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Anne Boleyn...

I'm getting a history lesson today about Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. Sadly in 1536 at the age of 35 she was beheaded.
There are a few paintings of her, none were impressive... but I found a video that did her story and at the end they did some computer animations of what she would have looked like in modern times. The suggested creation (at 20 minutes into the video) is stunning.







If you don't have time for the video, the comparison is here:

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Barbecue on a Sunday...

On Wednesday, it was my suggestion that the guys in the model helicopter group have a barbecue this holiday weekend. The new canopy was installed two weeks ago and the last barbecue was many months ago. We always talk about having them in the fall or spring when the weather isn't too hot or cold.
It was 'touch & go' as Thursday and Friday rained most of the day. We had a cold front push through on Saturday and the morning temperature was 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some people were working on Monday so it was decided to do the event on Sunday.
We are all on a group text so it was decided who would get what so we didn't have too much of the same.
I brought the watermelon, baked beans, sauteed onions. To offer something different than hotdogs and hamburgers, I made some scrambled eggs, cooked mushrooms and Italian sausage on the side. Those items got eaten while people were waiting for the grill to be setup.
We were to start around noon and I headed there around 11am. The temperature in my car was 102F and I'm guessing it was 95F under the canopy... totally different weather from a day earlier.
There was a mild breeze that blew the smoke from the grill across the 3 picnic tables, but it didn't stop the flies and gnats who outnumbered us 10 to 1. We had to keep lids on the foods and fan the items that remained open.
A quick count had 18 of us and some from the nearby airplane club stopped by to say hello.
Overall it was a few hours of fun. I didn't get to fly much as I participated on the food preparation and devoting time to the actual eating!

Cleanup was easy as I'm the one who brought the large garbage bags and the county hires a truck to do weekend pickups.
Seasonally it's brutal to have Barbecues in the middle of summer. If we do another one then, I'll ask someone to bring a generator and I'll bring some fans. We can run tarps to block the side with the most sunlight, making it cooler to enjoy the weather.
As far as the flies and gnats... it would be a huge undertaking to screen off the surrounding canopies. Maybe in a future lifetime.
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The pipes are callin' me...

I'm moving some things around tonight and came across a bunch of CD's that looks like archived music I transfered to another computer. On it was several tunes of Irish Uilleann pipes.

I'll have to do a time-line one day to see when I started to study pipes and when I actually gave them up. As best as I can recall it was shortly after a roommate came over with a VCR rental of the show Riverdance. I was blown away with the solo by Davy Spillane!
I checked the song credits and started doing research on the instrument. We were in the early days of internet and materials were hard to find.

Long story short. Irish bagpipes differ from Scottish and other bagpipes in that they are driven by dry air pumped into the bellows. The others are mouth blown and the reeds are wet. The main difference is more control over the sound with Uilleann pipes with tapping and note bending.

I located a music store in Maine who had pipes from different pipemakers. 2 from America and 1 from Canada. During that time I bought and sold several sets including some made in Australia by 2 of the best pipemakers in the country.

I had no background in traditional Irish music, but I bought some video tutorials and struggled to learn the instrument. A generation earlier, I studied oboe in the school symphony and stupidly abandoned the thought of a scholarship when I changed my journey to a decade of rock music. So, in my head, the pipes should have been easy. They weren't.

Anyway, it was Davy Spillane who toured in the first Riverdance show and listening to Irish pipes again tends to pull at my heartstrings...

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Wait... wait. Are you sure about that?

When Trump left the White House, he took documents that should have been turned over to the National Archives. Months of back-and-forth and a subpoena got some returned. Somewhere along the way, his lawyers said all the documents were returned, but they had wrong information. The FBI conducted a search to get the documents back and If you recall, Trump went on social media and in the news complaining about how the search was conducted.

Maybe you one of the ones who sided with Trump, not only for the way the search was conducted but that he had rights to keep the documents in question. That search was about 9 months ago.

We're not done yet.
I heard some things today that are news (to me) where some of the Mar-a-Lago staff revealed they were instructed to do a dress rehearsal of moving boxes a day before the search and at least one of Trump's attorneys was present for the search.
I didn't pay attention to the second part, which is more significant.
While Trump claimed it was a surprise, it appears Corcoran, one of his his legal advisers confirmed the date with FBI when they could meet to pick up the documents.

Did Trump know or did he not know the date they were to arrive for the search?
We do know he was away and It was stated he was watching via the surveillance cameras.

So far, none of this is looking to be in favor of Trump. At the CNN televised meeting he admitted to having the documents and believes he has the right to retain them.
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Keeping your oath...

Top story this afternoon: Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group OATH KEEPERS was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.
His sentence is the longest that has been handed down so far in the hundreds of Capitol riot cases. A lawyer for Rhodes stated they plan to appeal his conviction.


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Tina Turner dead at 83...

Another music icon is gone. News today that she died peacefully after a long illness in her home near Zurich Switzerland.

One of my favorite Tina Tuner songs was from the movie THUNDERDOME.

We Don't Need Another Hero

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How many more times treat me the way you wanna do?

E. Jean Carroll won her defamation suit against Donald J. Trump where the court ordered him to pay nearly $5 million. During the trial he was posting offensive comments about the woman despite the judges warning. My opinion, was the judge should have given a demand and not a request. That way, he could have been found in contempt and a night in jail would have been a clear message... they could have picked him up at the airport on his return from his Scottish golfing trip.

