, in spite of Lynetta's Considerable TLC, it got worse. It was steadily dying.
I called her Sunday, July 4th at 4pm and she'd been up all night with the declining kitty; she was waiting for Dr. Deb Saari DVM, to return from the Holiday Weekend.
Lynetta's vet diagnosed the cat as having advanced neurological damage and the animal was put down Sunday evening. Too bad; she did all she could for it. The cat's in a far better place than it was when Lynetta inherited it.

Dubya.
I knew there were things I didn't completely like about him: 1, 2, & 3. Something smells fishy.
A $36 million campaign war chest doesn't mean diddly-shit, if he's dirty, like Clinton. But he is my favorite governor for capitol punishment. Texas leads all other states combined when it comes to the condemned receiving their just due reward. I'll vote for him just on that record.
Other than that, I don't know much about GWB.
He's certainly better than Clinton.
So this is where he gets his ideas? All the pity.

TWA Flight 800.
Three years after the fact and nothing's resolved. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist; I don't frequent the thousands of websites or stories of any of that stuff.
What does intrigue me is the hundreds of eyewitnesses to the downing of TWA 800 just off Moriches Inlet, Long Island, and the refusal of the FBI and NTSB to focus on those facts. It truly smacks of a cover-up and an investigation gone awry. Innocent citizens are being prosecuted to protect the Gov'ts cover-up.
The most telling and damming, best-documented story lies with the man who knows. To say the CIA was involved, is a gross understatement. NTSB. DEA. BATF. Dozens of US Military Units. FBI, too. Scary.
There's plenty of evidence here; read on, McDuff.

All Murderers Should Die.
Forget the $40-60,000 per year per Death Row inmate x 3,700+ = $16,000,000,000 from you and I, The American taxpayer, to house and feed that subhuman filth. Factor in the cost of government-paid attorneys to represent those lowlife murderers, endless — average appeal process is 13.9 years, many new appeals are much longer — delays in US Courts, endless streams of government-paid bills and invoices for "legal work" done at the doomed client's behest. What's the point, anyway? Terminate them all. No appeals.
It's a real stretch for me to believe that someone would whack their own mother, based upon a stupid movie plot. Try them as adults and execute them quickly.
A major, major f*ck up. No, not Clinton, this time. This time, it's the other criminal: the Mexican railroad murderer. The INS had him several times, but let him go. Astounding. He needs to be caught, tried, convicted and promptly executed. No appeals. No mercy. Just death.
In addition to all murderers being quickly rewarded with death, all rapists, child molesters and traitors should receive the same fate. This Nation is far, far too lenient with its criminals, especially one who've committed heinous crimes against society's innocents. As dictator for a day, the electric chairs, syringes, gas pellets, hanging nooses and firing squads would be working 24hrs straight until every f*cking one of them is dead. Liberal idiots write and ask where's my compassion? My response: my compassion lies with society's citizens, not criminal animals who prey upon the helpless and innocent. f*ck the bed wetting, hand wringing, liberal scumbags.
This convicted and sentenced to death cop whacker needs to die. I'd be most happy to pull the trigger. He's a lowlife, piece of shit scum who has stalled his execution for 18 years at taxpayers expense. Time to end it, Leroy boy.
For the past 6 days, this white trash nutcase has been shooting and Killing all over Illinois and Indiana. The cops can't seem to fins that blue car. He needs to be caught, tried, convicted and promptly executed. No appeals. No mercy. Just death. Ummm, well that won't be necessary, now.
This piece of shit needs to die for murdering and dismembering another human being. He's hiding behind the Jewish (non) law of no deportation for citizens, even though he's not a Israeli. He's now denying the murder; just admitting to the dismemberment and burning. Huh? He's a lowlife, Marylander punk, kid. The US should suspend the $20 billion we give Israel each year to prop up their worthless, stinking, do-nothing economy until they return the sick, lying, murderous punk for proper trial, conviction and execution. But The State Dept is useless and gutless in doing the right thing.
The Philippines got it right, anyway.
Aw gee, the liberal scumbags are whining again about the electric chair being "cruel and unusual puninshment" and "causing pain". Huh? Of course it's supposed to cause pain; it's death. It's their just due for committing murder (should also be used for rape, child molestation and treason). It should cause flames to fly, blood to gush, organs to liquefy. Actually, it's too kind; the condemned should be made to suffer while still conscious and whacked slowly. Nah, takes too much time and effort. Use a .357 Magnum and headshoot them by the thousands. Every execution is wonderful in its entirety; it means that no innocent person will be whacked by that filth again. Let's rejoice: three more pieces of garbage were terminated this past week. Only 3,700+ subhumans to go.

