Thank you.

May 23rd, 2008

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our Nation's Service. It's a very hallowed day, for those who've served this Country, and for those of us, who recognize what "service" truly means. And a huge Thank You, to all those who gave their all. First; a bit of history about Memorial Day. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There's also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead". While Waterloo, NY, was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to "honor those who gave their all". Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5th 1868, by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No #11, and was first observed on May 30th 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I, when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war. It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May — passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 [PL 90-363] to insure a three day weekend for Federal holidays — though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas, April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd — Jefferson Davis' birthday — in Louisiana and Tennessee. Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper US Flag Etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country. To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in Dec 2000, which specifically asks that, at 3pm local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of Remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to "Taps". No one has to ask me to "remember those who gave some, or remember those who gave their all", for I simply can't forget what we have as a Nation, why we have it, and the enormous debt we owe to those whom went before us, to insure that we kept it, as The Founding Fathers envisioned it: a Constitutional Republic, NOT a democracy, aka absolute chaos. The local Sears "Memorial Day Sales Event" isn't the way to say "thanks". Nor are all the BBQs, picnics, golf outings and keg parties. A simple one minute of silence and prayer, on a National scale, would barely suffice to Remember Them, in comparison to what they've given to us? One day? Can we spare that pittance? I know I can.

 

 

Around The Garden Center

A funny thing happened on the way to FTP, Thursday evening: my condo's Cable Modem InterNet connection (Comcast) went south at 9:25pm, just as I was readying the transfer of Friday's Journal files to my corporate server's private site. Shit. The CATV connection was okay; I watched The Weather Channel for any new of severe storms in the area, possibly causing the outage. Nada. I transferred all the pertinent files to my flashdrive, to carry into the Office and upload. I called it an early night, and the rain began falling on the skylights. By morning, there was ¾" in the condo rain gauge, the FTP was working, the file were transferred, I made it to work in a deluge and all was well in the world, once more.

By Friday, I'd had a shitload truckload boatload of second-by-minute-by-hour interruptions, while trying to get all sorts of payroll, lscp estimating, lscp billing, marketing, research, graphics, HTML, CSS-xHTML, bill paying work done, and I felt like taking a 3-4 week vacation, yet "The Season" has just started. Gradually, I'll become inured to all the constant BS, and it won't irritate me as much as it does, now. I seem to decompress over the Winter months, and re-compress during the Spring-Summer-Fall months. (((sigh)))

After getting into work at 7:15am on Saturday, I stopped at the Stewartstown (PA) Rutters to get some Marlboros, whole milk & Half & Half, and then at the "Eureka" Fire Dept mid-morning and got 12 BBQ (pit beef and smoked ham) sandwiches for myself, parents and employees, who were all working the day. It was busy with walk-ins, lscp job customers selecting/tagging/paying for their plant material, DIYs needing advice, digging and loading trees, loading mulch and topsoil, shrub replacements, a zillion phone calls, etc. I finally got all the lscp job billing done and out in the mail, and will get on to the waiting lscp estimates next. Jennifer & Bob have the Main GH and GHs 2-3-4 looking really great (GH-1 is the Potting House, and doesn't count); I'm very pleased with their attention to detail. They both did a great job on the Boulder Wall perennial plantings, at the front entrance, the total effects of which won't be fully-visible until next Spring.

I slept-in until 10:30am on Sunday, while it rained much of the morning and afternoon. Another 1/2", added top the 7-day, 4-5" total. Perfect sleeping weather, IMO. I had a mild case of 'food poisoning' from the previous evening's frozen "Lean Cuisine®" Chinese Dinner, so I didn't get any of my Sunday travel plans accomplished. I rested-up, knowing full-well that 4am Monday morning would come all too soon. The pile of paperwork on my desk would still be on my desk, where I left it on Saturday. And I could still get the toilet cleaned, bathroom floor swabbed, and microwave oven/toaster oven, wiped-out (it needs a real cleaning, which I'll get around to, soon). There was total and complete crap on CATV, so I resurrected "24" from Season 7 (Season 8 aborted; it will appear in January, I'm told) in 2006, and watched the first 6 episodes. I miss Jack Bauer, these past months. Worlds better than the garbage/shit/crap/trash/junk/filth on TV, which I don't watch, anyway. Network TV crap should be judged a "visual/content crime", and all who watch it, should have their eyes put-out, IMO. Seeing-eye dogs would have full employment. Heh.

