You're shitting me, right?

I'm Back!

2011-07-31T22:31:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I know... It's been a while.

Between the last year with work and some overseas travel, I've been really busy and really had no time to post. Spending the lion's share of that time with the most beautiful woman in the world is a huge reason...

Anyway, I'm back writing... Not going to know really how frequent it'll be, but I'll be writing as much as I can because I'll be back at work here in a few days...

Every year before I start back to work I have a complete physical... And since turning 40 I mean complete physical... Working the job I do you have to have one, which is no real problem, and since my doctor here in town is pretty cool and I can talk to him. That's a definite plus.

So yesterday I go and get my physical... Poked, prodded, vampires come and take my blood... Lab work came back normal I found out today. Still a little congested from a cold I caught on the flight from Sydney, but other than that I'm just doing spiffy!

EKG reading says the old ticker is doing fine, in fact my Doctor tells me I've got the heart of an eighteen year old, pumping along nice and strong. Lungs are clear and my flexibility is just fine. PSA is great too, no trouble passing a nice strong steam so no worries about prostate troubles.

No problems with the weight, although he did suggest I rearrange it a little and get rid of the spare tire I have, so I've started doing crunches today, which I absolutely hate. But I'm still at the optimum weight for my height, 200 lbs at 6'2" and my flexibility is really good. Which I attribute to my ongoing practice of Thai Kwan Do and Aikido I started doing while I was in the Army, which I never gave up on.

He complimented me on my full head of hair... Going a little gray now, but him being only a few years older than me and almost completely bald, told me he's quite jealous of my locks... so no worries about going bald there... for a long, long time!

Next came the "male" question... "You're pushing 46 here Tommy... Do you think you might need a little help? I can write you a script for Viagra or Cialis maybe?"

Doc, No problem there at all... I've been having the best sex of my life... I can go two and three times a day and could drive nails with the equipment, no hydraulic problems there!

So all in all I got a clean bill of health... Ticker is good, hydraulics work great and I've got a lot of years ahead of me to spend even more time with the most beautiful woman in the world!

Copyright 2011 Thomas J Wolfenden

Yes you are...

2010-11-09T21:10:00.003-05:00

A little blast form RT's past...

Sunday, June 05, 2005

What year is this?

Or should I ask, what century are we in?

The apartment next to mine is being used as a substation for the local rescue squad on the weekends, and what started as a real pissing contest with one of the paramedics has become a pretty good friendship. Yesterday was fairly good weather-wise after four days of continuos rain, so around 2 PM I decided to sit outside on my tailgate and shoot the shit with my buddy.

We were sitting there and he was keeping up his steady but good humored pressure to get me to join the Athens volunteer fire department, and I was kindly declining (everyone else runs out of burning buildings and he want’s me to run into them? Not.) when we noticed a little neighborhood drama unfolding at the house across the street from our complex.

I had seen what we both believe is the owner of the house several times, just sitting on the front porch drinking beer. Neither of us thinks this guy has a job. As we’re watching him drink himself into his afternoon drunk, a minivan pulls into the driveway and a harried woman emerges with five kids. The kids all run into the house, and the woman starts unloading several grocery sacks. We both counted seventy-two, by the way. It took her several trips from the van to the house and back, and twice the bags broke, spilling the contents down the driveway.

Not once did this guy get off his ass to help what I believe was his wife with the groceries. Neither did her kids.

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t raised that way. Even if I were drunk, I’d have been at the van before she even stopped and would be unloading the groceries and I would have been kicking the kids’ asses for not even attempting to help.

It gets better.

She finally gets done unloading the groceries and he yells to her to bring out another beer for him.

My buddy and I just look at each other in amazement.

The balls on this guy.

She brought out a beer for him and they exchange words we can’t hear. We see her nod and she goes off behind the house.

I so wanted to say or do something, like beat the living shit out of this guy when the wife came back around to the front of the house with a push lawnmower and started to mow the front lawn.

I’m not talking about a gas powered push-type lawnmower, but an honest-to-God pusher mower, the kind with the big cylinder blades... From the 1920’s or something.

He is not only at this time watching her mow the front lawn with this medieval grass manicuring device while he rapidly gets drunk, he starts to yell at her about missed spots and to re-mow other areas because she didn’t do it right the first time.

I’m seething at this time, and my paramedic friend is talking me though my obvious impending near-eruption... I’m about to go ballistic. He doesn’t want to have to treat this asshole for any damage I would most probably inflict, and he also doesn’t want to have to bail me out of jail for attempted homicide, justified or not. He succeeds in calming me down, and I light another Winston.

What a complete shit this guy is.

My friend and I talk this over and decide this kind of behavior is endemic in this area. The Appalachians I’m referring to. I saw the same kind of stuff, though not as blatant in Appalachian Pennsylvania also so it’s not just a southern thing, so I'm not implying that.

It was like a return to the dark ages.

I wasn’t the best husband in the world when I was married, but Jesus! I did more than my fair share of the housework and helped my ex all the time. It was the way I was raised, I guess. My father wouldn’t be caught dead acting like this asshole, and I believe my father raised me right. You’re supposed to put women on a pedestal. Open doors for them. Carry the umbrella when it’s raining. Carry the groceries in.

Mow the fucking yard.

The saddest part of this little story isn’t the asshole husband, it’s the wife putting up with this bullshit, and the very real fact that the kids will grow up to believe this is the proper behavior and the right way to treat women. It tends to be passed down from generation to generation.

I know what you’re thinking...

Why didn’t my friend and myself go over there and help? Well, from experience, we both knew it would have made matters worse for the woman and the kids. He would have taken what little kindness we would offer as an affront to his manhood, and she would have probably gotten a good beating later for our efforts.

I will tell you this though.

I’m a firm believer in that some people are alive merely because it’s illegal to kill them.

Copyright 2005 Thomas J Wolfenden

I have a confession...

2010-10-15T21:35:00.002-04:00

I've been keeping something secret from all of you... A deep, dark secret! I'm the Founder and Leader of an insidious Cult that sends subliminal messages through the Interwebs~Googlenet to brainwash all of you!

So, to be fully protected from my Vast Power of the Dark Side, use aluminum foil to make hats to protect yourself from my evil messages...

But resistance is futile!

I am coming up with a way to beam laser beams from Venus directly into your brain and the tin hats will then be useless!

So All Hail Ranger Tom!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photo pinched from the Interwebs (by laser beams! Bwhahahahahahahah!)

I will probably lose what little readership i have left with this post...

2010-09-05T17:46:00.006-04:00

Most of you who've been reading my stuff for a while know I was raised Irish~Catholic in Philadelphia and I had a huge falling out with the Church several years ago. You may also have gotten the impression that I'm conservative, and I am, to an extent.

Hear me out.

I do watch Glenn Beck, and agree with him on a lot of things that are really screwed up here in this Country. I don't totally agree with him on a lot of things, I'm not a mindless moron that follows the flow. I'll never be a lemming.

I even watched the "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington DC on C-Span last Saturday and really felt uplifted by his core message, which I feel a lot of the mainstream media was lost on.

That we, as a Nation, has to get back to what the Founding Fathers wanted and fought so hard for.

It's our Unalienable Rights as humans, no mater what our beliefs, that we have these rights, given to us by our Creator not the Government.

The Government doesn't grant me these rights. It comes from a higher power.

To some that higher power is Jesus Christ. To some it's Allah. To some it's Vishnu or Buddha, or Jehovah or the Wind Spirits or Kachinas.

Or like me, it's just plain old Nature. The Universe is my Higher Power.

The "Separation of Church and State" clause in the Constitution means that we shouldn't have a Government Sanctioned religion, like we had under George III in the Church of England. Whereas one couldn't vote, own property or any of that good stuff if you weren't a member of the Church of England.

End of story.

It didn't mean we couldn't have a Nativity Scene on a town square or a Menorah on top of Town Hall...

In spite of my belief, none of that "offends me".

"One Nation, Under God" means to me that "God" is whoever or whatever you want it to be.

It's called "Free Will".

I have a deep respect for others beliefs, even though most times I don't agree with them. While I feel the proposed Mosque near the NYC Ground Zero site is without a doubt distasteful and if in fact they want us to be tolerant of their beliefs, they themselves should be tolerant of most of the country. And most of the country isn't saying they can't have one at all, just find some other place for it. But when push comes to shove, they do have just as much a right to build one there as anyone.

What I truly find distasteful and intolerant is the fact that we have to bend to the minority's will, instead of the other way around, or we're the ones who are intolerant. I know the argument; "Well Tommy, we couldn't build a Church or Synagogue in Mecca, could we?"

No we can't, but this is the United States, not Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Get it? To be morally superior, we can't sink to their level.

But I digress.

Friday I was watching Glenn Becks TV show as I always do and he had on several "Men of God". One was a Rabbi, and I was enjoying his ideas when he said something than made my blood boil.

"Atheists are Parasites"

Those were his exact words. Even after two days I'm still infuriated by that statement. He went on to add that Atheists are leaching from the system all that Religion has brought to society... I was paraphrasing there, but that was the gist of it.

Well here it goes, folks.

I don't believe in God and don't believe in any organized religion.

But does that mean I'm a parasite? I can't be a good and righteous man?

The mere implication that I can't be a True Patriot, A Real American, A moral and honest man unless I wrap myself in the Flag and hold the Bible in a death grip frankly infuriates me.

I've known many, many people throughout my life who professed to be good Christians. Always carried a Bible with them and in their free time would sit and read it. Taught Sunday School. Went to church every Sunday, but were the least likely people I'd trust, not because of their beliefs, but because of their actions. Liars, cheats, swindlers... multiple affairs behind the backs of their spouses... Selfish people who thought only of their own self gratification and would stab you in the back in a heartbeat if it meant something was in it for them. Folks that milk the system for every dime they can get, even when they don't need it. Men and women I would trust as far as I can pick up a railroad locomotive a throw it.

I'm not just talking Catholics. I'm talking all faiths and denominations.

Workmates and acquaintances. Friends and ex-lovers. Supposedly God-Fearing righteous people, but the most transparent, shallow, racist xenophobes I'd ever known.

So called friends who I went way out of my way for, doing what I thought was the right thing to do, only to get spat on in return.

But me, the Atheist, turned the other cheek. I always do, because I believe I'm the better man. I'm not perfect, nowhere near it. I do hold a grudge. I have a long memory.

but, when I was married, I never once cheated on my wife. Ask people who know me and they'll tell you of all things I'm honest. I tell you the truth, sometimes you wont dig what I've got to say, but you'll get the straight skinny from me. You can hand me a million dollars in cash, unmarked small bills... Come back in a year and it'll all still be there, covered in dust, but it'll all still be there.

That I can't have the same morals as a "believer" really infuriates me. Here's a little factoid you'll probably be surprised to here, after my Revelation: I read the bible frequently. Because I feel it's a good life guide. Nothing more than that.

A life guide.

I'm not perfect. My youth wasn't all that well spent and I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done in my past. There's a lot of burning bridges back there. I sometimes drink too much. But I never let it get in the way of my career. My work ethic won't allow it. I don't eat right a lot of times, but that's my right. I'm a true friend to those who are my friends, and would do anything for them. I have a very good friend here in town. One that I'm proud to call my friend. He's a convicted felon. None of the so called "God-Fearing Righteous" folks I know wouldn't give him the time of day. Yes, an ex-cop is friends with a convicted felon. I trust him explicitly. So much in fact he has the keys to my house. He's had them for a few years now.

