Last Sunday of January

It is Sunday AM, about 0830, and I slept in some. Hilda took me to the American Legion last evening and we danced and listened to some Big Band/Latin/ etc. tunes from the 40s and 50s. The band was the Major Minor Band. Led by Bob Miner (a retired Major in the USAF) ... cute, huh?

I started to work Thursday last, at Natural Stone. That was the most physical work that I have done in years. Friday, I went to their plant in Phoenix (and took three others with me) to observe the operations and techniques they used. I will be the Bagging Operations Leadman on Swing Shift, but must train on days for a month. The other guys that went with me are Fernando, the day shift Lead and two guys that we chose, Johnny and Gilberto, because they seemed to catch on quick on Thursday. I will be writing up a letter of recommendation (what I learned on Friday) for my area today, to give to the boss tomorrow.

Our weather has warmed somewhat, almost back to normal. Still having to wear a jacket (especially at night) but better than last week by far.

Nothing much else going on here. The VA Hospital wants me to stop drinking beer (or at least cut down), and they have me on blood pressure medicine. I am entering the twilight of my years I guess. They are reviewing the paper work for my rating, so that they will know if they can put me on temporary disability while they replace my knee. I had a car wreck in the early seventies that started my leg problems, and I was on active duty at the time.

I hope that everyone is happy and that things are going good for you.

LFTD ... and Peace !

Snow !!

I awoke this morning to snow on the ground in downtown Tucson. All the bridges on my side of town were closed due to heavy ice covering. The buses were not running on the east side or the west side of town until the ice had been dealt with. The desert didn't seem the same as the place I love so much. It has gotten up to 44 today, but feels colder. It is clearing, so I am expecting a cold night. I have been really lazy today ... lots of ESPN, the Discovery Channel and my little computer. I've been outside a couple of times today and was glad to get back inside. They just said on the news that low 20's are in store for tonight and the streets are wet already ... more ice in the AM.

I fell asleep last evening watching football (it was an early wake-up and a long day) and was certain that my Colts were going to lose big time ... but Peyton brought them back for the win. Great going Peyton! (and the rest of the team). Now ... Lovie Smith was the first black head coach to take his team to the Super Bowl ..... and now, his old head coach (and mentor) Tony Dungy joins him after 3 hours. Now we have two black head coaches in the "big show". Way to go guys!

PEACE and HUGS

Playoffs/winter weather

What a great day to be inside and watching football. Cold, with light rain and lighter snow. The Saints are losing by 11 as I type this .. hate to see that. Hilda is at home and I am here in the apartment.

We were at the American Legion last evening for the Area Commander's Dinner. The Desert Knights were playing ... a win/win situation in my book. We met a local actress, Tami Sutton, who does plays here locally at the Top Hat Theater. The guy with her, Jim Wilson, (they're both in their 20's) sang a few songs with the band ... early Elvis and other 50's rock ... and he was amazing. I looked up his MySpace [www.myspace.com/jimwilsonsings] this morning, and we listened to some of his cuts on the computer. He has performed all over, mostle in Vegas and parts of California. He was once the lead singer of a band called Blue Vertigo. He is here in Tucson doing covers of Rockabilly, Country and Blues and working on some of his own material. We meet all these people because I am FAR from shy and I go up and introduce myself and start talking. Tami says she thinks that she can get us some "comped" tickets to the new show at the Top hat (starts next month). I took some pictures with my digital and will give her some copies next week. Hilda says that she could never meet people the way that I do, but she will learn I guess.

The Bears reared up and scored a bunch of points at the last to overwhelm the Saints (I, and many others in this nation were rooting for the Saints.) Now, if the Colts can win ... it'll be a Midwest Super Bowl.

It is now raining, a cold rain, pretty heavy for our desert southwest. Snow warnings are out for the Tucson metropolitan area for tonight and tomorrow.

PEACE

Mid January

It is Thursday, I just got back from my second straight day at the VA hospital. Going through tests and x-rays. Nothing bad has happened, I just registered with the VA last week and there are getting a 'baseline' on me.

I start back to work next Thursday. Not as much money as I had hoped and not the exact job I wanted, but it is work and I can live on it if I watch my pennies.

My stupid Buick "MUST" be fixed now ..... the "Crank Sensor" was replaced on Tuesday. It seems that it was the reason that I had intermittent problems with it not starting. Another $300 that I didn't have, but BrakeMax is letting me make payments. I need the car to make it to work, as my new employer isn't on any bus route.

I am going "Stir Crazy" sitting around the house the last two weeks. Not enough money to go and do anything, so I have basically been confined to the apartment. I have gone through ALL my pictures and re-organized them. How does one ever collect so many photographs? My living room is starting to look habitable again. The bedroom should look the same this weekend. Being alone, I sometimes let stuff that I am looking through, or studying, pile up around the apartment. I am always going through various things and making notes on other stuff that I look up on the computer. I am forever researching three or four things. Some of the constants are music, history, people, lyrics, poetry and words/word usage.

