Folks…a new computer means moving software, which means redoing some software settings.
That’s a little item I forgot, and since my posts are recordings of the live Tuesday morning show, I can’t go back and make it better, so…
This is the best I can do this week. However, look at it this way…there is nowhere to go but up!
[powerpress]
The three of us resident coots…Justin, Ralph, and me…were talking the other day about ways to improve Cantankerous Old Coots. We kicked around a few ideas, some of which you’ll see us roll out over the next month or two, and some of which (thank God) will never see the light of day.
After about an hour of discussion (and not a few snarky comments from Ralph) Justin and Ralph suggested…rather pointedly I thought…that no matter what else we did, if we didn’t keep the writing quality to a high standard, COC would founder.
By virtue of my paranoia acute observational skills, even over the Skype connection I could tell they were talking about the dumb redneck boiled peanut salesman from Georgia, namely me.
Being the reserved, quiet, non-confrontational sort I quietly informed them both that I could outwrite both of them with half a keyboard tied behind my back, even before having my first cup pot of coffee in the morning, and if anyone needed to pick up their writing skills it was them. I know I did it quietly because the feedback in my headset was tolerable.
Painful…but tolerable.
I mean…com’on…how much kettlebell crap and retirement sackcloth and ashes do you folks want to listen to, huh? Wouldn’t you much prefer my astute observations on Washington idiocy, TSA sexual assaults at airports, and the sad state of public education…and the pithy way I present that information?
In their defense, Justin and Ralph DO have some limiting factors in their pitiable attempts to match my writing skills.
Besides writing, both here at Cantankerous old Coots AND at JustinsBrainPan (what the hell kinda blog name IS that, anyway?) AND being a stay-at-home dad…and playing those silly kettlebells, Justin doesn’t have a lot of time and energy to put into quality writing, so his dragging COC down is understandable, if unfortunate.
As for poor, poor Ralph…well, we all use a certain amount of brain power on each blog we write, and we all only have so much brain power to start with, and Ralph does have to keep try to keep quality work on his blog RalphCarlsonBlog, and…well…there just isn’t much left over. I wouldn’t want to say he doesn’t have much to work with, but he did choose to live in Californeeee, after all. Not just that, but he chose to be right next door to UCBerkley, for God’s sake! His limitations are obvious.
As for ME…well, I’ve known for years I am the Smartest Man in the World, and frankly I’ve never been short on the willingness to share that fact…with family, neighbors, friends, and now y’all…so it’s obvious to me that MY writing certainly is up to snuff, both here and over at MY blog, JuicyMaters.com, but…
Justin and Ralph don’t agree. Actually, they disagree quite vemnt…vehamtl…veamentall…oh crap…strongly, so we are leaving it up to you, my our readers, to decide who is best. This week’s post comments will be counted, and the post with the most comments wins the Golden Coot Award for best, most cantankerous coot on this blog.
If I win it will prove to Justin and Ralph who is REALLY the best writer here at COC.
You ask, “IF you lose?” Well, I don’t think that’s possible, but if it happens it proves you, the readers, have a mental acuity on the level of Justin and Ralph, and I truly feel sorry for y’all.
AlGore used to irritate me. All of his pseudo-science based bullshit about the threat of global warming pissed me off on several levels.
First off, I hate hypocrisy, and when I see a jackass like Gore preaching “protect the environment” at symposiums attended by “leaders” who arrived on private jets carrying 2-3 people each, rather than on fuel efficient commercial airliners…I lose all interest.
(I must admit, however, that I paid enough attention to note that last winter there were several “global warming” meetings cancelled due to severe cold and snow. How’s that global warming thing working out for you there, Al? ***snicker, snicker, snicker***)
In fairness, it’s not just good ol’ Al that shows such hypocrisy. I used to subscribe to Mother Earth News (yes, I put up with their left leaning politics. Their self-sufficiency articles were good.)