I never have to worry about it with him. But the others?

Not on your life.

I believe in Faith. I have the faith that people will wake up and turn this Country around back to where we started from.

I believe in Hope. I have hope, that with people like me and others that we will get back on track.

I believe in Charity, and that charity starts from personal responsibility, not some Government funded program used with my tax dollars for some true leach on society who's never had to work a day in their life.

Glenn is right. We do have to restore Honor in our country.

I'm a veteran.

I've fought and bled for this country and have never, not even once asked for any help in return.

Everything I have right now I've earned on my own.

But to some, I'm still a parasite.

Because I don't believe in God.

I'm by no means an Angel, and like Mick Jagger said, "You'll never make a Saint of Me", but I'm a far better man than a lot of Religious folks I know. And Religion and Greed are the two major things that have started all of the wars throughout the ages... It's up to the schleps like me to finish them.

At least I can look myself in the mirror and like what I see.

I'm honest with myself, and at the end of the day, that's all that really matters.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photos pinched from the Googlenet/Interweb

A Fairy Tale for Guys...

2010-08-21T09:04:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time there was a handsome Prince who was dating a beautiful Princess.

One day the handsome Prince got sick of the beautiful Princess's bullshit and told her to piss off.

And he then proceeded to ride his Harley~Davidson, went fishing and hunting, played poker with his buddies, drank beer and stayed up late watching war movies, watched football in his underwear, farted and belched, scratched his balls...

Ogled girls half his age, walked around the house naked, left the toilet seat up and had tons of money in the bank.

And he lived happily ever after.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photo pinched from the interweb/googlenet

Felony Stupid

2010-08-07T14:22:00.005-04:00

I know this is old news, but yet again this story was on the news this morning... And it still has me baffled and wondering just how stupid some people can be.

In a nutshell, these three mental midgets pictured above were taken prisoner by Iranian border guards while "hiking" along the border between Iraq and Iran last year and are still being held prisoner by the Iranian Government and are charged as American spies.

While I don't hold much faith in the Central Intelligence Agency as a whole, I do believe they'd come up with a better cover story if they were spies.

So this leaves me to believe that these three Americans are just plain stupid... Because who in their right mind is going to go on a vacation camping and hiking in the middle of a war? Along a border between two countries who absolutely hate each other?

I mean, come on! How fucking stupid can you be?

It would be like a British couple, in the middle of the Blitz in 1940 London,having this conversation:

Nigel: "Well, love, the raid is over..."

Penelope: "Yes Dear, Have you thought about where we're going on Holiday yet?"

Nigel: "Yes Love. I'm led to believe the North of France is simply lovely this time of year!"

Penelope: "Oh smashing! Shall we?"

Nigel: "Lets!"

Penelope: "Shall I put tea on?"

I mean, where the fuck was your brain, idiots?

If they are guilty of anything it's being a couple of complete fucking morons.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photo pinched from the interweb/googlenet

Why Me?

2010-08-01T17:30:00.002-04:00

OK. Most of you who've been following my blog for a while know how, ehem... blessed with this uncanny ability to attract the wrong women...

For the last few months I had been dating a woman. She was, and still is a very nice person who meant really well... But again, even after several conversations about this, she insisted on smothering me and mothering me.

I seem to attract three types of women: The first is the psychotic stalker type, second is the woman who is on the surface a intelligent, educated woman but a complete moron, and the third, which I find the most infuriating, the woman who insists I need a mother and wants to "Take Care of Me".

The third is also the most 'clingy"...

I couldn't take a shit without her knowing about it.

Well, not really, but it felt that way.

Few examples below...

I'd get a call, every day, on her 10 AM smoke break... Then another at noon, then at 2PM... Then on her way home from work... Then before dinner... Then before bed...

Every damn day!

Then, when she'd be over my house... She'd talk to me a lot of times like I was her 6 Year old son... "Here, let me help you with that" or "Would you eat this? Is this something you'd eat...?"

What the fuck!

If I needed help, I'd ask for it!

I'm 44 and have been on my own since I was 17. I had a mom and don't need another one. I can take care of myself pretty well, thank you.

I need a partner... Not a Mother!

Back to the clinginess... I was really getting sick of these phone calls... I could see if something happened... But it was mostly like this:

Her: "Hi! What are you doing?"

Me: "Eh, drinking a cup of coffee, watching the news.... You?"

Her: "Nothing, just on break..."

Me: " Ooookay..."

Her: "Did you eat anything?"

Me: "No..."

Her: "Well, you really should eat something..."

Here's were the blood would start to shoot out of my eyes... I DO NOT EAT BREAKFAST! I had told her this over and over again... I just drink a few cups of coffee in the morning when I first get up. Maybe a few hours later I'll get a bite to eat. I've been like that for years, ok? I know it's not really healthy, but it's the way I am. The mere thought of food when I first get up makes me nauseous.

But still over and over again she'd persist on trying to make me eat something in the morning.

Mothering me.

It was infuriating!

Another thing was this... She'd spend the weekend and we'd get up in the morning and I'd put the coffee on, go out and get my newspaper and sit on my porch with a cup of coffee, a smoke and do the LA Times crossword...

It's my "Zen" time...

She'd come out and join me, still trying to get me to eat something... Then not shut the fuck up!

"What are you thinking?"

And I'd be thinking "I need a six letter word for shut the fuck up!"

Then later... Getting dressed I get this:

"You're not going out like that, are you?"

"What? It's a T-Shirt, shorts and sandals!" (and believe it or not, everything matched...)

"Well, you really should let me take you clothes shopping..."

Oh, here we go. Trying to dress me now...

"Yes, I'm going out dressed like this... It's 10 AM, already 95 F and we're going to an outside Flea Market!"

What ever happened to the time when two people were dating and after a nice night (or next morning) you parted ways, and made plans for the next weekend... "I had a great night, I'll give you a call Thursday and we'll make plans for next weekend?" And left it at that?

What is is with people who have to talk to one another every damn day several times a day? My best friend and I maybe talk once a month... And we're both OK with that.

You guys really should have seen the look on her face when she found out my cell phone wouldn't work in Australia... It was classic!

The final straw was a few weeks ago...

I had told her there was a program on the Science Channel I really wanted to watch one night. A marathon of "Through the wormhole with Morgan Freeman", which was going to play into the wee hours.

I told her I'd give her a phone call when I got up...

Again, those of you who read this blog regularly know how I work during sugar harvest season. Seven day's a week, no break for months. I'm a slave to the alarm clock and maybe only get 4 or 5 hours' sleep a night.

In the summer I want to go to bed when I want to, and get up when I want to... Sleep as long as I want.

So I tell her I'd call her the next day when I got up.

OK sez she...

I stay up, watch the shows (which were very cool, BTW) and didn't get to bed until 5 AM...

10:30 in the fucking morning my phone goes off...

Me: "Hullo?"

Her: "Are you OK? I was worried about you!"

What fucking part of I'll call you when I GET THE FUCK UP didn't you FUCKING understand????

Here's another time that in a way might be TMI, but it's worth relating... one day I had, well, a little 'intestinal problem' and was somewhere in my house I couldn't leave at the moment. My cell phone went off, and of course I couldn't get to it... It goes to voice mail and three seconds later my house phone goes off... Again I couldn't get to it... This pattern went of for several minutes...

Finally I get to my phones and see it was her... I call her back... They're had to be some emergency...

She just wanted to say Hi...

One more thing... Sitting in on a Saturday night... Just finished up with supper and no plans to go out, just hang around the house... The remote is gone, she's got it and some chick movie is now on TV on the Lifetime Network... but at the same time her face is buried in her laptop playing that moronic farmville shit on Facebook... I grab the remote to change the channel because she's obviously not watching the TV...

"I was watching that..."

I'm done.

I'd rather live alone than to put up with this shit.

I do not need a mother, someone to take care of me, someone who has to be attached at the hip and know my thoughts and actions during every waking moment of every day.

Or maybe it's just me... I'm the wrong one here.

In the meantime I'll be alone and be happy.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

I laughed my ass off...

2010-07-19T18:07:00.002-04:00

As I read the paper today I was drawn to my Horriblescope...
And laughed my ass off!

Boy have they got me wrong!

Oz Trip revisited

2010-07-15T08:51:00.005-04:00

I know, I know... It's about time I posted something! Had a lot going on here since I got home and never had the time really to write. nothing bad, I've just been really busy.

I departed for Australia on May 4th from Miami and after an uneventful flight to Los Angeles I boarded a Qantas 747 bound for Brisbane, Queensland. After twelve hours I arrived in Australia where I had to debark and proceed through Australian Customs where the first glitch in my trip occurred...

I had forgotten a small packet of cookies I had been given on the plane earlier that I had in my shirt pocket... And food items being brought into Australia are prohibited, and me forgetting to "Declare Said Food Items" I was asked to step out of the line and have my luggage searched by a humorless but professional Customs Agent.

I was expecting the Anti-Cookie SWAT Team to come rappelling out of the ceiling at any moment since I was now some notorious International Cookie Smuggler...

All was found in order and I was cleared through customs, but since I had to proceed from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal to catch my connecting flight to Adelaide, the time taken at customs prevented my from making that flight. The gentleman at the Qantas desk was very friendly and helpful and got me on the next flight to Adelaide.

After almost twenty hours on airplanes and the crossing of the International Date Line, I lost the 5th of May somewhere... May 5th, 2010 never existed for me!

So around noon on the 6th I finally arrived in Adelaide, South Australia to be met by my good Mate, Eddie who promptly took me straight to the nearest pub! I spent the next few days with him and his lovely wife Marty who were great hosts!

On the following Saturday Eddie and I took the train into the City Centre of Adelaide to meet up with a few other mates of ours at the Strathmore Hotel for a mini-conference, adult beverages and fine dining...

It was there that my mates presented me with a fantastic honor... A plaque naming me a "Honorary Australian"! These guys (or should I now say "These Blokes?") are the greatest!

After the presentation of the plaque and a bag of goodies... We got down to some serious eating and drinking! I ordered the Stonegrill mix... A large rump steak, prawns, Kangaroo & Crocodile, chips and side salad... It was brought out raw on a slab of granite at 400C and you cook it yourself. A really unique way of eating and I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Side Note: Australia is the only country I know of that you can find their National Emblems, The Kangaroo and Emu on the menus of most restaurants!

On Sunday we met up again at the Cooper's Alehouse in Adelaide for a afternoon of sampling the local favorite brew... Pictured above is (L to R) Me, Trevor, Pete & Eddie.

The following Monday I again boarded a short flight from Adelaide back to Brisbane to meet up with another mate, Colin to spend a week exploring the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.

Colin and I spent the days exploring the area around where he lives and getting some great views like the one above in Moolooaba... I simply fell in love with the area!

We also did some hill climbing... Here is a nice photo from the top of a hill we climbed near his home... This place has a name but for the life of me I can't remember it... I know the view was simply breathtaking!

