Once Upon a Time…

 Posted by at 11:02  Podcast, principles, Up With
Feb 232015
 

Hello folks.  It seems that there has been quite a resurgence of fairy tales lately on the old Television.  NBC and ABC are both putting up some dark fairy tale inspired shows.  But I will tell you something today that is not a fairy tale.

Veterans Day

Image via Wikipedia

Freedom.  It may sound like an ethereal concept to some but it is real, and here, the coots celebrate the freedom that we have to get on and rant.  If you haven’t noticed already, today is November 11th.  Besides some movie releases, today is also Veterans Day.

So from the coots, happy Veterans Day!  If you have served these United States at any time, thank you for your service.  Thank you for allowing us to keep the freedom that lets us write a silly blog like this one without worrying if the government is going to kick in the door and shoot one of us.  Bob may disagree with this, but that is his show to rant on.

If you are currently serving somewhere far from home, or even keeping the peace stateside, we thank you as well.  We spend a couple of holidays honoring those in the military: Memorial Day for those who paid for our freedom with their lives, and Veterans Day for those who made it home.  I like to add those currently serving to Veterans Day, they will be vets soon enough.

VETERANS DAY CEREMONY 2009 - US ARMY AFRICA - ...

Image by US Army Africa via Flickr

Last year I had a Veterans Day Podcast, you can listen to it here.  My sentiments have not changed.

So you may not be able to go to the bank and you don’t get mail, while you are railing against those facts, remember that it was brave men and women who allow you to get that mail and go to the bank anyway.

Go out and thank a Vet today.  That is Veteran not Veterinarian.  Fly your American flag proudly.  At 11AM  take a moment of silence to honor all of those who have made our country great, from the cooks and secretaries, to the Admirals and Generals who get all of the press.

Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for our freedom.

If you are a Vet, please leave us a comment below we would love to hear from you.

If you are here reading this, Vet or not, please use the share buttons below and promote this post and get our feelings out there to the internet.

Thanks for reading.

-Justin

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down with Bugs, namely the Mosquito!

 Posted by at 11:48  Down with
Nov 262014
 
Ochlerotatus notoscriptus, Tasmania, Australia

Image via Wikipedia

It is finally drying out here in Utah.  We have had record rain and snow all year, with the wettest May in 150 years.  What that has been good for is to keep the bugs down.  Except for the time I went fishing under one of the dams here and apparently stood in the middle of a mosquito convention where I got approximately one bite for every 3 mosquitoes I killed.  And I had a lot of bites.

Anyway, here in the Salt Lake valley it is warming up.  Today, Sunday it was almost 90 degrees, quite a turn around from what it has been.  And as such, there have been mosquitos aplenty flying around.  This is the first time that I have seenn bugs this year and I am not looking forward to them this year.

Not just the flying bugs either, my main bane is the earwig.  Those little stinking buggers get everywhere.  They are in the house, in the garden, in the fruit and in the ground.  I found the entrance to a nest last year (just a note, while I am sitting here writing, I just killed a mosquito on my monitor.  Bah!)  anyway, the earwig nest.  I found the hole in the ground where they were just pouring out.

I proceeded to fill the hole with the mixed gas I use for my boat motor, that way the oil keeps it burning longer.  It didn’t seem to help, many died and the fire burned underground, but too many of those buggers still were **everywhere**.

So, this year I am taking action against many of the bugs that I don’t want around.  Mosquito traps are baited and placed around.  Yellow Jacket Traps….I didn’t tell you about the yellow jackets.  Call them hornets or wasps or yellow jackets, those are everywhere as well.  Last year I wrote about the ones that came out of my mailbox every time I opened it.  Read that post HERE.  This year I killed two or three inside and didn’t think much about it until my 9 month old son started screaming in pain.

I was sitting next to him on the floor, my 7 year old was standing on his other side and here is the baby screaming for nothing that I could discern.  I picked him up and saw something in his mouth.  After the swipe to rid him of said debris, it was a freaking yellow jacket that had stung him in his mouth!  It couldn’t fly too well, being wet and all and took a while to die after I cut it in half.  But the Baby got stung in the back of his mouth by a yellow jacket.  Luckily we found out he is not allergic to the venom and had no problems.

But there are Yellow Jacket Traps up now.  Earwig traps are littering my backyard as well.  I have declared War on many of the insects in my world.  Don’t get me started on the mice in the shed.  They are next.

Do you have bug problems?  Let us know in the comments below….

-Justin

 

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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