I would like to offer my opinion on something. Art ! (it is now Sunday morning and I had forgotten to publish this post). I watch Breakfast with the Arts on A&E most Sunday mornings. When I say "Art", in this instance I am talking painting. I think that the quality of most art is judged by people because of WHO painted it rather than HOW GOOD it is. I mean, there are instances where critics and people in the know say how great a piece of art is and later it is found to be a fake and all of a sudden ... everyone sees all the amateurishness of it and how it has this flaw or that flaw. Bullshit ... it is either a good painting or it is not. In literature ... a "great" writer works are looked upon with awe. If he or she writes a piece of drivel .... hell, they'll say it is fraught with underlying meaning and hidden nuances et al. But really .. it's just a piece of mindless crap. We are slightly in awe of people who do certain things well and we imbue them with talents, judgement, intelligence and savvy that they possibly do not possess.

Playoff weekend

I know that my cousin Dean, the Wildman, in Baltimore is disgusted. Not only did the Ravens lose, but they lost to the team that Baltimoreans (sp) hate more than any other ... the (former Baltimore) Indianapolis Colts. New Orleans kept it's dream year going and now will play against da' Bears (who won in OT) in Chicago. I am currently watching the Patriots - San Diego game with the best runner that I have ever seen in football ...."LT". I never saw Jim Brown except in NFL films, but I saw Walter Peyton, Earl Campbell, Bo, Emmett, and many others and I have never seen anyone run like LaDainian ... ever! I will not be able to watch the entire game ... the UofA plays basketball at 1800 hrs and that's 15 minutes away and the football game is only in the beginning minutes of the 4th quarter. I shall check back in from time to time. We (UofA) have a tough game tonight against Oregon. Lots of injuries and two Top 15 teams meeting.

I start to work again on the 22nd ... won't make the big bucks like on the last job, but it beats the hell out of unemployment. It will take me three weeks or so to recover from these unemployment checks and catch up the bills and stuff. I took Hilda home a bit ago. We stopped by the American Legion and had a pitcher or two (her treat) and watched some football on TV. We watched Superman Returns last night on the DVD player ... she loved it, I thought it was sort of mediocre (and left questions unanswered).

Arizona has it's hands more than full in the early going against Oregon ... and the football game looks as if the Chargers are going to lose ... too bad. I am not a Patriots fan and I did like the Chargers this year. Yep ... it's official, New England won. Too bad. I must root for the Colts and the Saints next week. If my wishes come about, I am torn between the Colts and the Saints. I really like Peyton Manning and would like to see him win a Super Bowl, but the Saints have had such a dismal record since their inception and I'd like to see them win a ring also.

Our Arizona Cardinals (the Chicago Cubs of football) hired Ken Whisenhut, the Steelers offensive coordinator, as their new head coach today ... hell, we'll try anything now.

Our weather here yesterday and today was frigid. Snow all over the mountains, it's 42 right now and headed down quickly. Tonight will be in the 20s and it has been breezy.

Well, must concentrate on the roundball on the tube.

Have a great week.

PEACE

Wednesday forecast

Chance of Rain, Snow, and Cooler Temperatures in Tucson's Forecast
01-10-2007 7:41 AM MST

(Tucson,AZ) -- A pair of weather systems will bring the chance of rain, snow and cooler temperatures starting today and lasting through the wekend. The first system will arrive tonight, bringing a chance of rain to the Tucson valley and snow in the mountains. Another system, bringing even colder temperatures and wetter weather should arrive Thursday. The best chance for rain and snow in the area will be Thursday and Friday. Temperatures will remain cold through the wekend with lows in the 20s and highs in the lower 50s.

Copyright 2007 Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

Tuesday .. or so

I had an interview for a job today and it went well. I will get one of the two open positions I am certain. One is on swing shift and the other is on days, The day shift one pays a couple of dollars more, but there is more competition for that one. It all depends on what kind of impression I made.

My Arizona Wildcats lost a tight basketball game this past weekend .. broke my heart. But the Ohio State Buckeyes lost last night in the BCS Bowl and that made me happy.

I am halfway through my 'self-forced' spring cleaning of my apartment and my storage shed. I am amazed that I have/had so much stuff still. I went from a 4BR house to a 3BR house to a 2BR apartment to this 1BR apartment and it seems as if I have been throwing away stuff for years and yet ... I am still gleaning through possesions. My living room floor is full of milk crates either getting filled or getting emptied.