For a few days Colin and I camped on Fraser Island, another place I just fell in love with! At one point I asked Colin just to leave me there and I'd just stay the rest of my life...

The place was so beautiful! The only way onto the island is by barge and you need 4WD. Another cool sight was the wreck of the SS Maheno, seen above at low tide.

Another really cool thing was the dingos. They're all over the place on the island and they'll walk right up to you!

Who could not just fall in love with the place?

Camping on Fraser Island, enjoying my most favorite Aussie Beer, Victoria Bitter, or "VB" for short!

I was in a contemplative moment above, gazing out at the South Pacific from a huge sand blow on Fraser Island...

Wishing I could stay forever...

But this had to end also, Colin had to depart the next week for some time in the Army and we parted ways at the Brisbane airport, me heading back to Adelaide and him up to Townsville. I again hopped a short flight back to Adelaide to spend the remainder of my time in Oz with Eddie.

So the rest of my time Eddie and I explored South Australia sampling the local food and fantastic adult beverages, sometimes sitting out on his lanai until the wee hours drinking beer, swapping old war stories (The difference between a Fairytale an an old War Story: a Fairytale starts out "Once upon a time..." a Old War Story starts out "I shit you not...") and basically laughing and having a great time.

In sadness I had to come home, leaving Australia on the 31st of May... I another freak of the International Date Line, I departed Adelaide at 11:00 AM on the 31st, and arrived back in the United States in Los Angeles at 11:35 AM, on the 31st of May... The 14 hour flight only took 25 minutes!

A fantastic trip, great holiday and one I'll not soon forget!

Eddie and I have already discussed next year's plans and if they can they'll be coming over here for a few weeks so I can repay some of their fantastic hospitality!

One last thing I do have to say... I have never met a group of people so damn nice! Everywhere I went everyone was so friendly... And if you ever travel to Australia, New Zealand or anywhere else in the South Pacific, fly Qantas! They really know how to treat the passengers! (and free booze on the flight!)

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Ok, Ok...

2010-06-03T02:34:00.002-04:00

So now I'm home, a little jet-lagged, but doing ok... Nothing like spending over 20 hours in planes and airports to tire someone out.

I got home around midnight on Monday and I'm just now getting my body clock readjusted. I really promise I'll post a detailed description of my trip to Australia in a few days... Right now I'm just catching up on things here at home.

In the meantime, here's a short (under 10 minutes) video I made earlier today with a montage of photographs of my trip set to some fitting music for you all to enjoy!

Hope you all enjoy!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Again, I've been remiss...

2010-05-22T11:56:00.002-04:00

As I had alluded to in my last post, I was planning on a great vacation to someplace I've always wanted to go to... Got my new Passport, airline tickets were reserved and on May 4th, I departed Miami International Airport to Los Angeles where I changed planes to a Boeing 747 Qantas flight to Brisbane, Australia with a connecting flight to Adelaide. 20 hours later a very tired Ranger Tom stepped of the plane to greet a good "Mate", Eddie and begin my Aussie adventure!
I spent the first week in Adelaide with several mates, and had a fantastic time! More pictures of that leg of the journey to come, but what can be said I was welcomed with warm arms by my fellow brothers... Once a Soldier, always a Soldier, no matter what Army you've served in! They even gave me a plaque making me an Honorary Aussie!

So, after a few days in Adelaide, it was back on another flight to Brisbane, to meet up with another mate who showed me around the Sunshine Coast north of the city and really made me feel at home...

Above the beach in Mooloolaba, Queensland

After a few days around Mooloolaba and Maroochydore, my mate took me camping on Fraser Island, and I've got to say if anything is Paradise on earth, it's there on Fraser Island! Wild Dingoes all around and a fantastic place... I didn't want to leave!

Well, now I'm back in Adelaide for about nine more days... Lots more pictures to post later... Me and my mate Eddie went to the Port Adelaide Railway museum the other day because you know I just can't stay away from trains for too long!

I'll be coming home on the 31st of May and will post more photos and give you all a complete rundown of my entire trip...

Until then, I'll sign off from Oz and post again in about two more weeks!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

I've been remiss...

2010-04-26T18:25:00.002-04:00

I know, I know... The last few weeks have been a handful and I haven't had time to even think, let alone take the time to post something. The Sugar Harvest was finished last Thursday and I had the dubious distinction of hauling in the last sugar train into the mill for the year.

After the mill went down for the summer, I was then busy on catching up on some much needed sleep, and taking care of other, ehem, extracurricular activities that I've been missing over the winter...

It was really nice to have a little female companionship over the last few days...

Now onto other things... I'd been planning a big trip now for a few years, and this year I'm finally going to do it. Flights and hotels have been booked. Stay tuned to this channel for photos throughout the my trip!

The one thing I really needed to do was renew my Passport... When I started planning this a few months ago I dug out my old passport and realized it had expired over two years ago, necessitating me getting a new one... It's so empty compared to my old one, and the photo is still just as horrible...

I'll surprise you all with my destination as I post photos during the trip... I'm very excited, as this will be my first time outside of the US not requiring me wearing a uniform and (at least I surely hope not) people won't be trying to kill me... I've been to Canada and Mexico a few times, but to me that doesn't count as I never left the continent...

I'll be leaving shortly so stay tuned for the holiday updates!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

I'm on Video!

2010-04-04T14:03:00.002-04:00

Just a short video I made this morning at work... I really do LOVE my job!

More Trane Pix!

2010-03-28T09:31:00.002-04:00

Well, it's winding down... The Sugar Harvest Season that is... Only a few more weeks to go. It's seems like only yesterday I was itching to get back to work, now all I'm looking forward to is the end.

Here's some photos I've taken over the last several days for your enjoyment! Above is a shot from the nose of my locomotive as we were waiting for a few more cars to be loaded with fresh sugar cane...

A Cane Loading "Elevator", where the harvest crews load our rail cars with freshly cut raw sugar cane.

A Scene from out my window on the locomotive as I was pulling out twenty loaded cars from the above pictured elevator, just as the sun was coming up.

A "Hot Box"... The older cars in our fleet still have old "Friction Bearing" journals, and frequently they'll overheat, sometimes catching the whole care on fire. The sides have wooden slats, and they'll go up like dry kindling.

Another sunrise from the cab as we were waiting permission to enter the yard with our loads... Florida has some fantastic sunrises!

Hope this holds you all over until I have the energy to actually write something!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

More shit that pisses me off...

2010-03-19T14:21:00.006-04:00

OK. I know it seems like all I ever do is bitch about shit that pisses me off, but if I'm not bitching about something and say something nice, like, a really touching handwritten letter I recieved, I'm considered a pussy.

Well, I'm NOT a pussy.

OK?

So here goes' another rant of something that should piss you off too, that is if you can read this in your native language.

That is English I'll assume at this point.

When I was sent to West Germany in 1985 in the Army, I tried my best to learn some German and used it frequently while I was out amongst the German population. Never mind that most Germans I met while I was there spoke better English than I did, I did it out of respect for the peoples and the country I was in.

So I can now order a beer, a wurst, find the toilet and get my face slapped by a pretty Fraulein in any Gasthous in Bavaria...

That's not the point.

I tried to learn the language.

Now I'm in the position of working with several, ehem, multilingual people.

We'll all be in the break room having coffee and one will inexplicably break out in (insert language of your choice other than English here) and start talking to another guy in said language...

In front of us all.

That pisses me off.

If you can't say it in English in mixed company, shut the FUCK up!

They don't even try to be fucking subtle.

What really bothers me most is that the said persons have no idea where I've been. The have no idea that I also spent three years in Central America and Habla a shitload more Espainiol than the average Gringo Penthejo (Stupid White Guy) than I let on and it just plain pisses me off to no end that these fuckers who can speak English very well are talking shit about myself, my race and Country right in front of me think they can just get away with it.

If you're going to live here, learn English.

If you want to speak your own language, speak it among yourselves or excuse your self with your mate to chat it up in private...

If you're in company of people who don't speak your language, Just shut the fuck up already! to do otherwise is just plain fucking ignorant!

Again, I can't believe I have to get this angry over this shit...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T17:45:00.005-04:00

I know I've been remiss in writing and visiting all of your blogs in the last week or so but I've been feeling rather run down and the toll of working seven days' a week were catching up to me.

Last Thursday night into Friday morning a cold front moved through bringing with it a shitload of rain... I'm talking about 6 inches of rain in about eight hours. I've got to say this is the coldest and wettest winter here in Florida since I've been here and that rain Thursday night flooded all the sugarcane fields making it impossible for the fields crews to harvest.

So they can't harvest, they don't need train crews to bring the raw cane in, so we were laid~in for about 4 days and for the first time in about six months I had a lot of free time on my hands.

And I slept.

A lot.

Friday morning I got home and planned to putz around the house for a while, take a little nap and then head out to the Tiki Bar for a little early St. Pat's day celebration.

Not.

My head hit the pillow around 3 PM Friday afternoon and I didn't wake up until 9 AM the following Day, Saturday.

And I felt like shit.

Not hangover shitty, sick shitty.

I tried to soldier on but I was one big phlegm factory and even though I did go out for a little while Saturday night I would up back in bed around 11 PM snuggled up to a economy sized bottle of NyQuil for the rest of the weekend.

Now I'm back to work again, probably for another six weeks or so then I'll be off for another fun-filled summer of crazy fun and high~spirited antics that only I can have...

But for now, the one night I really wanted to go out and get really shitfaced I'm stuck with a screwed up sleep patterned and the need to be into work at midnight, which negates my desires to really show my Irish genes...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

A lost art...

2010-03-09T09:10:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I got a pleasant surprise in my mailbox. Something I've not seen in a long, long time. My brother, who's ten years older than me and still lives in Philadelphia sent me a handwritten letter...

We talk often on the phone, if you call about once a month often. In this Instant~Gratification age of cell phones, Blackberries, email and texting, actually sitting down and writing a letter I believe is almost lost.

That he's not at all computer savvy and mistrusts the googlenet is not the point. In this day and age, he thought of me enough to sit down and actually take the time to write a letter to me was touching.

It truly is a lost art.

Even myself, I've lost the ability to do this years ago... But the one hold out I do keep rigidly is I still write out an email to someone in letter form, without all the usual interweb abbreviations, as if it was a real ink-on-paper letter to someone. I'll maybe throw in a "LOL" or two, but other than that I'll write a letter, use spell-check and use proper English.

Maybe I'm behind the times, maybe I'm just getting to be a crotchety old man...

But that letter really made my day!

I say use English when you write, and put ink on paper once in a while...

It just might brighten up some one's day!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

I'm surrounded...

2010-03-07T08:37:00.002-05:00

By idiots.

My one character flaw (among many, but this one is the most prevalent) that I have that stands out glaringly is I don't suffer fools lightly. Of course I make mistakes. Lots of them. But I'm smart enough to learn from them and not to make the same mistakes twice.

But the older I get the more and more I'm convinced the world is populated by morons.

"Why do you think like that Tommy?" I know you're asking yourself... Well, if I'm wrong and the world isn't full of idiots, why, oh why, would this sign above even be necessary?

That is the reason I'm posting this sign on my front door...

