It was Bourbon Night

Wow I blew through post 1500 a while back without any ceremony. In fact next month will be my 4 year anniversary of this drivel. I can't believe I stuck with it this long.

Last night I had an appiontment with some clients that live in Shalotte, NC on the Lockwood Folly river. Lockwood Folly is a cool name for a river isn't it?

I was running early so I went ahead on to their house. I know them well so I felt it would be okay coming a few minutes early. I rang the doorbell and heard many voice talking loudly.

"Come on in Wreggie....we are having our monthly bourbon tasting!"

What they were sampling was Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon. Maybe 8 guys and two women were holding glasses with a dark amber liquid. No ice, no mixers. And they had made a big dent in the bottle already.

I appreciate the hard work and art that goes into a good bottle of bourbon. This was very good. It was darker than Markers Mark and had a more complex flavor than my regular bourbon. Plus it was 100 proof rather than 80 so the alcohol made it a bit hotter.

I drank about a 1 inch glass and began to see why they were all so happy and loud.

I found out that they were all Vietnam Veterans, they all lived in this golf community, they were all in their 60's and they all loved good bourbon. This was a good warm drink on a cold winter night. It was fun for sure. What a fun way to meet people.

Been There...Done That

Yesterday we brought a new iPhone into the world. It is a 32 gig replacement for Gigi's old 1st generation iPhone. It is much faster than her old iPhone and it comes with some fancy compass that gives out the exact coordinates of where she is in case she needs to order some air or artillery support.

I am going back down to the coast today to see some clients, load up on some seafood, and tow the RV back home. Just call me Captain Carbon.

Sunday is our final home game against the Saints. It promises to be a cold and very windy day. Right now they are calling for temps in the upper 30's with a steady wind of 15 MPH gusting to 29 MPH. That should put the wind chill in the solid 20's.

Gigi doesn't get it. Why would I go to a game where our team has no chance of a playoff and will likely loose to a great team and the weather promises to be miserable?

Because it is the NFL....big time tackle football. There will be cooking, grilling, laughs, yelling, adult beverages, music, pageantry, more laughs, and sports history being made. To stand in any football bowl give me a rush. To be in my home bowl in my home seats cheering my team with friends is about as big of rush as I get here.

I enjoy snorkeling and hiking about as much so image my intensity when I hike to Jack's Bay in St Croix to snorkel.

It is never been there done that for any of these activities.

Heat

Last night I was kicking back watching Monday Night Football when waves of deep yawns inspired me to sleep more than the game inspired me to stay awake.

It was cold outside. We are having lows in the mid to low 20's now. We fight the cold in this part of the world with good insulation and a heat pump. Heat pumps work very good down to the mid 20's. We were at that transition zone from heat pump to auxiliary strip heat and the air in the house was a bit chilly.

I went to bed.

And so it came to pass that at 1:30 AM I was awaken from a coma-like deep RIM sleep by a wife who had a pissy attitude she gets when the TV doesn't work right or the power goes out. She was shooting a barrage of questions and orders at me and I was still in a Windows Vista brain boot sequence. I wasn't sure what was going on and frankly my brain was still waking up.

"The heat is off and it is 50 degrees!", she yelled.

I stumbled around to the various breaker panels and everything seemed in order. I told her to call Van our heater guy. She did.

Van was sound asleep as he should have been but his wife was up. He had fallen asleep on the sofa watching the game. Van finally came to the phone and Gigi handed me the phone. Two men asleep grunted at each other and Van said he would be there in a minute.

Van came in just moments all ashamed that the heater failed on his watch. He crawled under the house. We heard some knocking and pounding and the heater came back on. There was a bad breaker down there and all was now right with the world.

Let Me Count the Ways.....

I have had my iPhone for almost a year now and my love for it grows daily.

Just yesterday I got the free Kindle app and downloaded the Reagan Diaries for $9.99. It is easy to use, instant and not bulky like a book.

I use my Tide app when I am at the coast and I use my Accuweather app several times a day. My Associated Press app and my CNBC app push only the most serious breaking news to the forefront to keep me knowledgeable.

My iPhone lets me dictate and mostly understands my accent so I can text and email. I can speak to google and it finds what I am looking for. My phone keep the police away with Trapster. I Facebook, Ebay and Paypal on my iPhone. I can listen to my local radio station anywhere with their app or satellite radio with a Sirius app. I track my flights and my friends flights when I am designated to pick them up at the airport.

I can instantly call up my local TV schedule or movies or good place to eat wherever I am because it always knows where I am.