I think that (real) milk crates are one of the un-sung inventions of mankind. Everyone seems to have a couple at least. They store record albums (33RPMs, remember those), old parts, et al. I see them attached to small motorcycles as carry-alls, and whatever laundry rooms I have been in, I have seen them utilized as laundry baskets. I like them because they stack so well in my small storage shed. I have seen construction people use them to carry tools, or as a small step ladder, or as a chair for lunch or to sit on and work on something a foot or so off the floor.

Working around the house the last couple of days, I have been listening to music from my computer ... an on-line radio station called Boot Liquor that I like. I really enjoy the esoteric Americana music they play. I have been listening to ... (besides well known people like George Jones, Lyle Lovett and Jimmie Dale Gilmore ...) Ronnie Cox, Montana Tunesmiths, Neco Case, Long Gone Lonesome Boys, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, Gurf Morlix, Cross Canadian Ragweed and many, many more. I could become a hermit I think... if I had cable TV and my internet (food, wine and beer also).

PEACE

Another Sunday

I have a job interview in Tuesday, had one on Thursday last. Something will turn up. In my old age I am becoming an optimist I guess. I have been thinking, lately, of all the things that I have to be grateful for and I guess it outweighs my being broke. I had saved up some money before Christmas and the fuel pump on 'Natasha' (my Buick) cost me almost $700 to replace, and then last Friday .. the starter (another #300 with towing). But ... I am fairly healthy, I have a lady that thinks I'm sexy, I have some friends out there in Internet-land. So ... things will be alright.

I really hope that all of you (if anyone ever reads this thing-o-mine) have, and are having, a truly fantastic 2007. We all were alive (7 years ago) to see the beginning of a new century and are now living in the 21st Century ...... when I was a kid, that was as far away as the stars.

Amazing how much progress has been made in my short lifetime. I was born at the end of WWII, ... propeller driven airplanes, no TVs, phones were rare in my area and all the music was on 78 RPM records. I was 9 years old when Elvis came around in music, now ... he's ancient history. I remember hearing lots of artists for the first time in all genres of music. I remember Webb Pierce, Elvis, Little Richard, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash when they were basically nobodies. Also I remember ... jet planes, moon landings, computers as big as my living room, personal computers with only 64 KBs of memory. Makes me sound ancient I guess.

Tombstone

Goofs for
"Tombstone" (1993)

• Factual errors: Curly Bill Brocious is shown as the leader of the "cowboys" prior to the arrival of the Earps. In truth, the "cowboy" band was under the control of "Old Man" Clanton until his death, during a rustling expedition into Mexico, about 1-1/2 years after the Earps arrived.
  
  
• Factual errors: The 3 Earp brothers, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan are shown arriving in Tombstone. In truth, Wyatt, Virgil, and James Earp arrived together. At the time, Morgan was already en route, and Warren Earp would soon follow.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the time of the Earp's arrival, Tombstone is portrayed as a prototypical (i.e. studio backlot) rowdy cowtown, with lots of new wooden buildings. It was, in fact, a mining boom town in the early stages of development. The few wooden buildings were outnumbered by adobe ones, which were in turn outnumbered by tents.
  
  

• Factual errors: Upon arrival, the Earps are greeted by Johnny Behan, the sheriff of Cochise Country. When the Earps really arrived (1879), there was no Cochise County. Tombstone was still in Pima County and Charles Shibbell was sheriff. Cochise County was gerrymandered out of Pima County in 1881, when Democrat Behan was appointed sheriff by the Democrat governor. Much of the history involved the conflicts between Republicans (miners, townspeople, the Earps) and Democrats (Behan, ranchers, the "cowboys").
  
  
• Continuity: The amount of damage to the window panes after Ike Clanton breaks the window to shoot at the Earps during the OK Corral scene
  
  
• Anachronisms: Marshall Fred White is shown being killed after the Earps visit the Bird Cage Theatre. White was actually shot on an empty lot where the Bird Cage Theatre was later built.
  
  
• Factual errors: Virgil and Morgan Earp were not ambushed during the same evening. Virgil was shot in December, 1881, Morgan was killed in March, 1882.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Morgan dies from the gunshot wound, Wyatt goes outside into the rain, which is localized to 20 feet around him.
  
  
• Continuity: The delay between Curly Bill shooting his pistol and the smashing of the window and lamp is too long.
  
  
• Continuity: The pool balls on the table.
  
  
• Continuity: When Morgan is shot and being worked on by the doctor with Wyatt's help, the blood on Wyatt's hands changes from shot to shot from totally drenched in blood to just enough to add some color to his skin.
  
  
• Continuity: When Morgan dies, Wyatt is rubbing his forehead with a hand that looks very wet with blood, but none of the blood rubs off onto Morgan's forehead.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Earps did not shoot at Ike Clanton in Fly's Photography studio.
  