Clintonite Traitors.
Accusing an American of espionage/ treason against his/her own Nation is sickening. Some willingly choose that path; others are drawn into it. The lowlife Clinton belongs to the former category. In all cases, treason should be rewarded with death. No exceptions.
He willingly sold out the US to the Chi-Comm scumbags for money in the form of election campaign contributions. One can't get much lower than Clinton; he's an invertebrate, degenerate liar, rapist, philanderer and all-around lowlife.
Here's a more considered view of what actually happened, maybe.
The son-of-a-bitch Clinton is is still selling computers to the Chi-Comm Chink scumbags. With the US House of Representative's blessing. Hello? Anyone home at the GOP?
Read what the Chief Chink has to say about burying capitalism. Communism and socialism are junk philosophies: witness poor, collapsed Russia, East Germany and the entire Soviet Bloc; Cuba's poverty and misery, and North Korea is far worse than Cuba. We should run another arms race and cold war and crush Chi-Comm filth. But then Clinton would lose all his chummy and scummy "friends"; yet, not being in any position of power anymore after January 2001 will cost him everything, anyway. The Chink filth have no use for former someone who is a current nobody.
Of all the Clintonites most guilty of treason, Janet El Reno ranks as the greatest offender. She's thwarted more legit investigations to shield the Clintonite scumbags and provided diversionary tactics unpreceedented since the Teapot Dome Scandal of the 30s. She's a criminal wearing the Robes of Justice. What is the media afraid of in taking the politicaly compromized, sexually challenged, on?
And speaking of traitors, Ken Starr might be one, too. The premise in intriguing. Izzat so?
Is the Nation and its citizens better off or in worse shape because of liberal scum? You decide. I already know my personal answer.

Yo, Tonto!
The lame protest stems from allegations by AIM leaders and members of the Oglala Sioux that the federal government has violated an 1868 treaty that reserved parts of what are now North Dakota and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska for the Sioux. Tribe members also are upset that four stores in Whiteclay sell more than $3 million worth of beer each year, mostly to Indians with drinking problems. Alcohol is banned on the reservation, a 5,000-square-mile expanse that is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux and has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates. Also, tribe members say local police have not done enough to investigate the deaths of two Sioux men whose bodies were found June 8 in a culvert near the Nebraska line.
Hey Injun: get your own alcoholic (not so) braves under control. Quit gambling and drinking and collecting welfare and self-induced disability. Get some pride for a change. Get a real life.
Get an education, get off that shithole reservation, get jobs and get out of poverty. Millions of people did it last year, but you folks just seem to love to wallow in all that ignorance and pity. The White Man is sick and tired of caring for 1.43 million lazy, sons-and-daughters-of-bitches. Do something for yourselves, for a change.

DAR.
These ladies are nice ladies, with a definitive lineage. They're the daughter of The American Revolution (DAR) and eager to learn. Their average age was 79 +/-. They were delightful and spritely, despite the ravages of the years.
Two years ago, their Susquehanna Chapter Chair-Person called and asked if they'd be welcome at my business. Heck yes, M'mam. True to form, they appeared, I gave a 30min presentation on Revolutionary War (old fashioned) Perennials — a subject much researched — and they had a great time; their lunch followed shortly thereafter.
It's quite an honor for the DAR — out of hundreds of Civic Groups — to select a specific business for their outings. Why me? Just lucky, I guess.
You go, girls!

Bullshit.
Between the lowlife liberal scumbag ambulance chasing lawyers suing the tobacco and gun industries for the idiocy of their dead clients, all sanity has left the US Legal System. Now the trash state of Florida has opened up another can of worms.
Cigarettes only have the potential to whack the user if the user uses them, full well knowing the risks, which are printed on every pack. Guns whack when the user wrongly uses them.
It's clearly the idiot user to blame, neither of the two industries. Why can't people take responsibility for their own actions? Because the scumbag liberal lawyers erroneously believe that the individual is powerless to think rationally for him-/herself. A true hallmark tenet of fascism, communism and socialism.

A Funny Thing Happened.
On the way to the Net last week — when it was 103-105F and stifling — my office dial-up connection dropped from 50.6k to 21.6k and stayed there until the outdoor temps began dropping, about mid-week.
I called my ISP in York, as well as GTE North and asked them what was happening. They both said that excessive heat can wreak havoc with telephone lines and connectivity. Well, 21.6k really sucks but I had no other choice than to wait it out.
On Thursday, morning temps had dropped into the 60s and 70s as I went to work at 6am, and the dial-up jumped to 33.6k; not quite the spritely 50.6k I've been used to for the past eight months, but getting better.
At least when I get home, I have a 500kbps two-way cable modem waiting for me.

Carpetbagging Bitch.
It's truly a shame: Hitlery avoided all the indictments and prison. The arrogant, criminal scuzzbag should be doing time. Instead, she's trying to retain some semblance of power since it all comes to an end in less than 18 months, when Bubba gets the boot from semen-stained, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, aka "Blowjob-ville.
The New York State idiots are so excited to have her tour at taxpayer's expense. She's on a "listening tour" and not giving any answers to real questions people are asking.
Hopefully, New York Stater Residents will see through her lies and recognize that she's a criminal. Actually, most know but don't care. There are too many liberal pieces-of-shit living there.
The stinking Clinton bitch has no credentials to hold public office. None. She has nothing on her so-called resume which qualifies her. Of course, she totally f*cked up the new healthcare reform initiative in '93. And while living in Arkansas back in the 80s, she got deeply involved with education and drove the state's ranking from 49th to 50th, just behind Mississippi, the perennial worst. Some feat, huh? Yep, she'll just do great in New York.

Emma.
The online gallery space of British artist Emma Sergeant has many rooms, and while it's not always clear what the floorplan is, it's nevertheless an intriguing tour of her life and work. Current exhibitions are titled "Dolphins, Orpheus in the Underworld, Gods, and Portraits". There's a zoom tool for examining detail, and a scale model that visually compares the size of the work to a human form. The texture and richness of these drawings and paintings is conveyed well in screen format.






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