If you have read almost anything on this blog you will have noticed that we have some pretty strong opinions. Bob just joined us recently because his opinions fit right in with Ralph and I. Today, we are going to take flight in a new direction. Podcasting. There is a very special announcement in this podcast….you have been warned.
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CGI Team Creates Realistic Oscar for Michael Bay - Onion (Photo credit: Steve Rhodes)
Hey Folks, more odd news for you today. How do you all like the CFBTN? something we should keep? Let us know in the comments and your opinions will be considered or rejected appropriately. Let’s get to it shall we?
Don’t be excited that we can have some virtual interactions and technology is making leaps and bounds, worry about the “possible” bad stuff. Next Bob will be telling us the government is full of robots and they are going to take over the Presidency soon. Like the President doesn’t seem like a puppet most of the time anyway.
This is sure not on my list of “things to do”. Crashing into a police car is just asking for trouble. My take, Bartender: You shouldn’t be driving. Driver: Yer not the bosssss of me! I drive a mercedes!
Well to do fool with alcohol on board thinking he owns the road. My wife used to get all of these drunk driver accidents in the ER. Somewhere around 90% of the drunk drivers walk away from the accident with the other car taking all of the damage. Many people die or are seriously injured by someone who walks away. Good luck to the Officer they have a tough job and they don’t need drunk idiots slamming into them.
Whew! I worried about this all week! And they have a website! Gotta love the Brits.
Ummmmmm….HUH?????? I thought Pennsylvania was better than this, I guess not.
A related graphic: 
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!!!!!
Is it just me or do things like this actually happen a lot?
Anyway folks, that is the CFBTN for this week. I would love your suggestions for stories if you have them. There is a form in the sidebar or you can email me at justin@cantankerousoldcoots.com.
Thanks for reading and thanks to theonion.com and fark.com for being aggregators of some funny stuff. Have a great weekend.
-Justin
It’s been a week since we got back from Argentina and life is beginning to get back to normal. I have to say that taking a long trip makes you stop and think about what is so wonderful about normal. Normal is what you are trying to get away from. In truth, normal is a comfort zone. It is the environment that allows you to relax and stop worrying about everything that might go wrong. But normal is what makes the trains run on time and gets the bills paid so we are working on getting back to normal.
In Argentina we were gradually drawn into the life schedule of Argentinians. We began eating later in the evening and not being so concerned about getting up in the morning. It didn’t happen overnight. It just crept into our lives. At first we didn’t even notice. The biggest reason is that you can’t find any restaurants that serve dinner before 8:00. At 8:00 they will let you sit down and give you a menu but it will probably be at least 30 minutes before they will get you a drink or take an order. Still, when you get your food at 9:00 or so, the restaurant will be deserted and only start to fill when you leave at 10:00. I’m not complaining about that. It is just one of the weird quirks of the Argentine lifestyle. They aren’t going to change it for us and so we coped. What we didn’t anticipate were the consequences of eating later.
Each morning, we got out of bed later and later. By our last week, nine in the morning seemed early. There were no consequences of this change because as tourists, nine was plenty of time to do our sightseeing. The downside of our new lifestyle pattern didn’t hit until we got back. All this week I have struggled to get out of bed in the morning.
There are plenty of excuses. Buenos Aires is four hours ahead of California which is enough of a difference to mess up your inner clock. I would wake up at 2:00 or so and then get back to sleep expecting to wake up at 7:00. I slept until 9 and even then didn’t want to get out of bed. There was nothing to look forward to. We weren’t on vacation any more but we didn’t have any work commitments either. We were still putting stuff away and getting the house back in shape. Nothing to look forward to about that.
Even when life began to become more normal, I couldn’t get myself out of bed each morning. I’m still struggling to get up before 9:00. It can’t still be the Argentine lifestyle because we’ve been eating at our normal time and getting to bed around 10. Getting enough sleep and getting up bright and early should be easy. So what’s the problem?
My theory is that it’s the disruption to my old routine- the normal day to day pattern that structured life before our trip. I had my life figured out back then. I had a schedule of tasks and priorities and that motivated me to get up and work. One month with no routine and a relaxed lifestyle has made that confidence disappear. I’m not sure what my priorities are for today and even less sure what is important and why. How important is getting that post written? Will it matter to anybody except me? What else could I do that would really make a difference.
This, in turn, raises the question about what I know about my priorities anyway. Am I doing something important or am I more like a dog chasing his tail- busy but going nowhere. Right now, my getting out of bed each morning is beginning to seem not so important. In time, I expect this all to pass but whether this should be considered progress or regression, I can’t say. I am driven to find meaning in life whether it actually exists or not so I expect that next week- or the week after at the latest- I will be back in the groove and focused. I can only hope that I am doing something that makes a difference. In any case, by then I will be too busy to spend much time worrying about it.
Pop Quiz
The exercise for today is easy. Tell me the last time you saw a car that made you sit up and notice? Bonus points if you exclaimed out loud. “Damn, that car is hot! I’ve got to get me one.” Take your time. We will wait.
Finding a sweet looking car is hard
Did you come up blank? We sure did. It is tough today. It isn’t that there aren’t some knockout cars. It is just that they cost a gazillion dollars and if you live in backwater Sacramento, you are never going to see one, let alone ‘get you one.’ Today the run of the mill car is not so much ugly as boring. They all look alike. Have you noticed that there is one shape? It doesn’t matter what the make or hardly the model. Because of the dangers from the airbags, you can’t let children ride in the front seat so only swinging singles buy two door cars these days and the evolution of the sedan into an all-purpose vehicle with a hatch is virtually universal. It is hard here not to get sidetracked into a rant dedicated to the safety features mandated by the government but we are focused here on the topic at hand – cars today are pedestrian and indistinguishable.
Are we all mindless cogs?
So everybody drives some sort of four door car with cargo space in the back and you can’t tell a Subaru from a Saab (oh wait, Saab is dead so I guess you can tell). I don’t know who to blame for this. There are so many possibilities but I think you have to give the final award to the guys that buy the things. What kind of life must we be living these days if these cars give us a thrill? Why else would you put out the kind of money that used to buy a house for one of these eyesores.
But back to ugly
We haven’t even started with the truly ugly cars- the ones that make you want to stab your eyes out every time you pass one. You know the ones I mean – the Prius for starters with it’s odd front end and the two part greenhouse in the back, 
Even in the dark old days of the 80’s never did GM think up a car design that ugly. Then there are the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of ugliness, the Scion and the Cube. 
Fortunately people don’t seem to be buying these so I don’t have to scream in pain too often on the road.
So now it is time for group participation. Why do you think cars are so boring? What are you doing about it? Have we missed an ugly that needs ridicule? Let us know. And if you drive one of the real eyesores, share with us, for the love of God, why.
Our government becomes more and more tyrannical, more and more resembling a tinhorn South American third world dictatorship and looking less and less like the democratic republic our founders bled…and died…for.
How long do we wait? When do we say “enough is enough”?
Our founders said it was not only our right, but our duty to resist tyranny. Do Americans still have the fortitude to fight for our country…regardless of whether the enemy of the republic is foreign…or domestic?
Origins of gun restrictions in America…watch the first 30 seconds at least:
Will we repeat mistakes in history? Roosevelt’s concentration camps.
Baltimore police shoot a man for holding a gun in his own yard.
Illegal SWAT raid, with no probable cause, for having hydroponic gardening equipment.
Watch the first 30 seconds to see the origins of gun control.