Seven or eight more weeks I was told this morning...

Can I deal with another seven or eight more weeks of sheer, unadulterated moronic stupidity without my head exploding?

Summer can't come soon enough.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photos pinched from the Interweb/Googlenet

The Pussification of America, Part I

2010-02-26T09:49:00.002-05:00

*WARNING*
*SEVERAL "F" BOMBS DROPPED IN THIS RANT. IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY THE "F" BOMB, PLEASE PISS OFF!*

Sometimes, hell, most times I really wonder if I'm the only sane person left on this planet. I feel I've gone to sleep one day and awakened into a strange new universe, where everything looks normal, but somehow it's changed.

When I was a kid, I rode my bike without a helmet... Walked to school in the snow... Drank water right from the garden hose... and at ten years old I was one huge bruise all the time from playing out side, climbing (and falling out of) trees. I wasn't coddled. I played Little League baseball and really sucked at it at first. They still kept score and the losers didn't get trophies at the end of the season. It did hurt our pride, but we learned to strive to be better for the next year.

In losing it helped us better ourselves, because failure is a good thing.

Did we feel like shit? Yes, of course we did. Did it bruise our egos? Fuck yeah. Were we scarred for life? Fuck no. We learned from our mistakes and we learned to get better.

Now the kids who play Little League in games where they don't keep score... And everyone gets a damn trophy at the end of the season?

What the fuck does that teach the kids today?

To be pussies.

And expect everything handed to them and never earn anything.

We now live in an Entitlement Society... Where everyone expects to get everything handed to them. Heaven forbid you actually have to work for it!

Like Today's Army. A few years ago the History Channel got on to the "Reality Show" bandwagon and had a show about US Army Basic Training. They followed five recruits through the first eight weeks of Basic Training... I thought the show showed promise until I started watching it...

And pissed myself laughing.

And then wondered if we could win any wars at all.

"Time Out" cards and Drill Sergeants being nice to the recruits as not to damage their fragile psyches...

What the FUCK, over?

You know what my Basic Training was like? Watch "Full Metal Jacket" sometime if you haven't already seen it.

THAT'S what my Basic was like.

We're a Nation of fucking pussies.

What the fuck are you going to do when the enemy is desperately trying to kill you?

"Oh mommy! Please give me a Time Out to give to the bad man over there with the AK-47! This is just to much and I need a break!"

Give ME a fucking break.

And God Forbid we even OFFEND the enemy! They're the one's who tried to kill you, killed thousands of innocent people on 9~11 but for Christ's Sake don't offend them!

God, how this shit infuriates me...

Handing everyone shit I used to have to earn doesn't make them better, it makes them weaker and beholden to someone. It enslaves them.

Failure is a good thing.

God knows I've failed at a lot of things in my life. The last two serious relationships I've had have been utter failures, marrying, divorcing and then almost marrying women with Borderline Personality Disorder...

Did it hurt me? Yes. Did I fail? Yes. Did I learn valuable lessons from both? Of course I did! Did I blame someone else? No, because I was partly to blame for both messes for getting into relationships with someone even after the RED FLAGS were flying high.

Did I learn from my mistakes? Of course I did. Will I do it again?

Fuck no.

On to how this shit I've been saying meshes into work... My job isn't brain surgery. For what we get paid, I have a pretty easy job. But there's so much bullshit to deal with, and I'm not talking management. I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiny fucking crybabies in my life.

I really wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard "Well, it was such and such job, and he didn't do it! Why do we have to do it?"

Here's the fucking answer:

IT wasn't done, and it needs to be fucking done. Regardless of who's fucking job it was to do it in the fucking first place, get off your lazy fucking ass and fucking do it.

I'm paid from the time I punch in until I punch out. Whether it was my job or someone else, if it needs to be done, If I'm asked by my supervisor to do it, I'm going to do it, happily I might ad, because I'm fucking lucky to have a job in the first place.

And another thing... I've seen far too many people working HARDER and spending more time at getting out of work and pawning it off to someone else than just doing what's EXPECTED of them in the first place...

Far too many people care about two things where I work:

Payday and quitting time.

Instead of doing their fucking job.

When I started out on the railroad a few years ago as a conductor, if my engineer told me there's a problem with the trains air line, I'd do what was expected of me... Get out of the locomotive and fucking walk the entire train to find the problem... When I have 70 cars and after 30 minutes my air gauge looks like this (above) I expect you do get off your ass and find out what the problem is, not make excuses and tell me it's a "Hand Brake" because it won't fucking cut it.

When my air gauge should look like this...

Maybe I'm wrong.

I'll just suppose it's something minor and it really doesn't matter. It's just 2,800 TONS of railroad rolling stock that I won't be able to stop in time to not hit that school bus stuck at a crossing.

Fuck them kids! Kill em' all, because you didn't want to walk the train.

It wouldn't be my fault anyway.

It was because my Psyche was damaged as a child in Little League when I didn't get a trophy and I didn't wear a helmet while riding my bike, I got a RED "F" on my 8th Grade report card, my parents didn't coddle me and my Drill Sargent yelled at me and called me a dumbass...

I can't believe I have to get angry over this shit...

More to come later... I'm just getting started!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

No strike...

2010-02-24T09:23:00.003-05:00

And a new contract...

The vote Monday was 294 to 26 in favor of the new contract here at my job. I was fearing the worst by last Friday as the last contract wasn't so great but I was pleasantly surprised at some of the stuff in the package. We didn't lose anything and gained a few things, like a yearly 6% bonus and a 2% COLA every year for the next three years. I was also surprised that our health plan's premiums were frozen for a year, but will go up in 2011... Like I said, I expected that because premiums are going up all over the country.

There was a few other little things like the rewording of the Seniority Roster for the Railroad Department... That made me and several other people extremely happy as it won't allow a certain other dumbass to run around us on the Seniority Roster anymore, which he's tried to do several years in a row... Jobs are awarded by bid for the Harvest Season, and those with the highest seniority get the best jobs and this peckerhead, because he works a "Repair Season" job in another department in the summer, even though he started way after the few of us, he's tried to "Run Around" the Seniority Roster and jump in front of us in every Pre-Crop Bid we've had.

And it pissed us all off to no end...

Anyway, I'm in a much better mood. Now All I have to look forward to is 6 to 8 weeks more of work, some minor surgery I've been putting off, planning my vacation and having the entire summer off!

It's like I'm semi-retired!

I'll explain how I do that later on in the week...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Logo pinched from IAM LL57 Website

Just a tad bit worried....

2010-02-18T11:35:00.002-05:00

Contrary to my stoic persona, for the first time in a long, long time I'm just a tad bit worried right now.

In five days my labor union's contract with the company and railroad I work for will expire. No news yet from the Union on how the negotiations are proceeding... No news at all, good, bad or indifferent.

Now there's a real possibility of a strike...

I've been a member of several labor unions in the past, and while I've never been on strike, I've never crossed a picket line either.

I'm trying to keep a strong front of being a "No Worries" kind of guy at work, this does have me worried.

Those of you who've followed me for a time know how hard I've worked to get where I'm at, what I've sacrificed... My boyhood dream coming true after all these years...

I'm living my boyhood dream of being a railroad locomotive engineer. I make really good money doing it. But I'm also in an area where the local unemployment rate is almost 40% I'm damn lucky to have a job at all.

Like I said, I'm trying really hard to be positive about this, but today attached to my pay check was a little note from the management requesting the return of all our issued company equipment, parking passes and ID cards at the end of our shift on the 22nd of this month.

I don't want to strike.

There are a few concessions I'd like to see in the next contract, but I really don't want to lose my job.

The company is already training contractors (scabs) to do my job...

I've got about six months' salary saved in the bank...

I want to work though...

Ranger Tom is one nervous puppy right now.

We'll see in five days.

But I'll never, ever scab out like some with whom I work with will...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

The Clewiston Cruds

2010-02-16T08:10:00.003-05:00

About a week ago I began feeling really run-down... More so that usual after working four and a half months straight without a day off... Fever, chills, runny nose and body aches. Not the Flu, but just not feeling 100%. And my damn pesky work~ethic won't let me call in sick I soldiered on with feeling like shit. And in soldiering on, I've come home to do a double~shot of NyQuil and pass out into bed. Today is the first day I've really felt like my old self and have a little energy to write something...

And here's another fantastic Florida sunrise... As seen from my vantage point looking back to check my train out...

And of course you can't run the locomotives indefinitely, they need servicing. Here I am standing by the other morning waiting for the great locomotive shop crew to finish servicing the #406, a EMD GP38-2 diesel locomotive. Have I said recently I love my job?

Fill er' up and check the oil!

I'm glad I don't have to write that check out... Fill er' up means 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel and about 4 gallons of motor oil...

I will try to be better at posting stuff...

I'm just a tad bit tired lately...

Photos and rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Moor trane pix!

2010-02-05T08:46:00.007-05:00

Like I had said before, I've been busy lately... About two weeks ago another engineer asked me if I wouldn't mind swapping jobs. He'd take the yard engineer's position and I'd take over the road job's engine. As I had been the conductor on the road job since I started here in 2006 I felt comfortable handling the engine on the road, and I know the territory and cane loading elevators on the line. I won't go into the reasons... Needless to say, I'm no longer running the small 800 HP switching engine, I'm behind the controls of a 2,000 HP EMD GP-38-2.

And I get to see a lot better scenery out on the road. Pictured above is the view out my side of the locomotive this morning around 6:45 AM as we departed a cane loading elevator 11 miles from the mill.

It took some getting used to... I really do miss working with my other conductor, Jay, and my new conductor I'm now convinced is afflicted with narcolepsy... Nah, he wasn't really asleep. We were waiting for a few more loads to be kicked out at a cane loading elevator, and to be honest, there really isn't much else to do except kick back and relax while the harvesters load our rail cars.

But I get to run a big, powerful locomotive that will easily handle 60 to 70 loaded cane cars (1,800 to 2,100 tons) and won't rattle my fillings out of my teeth and heaters actually work on cold nights...

Here's a small look at my new "office"...

And as an aside, you guys now know how warped my mind is sometimes... Someone brought it a case of locally grown sweet potatoes last night for everyone to share and some sick fuck found this one...

It does look vaguely familiar...

Photos and rambling Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Again, I've been busy...

2010-02-01T12:54:00.002-05:00

I know I've been lax in posting recently... It's been busy at the RT Homestead and at work... I do have a really good scathing rant on the Pussification of America brewing and will post it as soon as I have time...

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the ride on this train... The engineer on this train knows what he's doing and will give you all a pleasurable journey....

Where it ends nobody knows...

Half the fun is getting there. isn't it?

All aboard and I'll be back soon! The conductor will be along soon to stamp your tickets...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

The RT Cave...

2010-01-22T14:02:00.006-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted... There's a lot going on here and I'm just trying to play catch~up. Things at work, things in my personal life... I'll let you all know later what's going on. Nothing major or earth~shattering, just the run of the mill, "what-the-fuck" moments that only I can attract. Tomorrow I actually have a lunch date with a lady... I'm not going to let anything cloud my judgment, I'll just see what happens. It's only lunch. I'm 44 and have been burnt far too many times to let a pretty face lead me to start thinking with the wrong head again...