I can bank, surf the web, take pictures and shoot video. I can even tether my phone now so I can use my laptop even if there is no wifi around via the phone's 3G network.

It is a darn good phone too and contrary to the TV commercials the Att network works good for me wherever I travel.

My iPhone is synced via google wirelessly so any change my assistant or I make to my calendar or contacts instantly shows up on my phone.

Yes I even have the iFart app when I want to play a prank.

I watch movies on my iPhone and listen to my entire collection of music via the 16 gigs of storage.

All this and wrapped in a protective Otterbox.

The Christmas Flounder

We are at the Southport, NC RV campground for Christmas. This is an interesting mix of people, first group being like us who basically are recreating in a dirt yacht and this is our second vacation home albeit mobile. We come from all walks of life and social stations from wealthy to barely subsiding. We will stay a short while and then move on. We are the most social.

Then there are the longer term mobile who are employed at the local nuclear power plant working jobs that last a few months to a few years. Their reason for staying here is that they can live cheaply and this allows them to save their per diem thereby enhancing their take home pay. These people are the least social because they usually dislike their jobs and their living conditions.

Third there are the low income folks who find this lifestyle necessary to make ends meet. Usually they are not mobile but still have an RV capable of moving with new tires or they have chosen to permanently mount their RV or if they are flamboyant enough their mobile home to the site. If their living quarters are paid for they can get by comfortably on take home pay as little as $1000 a month. They seem to be fairly happy with their lot in life and they are social and friendly to the first group.

And now it is Christmas with all the tacky lights adorning the RV's.

Last night we all gathered in our RV for supper and watched a pay per view movie The Hangover. We decided then that we would have fresh flounder for supper Christmas eve.

I went out this morning to the local fish monger and ordered up enough flounder for 5. This fish monger always has the freshest seafood locally caught. If it is not local and fresh (not frozen) it is clearly marked. The place is spotless and does not smell of fish.

The tall fellow suggested that 1/2 pound each would be good for 5 and he took out three flounders, scaled them and filleted them in front of me. Then he weighted the pile of fish and it was exactly 2 1/2 pounds.

So tonight a non traditional diner with family and I like that.

Christmas Eve

We are all settled in in Southport for Christmas. I have the fireplace CD going on the TV....I connected to the Internet via my iPhone hack and Direct TV is working so I can watch the Pope tonight if I was Catholic.

We've already had one "sugar plum" accident last night left by Abby.

Now for an old fashion Christmas with Mutha.

Travelin' Day

Today my bride and dogs head to Southport for Christmas.

I may be in an Internet blackout for the next few days and this is not stress relieving at all to me. What I have done to combat this is hack my iPhone to where I can use the on board 3g as an Internet connection. I know there is a good 3g signal where my RV is so hopefully I can maintain connectivity with the outside world. Otherwise I may have to resort to buying old fashioned newsprint on pulp wood. Lets hope not.

In addition I have had some issues setting up the satellite down there last week. I'm taking down a new rebuild kit. After all...what is Christmas without good crisp TV and the Internet?

Dude....

Yesterday was football Sunday and the Carolina Panthers were playing at 8:15 PM against the Vikings. Bret Farve is the quarterback so this game was a big deal. Bret Farve carries rock star status among his followers.

It was very cold out and as the sun set so did the temperature.

About the begining of the second quarted I decided I couldn't hold my urge any longer. I headed to the mens room and waited in line a a few hundred like minded guys.

Finally it was my turn. I dug through my thick clothing, took aim and fired. I was starring at the cinder block wall listening to the game and enjoying the relief I was experiencing when the guy to the right of me interrupted me by saying, "Dude...you're peeing on the floor." I looked and so I was. Suddenly 53 years of near peeing perfection went down the drain.

I corrected my aim, apologized and continued on for another minute.

Another reason I hate the cold winter.

I'll take your suggestions and write in more detail about the previous post. They are all good stories.

Funny as I looked at the list yesterday and the comments I couldn't help but notice that an old friend of mine who I rarely see anymore was with me on five of those events. I called him last night and we had some good laughs. He reads the blog but never comments.

Today I head southeast to Southport with the RV in tow. There is a possibility I will meet up with a blogger Micky-T who is out of his regular stomping grounds and running through NC on some family errands.

I'm back home on Thursday.

10 Things

I have played with lion cubs in my living room.

I have eaten Easter dinner with a serial killer.

I have transported adult black bears.

I have prayed over a man and his family who was dying and I acted as clergy.

I have had a gun drawn on me by police.

I have been shot at once by an idiot.