Then they put John Jr or Joe or some other Kennedy brat on the cover plugging his interview inside that month’s issue…an interview on…what else…global warming. Guess where the cover photo was taken? Beside the private jet he had just arrived in, coming to Los Angeles from Martha’s Vineyard just for the interview in that waste of jet fuel.
So much for Mother Earth News…it was nice knowing ya.
Anyway, now I’m willing to have a truce with AlGore, at least temporarily. You see, I have 5-6 inches of his global warming on my front porch right now, and down here in Georgia we don’t have snow shovels. No matter that I’m only 60 miles north of Atlanta…the same Atlanta with only two white Christmases in history, the most recent in 1882…according to Al we are still in the middle of a global heat wave…so I’d like to ask a favor of good ol’ Al:
Please send me some of that heat wave stuff.
Not a lot…I don’t want to warm up all of Georgia…just the half mile or so surrounding me so my neighbors and I can move around a bit. I think you could probably get enough of your global heat wave in a box that UPS could deliver that would get the job done.
Al, if you’ll send that, I’d appreciate it and I’ll get off your hypocritical ass…at least a little bit. I’ll consider it a late Christmas present.
Oooppss…
Never mind, Al…
There is too much of your global warming BS on the roads for the UPS delivery truck to get to my house.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…so I’ve missed a few Mondays. Well…I’m here today with something new…
All seriousness aside…there are two differences on the Monday posts:
1.) They’ll be more regular (I promise!)
2.) Mondays will be all video, all the time.
Enjoy.
The videos will have me in them…of course you’ll enjoy them!
[powerpress]
Todays show includes:
A shoutout to a regular Cantankerous Old Coots visitor. Is it you?
Some things the Monday videos will include as topics.
ONE thing they will not have as a topic.
And the topic de jour…Carmegeddon.
**If you missed Bob’s debut here at the coots check it out here. If you wan’t to read some sage wisdom about simple living check out his great blog at JuicyMaters.com. Thanks for another great article Bob, you are most definitely now one of us Coots**
Sheesh! Lately it seems that this is Old Cantankerous Coots instead of Cantankerous Old Coots. Ol’ Ralph over there concentrates on retirement over there at his blog, and then links us to other bloggers who talk about retirement, some very active retirement but retirement just the same, and I just sit here, fat and happy, making those funny raspberry noises…phlettttt…
I’ve done my best to ignore the aging issue, and some health problems have conspired to help me do so. After all, I can blame my inability to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail on diabetes based foot problems, NOT on the aging process. My lack of endurance I can lay at the feet of my own stupidity, smoking induced COPD, NOT on the aging process. Same thing with my lack of strength. A couple of years ago I decided that my shrink in rehab didn’t know what he was talking about, that I could have a drink, just one little itty bitty drink before dinner, and not go back to the half gallon of gin a day I had indulged in for a few years before going to rehab. Eight months later I found myself in the ICU almost dead from malnutrition and a badly damaged liver. See? My lack of strength is due to the booze, NOT the aging process.
This morning though, I got slapped in the face with the cold dead fish of reality. Oddly, it was not a physical limitation that woke me up, but a mental unwillingness to do what I used to do.
A little you need to know about me so this make sense. Either I am Oscar Madison or Oscar Madison is me. I purchased my housekeeping skills at Oscar Madison R Us. My philosophy tends toward, “Wash the dishes? Why? There are still clean dishes to use…”
Combined with that has always been a college kid’s nonchalance toward left over food storage.
OK… With that background, I ordered a pizza last night. Not a personal pan size pizza, not even a large pizza, but a super sized great big humongous pizza. After all, the difference in price between a small pizza and a ginormous pizza these days is about 37¢, and (college kid thinking here) the leftovers would make a fantastic breakfast this morning, right?
Well, I got up this morning, fixed my coffee, and felt my stomach say “feed me, feed me”. I walked into the kitchen, saw the pizza box on the counter (where any college kid would have left it), and started to eat the remainder for breakfast.
“Started to” is the operative phrase here.
Shit! Maybe I am getting old(er).