Now on to what else has been on my mind... I've posted the above photo of the RT Homestead here in Purgatory, but I'd thought I'd let you see a little deeper into the Inner~Sanctum where I, Ranger Tom, relaxes when I'm not at work... So I've decide to share the photos with you!

My living room, where I sit on my leather easy chair to watch the news, or BS with buddies from work when they stop by after work to enjoy a few frosty~cold adult beverages after work with me...

Nothing that will make Good Housekeeping, but I'm proud of it...

It's a work in progress, I still need to get the drapes up... But it's getting so hard to find a good set of drapes that match the carpet.... Or a carpet that matches the drapes... You get the message, I think...

So here's another little peek into Ranger Tom's life... Relaxing and mundane... But never, ever boring!

The fire Marshal is coming over next week to inspect the fireplace to make sure I can use it... I like a good fire once in a while. They're very relaxing.

Photos and meaningless diatribe Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Celebrity crushes...

2010-01-13T10:38:00.005-05:00

After years of listening to women talk about how hot this or that movie star is hot, like Johnny Depp, George Clooney and others I'm about to show my ass and tell you who I've been drooling after...

I've always been a bit weird so you might not be surprised that with the exception of Sandra Bullock, there hasn't been a celebrity in years who's sparked that little something in me. At ,I'm guessing about 4 years of age, I couldn't get enough of Trixi, shown above from the old Speed Racer cartoons...

Told you I was weird.

After my brief prepubescent infatuation with a drawing I discovered the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati... Now you're probably thinking I lusted after "Jennifer", the sexy platinum blond bombshell played by Loni Anderson.

While I think her looks are classic and sexy, and I'm still infatuated with that late 70's, early 80's hairstyle and it's one of my attractions to women today and I visit Big Daddy's blog to check out what he's posted lately, that's not who I was (and kind of still am...) infatuated with in my tweens and early teens...

It was Jan Smithers, who played "Bailey". She had that girl-next-door good looks with an undercurrent of hidden sexuality. She did it for me when I was 12 and 13, and she still does it for me now.

But now I'm in my mid-40's and I've refined my tastes a bit... My new Celebrity Crush is Bonnie Hunt... She played opposite Steve Martin in "Cheaper By The Dozen" and now has a morning talk show on CBS... Which I've become addicted to. She's everything I'd want in a woman... And a great sense of humor and looks sexy as hell in glasses!

So there.

I've bared a little of my innermost feelings and showed my ass a little.

And so now you know a little more about me... I'm not even going to get into why my ex-wife would wonder why I'd zone out to the Weather Channel for hours... Christina Abernathy, Kim Perez and Alexandra Steele are a few of the reasons!

Photos pinched from the Interweb/googlenet
Trivial insight Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Hodgepodge of shit...

2010-01-12T09:57:00.006-05:00

I've said it before, I live in southwest Florida. I'm 80 miles Northwest of Miami. It should NOT be this fucking cold for this long. Here's a photo of the rear window of the RT Mobile when I got off of my shift this morning. I'm very good friends with several life-long residents of the area, and none of them ever remember it ever being this cold for this long, ever. Yesterday when I got home my thermometer on my front porch read a steady 25F. Again, I know it's nowhere near as cold as most of the rest of the Country to date, but for here it's damn cold.

So cold in fact I had to put cardboard in front of my locomotive's radiator just to keep it up to operating temperature and to get the cab warm enough so I didn't freeze... The beast is over 50 years old and not very well insulated, so it's like sitting in a tin can in a freezer all night. I'm not going to get into a big pissing match with people, but right now I'm not buying into Al Gore's Chicken Little~like fear mongering about Global Warming.

The Earth cools, the Earth warms up from time to time. It's done it for thousands upon thousands of years. Don't get me started on Cap & Trade, but to me it's another excuse to tax us even more when we're already being bled dry. It's not working in Europe and it won't work here.

One volcano blows it's stack and we've got more "Greenhouse Gasses" or "Pollutants" thrown into the atmosphere in one day that one nation emits in a decade. Remember Mt. St Helen?

Remember when it was not "eco-friendly" to use paper bags at the grocery store? Paper bags kill trees they all told us. So now all we have is plastic bags to lug or food to our cars. Now the fuckers are telling us that those very same plastic bags are harming the environment.

Now what am I supposed to carry my Dolphin~Friendly tuna to my eco-friendly socialist-made Traban with? A bag made from hemp fiber?

Al, go fuck yourself.

Now on to my office again... Here's where RT sits for 8 hours a shift... Nice and clean, is it not? Not. I walk into a pigsty every fucking night.

Just a view of the controls I use...

Yeah, a fucking pigsty. It's company policy that every crew when done with their shift to remove all garbage from the locomotive. Above it's what me and my crew walk into every night. We decided a few months ago just to leave it there. I refuse to clean up some other crew's shit.

Myself, my conductor and switchman bring one of the ecologically unsound and dangerous bags with us every night and remove our garbage at the end of our shift. I refuse to clean up other people's shit.

Now onto another thing that's been pissing me off, and it came to a head the night before last. A very good friend of mine, the Rambling Hillbilly, moved down here at the beginning of the crop and came to work with me as my switchman. I know he wants to become a police officer at some point, but to finish his degree he needed a better paying job than what he was getting paid in West Virgina, and I went out on a limb to get him the job here.

He started off OK but thing began to go bad because he wasn't paying attention to detail and that almost cost him his job about a month or two back.

I love him like a little brother, and I really felt bad later about having to do it, but I lit into his ass and gave him both barrels. It wasn't pretty, but it was the truth.

Inattention to detail will get you killed. Here on the railroad (the guy I replaced when I started here four years ago was killed when he was coupled together between two rail cars) and as a police officer.

This is the easiest job I've ever had. I make obscenely good money doing it. And I got here to paying attention to detail, something that was thumped into me head a long, long time ago in Army Basic Training.

I notice everything.

It's kept me alive for 44 years.

Read what The Rambling Hillbilly's had to say.

I really hope he does a good job, because the people who he thought were out to get him were the people most often trying to protect him and saw his potential.

You can do the job, Bill.

Stay fucking focused and keep doing what you did all night last night and me and Jay will turn you into a railroader!

Photos and rambling diatribe Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Global Warming my ass!

2010-01-09T08:59:00.004-05:00

OK, this in not the rant I've been planning on and promised a few days ago, but I have a splitting headache, My train crew was annoying the shit out of me all night and now this is happening...

I grew up in Pennsylvania. I remember as a child Trick or Treating on Halloween with a snowsuit on under my costume... I remember quite vividly not seeing the ground for all the snow for months... School snow days? A rarity. No school bus? Walk your happy, frozen ass to school. in the snow. I've hunted Whitetail deer in up-state PA in the heart of the Appalachian Coal Belt in -30 F weather... Worked outside as a cop and walked a beat in weather so damn cold it would freeze even the heartiest Cannuck's balls off... Lived in a part of Arizona of all places that measured snow it Feet...

So one would think that living in southwest Florida, winter should be pretty mild to me.

For the last four years I've lived here and the weather has been quite mild until now...

For over a week now it's been fucking cold. I'm sorry. It's fucking cold here.

frost on my car every morning when I leave work. I look at the thermometer on my porch and every morning it's been hovering at the freezing point. I'm 80 miles from Miami! I had just commented to a friend that I'd finally gotten my utility bill down to under $200 because this time of year I don't run my central air, so now I've actually had my heater on in my house for two fucking weeks! I've never had it on before in the last four years!

Around 4:30 AM today at work it started to drizzle rain... A miserable steady drizzle that made my knees scream in agony. The heater in the locomotive's cab is about as effective as using a candle to heat a banquet hall. One more degree lower and I swear it would have turned to snow.

That would have been a hoot!

Anyway, it's still raining, damp, cold and miserable out... The fireplace in my living room is real, but I need to get it inspected by the Fire Marshal before I dare use it, my house is pre-WWII era... And tonight, tomorrow and Monday it's getting even colder, down into the 20's overnight...

I know in the greater scheme of things a lot of people live in a lot colder climates than I presently do and are experiencing far colder temperatures and snowy and icy conditions so I should feel I'm a lot better off than most, and I do... I really do, and I'll survive, but...

But not this fucking cold this far fucking south!

The last time it's been this cold this far south for this long was in 1927... 83 fucking years ago!

Al Gore can kiss my Irish Ass and take his Global Warming bullshit and shove it up his pontificating, smug, superior ass while he blows a polar bear.

Bitching Rant Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photos pinched from the Interweb/Googlenet

Funny Foto Friday is BACK!

2010-01-08T08:16:00.003-05:00

And I do see it!

I decided to bring Funny Foto Friday back after a long hiatus... First, I thought it was funny, and second I needed to laugh this morning due to the ongoing shit at work...

I'm working now at the easiest job I've ever had, making an obscene amount of money... And I also work with the biggest group of crybabies and backstabbers I've ever had the displeasure of knowing.

Rant will be tomorrow...

Right now I want a drink or several...

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photo pinched off the Interweb/Googlenet

I'm so damn pissed off right now...

2010-01-06T09:59:00.003-05:00

I have a really good rant brewing, but since it's Wednesday and my cleaning lady is coming over this morning I'll leave it for tomorrow... I have to get out of the house for a while and let her do her thing and I have to go blow off some steam...

I'll vent about it here tomorrow...

But I'll tell you I haven't been this pissed of in a long, long time.

I'm about to become unhinged type of angry...

No, I'm not in any trouble or anything... Just some bullshit at work I'll explain more about tomorrow... The more I think about it right now the more my blood begins to boil... You think you're helping someone but all you get is grief.

More tomorrow.

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

RT Cooks!

2010-01-04T08:21:00.005-05:00

A lot of people think that when a guy is divorced and lives alone, he won't cook. Well, a lot of guys don't, but I'm an exception to that rule.

I cook for myself every day, I enjoy it and happen to fancy myself a pretty good cook. Back in the deepest, darkest bowels of my archives there's several other of my tasty recipes, but here's my own recipe for Rainbow Trout.

First you'll need one or two dead fish, preferably trout you've caught yourself, but since I work seven days a week and haven't been fishing since mid-August, I reeled these farm-raised babies in the the fish department of my local grocers. Besides, I didn't have to clean them!

You can leave the heads and tails on but I cut them off... I really don't like it when my supper is looking back at me. After you've lopped the heads off rinse them under cold tap water and pat them dry with a paper towel. I prefer to leave the skin on but you don't have to. If you do leave it on, descale it... Nothing is worse that getting fish scales in your throat.

Put your skillet on medium heat on the range and melt some butter while you're making the breading. You can use margarine or a cooking spray like PAM, but since I'm Old School, I cook Old School and it just tastes better. Yeah, I could eat a little healthier, and I may die some day of a massive heart attack brought on by high cholesterol, but at least you'll all know I died while enjoying myself and didn't pussy around with the fat free shit.

Make a simple breading of cornmeal, black pepper and salt. Every one's taste is different, so use what you'd like.

Coat both sides of your dead fish carcasses with the mixture of cornmeal, salt and pepper and place in your skillet in the sizzling butter.

Cook on each side for about five minutes, or until there a dark golden brown... Like this photo above.