I have shared a $600 bottle of wine with a friend. (his treat)

I have had 5 grand mall seizures.

I once saw a fireball pass overhead me during a violent thunderstorm while back backing on top of a mountain.

I have had pain at 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 and it wasn't my kidney stone.

Feel free to ask me details of any of these things.

Hybernation

You know...the bears have this all figured out.

Munch out and get fat in the fall. Then find a warm dark dry space and sleep all winter.

Wake up in the spring hungry and grumpy and have no memory of winter.

They could DVR the entire football season.

Before and After

Wendy,

We are almost at the point where that bottom limb on the coconut tree should be trimmed off. It's beginning to block the water. And we have the boat show to watch you know.

reggie

You are too funny. I know I know. I’ll get it hacked off, just for you, by special request.

XO

W

Thank you. Looks better already.

Reggie

A Discovery!

I'm a guy so I am slow but I have made a discovery. I can now discern a womans time of the month remotely via Facebook. This is handy if a guy needs to avoid being broadsided emotionally by any particular woman that he may need to converse with.

Just like watching a quarterback can help determine a play call. Just like I know Gigi is lying with 100% certainty by her mannerisms. Women give out hints in their Facebook posts and comments.

Of course the younger the woman the stronger the radar and eventually it becomes a very faint blip in their 40's and 50's. But isn't that how it is supposed to work?

I'll do more research here and publish my findings later. Men can thank me later.

This is Why I like to Wake Up

Brilliant - from Wall Street Journal

At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.

Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.

Health

According to Dr. Karen Weatherby, a gerontologist and author of the study, gawking at women’s breasts is a healthy practice, almost at par with an intense exercise regime, that prolongs the lifespan of a man by five years.

She added, "Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female, is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out."

More Interesting Facts (to me) and Observations

Sometimes when you buy Pillsbury canned biscuits in St Croix, the dough is gray. The biscuits turn out gray but taste the same. I don't eat them but I am told this. I guess they sat on a boat too long.

I can fall asleep in my chair sitting up and sleep deeply. I did it last night for an hour before I realized it and went to bed. My mother has done this all her life.

Google now has their own dictionary http://www.google.com/dictionary and as of yesterday their own DNS server to speed up your searches. http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/ I like this and made the DNS change. Yes I am a nerd.

It is Friday, the bills are paid, I feel good and I have two games to watch this weekend. This is good.

I'm mixing it up Sunday at the tailgate...calling audibles so to say. No brats this weekend. Good old American bun length hot dogs with slaw, relish, chili and onions. Mustard and ketchup if you like with choice of hot sauce. I'm making the chili. Of course they'll be some burgers and Bash is bringing flank steak to grill. It will be cold.

Daily Drivel

I noticed that St Croix got their credit rating yesterday of BBB- for their new 30 Million bond issue. Not too bad considering the economy and their lack of bond history. How can you go wrong with rum backed bonds though?

Around here our local unemployment rate has topped 12% and rising. This is unheard of in these parts. I sure hope the "trickle up" federal stimulus approach will trickle up soon. There are a lot of people to fill the wind mill and power grid jobs at present but I don't see anything whirling except jaws flapping.

We are down to a very lean mixture of daylight at 9.9 hours and falling. What daylight we are getting is obscured by clouds or very low in the sky which is bright in the face and casts long shadows. Saturday calls for snow flurries and Sunday will be cold and windy at the game. I must build a Wreggie room where the lights are bright, the humidity is high, and the fake windows show summer or tropical views when you look at them.

I am always surprised and caught off guard when someone with an opposing position turns so quickly to anger when I unveil my opinion. Just because I don't "think right" doesn't mean you need to be so pissed off. How about a little civilized dialog? I don't get mad when I listen to your drivel.

SLR Cameras

I am a point and click guy when it comes to cameras. I like action photos and random shots. Very few people pose well in my opinion.

I must have a thousand holiday pictures of my MIL and BIL posed in the exact same expression. The only difference is 30 years of ageing.

I like cameras simple....I ain't shooting for The National Geographic. I used to have a fancy film camera back in the day with lenses, f stops, focus rings and all the hardware and it was a pain in the ass and rarely led to better random unrehearsed photos. Usually I can make changes later on the computer.

It pains me so when my MIL takes 80 seconds to push the damn shutter release to take my annual picture at Christmas of me looking pissed off sitting in my chair on my PJs. Same picture every year...the only difference is 30 years of ageing.

I love my iPhone camera. It is good enough to see but fuzzy enough to make everyone look good.

Here and idiot has complicated a perfectly good iPhone camera.