Damn, I haven't had a shitty lousy, crappy, bad day like Monday, in a long time. "Murphy's Law" was in full-force, and didn't let-up until mid-afternoon. And it's effect(s) will impact my business, my employees and me for as long as it lasts, thanks to the socialist US Gov't and its ponderous rules & regulations. Without going into the myriad details, it had to do with the stopping and ticketing of my trucks, detaining employees, working in Maryland (interstate commerce), after 18yrs of operating wo/ USDOT permits. It took effect in 2003; so where was I all those years? It started at 8:20am, with a call from Seth & HSCP-LSCP Crews, detained at a MD State Police Weigh Station on I-83, and I had to force-feed myself a steady diet of DOT-crap, all day. I had the two of four (possible; most thankfully reduced by MDSP Officer Iman) tickets against my own license, rather than letting Arthur get nailed (just $60/ticket fines; no points) for the multiple offenses. Personally, I don't care about non-points tickets, for minor infractions like "not having emergency triangle reflectors" and "not having my wheelbarrow secured". $120 in fines is "corporate chump change", IMO. I actually consider it a "badge of honor" to get ticketed in one of my trucks, since I've only ever been written-up in my personal vehicles, and will probably get them both framed/hung. (((sigh))) What a day, huh? Tuesday's got to be better.

We had just barely gotten dried-out from last week's 3 days/ 6" of rain, and the Work Schedule revised, when more hit us in the face on Tuesday. Another 1½" by 3pm, and the retention ponds overflowed with glee. The geese, ducks and birds loved it, but my LSCP & HSCP Crews suffered in the unusually cold weather. We came closer to solving the USDOT problems, had the newest 2004 5-ton dumptruck in for a USDOT Safety Inspection, will apply for the required license and truck display numbers, in a matter of days, therefore becoming legal interstate. Don't ask. I sent everyone home at 2-2:15pm, and closed-up early around 3:30pm. The lush growth of all plants will be sorely tested, when the sun comes out for real, when delayed-Spring/ early-Summer temps hit 80-90°F, and irreparable foliar damage is be done to the soft, tender leaves and needles. D-a-m-a-g-e is coming; trust me on this. Been there, done that, got several t-shirts from my pat years. Thew USDOT permit and numbers were solved on Wednesday evening, and I had the 3" numbers ready to install, at 7am, Thursday.

With gas prices at the pump, initially dropping 4-5¢/gal this week — Unleaded Regular (87oct) was at $3.75/gal, Unleaded Premium (89oct) was at $3.85/gal, and Unleaded Super Premium (92oct) down to $4.05/gal — I noticed that the gas lines at stations weren't that long, as they were 3-5 cars deep, last week. That abruptly changed on Wednesday evening. By Thursday morning at 6am, I noticed that gas prices at the pump, rose another 10¢/gal overnight — Unleaded Regular (87oct) is now at $3.85/gal, Unleaded Premium (89oct) is at $3.95/gal, and Unleaded Super Premium (92oct) up to $4.15/gal. Sure didn't take long, did it?

Lately, I stumbled across Stouffers® "Lean Cuisine®" and ConAgra Foods® "Healthy Choice®" frozen dinners, and have been buying and eating them for lunch and dinner, instead of going to fast food joints, or even buying sandwich fixings — 9-grain bread, cheeses, lunchmeat etc — have a good selection (lots of Chinese-style entrees which I like; haven't tried the Italian yet), are very convenient (4½-5 minutes) and taste pretty darned good for what they are. No muss, no fuss, over and done in under 15 minutes; almost zero clean-up. Same with the Celeste "Pizza For One®" 8" pies. For what they are and what they offer in terms of convenience, they're pretty good. Though nowhere as good as my 3-4-5-6-7 course dinners, which I miss preparing for Family & friends. But that's another story, altogether. I'm also cutting-out sugar completely, from my daily diet, and especially in coffee. Since mid-January, I've started using copious amounts in my daily coffee, after having never used it in my previous 58 years.

The calls about trees and damaged plants continue to come in. Last Summer's "Unending Drought From Hell" is a major contributor to this problem, as is the fact that 85% of all customers stop watering and caring for plants, 1-2 months after installation. They simply "forget", and the "benign neglect" phase sets-in. I have 5-6 pieces of paperwork on my clipboard to attend to; visiting customers' homes and checking on the dead/damaged plants, and authorizing replacements under my unique 5 Year Conditional Warranty, if there's been no blatant/obvious "Acts of Nature" or "Acts of Man".