Right after the court decision, like nothing happened, he again defamed Carroll in a televised town meeting and again after in a rally. Obviously, he hasn't learned to STFU and on Monday, Carroll's lawyers amended the lawsuit, seeking at least $10 million more in a court filing that seeks to hold him liable for additional remarks he made after the verdict.

How many more times...





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The chair draggers...

My neighbor is in her 80's and her son living with her is in his 60's. Originally from New Jersey, they would spend winters in Florida and summers at home. COVID changed their schedule and it looks like they are going to be here year-round.
I've only seen her 3 times and one of those times, paramedics had to escort her to emergency. Her son rarely comes out too. Usually, to check mail or to get groceries. He doesn't go far as he carries oxygen, usually by a portable machine slung over his shoulder with a nasal cannula and short tubing.
I know when they are up as I hear them 'bumbling around' as early as 5am. Banging doors or walls loud enough to wake me from a sound sleep. Usually, breakfast is around 7am. I know this as I can hear them scooting their wooden chairs on the tile floor. The chair dragging is intermittent, but it actually goes on all day. Sometimes, it sounds like they are rearranging furniture and pushing the dining table back and forth a few feet.
If you have experienc dragging a chair to the table in a few 'short bursts' you probably know the sound I'm describing.

I consulted a friend about offering them some self-adhesive felt pads they could stick on the bottom of the chair legs, but I'm told that's a bad idea and I sold just tolerate the dragging noises... at least I know they are alive!



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Ghoul-lee-on-knee...

I'm not sure how Rudolph Giuliani aka Rudy Giuliani gets to pronounce his name Jew-lee-on-knee, but the former New York mayor and lawyer was walking the edge of a quagmire for a few years now and has lost his footing.

His largest claim to fame has been lawyer for Donald J. Trump and that's getting him in a world of trouble for the 2020 election with claims of fraud.

In 2022 he was campaigning (soliciting) for his son in a grocery store when one of the workers tapped him on the back and called him a name (What's up scumbag?) and Rudy claimed he was hit so hard it felt like a shot or being hit with a boulder.
The man was arrested and lost his job. Surveillance video shows a totally different perspective to Rudy's claim. The guy is suing Rudy for $2 Million for false arrest.

The new news is a woman who claims to having been a former associate to Rudy is owed back wages and claims to have been forced into a s*xual relationship. She's seeking $10 Million and says she's got audio to back up her story.

The tip of the iceberg is the claim that Rudy and Donald J. Trump had a plan to sell presidential pardons for $2 million each.

If all this is true, Rudy could slip into the quagmire and possibly take the former president with him.


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It's not a good thing when your lawyer quits your legal team...

What was it, last week when Donald J. Trump attended the CNN Town Hall meeting and stated he was allowed to take classified documents when leaving the White House?
Apparently, that wasn't a good thing as his lawyer Tim Parlatore, announced a few days later that he's leaving the team.
Trump remains under federal investigation for mishandling classified documents as he left the White House in January 2021.
Personally, I think they are dragging this out...
How much more proof is the government looking for?


I'm curious if Parlatore will get paid for his services.



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Jim Brown, dead at 87...

The legendary NFL running back Jim Brown has died at the age of at 87.

Having played for the Cleveland Browns, he was elected to the Pro Football of Fame in 1971 and went on to be a movie star and civil rights activist. According to his wife, he passed peacefully in his sleep...

Rest in peace Jim Brown.
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yo no soy bobo...

I had a interesting day starting at 5am and back to back meetings. I'm getting 2 of my clients complaints about some new system of electronically signing documents. My statement to management is START WITH THE NEW ORDERS and not penalize the orders already in house as it's bumping them to the back of the priority list.

For a few weeks, I worked with a general contractor doing a total house renovation and though I stressed for him to approve the details of my sales drawings, they go to engineering/design to make the actual shop drawings the factory builds from. He was obsessing for every little detail that cost a few weeks 'dotting all the i's and crossing all the T's.' The job is an hour drive from me, but I pushed every facet of the sale. I made a special trip to pick up the deposit check I made a special trip to drop off samples for the homeowner to approve. I had a sample door made for them and drove it down the same day it was painted (wrapped in a towel and put in a box, I was on the highway with the windows open a few times to keep the paint fumes from knocking me out) for special approval. At least 3 back and forth messages to tweak drawings.
I got annoyed as the office cannot put his order into production because he questioned the temperature of the lighting. We used to do 3,000K and switched to a brighter 4,000K. He want's 3,000K to match the lighting in the house.
"Put the order into production, there's no reason ho hold it for a change in light color"
I got a message to review the new drawings with a color of lighting change this afternoon. Nap time came around 5:30 so I'll check the drawing later tonight.
It would appear the 6 to 8 weeks delivery will now be about 14 weeks.

Order processing delays will be my topic of discussion in the sales meeting tomorrow morning!

Background for the reason of my blog title and for those of you who don't speak Spanish. I learned the phrase about 45 years ago as a draftsman where all my coworkers were Hispanic. I was the only Gringo in the drafting department and picked up a few phrases along the way. Yo no soy bobo means, I'm not stupid.

Before logging in tonight, I scanned the new members list to see a woman who could easily qualify for the most beautiful new CS member. I won't give out her name and location, but her photo referenced to an Instagram profile of a woman originally from Venezuela that linked to a TikTok page where she uses her real name with the prefix Yo Soy (first name, last name)
Yo soy translates to "I am"

Wow... is it possible a REAL person is a new member on CS?

thumbs up




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