  
• Factual errors: Mattie Earp didn't die shortly after leaving Tombstone, but met up with Big Nose Kate and lived for another 8 years.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Marshall White steps up to Curly Bill, prior to Curly Bill shooting him, a wire is clearly visible emerging from his pant leg and trailing off camera. Presumably this is for the upcoming "shot in the chest" special effects.
  
  
• Continuity: During the OK Corral gunfight, Doc Holiday fires three shots from the same shotgun without reloading. While the second and third shots do in fact produce the same injury to the cowboy, they are completely different shots. With the first shot we see Doc point the shotgun to the air and fire, making the horse rear up. In the second shot Doc shoulders the shotgun, aims down the barrel and fires. While the last shot shows Doc running sideways while holding the shotgun almost at his hip.
  
  
• Continuity: When Curly Bill shoots up the town, he fires more than 20 shots. There is a pause during the cut to the dialog interior scene but it is not nearly long enough to reload 12 rounds by someone who is intoxicated.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the gun fight at the O.K. Corral, gun shots are being fired from all participants and yet the horse still rears at a blast from Doc Holliday's shotgun later in the battle. That gun was louder than the others, and possibly closer to the horse.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the start of the fight at the O.K. Corral, Doc Holliday fires three shots from his double barreled shotgun.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Before Marshall White is shot you can see the bulge under his shirt where the blood packet is.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Wyatt and the others leave two cowboys hanging in front of the Dragoon Saloon, you can see clearly that neither man actually has a rope on his neck. As the one man swings around, on his jacket you can see the outline of the rope going straight down into the harness that's holding him.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Josephine is supposedly riding side-saddle with Wyatt, we see, when it turns, that she is actually straddling the horse.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In Tombstone a 50-star US flag is flying from a building (it should have had 38 stars).
  
  
• Continuity: After the gunfight at the OK Corral, there is a funeral procession at sunset. In the long shots, Ike's hand carrying the flowers is at his side, but in the close-ups he is holding the flowers up.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the opening scene, we see a Winchester Model 1873 being loaded. A round is then levered onto the chamber. The sound is that of a different rifle as the model '73 has a very distinctive "clank" caused by the heavy brass cartridge lifter.
  
  
• Continuity: In the gun fight at the O K Corral, Frank McLaury's hat is on/off /on.
  
  
• Continuity: When Virgil gets surgery on his arm, Wyatt slams the door as he leaves, but it bounces back open. In the shot just following that, when Wyatt is on the street outside the house, the door is closed.
  
  
• Continuity: When Doc Holiday keels over and falls from his horse, there's a substantial amount of blood coming from his mouth as he spits up. Once on the ground and before he's assisted, there is barely any blood present.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Wyatt first arrives in Tombstone, the Bird Cage Theatre is in the background. Wyatt's arrival was in 1879, the Bird Cage was not built until 1881.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Morgan dies his eyes are wide open. As Wyatt lays him down rolling his head to the side Morgan's eyes continue to focus at the ceiling instead of turning with the motion of his head as dead eyes would do.
  
  
• Continuity: During the shootout at OK Corall, Frank McLaury (Robert John Burke) is wearing his hat, but during his close-up it's off of his head, then when the shooting starts it's back on.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Wyatt holds off a small mob wanting to lynch Curly Bill for shooting Sheriff White. One must assume they witnessed the shooting since they came up so quickly. Later, Wyatt complains that Judge Spicer dismissed the case due to lack of witnesses. It is possible, however, that the witnesses refused to testify for fear of Cowboy retaliation.

Western movies - history

Today was my last day of work, and I have been sitting here watching old movies on the TV. I wonder WHY they distort history so much. I finished watching "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster. It has as much to do with the history of that occurance as it does with the Civil War. I am watching "Hour of the Gun" with James Garner and the opening titles say "this is based on fact, this is the way it happened". Bullshit, it is only 20 minutes into the movie and the historical facts have been distorted so much already as to be laughable to any minor student of history. I must say, it's a good movie ... just that it has nothing (or very little) to do with the facts of the case. We who are students of western history are forever amazed at movies. We notice things like people using weapons that were not in use in the period the story takes place, or costumes that are highly inaccurate, or other equipment that is really out of place. We still enjoy the movies, but wonder why they cannot try and make them, at least, closer to reality. It would be like having a WWII movie with M-16's or F-16 fighter jets in it. I remember a movie called "The Culpepper Cattle Company"... it had realistic costumes, real attitudes and realistic tack of the era on the horses. No common movie goer noticed but I did. And I am certain that other western buffs noticed. Oh well, I shall sit and enjoy the movie and forget that I know anything about the west or southern Arizona I guess. The place in Mexico where they filmed this one is about as close to Cochise County as it is to Maryland.

Well anyway ... have a good week. And .... Happy NewYear to you all.

Love from the desert.