Frightened By Facebook

After being prodded by several fellow workers, I just opened a Facebook account. Man, I really don't know what the **** I am doing!
I click buttons and nothing happens. I click other buttons and stuff I don't want to happen happens. I did finally get a favorite photo posted on the site surprisingly quickly.
I have to continue telling myself the same things I always told Mom and Dad...
"You're not gonna break anything, so just go wild! If you mess somethin' up, we'll fix it!"
So I'm experimenting like nobody's business at Facebook.
Experts out there... any suggestions or warnings?

Daylight Saving Time

I got out of the Corporate AStar AS350 and into the EMS Bell LongRanger back in 1986. That first year I was working in October when we "Fall back", meaning I worked an hour for which I wasn't paid. Glad to have a job, I clenched my teeth, smiled a little, and made note of the unfairness of it.
We changed calendars, and I was off work when I could have been paid back that hour as we "Sprang Forward". I clenched my teeth, smiled a little, and made note of that too.

Now I'm in my 22nd year transporting the sick and injured. Keeping track of these annual time changes has become a frustrating experience... in the 22 years, I have worked the extra non-paid hour 18 times!
This weekend, believe it or not, will be the FIRST time in all those years I'll be paid for working an hour that disappears in an instant.
'Bout time!

"We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For!"

Ed "Too Tall" Freeman Update

In a previous post I wrote about searching unsuccessfully for a video showcasing Bruce "Snake" Crandall and Ed Freeman challenging one another as to who was "the best helicopter pilot".
Once again, Blogfriend TWD has come through with the goods! You can see the video, with other bloggy links here.
Thanks again Dave!

Chris Muir Nails It... Again

"We All Stay Skinny, 'Cause We Can't Afford To Eat!"

Found it at Desiree's Blog.

Belated Thoughts On Phoenix

Pretty as they are, those "trees" don't provide much shade when July temperatures reach 120+ !
We returned this week from a six-day visit with Big Bubba in Mesa, Arizona. Look at the photo above... temperatures were in the mid-80's. The sky looked almost exactly like that the entire week we were there... cobalt blue with nary a cloud in the sky. It's easy to see why retirees flock to Phoenix for the Winter months! It is NOT a complete paradise though...
In addition to the above mentioned "oven" temperatures during Summer, there is this:

That sign was less than 500 feet from the home with the Saguaro cacti in the front yard.

This one was at the entrance to Big Bubba's apartment complex. While we were there a report was published showing Phoenix is now the number two city in the world for kidnapping/ransom situations. To be fair, the report indicated much of this crime is committed by/against illegal Mexican immigrants, but it was sobering to think Phoenix now rivals Mexico City for that kind of crime.
At no point did we feel threatened during our visit. We took long walks in the neighborhood at night, and while we did keep our "head on a swivel", we never felt cause for concern. Maybe we were just being naive to the dangers around us?

Big Bubba's lease runs out the end of May, and he has made the decision to move. The above signs are one indication helping to make his decision... his neighborhood is "changing". The fact that his air conditioner cannot cool his apartment below 90 degrees F. during the hot months is another. Moving across town is almost as difficult and expensive as moving across country, so he has decided to move closer to where his work, reporting on Science Fiction TV and Movies, is being produced... Vancouver, B.C.. He's considering a move to Bellingham, Washington, about a 45 minute drive from Vancouver. It rains about 330 days per year there, and the year-round high temperatures are about 80 degrees. It will be a dramatic change from his surroundings the last two years...
Except in one area:
Last night I watched a report about our I.C.E. officers raiding a factory in Bellingham. They arrested 85 illegal immigrants in that raid! The next week 2800 people applied for those jobs. (I thought Americans wouldn't do the jobs illegal immigrants are doing?)

More horse manure. We're bein' fed a lot of it these days.

"I wanna talk!"

Over at Vodkapundit, Stephen illustrates why Hope, Change, and a pair of rose-colored glasses doesn't move the ball down the field...
A painful lesson that should not have been learned the hard way.

Stuff That Comes To Mind -

A .51 caliber machine gun fired at you at night looks like a line of green basketballs traveling faster than the speed of sound.
(They're not that big, but they ARE that fast, and they're about the color of this post.)
It is difficult to think happy thoughts at that instant.

$800,000,000,000.00

Unfathomable.
You may or may not have heard the "since Jesus" commercial...
If you haven't, listen for it.
Unimaginable.

Let me bounce another number off you...
$4,000,000,000,000.
That's what all this will cost by the time we pay the bill and the interest.

Is that even possible?

Just in from O.P.D.-
(Remember, the spike is just since SEPTEMBER!)

Obama's Misery, March, 2009 Update

Last month- 7.29 %
This month- 7.63%
Really surprised me that it wasn't higher.
Hang on folks, I think we have just gotten on the "Express" elevator!