Take them off the skillet and place them on a plate, then enjoy!

Hope you enjoy!

Copyright 2010 Thomas J Wolfenden

Who'd a thunk it?

2010-01-03T08:51:00.004-05:00

Today is the five-year anniversary of my first post on this blog.

I hadn't started out to gain readers or become famous, it was just a vent to blow off steam during a rather dark patch in my life. The year before I'd split with my ex-wife, I was living alone in a strange State with no friends... Christmas and my Birthday had just past and I was feeling pretty shitty...

I've written about just about everything, from politics, religion, little absurdities I'd see and ironies I'd point out... My ever~present desire and drive to get on as a conductor then become an engineer for a railroad... My failures, my successes... When I laughed, when I cried...

I was bitter, angry and really didn't care who I pissed off, hence my motto; "Pissing off the entire world, one person at a time."

So I've gained some readers, and I've lost some over the years. Guys who've stuck around to see what happens next, Like Honkeie, Terry, CMK, Mushy and Leazwell... You guys have been with me almost from the beginning and you're almost like family... Thanks for letting me share my words with you!

I've recently acquired more readers, Like Just Telling it, Ubermouth, Tee, Liane, Spiky & Kimberly... Welcome aboard! Hope you guys stick around... You never know what's going to come off my keyboard!

The readers I've lost, well... Some I miss, some I don't. There was the nutty Alien Abduction Guy, who kept on sending me scans of "Authentic Alien Drawings", ie; drawings of alleged "Aliens"... A Busy Body Ex-Mother-In-Law who instead of looking at her own fucked up family and thought it would be absolutely hysterically funny to hound my friends and family spreading lies and half-truths on how I was a sex pervert and a lousy husband... A few ex-girlfriends and people who never got it, thought I was serious when I was joking and the other way around. I got tired of explaining it...

It's not funny if I've got to explain it!

But throughout, I've learned a lot. I've learned how to let go... How to be a better person... How to become the man I am today.

A man, who after 44 years now, has finally learned to like himself and loves what he's doing.

Maybe I'll never finish the novel I'm writing.

Maybe I'll never be a famous author.

But at least I finally got to where I wanted to be.

On the road not taken...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

to where it bend in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black,

Oh, I had kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

Took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference

~Robert Frost

I'm glad I took that road.

and I'm happy you guys are along for the ride!

Thanks!

Video pinched from YouTube

Poem by Robert Frost

Almost Cut My Hair...

2010-01-02T08:31:00.004-05:00

For years I've worn my hair cut really short. Military-Short. What in the Army was called a "High & Tight". This year I decided to see how long I could let it get before it starts driving me nuts. The last time I had my hair this long was when my age still ended in "teen"... June 30, 2009 was the last time I had the clippers to my head and that's when I decided to let it go for a while.

I'm now getting my balls broken by a few guys at work... One actually asked when I was getting a Mullet.

Ranger Tom has never worn a mullet, nor will he ever, OK?

My boss even told me the other day to go out and get a haircut. In a humorous way, he does have a sense of humor, one of the reasons I really like him.

Anyway, again last night I was asked about my hair and I finally said I'd let it go until the second to last day before the end of the sugarcane harvest and the mill went down for the summer and shave it bald.

I don't think I'll do that, but I think I'll let it go a little more... Letting my Freak Flag fly...

Tell you what though, after looking at these pictures of me taken last Wednesday at the Tiki Bar, I've still got to loose some weight because I've got more chins that a Chinese phone book!

Almost cut my hair
Happened just the other day
It's gettin' kinda' long
I could've said it was in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly

~David Crosby

Full Moon New Year's Eve...

2010-01-01T09:55:00.003-05:00

I learned a long time ago about the full moon. My years in law enforcement taught me that crazies come out of the woodwork and craziness happens during them. My partner and I came up with a theory about them:

The moon can move whole oceans with the tides. The highest tides are during the full moon.Oceans are water. People's brains are about 80% water. What's the moon doing to those people's brains?

Anyway, last night being the full moon and New Years Eve, I was really happy about going to work instead of out and about. Nutcases and alcohol definitely do not make a good mix. I call New Year's Eve "Amateur Night" because only amateur drinkers come out, and myself being a professional drunk, stay clear of amateurs.

So it being a full moon and New Year's, I headed out to work last night confident in my belief I'd have a good night...Wrong.I rolled into the rail yard at 11:30 and was greeted by the evening shift engineer, the guy I'm to relieve already leaving the parking lot... All he told me was the radio was out and the Yardmaster will be bringing me a hand held radio for the shift.

OK. The radio in that particular locomotive has been unreliable for quite a while so I assumed it finally took a shit... Well, it did, but I wasn't going to be getting a radio because no one told the yardmaster to begin with... Now some of you might not know that the radio is my number one tool on my job. It keeps me in touch with my conductor and switchman while moving the rail cars in the yard.

While we're building trains to put up into storage tracks, I may me 70 or 80 cars away from the crew... That's 2,500 to 3,500 feet away. I don't move my engine or train an inch until I get good signals from my crew. No radio, no movement of my train.

So I call the Yardmaster and inform him of the dilemma and the only thing he says is go to the locomotive shop and get another locomotive to use.

That's a big fucking help... I have to get ready to make a move that minute or we'll get blocked out, and since it'll take upwards of 20 minutes to fire up another engine and get it ready, that definitely wasn't an option.

Needless to say I got another radio real quick (after I raised hell) and we were able to start work. Hopefully they'll have it fixed by tonight when I get in.

Then, all throughout the night shit just wouldn't go right... I won't get really involved about it right now because I'd be writing a novel by the time I got finished, but it just seemed like nothing was going right and by 8AM I couldn't wait to punch out and get the hell out of there.

I can just imagine what it would have been like if I'd have taken the night off and headed to the Tiki Bar... I couldn't wait to get home today and get a few stiff drinks in me...

Shit happens during a full moon. It's just like saying "Slow" or Quiet" to a cop, paramedic or ER Nurse.Something bad will happen.

I just hope it's not a portent to what 2010 is going to be like.

And when I got home, I get a email from an old girlfriend of mine... She wished me a Happy New Year and said she was still thinking of me a lot lately, wishing we could get back together... She sent me a picture of her she had taken while thinking of me...

Hope all of you have a Great New Year! (and hopefully your night wasn't as lousy as mine!)

Photos pinched from the googlenet/interweb

Dream vehicle...

2009-12-29T09:35:00.001-05:00

Every year since my divorce, right around this time of year, I try to buy myself something just for me...

A few years ago I went on a trip to Alaska, a the year after I bought myself a nice Ford Bronco and two years ago I bought a really nice mechanical drawing of a steam locomotive that I've got hanging over my fireplace...

Last year I decided to get a vehicle I've always wanted. A Land Rover Type 3... And I found this one on-line for 950 Pounds Sterling (sorry, I can't figure out how to get the little "L" thing on my keyboard) or about $1,500. The one problem, it was in the UK. I contacted the owner as this price was more than acceptable... We talked a few times and I went looking for a shipper.

I found a Import~Export firm in Bristol, UK and we negotiated a price... From Bristol to the Port of Miami the shipping would be around $650... Still way below my $5,000 self-imposed ceiling.

Here's were things began to turn to shit... I contacted the Government here to find out the taxes and tariffs I would incur on importing the said 1978 Land Rover Type 3...

To make a very long story short, to comply with EPA and Federal Highway Regulations, I'd have to spend well over $10,000 to make the vehicle compliant with current standards... Before it even left the fucking dock! Not including the import fees, which were close to $2,000!

Needless to say I didn't spend $14,500 for a $1,500 vehicle...

I may be a bit crazy, but I'm not stupid.

I still want one, but I'm not going to pay out my ass for one.

This year my present to me was going to be a 6 week trip to Australia to visit (get drunk with) some mates, but now with the way the economy is going I'm definately NOT going to be spending $3,000 for just the airfare... Which is the lowest fare I've found so far... For that price the flight attendant better blow me hourly for the 17+ hour flight to Oz...

For a few months now I've been eying the UK... And BritRail has some great deals for a month-long rail pass that will let me get on and off the train, as many times I want anywhere in Britain, Scotland & Ireland.

And maybe I'll finally get to the Imperial War Museum and find the town where my father was billeted in Scotland during World War II prior to D-Day.

Well, wish me luck!

And maybe next time I'll have a new RT~Mobile!

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

A Small List...

2009-12-26T09:50:00.004-05:00

...Of shit that piss me off.

1) People who are actually upset that they have to go to work right after they punch the time clock.

Excuse me?

God forbid one should actually have to work when they're at work, on the clock! I know it's a stretch, but here's a unique concept: You punch in, you go to work. You punch out, you go home and lounge around. Eight hours' work, eight hours' pay.

These are the same people who work harder at getting out of work that actually doing their job to begin with... Usually pawning it off to someone else.

I say shut the fuck up, do your fucking job and quit your fucking whining.

2) People who work night shift and come into work at say "Boy am I tired!" Shut the fuck up already.

How about getting to sleep when you're at home and not stay up all day. I worked with a guy a few years ago on night shift... He'd go home, stay up all day in an empty house when his wife was at work and his kids were in school. He wouldn't get to bed until after the wife and kids were home and complain almost every night how tired he was.

You fucking dolt.

Did you really believe you were going to get a restful evening of sleep with 3 boys, ages 6, 9 and 12 running around the house?

Sleep when the damn house is empty, dumbass.

3) People who say "Un-Thaw" Now in my mind, "Un" means the opposite. So if you want me to un-thaw something, you want me to freeze it. To thaw something out is to let in "un-freeze"...

So if you ask me to un-thaw that steak, I'll put it back into the freezer.

I was dating a woman a while back in West Virginia. She left a note for me in the kitchen one morning: "Tommy, there's some chicken in the fridge... Un-thaw it for me will you?" So I put it back in the freezer.

Good = Good, Ungood = Bad.

Thaw = Melt, Unthaw = Freeze.

Am I wrong here?

4) People who say "Hamburger meat". There ain't no such thing. I've never met a guy who said he was a Hamburger Rancher.

It's ground beef, moron. Or ground pork or ground turkey. Got it?

5) People who misuse the apostrophe. Like this: (I've actually seen this printed on menus) Hamburger's $5, Cheeseburger's $6, Hot Dog's $2.

What the fuck! It's basic second grade English.

One day while I was still living in Arizona I noticed a hand-painted sign on a power pole on the road to my house. it read:

Puppy's 4 Sale

Call

555-1212

I couldn't resist. I got my cell phone out and called the number. When the person answered I asked them what the puppies had for sale. They didn't get it.

If you cant distinguish the difference between the use of 's or ies, you've got no damn business writing anything at all, especially on signage people will see.

I expect misspellings on Chinese Restaurant menus, but not people educated here. No wonder everyone else in the world thinks we're all a bunch of morons.

Learn basic English and learn to spell (or at least use spell-check) before you decide to print out a sign and post it somewhere...This is a sign (I shit you not) I saw at a coal mine I worked at briefly in Raven, Virgina:

Am I the only one who gets pissed off at these things?