Net, net: the USDOT quandary is solved, our prime truck has the appropriate, requisite numbers on its flanks, clipboards hold the USDOT's mandated forms for us to toil-over daily, we're back-in-interstate-business in MD, and warmer weather is on its way. Life is semi-good, and improving by the day. Millions are planning and scheming for their 3-4 day Holiday Weekend, and I'm wondering what to do for the two days I have off, to celebrate the onset of Summer. I will probably do, as I've done for the past 30+ years, "Celebrate Memorial Day" by sitting quietly by myself, remembering all those who didn't come back from those wars which kept us Free. Each of us holds the sacred in our own important way, and I do so, in my own way. This year, as with the past 4 years, I shall sit on the front steps of the GC&N Complex, next to Pickle's grave, and in full view of my US Flag at the entrance, and mourn the loss of our Precious Patriots & Real Americans; yet be thankful that many gave, and that even more, gave their all. God Bless America.

 

 

Things Which Make Your Head Explode™.

Awwwwwww, the poor Brits: never had an Oreo® Cookie — fuck that "biscuit" shit, slimy-limeys — until now? And we dunk them in milk, Limeys, not tea, you stupidassed moron schmucks.

Hey, AlGoreBore, you lying asshole, huckster, scumbag fraud: DARPA invented the InterNet, not you, you commie-socialist wacko huckster sonofabitch asshole liberal-demokkkRAT filth!

A great graduation commencement speech for all seniors, by PJ O'Rourke. I wish I'd heard it, way back in either '67 (Mt Prospect High School) or in '71 (Drake University). PJ rocks!

 

 

Good Riddance, DIE & Rot In Hell, Kennedy Scumbag!™

Arguably, the worst piece of verminous, lowlife, treasonous, pedophilic, subhuman shit, fat, wife-beating, bloated, alcoholic, intern-murdering, US Sen Teddy "Chappaquiddick Swimmer" Kennedy (DRUNK-MA), had a stroke on Saturday morning, and I let out a cheer and a yell, which could be heard throughout my 20 acre Complex. I truly hope the subhuman piece of liberal-demokkkRAT shitscum, DIES! Kennedy's done more to damage and internally destroy America, than anyone else in the corrupt, criminal US Congress. The dumbfucks from The Peoples' Republik of Massachusetts have sent that liberal-commie-socialist pigfucker back for *7* fucking 6-year terms! That's 42 years for you idiot liberal-demokkkRATs, anywhere and everywhere. I truly hope that sonofabitch DIES in excruciating pain! His death would have made my day/week/month/year, dammit.

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, DIE, Teddy "drunk scumbag" Kennedy!

Kennedy's "stroke" update: he suffered a "seizure", whatever that means, and "he's resting comfortably". Too bad Kennedy didn't DIE, IMO. Teddy Kennedy's filth, garbage, shit, trash, crap, junk, dirt, crap, an arrogant liberal-demokkkRAT, an intern-murderer, alcoholic, drug-addicted piece-of-shit scumbag, wife-beater, pedophile... I could go on and on, about the seditious, death-deserving traitor, Edward "Wife Beater/Abuser" Kennedy. All the Kennedys deserve death, IMO. They're all treasonous liberal filth, hate-America garbage, liars, cowards, scum, dogshit and richly-deserve LHO headshots.

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, DIE, Teddy "wife beater & abuser" Kennedy!

It's funny how the scumbag, lowlife, hate-America, hate-US Military, socialist, asshole Kennedys, Bidens, Kerrys etc, all want a heavy tax on earned income, since none of them have anything but a meager US Senate ~$148,000 salary, yet have a massive, ponderous, tens/hundreds-of-millions in unearned income, which is non-taxable by the IRS. Have you ever wondered why they constantly call for increased taxation on the "rich peoples' income", which precludes their own inherited, non-taxable incomes. They're filth, garbage, shit, trash, crap, junk etc. Any questions, libs? Thought so, liberal-asswipe hypocrites?

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, DIE, Teddy "America-hater" Kennedy!

News update, Teddy The Drunk Kennedy suffered 2 seizures last Saturday. Now, on Tuesday at 2:58pm: Reports that the shit-for-brains Kennedy has brain cancer are greatly exaggerated, since he has no brain, to begin with. "Sen. Kennedy will remain at Massachusetts General Hospital for the next couple of days according to routine protocol. He remains in (a) good (deep vat of 100-proof) spirits and full of energy shit, lies and treason."

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, DIE, Teddy "Traitor" Kennedy!

Do you think I'm wasting too many pixels on that piece-of-lowlife-subhuman-shitfilth drunken scumbag, Kennedy, so far? Too bad; I'm enjoying it, immensely! Good riddance and I truly hope he rots in the worst corner of Hell, for what he did to Mary Jo Kopechne, to America and to the children in that sad, inbred, drug-addicted, alcoholic family of life's lowlife losers.