Nineteen

A close friend sent me a link eulogizing Ed "Too Tall" Freeman.
Trying to find the video of Ed and Bruce Crandall discussing who was the best-ever helicopter pilot, I found this video. I always liked the song... the video is well done.
Thanks for the prompt Minette!

Multiply By Dividing?

For those with minds not blurred by too much "Hopium", some wisdom from over at Cary's place.
Thanks Brother!

Schwallernfechter

We were THIS close to being done with our shift... fifteen minutes more and my relief would have walked through the door. We had already done three flights including one accident scene, and we were all just.plain.tired.

Our patient was a 40-ish gentleman named Schwallernfechter (not his real name, but close), with a bleed in his skull. We transferred him to our stretcher and loaded him aboard the helicopter routinely. The flight to the receiving hospital with a strong tailwind was short... 10 minutes or so. We like to give the receiving hospital a call 10 to 15 minutes out to make sure they are expecting the transfer and so they can have security ready for our arrival. I notified my nurse, who would make the radio call, that we were ten minutes from landing.

As she composed her thoughts for the radio transmission she was about to make, my male paramedic said, "I once had a Swollenfecter!"
We were all so tired we were giddy. My nurse started giggling. It was infectious.
Over the intercom I said, "At my age, I'd love to have a Swollenfecter!"
It was good none of us were drinking anything... the mics wouldn't have survived the explosion.

My nurse keyed the mic to give her report, thought about what had been said and giggled again, releasing the mic switch.
Paramedic and I both hooted!
We've all been there...
Every time she'd key the mic and try to call the hospital she'd giggle again, and we'd giggle with her. We were so tired we were acting like drunkards.
She couldn't get the job done. Time got so short my paramedic had to make the call.
I was impressed he had that kind of discipline...
I giggled to myself all through his report.

Have you ever had a Swollenfecter?

Mad World

And The Children Smile and Chant, "Obama! Obama!"

(Found the cartoon at Vodkapundit.)

During my 40 minute drive to work it's hard not to think about it.
This morning my thoughts ran to my amazement that it could happen at all...
A country going bankrupt?
How can that possibly happen?

Memory fails me here... was it Brazil, Venezuela, or both that got themselves embedded in debt so far in the '70's they could no longer pay their bills, and we (the U.S. and other countries) had to write their obligations off as "bad debt"?

How close is the U.S. now to that scenario? I've read much discussion about our present entitlements programs and how they, along with interest payments on our debt, are using up all the revenue coming into our treasury. A little pokin' around got me to this article which delves into that subject, and determines we're in trouble.
The problem?
That article was written a year ago, before our President(?) doubled our debt load.
With serious questions about our solvency when we had half the debt, how do we now differ from those failed governments?

Does It Come In An Extra-Strength Dosage?

Obama=Kerry?

To anyone with any gray matter at all, it's obvious there's a problem here. I'm beginning to think it's a much more serious problem than we might have imagined. The question is, now that this train has started to move, will we get an answer quickly or will things get out of control?
The question truly is, did we elect someone who is unqualified to be President of the United States? If not, it's a simple matter to resolve, right? All President(?) Obama has to do is provide what is called the "Vault Copy" of his birth certificate.

Four or so years ago, Senator John Kerry, (Schmuck, MA.), promised to release his military records to the public for review. That must be one HUGE file, 'cause we're all STILL waiting for his promise to be fulfilled. I think I know why those records were never released, and I think you know too...
If he released them we'd know he not only wasn't qualified to be President, we'd also know he isn't qualified to be the Schmuck Senator from Massachussetts.

Now comes Obama with a similar problem. There are all sorts of fruitcakes like me out here asking to see his REAL birth certificate so I have no questions he is Constitutionally qualified to be President of the United States. Several lawsuits later, he's pulling a John Kerry on us.
Does that not scare you? It scares me.

I don't know all the pertinent points to this case, but I do know this...
All questions could be put to rest if one simple thing would happen:
Show us the "Vault Copy"!

The snowball has begun to roll downhill. Thank God, our military folks are not gonna put up with the crap our civilian courts seem to want to cram down our throats-
General Officers are now joining the movement to actually see documentation showing proper qualifications.

Two folks on my blogroll are at the forefront on this issue:
Stay on top of it with Andrea Shea King, or ThirdWaveDave.

This show has just begun!

President Biden?

A friend emails and claims President Zero is, at present, defending himself against 42 lawsuits across the nation, all wanting to see the "Vault Copy" of his birth certificate.
Gosh... why would he spend all this money on legal fees when releasing the document would put all this to bed?
Vice President Biden... start studying.
(OH... MY... GOD. President Biden?)

Greybeard Is A Right Wing Nut Job!

No, really!
I would like to know for sure my President is Constitutionally qualified to assume that position. I have seen enough "smoke" to be frightened there may be a fire underneath.
But apparently I'm in the minority...
You can go here, read the comments, and maybe then you'll decide you no longer want to stop here and read the ranting of a lunatic.