Happy Thanksgiving.

It's a little late but I hope you had one.  Now it's Black Friday (but I hate that term.)

I have heard that it comes from the fact that on this day each year the American retail industry becomes profitable.  It seems to me that if our retail industry operates in the red 11 months a year, we may have bigger problems.

Anyway, in 79 days I can blog what I really think.  

Get off my lawn.

Eighty Six

It's a slang term.  What I was surprised to learn is that it's not as old as I am.  According to Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eighty-six) the "first known use" was in 1959.  I was two.  I was probably 12 when I first realized it had a slang meaning.

According to several on-line dictionaries it originated in the restaurant industry where it meant "take off the menu," and could also mean "refuse service."  The latter meaning, together with the time of its alleged origin, take my suspicions in directions I'd rather they not go.

It was also Maxwell Smart's agent number at C.O.N.T.R.O.L.  By the time Get Smart debuted in 1965 it had been in slang use for 6 years.  I'm sure I've heard Buck Henry say that's why they picked that number, but I haven't been able to find it through Google yet.  I did learn that I got the name of the organization wrong.  It should be 'CONTROL. "CONTROL" is not an acronym, but it is always shown in all capital letters as if it were.'  -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart

Anyway, I can retire in 86 days.  But I'll probably eighty six my career before then.

And until then you kids GET OFF MY LAWN.

100 Days

Yes, I can formally retire in one hundred days.  Tomorrow I'm in double digits.  According to the online calculator that's 66 work days.  They don't take out Acadian Day (or Black Friday for those of you who don't work for the State of Louisiana,) December 26th or January 2nd, all three of which have been declared by the Governor.  That reduces my time to 63 work days, or 504 hours.  I have about 6 time that in leave.  I think I already told you I won't make it.  But I might have time to blog.

Now you kids get off my lawn!

RANT

At 8:02 PM yesterday my phone rang. I didn't answer it. They left a voicemail ..., well, my voicemail recorded a portion of an automated schpiel. "... dot com. Simply log in to your account to redeem your thirty one dollars. At Verizon we care about you? Thank you and have a nice day." I put the question mark there because that's the inflection. Appropriate?

Of course, I'm not a Verizon customer. So I knew it was a scam. I am actually thinking about BECOMING a Verizon customer when I retire, but this has me rethinking that. Why? Here's my RANT:

This is a known scam. It is not the only one. How many of you have not had a similar call or email over the last year? What bothers me is that they have a phone number: 800-922-5555. I googled it:

http://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2013/6/5/bogus-verizon-automated-phone-calls-and-phishing-website-mybonus130-com/

Anyone who operates a telephone scam has a commercial account with a telephone carrier. They have a number. It's not like they can't find them. I'm sure they pay their phone bill. Perhaps that is why the phone companies don't do anything about this.

"Oh, we can't do anything about this." "This sort of thing is impossible to track." BULL! They know exactly who is behind these scams, and what they're doing. They CHOOSE not to put a stop to it. The article above has been online for over a year.

I have much more to gripe about but I'm already late posting this.

I can retire in 163 days, so as soon as that guy in Nigeria puts that money in my account I'm outta here. But until then....

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!

Six Months

Six months from today I will be retired.  That's still over fifteen million seconds, but it's getting close. Still not sure I'm gonna make it.

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  If I had started on this a couple of days ago I had something to say.  Not now, of course.  I did actually have a request (from one of the two people who read this) to elaborate on the creepy billboards.  I probably will.  Not now, of course.

I wrote the above last night.  I was going to clean it up and post it today, but I had killed google drive sync on my laptop so I couldn't get to it.  I started to recreated it, but today was a busy day.  At least I think I'll get it posted by midnight.

It seems like I also had a picture to include in this post.  But I can't think of it now.  (Of course.)  Maybe I will before I post it.

Oh, yeah, I think this was it:

(That was my first Kickstarter investment, btw.)

Anyway I can retire in 184 days, so get off my lawn!

200

It's Wednesday, and the online calculator says I can retire in 200 days. Since I plan to post this at closing time, the widgit will say I have 199 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes. Close enough.

I've been thinking about the creepy billboard I blogged about a few weeks ago. It was replaced last week (by another that I also find creepy in a similar but more subtle way.) I may have to say more about it later. Right now I want to eat lunch.

But since I can retire in 17,280,000 seconds, you kids get off my lawn!

Happy Independence Day.

I started the week with thoughts of blogging about something serious.  But I got over it.  Maybe later. Maybe not.

Today is a day to celebrate our independence as a nation.  As a nation founded, perpetuated and run by human beings, it is not perfect.  But in my opinion, and I don't think I'm alone in this, it is still the best ever devised by humans.

And while I'm spouting my opinions, let me share this one with you:  the greatest weakness of any democratic government, whether it is a representative democracy (or Republic) like ours, or direct democracy (ridiculed as "mobocracy in days gone by,) is that its continued existance depends entirely upon an educated and informed electorate.

Okay..., take a deep breath now.  I didn't say we're doomed.

I know that, with the seven people who actually read my ravings, I'm preaching to the choir here.  It's the other 299,999,993 we have to worry about.  But they're not all registered voters, so you can cut that in half.  We can do what we can.

Allow me to digress for a moment.  MANY years ago, shortly after I finished college in 1979, I was talking to a friend who related a conversation he had recently had with one of our high school classmates.  He had asked her who she was going (at this point I think "hoping" would be more accurate) to vote for in the 1980 Presidential election.  She replied that she hadn't made up her mind between George Bush and Ted Kennedy.

Another deep breath here.  In retrospect there really isn't as much difference between those two choices as there appeared to be in 1979.  But it still doesn't indicate a strong command of the issues.

But we can do what we can.  We can't rely upon the educational system or the media to educate or inform the electorate.  What we first MUST do is educate and inform ourselves.  We can't change anyone else's opinion through argument.  What we CAN do is encourage those who appear to be less informed to educate and inform themselves on the issues.  You can lead a horse to water.

I'm going to treat myself to another digression down memory lane.  Another second hand story, from another friend.  It was during the Savings and Loan scandal of the early eighties.  Phil Donohue had a very popular talk show.  In that bygone era, talk shows operated a little differently:  when the host asked a question, he allowed the guest to answer ..., and actually LISTENED to the answer.  Even if he DISAGREED.  That doesn't really apply to this instance, but if you can find any Donahue interviews on YouTube, particularly of conservatives, you can see this quaint custom from time immemorial.

But on this show about the Savings and Loan bailouts Donahue was in the audience allowing them to ask questions.  One guy stood up and asked "Why should the taxpayers pay for this?  Why doesn't the Government do it?"  As I say, I didn't see the show myself, but I am told that Donahue, for once, was speechless.

So, when we can, lets lead those horses to water.  It looks like I got serious anyway, but this is nothing near what I started the week with.

And I'll be able to start drawing retirement in 226 days.  So until then you kids ..., what the heck, it's Independence Day. You can stay on the lawn but keep away from the barbecue pit.