I'm glad that this man and thousands of others have survived brain cancer, but Ted Kennedy is subhuman, treasonous, seditious, socialist-commie lying filth, and needs to DIE, go to hell, and be judged by God, and get whatever he truly deserves, for eternity. His two brothers got what they richly-deserved, IMO, and his is coming 40 years too late, at the expense of the damage he's done to America's Freedoms & Liberty, IMO. DIE, Kennedy!

 

 

Global Warming™.

Have you seen this video: "BBC: The Great Global Warming Swindle"? It was outright-banned from leftist, hate-filled, dirtbag lowlife scumbags, Google.com's and YouTube.com's websites, by the mentally-ill, left-wing, global warming idiot wackos, but I've preserved it, for posterity, aka you, me and *ours*. Watch, be informed and download it for others to see. It's on my corporate server, and will stay there, BTW.

Here's everything you need to know about Global Warming, and why it's a good thing.

The "Greenhouse Effect" is a natural and valuable phenomenon, without which, the planet would be uninhabitable. Global Warming, at least in recent times, is real. CO2 is not a significant greenhouse gas; 95% of the contribution is due to Water Vapor. Man's contribution to Greenhouse Gasses is relatively insignificant. We didn't cause the recent Global Warming and we cannot stop it. Solar Activity appears to be the principal driver for Climate Change. CO2 is a useful trace gas in the atmosphere, and the planet would actually benefit by having more, not less of it, because it is not a driver for Global Warming and would enrich our vegetation, yielding better crops to feed the expanding population. CO2 is not causing global warming, in fact, CO2 is lagging temperature change in all reliable datasets. The cart is not pulling the donkey. Wake-up, folks.

Here's a listing of The Best Global Warming Videos on the Internet.

Hey, fat, shit-for-brains, bloated, liar, huckster, fraud, criminal, charlatan, scumbag, loser, disgraced ex-VP AlGoreBore (LIAR-TN), is back using $300 million of OPM (Other Peoples' Money) to promote his Global Warming Bullshit, after the worst Winter in over 100 years. Welcome back, fatso huckster asswipe AlGoreBore!

CO2 bad? No; CO2 is good, and we need more of it, or we're in for a very cold period, very soon.

 

 

Lowlife, Subhuman Filth™.

Oh-ooooooooooooooooooh, racist DHS-ICE Raids? Racist? Spic, criminal alien filth! Fuck you, spic/wetback bitch whore slut skank trash! You spics aren't "racists", wetbacks; you're just garbage/trash/shit/filth/crap/junk! SHIT! Any questions, subhuman filthies? Thought so.

 

 

islam Is A Criminal Organization™.

So fucking what: a US Soldier used the unholy murder manual, koran, for target practice? I wipe my ass with the koran/curan or whatever that shitfilth junk crap book is called. A US General apologized to the 3rd century muslim-islamic-arab filth? I spit on islam and piss on the koran/curan! islam is dogshit, muslims are subhuman trash, mo-ham-head was a mentally-ill, drug-addicted pedophile, and allah is an false, made-up asshole. Any fucking questions, sandniggers? Fuck all of you subhuman muslim-islamic-arab filth to death!

 

 

Some People Just Need Killing™.

It's not my intention to be Judge here — that God's job — but rather to "hasten the meeting" so that He can send the following subhuman filth to the Fires of Hell, River or Lake of Sulphur, or whatever. I'd volunteer, at no cost to any Hard-Working Taxpayer, to headshoot these murderous, lowlife dirtbags and rid American Society's innocents (children, the elderly) of them, once and for all. And yes, I'd rather see one innocent man convicted and executed, than 10 guilty freed, to rob, rape and murder again. Got a problems with that? Fuck you.

 

 

Emdashes.

Fans of The New Yorker are a dedicated bunch. They relish its arrival every week, check the bylines, and then dive right into a 20,000 word piece. It's no wonder this passion for a beloved magazine has spawned a site devoted to its pages past and present. Whip-smart writer Emily Gordon obsessively blogs about all topics great and small related to her favorite periodical. I was amused by discussions related to cartoons, literary giants, and nitpicky grammar. If you want to skim the highlights, I recommend checking out discussions with The New Yorker librarians, the always-debatable Pick of the Issue, and regular plunges into the history of the esteemed publication. Whether you're a cover-to-cover obsessive or just a grazer passionate about "Talk of the Town," you'll find Ms. Gordon has created a delicious companion to America's best magazine.