I haven't had a good rant like this in a while... I needed that! I'll have a drink now.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

2009-12-25T11:13:00.002-05:00

Now if you'll just think "US Army Rangers" every time he says "Marines", everything will be alright.

Because when you Positively, absolutely have to have it destroyed over night...

Don't call a Jarhead.

Call a Ranger!

Hooha!

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

The day before Christmas...

2009-12-24T08:39:00.005-05:00

When I got home this morning from work I had all intentions of writing about the bad night my switchman, The Rambling Hillbilly had, because no matter what he did during the shift, it went wrong. Nothing major... Nothing to get anyone hurt... Just a whole bunch off little things happened that I wont go into because it would necessitate a huge description of a bunch of railroad terms... So a long story short, he was having a bad night, and the more frustrated he got, the more me and my conductor laughed, and the more we laughed the angrier he got...

Not that I would ever derive pleasure in an other's discomfort...

We laughed our asses off!

Sorry, Bill, it was just too damn funny! That look on your face was precious!

Now to what I decided to write about. Christmas traditions...

Christmas was always my Mother's favorite holiday of the year (and being that my siblings and my birthdays are all around the end of December I'm leaning towards St. Patrick's Day as my Fathers...) and she would go all out decorating the house and the tree.

I'm of German descent on my mom's side, and I was always told that in Germany, they wouldn't put up the tree and decorate it until Christmas Eve. So that being said, we'd always, as a family, put the tree up and decorate it right before going to bed.

In 1992, few years after I got out of the Army and I was working in Law Enforcement, my father died and now it was up to me to come over the house on Christmas Eve and put the tree up so my mom and sisters could decorate it.

This I did, every year, then one time my sister said something about "The Leaning Tree of Christmas..."

Let me explain a little...

So I'd come over the house and put the tree up...

But I'd always stop off at the local watering hole, Lengehan's Pub, before the requisite tree erection... So I'd usually have half a load on. My sister told me it always would have a 10 degree starboard list when I was finished...

How was I to know?

It looked fine to me!

So that's my last recollection of Christmas in the home I grew up in... A tree askew in the living room... much like the one pictured above, only that's not it.

And as they say on the nightly news, alcohol was a factor...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photo pinched from the Interweb

Now I'm really confused...

2009-12-23T08:47:00.002-05:00

I went on line last week to renew my vehicle registration since my tags would expire at the end of this month. On the same FL DMV web page I found I could change my address on my Driver's License for a small $25 fee. As I've moved over two years ago from my previous residence, and since it's Florida state law to change your driver's license within 10 days of any relocation, I figured then was as good a time as any to change my address. I needed to anyway for another reason I'll get to in a few minutes.

I was told then after I made my secure credit card transaction that this would be the last time I could do that because new laws that had just taken effect.

Now in Florida, to get a Driver's License or renew a current license, you must now make an appointment at the DMV and show proof of identity...

That being: (all listed... Not just one)
A Current Passport
Birth Certificate
Social Security Card
Voter Registration Card
Another Photo ID

And proof of residence, being at least two utility bills, bank statements, a copy of a lease agreement or mortgage agreement and pay stubs showing current residential address.

Ok. Swell. I understand all about the need to be wary, and how the 9-11 hijackers and terrorists obtained phony ID's...

But this is getting a little too much.

The ironic thing about this is that one's current driver's license is NOT acceptable as a valid ID.

What the fuck, over?

Ok. I need to get a new Passport. I was planning a trip to Australia this summer to visit (get drunk with) a few mates of mine, but the way the economy is going the airfare to Oz are going through the roof, so I might just go to the UK and Ireland this summer. Either way I need a new passport. I was stupid and let mine expire two years ago, so now I've got to go through the whole damn process again... Meaning I've got to get my birth certificate from the City of Philadelphia. My original was misplaced years ago. Now to get that, I've got to send them a certified copy of my current Driver's license, showing my current address.

So I needed to change my address on my license.

OK, that taken care of.

But still...

I can get a copy of my birth certificate, by mail, using my current driver's license.

And use that as an ID?

It has no picture of me on it... The one picture I have of me taken around the time the ink was drying on it you see in my profile picture. While the attitude is still the same, I look a little different.

And I don't think those tiny little footprints are valid either.

And OK, let's look at the other forms of ID the state is requesting.

Social Security Card.

Again, no photo, only this, printed in bold on the very bottom: FOR SOCIAL SECURITY AND TAX PURPOSES - NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION (Form OA-702 Rev.9-61)

Huh?

Voter Registration Card. Again, no photo.

And "Another Photo ID". Now what the fuck do they want? My Sam's Club card? Or my employee ID card, which I had to show my Social Security Card and my Driver's license in order to be employed?

But my current Driver's License is now not acceptable for ID.

What next?

Irhe Identifizierung Bitte?

I need a damn drink...

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

I guess I've always been a Black Sheep...

2009-12-22T08:13:00.002-05:00

Ever since I was a young boy I've always been a bit different. I never excelled at sports. I played Little League baseball, but I wasn't really any good at it, to the dismay of my father. I'd rather read books and play army in the back yard than play sports. To this day I'll rarely watch sports on TV unless it's a playoff game and a team from Philadelphia is playing. I'd much rather watch a documentary on the History Channel or Discovery.

I wasn't popular in school until I began to use humor, and even after I was voted Class Clown, I was still kind of an outcast. The popular kids thought I was weird, the jocks beat me up, and even the "weird" kids thought I was a bit off... I kept clowning around, not really doing well, just coasting along on a joke and a laugh.

By myself.

At around 13 I discovered girls, but they hadn't discovered me. I was just a goofball in the back of the class making fart noises with my armpit.

Oh yeah, I was suave...

I guess I used the humor to get people to like me... If I saw them laugh I was doing good, not realizing at the time they were really laughing at me, not with me. So in ignorance of the disdain my peers felt about me, I coasted along in school... I still find humor a great relief and still love to laugh. But not the way I used to.

The army, years in law enforcement and life in general over the years has sucked off almost all of the humor I have left, leaving me a drunken bitter cynic and the only vestige of that humor anymore is the black gallows humor and sarcasm here in this little corner of the googlenet/interweb. I laugh at myself now, because if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you really laugh at?

So for years I floated along in life... Trying to please other people. My parents, siblings, my lovers, then my wife... My bosses, my friends... Doing what others thought would be best for me, never once considering what I really wanted. To do that would be the ultimate blasphemy. I was raised Irish Catholic, so guilt was a big motivator in everything I did.

From the time I was born until the time I separated from my ex, save for when I enlisted in the Army, I had done what other people thought I should do. The job I had, the clothes I wore, where I lived, everything was decided by someone else. My divorce was the defining moment in my life.

Do not get me wrong. I was by no means a pussy. I didn't take shit off of anyone. Not then and definitely not now. But it was the people who were close to me I'd be afraid to disappoint so instead of creating a confrontation, I just went along with their advice whether in was solicited or not. Looking back it seems that everyone else was thinking of their image, not how I felt... "Oh, if you do that, what will people say?"

I'd always enjoyed writing short stories... But was told by people close to me "I'd never make any money doing it, so I'd just was well stay working where I was..." I always wanted to work on the railroad, maybe a engineer someday... "But you'd always be away from home! You've got a good job now, just stay where you're at!"

So I did.

And it sucked.

And I began to loathe myself.

I moved to Arizona in 1998 because my wife wanted to. I didn't really want to go but told myself a hundred little lies to convince myself it was the right thing to do. I was leaving my family, and really good, close personal friends it had taken years to make. I was alone out there, and the friends I did make I found out after my separation where just fair~weather ones, who left me high and dry when I needed them the most.

Like I said before, my divorce was the most painful thing that had ever happened to me, next to the days my parents died.

It was the lowest time in my life. When I reached out for help... All I got was patronizing and thinly veiled "I-told-you-so's". Everything I'd done in my life up to that point according to some, had been "Stupid" and if I had just listened to them, I'd have been in better shape. Instead of the 38 year old man I was, they spoke to me like I was an errant 13 year old juvenile delinquent and it infuriated me.

Well, I didn't listen to them. Not that time. One day while wallowing in self pity I read a want-ad in the local paper for a job on the railroad. I called the number listed, and even though I was in my late 30's with no railroad experience at all, the interviewer decided to hire me... For the next six months I travelled around the country working on a huge machine doing track work. It's not what I really wanted to do, but it was a foot in the door.

But to some that was stupid too. Bouncing across the country like that.

At the end of the six months I had returned to Arizona with a little more steel in my spine but the town I lived in was a virtual prison to me. My ex was still there and all our friends became her friends so I was again alone. I had spend a good chunk of time that summer in West Virgina and really liked it there so one day, after a particularly bad row with the ex, I decided to head back to West Virgina, no thought except to get the hell away from Arizona before I did something I'd really regret.

I had saved a little money and one day I just packed what I could cram into my car and headed east, no real plan in my head. When I crossed the state line into New Mexico on I-40 it was like a one-ton weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I had no real plan, but I knew there were railroad jobs in WV, and I was going to get one, come hell or high water.

I rolled into West Virgina five days later with no job, no place to live and $39 in my pocket. I was homeless. For two weeks I lived in my car, bathing at a gas station restroom but I did find a job working security. A week after I landed that job I found a little apartment and set up home... And that's when I started this blog. I've always been a survivor. Ranger School taught me to never, ever give up.

It's not what I wanted, but I knew I was going to get it. I'd found a conductor school in Huntington and took the entrance exam. I'd scored high and the school wanted me in the very next class! After the 10 week school, I was guaranteed a job on CSX Railroad's New River Subdivision... Another step closer to reaching my goal.

But I got another kick in the nuts.

The school cost $5,500 and I was turned down for a student loan because my credit had been destroyed in my divorce. They still wanted me in the class, could I get a co-signer?

So with hat in hand, for the first time since I split with my ex, I called family for help. Somehow I knew what the answer would be, no... But I didn't need to hear about the upcoming vacation to Italy in the very next breath.

I wasn't asking for money, just to co-sign the note.

So I didn't get the loan, didn't get into the school and vowed never to ask anyone in my family for help again.

I worked security for the next year, made some friends in WV and was coasting along. What I'd been good at before in my life, but this time my mindset was completely different. I wasn't going to settle for anything. I'd set my goal and I was going to prove all the naysayers wrong. I'd do it myself.

Like I said, I worked security for about a year when I found a job for a railroad way up in the northern part of the state. I moved there and worked the entire summer, making really, really good money, but as I found out after I got the job and was working, it was only a short term job and was going to get laid off the following October. So I scrambled to find another job...

And that's when I found this one I'm working at now. Again I picked up and moved, over 1,200 miles to Florida.

It took me a while, but I finally got to where I wanted to be.

I got here alone. No help what so ever.

Do I have any regrets? Yes. I've burned several bridges and lost a few friends along the way, but at some point in every one's life you've just got to do it... Take that one step...

So here I am... that goofy weird kid making fart noises in the back of the class. The class clown that was beat up by the jocks after school...

The Black Sheep of the family who no one ever calls anymore...

Became an Army Ranger, then a railroad locomotive engineer...

And along the way became a man.

A man I really like.

A man I wasn't, even five years ago. Those who know me before now wouldn't even recognize me as the same Tommy... Well, I look the same, a little grayer maybe and thicker around the middle, but I'm a completely different man.

But to some I'll always be that crazy weird kid. And to those who never had faith in me, they're not laughing now.

Now, after all those miserable years, I really have something to laugh about.

A Foamy Christmas!

2009-12-20T12:50:00.001-05:00

I couldn't have said it any better myself...

Wait a minute!

I'm letting a neurotic squirrel do my talking?

I've really slipped a track at some point...

Get ready to hold your breath!

2009-12-19T08:54:00.007-05:00

What I'm about to write about is just another thing in a long procession of things going on in the world today that has me convinced that at some point in my life, probably when I was asleep, I was transported through a gap in the Space~Time Continuum and placed in a world that appeared to be the same, but was completely alien to me.

This is Not the America or the world I grew up in.

Let me explain.

When I was a little kid I'd threaten to hold my breath until I got what I wanted. My dad, ever the stoic he was, would just look at me, smile and tell me:

"Go ahead... You'll only turn blue, pass out from lack of oxygen, and start breathing again. You're NOT getting a (insert toy/book/candy/machine gun I wanted that time)!"

But now it looks like we're all going to have to hold our breath now. To exhale would mean hefty fines for polluting and discharging a "pollutant" into the atmosphere.

Just a few days ago, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA said it would begin regulating several gasses that were considered "Pollutants" that contribute to "Global Climate Change", one of which happens to be Carbon Dioxide.

Now wait just damn minute!

If I remember correctly from my Science classes in school, is that all air-breathing life forms on this planet breathe in oxygen and exhale Carbon Dioxide. Plants on the other hand take in Carbon Dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Hence, we give the plants life, and in return, they give us life.

Pretty spiffy thing, I'd think.

But because the Earth is getting warmer by the minute (oh, wasn't it Houston that got it's earliest recorded snowfall this year? and it was 39F/4C when I got home this morning from work here in sunny south-central Florida...) and if we all would just stop breathing, we'd all save the planet.

And on who's authority are they doing this?

Well, they're the Government.

Congress?

Senate?

Who needs them! We're from the Government and we're here to help!

And don't forget that pesky little document called the Constitution... Oh wait! They already did!

One Federal Agency, in one fell swoop, completely circumvented the entire checks and balances thing the Constitution was written for.

So I want you all reading this to stop breathing right now! We've got to stop this pollutant from killing the planet!

You'll only be blue for about 4 four minutes... Then you'll die...

But you've saved the planet!

Sometimes I really believe these nutcases won't be happy until we're all wearing loincloths made of hemp, eating tofu and living in yurts.

And I pledge to stop farting.

Farts are a pollutant too. Methane is a "pollutant", so I'm going to refrain from any future flatulence.

Really.

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

It's Official...

2009-12-17T10:16:00.007-05:00

I'm a Dirty Old Man.

Let me explain.

Since the beginning of the Sugar Harvest, I've been working 60+ hours a week and things tend to get left undone at the old Ranger Tom Homestead, so I've hired a woman to come and clean my house once a week... It's nice to come home to a clean house and most of the time I'm just to damn tired to do it.

No, I have not started nailing my cleaning lady.

Since I work nights and get home from work around 8:15 every morning, I use that one morning every week to go out and do some errands and leave her to the cleaning. Most of the time I'll finish up my trip around town down at the Tiki Bar around 11 when they open. I'll have a few ice-cold adult beverages and get a sandwich, getting home around 12:30 or so to a nice clean house and clean sheets to crawl into. (If you've ever had the chance to get real 1000 thread~count Egyptian Cotton sheets, get them! They're HEAVEN!)

Yesterday was no different. I did some running around town and found myself perched on my favorite stool at the Tiki Bar sipping on a ice cold MGD. I'm alone down here in Purgatory, and it gets kind of lonely this time of year. I haven't spoken to anyone in my family really save for my brother since my divorce five years ago and now I'm unsure how that's going to go since he's started sending me Watchtower propaganda...

Not only that my birthday is coming up... on the 27th I'll be 44 and I'm really starting to feel all the abuse I've done to my body over the years... So with aching knees, Christmas and my 44th right around the corner I was feeling kind of low, even though I have the best job in the world in my humble opinion.

I'm a regular at the Tiki, and know almost all of the bartenders and servers by name, and consider most of them my friends. I'm moping a bit watching ESPN highlights on the muted TV when one of the servers sits down next to me. She does this quite often when the place is empty, like it was yesterday, and we began talking. She is quite the looker, and I have been know to take a look-see (ogle) once in a while but she's a bit younger than me, in her mid-20's. But she's engaged to a really nice guy so I've never put the "moves" on her. Besides, after the last few relationships with women who are Bi-Polar, have Borderline Personality Disorder or a Chronic substance abuse problem, I've put myself into a self-induced celibacy for a while.

But I'm not dead.

I do look, OK?

Anyway, I was lamenting to this very attractive friend of mine how I was feeling old, because my birthday was creeping up on me...

What she said next was harmless, I knew she was trying to cheer me up a little bit...

But she might have well just hauled off and kicked me in the balls with steel-toed boots...

"Oh Tommy! You're not old! My mom is only 41!"

D'oh!

Now I feel really great. I'm ogling girls young enough to be my daughter.

Happy Birthday to me, you dirt old bastard! I might as well be like the guy pictured below.

On second thought....

That's not really all that bad, is it?

Yes it is...

I've just creeped myself out!

Whining lament Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden
Photos pinched from the Interweb

Retro RT

2009-12-11T22:15:00.003-05:00

Since I've been so busy and haven't been able to post as often as I'd like, here's a vintage RT post from February, 2005 for your enjoyment!

Sunday, February 06, 2005

I'm A Proud Member of PETA

That's right. I'm a member of PETA. Damn proud of it too. I've been a member of it my entire life. "People Eating Tasty Animals". I like animals. Not only do they taste yummy, they're chock-full of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients. You know why I like eating tasty animals? Well, I was made that way. It's the way nature intended. I'm what they call an Omnivore ( 'Omni' from the Greek meaning don't let your exposed digits near my mouth when I'm really hungry and the 'Vore' from the ancient Celt meaning 'Vore')... All humans are omnivores. It's the way nature intended us to be.

Now I'll let you in on a little biology lesson (not THAT biology, get your mind out of the gutter!) to help you understand more easily what I'm talking about. We (Humans) have diffent teeth (unless you're from the rural part of Yavapai County Arizona, then you have 'Tooth') , four different kinds. All for special purposes. First off, I'll start at the back of the mouth and work my way forward. To the very rear we have "Molars". They're designed to grind up all kinds of tasty morsels into a kind of puree that our stomach can easily digest. Stuff like carrots, chocolate chip cookies and raw or cooked chunks of Tasty Animals.

Next comes the "Bicuspids" these handy-dandy little guys two two jobs in one. The take the large chunks of tasty morsels, and make them into smaller chunks of tasty morsels. Amazing, isn't it?

Now here comes the most fascinating set of chompers. We as a species only have four of these. They're called "Canines"... Know what they're for????? Huh????? Bet you don't know! (This is the squeamish part, so all you Vegans better not read this part.) Well, fair readers, they're for RIPPING AND TEARING RAW FLESH! Yes, as in ANIMALS!!!!! Bears are omnivores. They have the same things we do, only BIGGER and SHARPER!

Lastly, those nice pearly-whites in front and called "Incisors". They're used to bite into Really big chunks of tasty morsels like apples, gingersnaps and the whole hind quarter of a gazelle we've just ran down on the Veld... Well, maybe not that, but you get the picture.

So the lesson today is boys and girls?

It's that were omnivores. We are SUPPOSED to eat meat AND veggies... "Omnivorous" literally "Eats everything/Anything" and we're higher up on the food chain. It's the way its supposed to be! Nature wanted it that way. If I was out on the ocean fishing, and caught a big shark, I'd cook it up and eat it. I've had shark before and it's quite tasty. (No, it does NOT taste like chicken. Only chicken tastes like chicken, It tasted like shark, damnit!!!! I absolutely HATE it when someone compares ANYTHING to chicken! Only chicken tastes like Chicken! Snake tastes like snake! Turtles taste like turtles. Baby seals tastes like.... Who knows? I don't eat them, I only club them to death... But I digress)

In that instance, I'm higher up on the food chain than the shark. But nature is funny sometimes. The food chain is flexible. Ok, not really too flexible. Masses of krill are not going to rise up and eat a baleen whale anytime in the near future. But it is flexible. Ok, just for instance. I'm on the boat and I've had too many ice cold and frosty adult beverages. I slip and fall into the sea. The shark who I didn't catch, but is damn pissed I caught his poker buddy Phil, sees me wallowing around in the water. I'm wallowing because I swim as good as a rock. So this shark, he sees me. He swims over to me. Takes a my left leg off at the knee and swallows it whole. (He's really hungry, so he's forgotten his manners) He thinks; "Hey, this people tastes pretty good!" and then proceeds to devour me.

Well, you'd think I'd be mightily upset at this shark for eating me. I'm not though. Do you know why? Because the very instant I hit the water, that ol' food chain flexed (it's flexible, you know) and at that very instant I became LOWER on the food chain than the shark.

It's nature. It's the way it's supposed to be. I accept that. Hell, I'll eat a salad. I love salads. But give me a giant slab of dead animal with it... Preferably cooked over fire... With lots of Ice-cold frosty adult beverages... And nowhere near any large bodies of water... Now go out and eat everything you see!!!!!!!

Who says science isn't fun and interesting? Now wasn't that more fun that clubbing baby seals?

Copyright 2005 Thomas J Wolfenden

A Word on Goddamn Yardmasters...

2009-12-05T09:49:00.005-05:00

Since the beginning of this year's sugar harvest I've been putting up with this goddamn Yardmaster... Every time we turn around this motherfucker has got us doing the dumbest shit... Hence the photograph above... My "BOHICA" T-Shirt from my classic irreverent t-shirt line sold right here on this blog... It stands for Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!" Myself, My Conductor Jay and my Switchman Bill have been getting bent over every night...

Just kidding, Scott!

You're doing one hell of a job up there! Keep on doing what you're doing Brother! I'm really happy you're up there instead of the other alternative. At least you use what's in between your ears!

Keep up the great work, and stop over the house again some morning and we'll have a few frosty~cold adult beverages again! I know you read this from time to time and I remembered that conversation we had at the Tiki Bar that afternoon, so I just couldn't resist breaking your balls!

Now on to other things... A lot of stuff has been happening and every morning when I get home I really haven't felt like doing much of anything except getting some supper, a shower and crawling into bed.

I absolutely love being an engineer but with it comes a lot of responsibility. I'm handling a lot of horsepower, and literally thousands of tons of railroad rolling stock every night... A lot of times with my friends and co-workers riding on the outside of the said equipment. Shoving 30, 40, 50 even 100 cars at a time into tracks. A lot of things can go dreadfully wrong and I've always got that on my mind. It's no wonder that I'm mentally drained at the end of my shift and have let a lot of things slip by the wayside...

Like finally opening my email and finding well over 350 unanswered emails, many from dear and close friends who were wondering if I'd died or not...

Sorry guys, I'll try to be a little better at answering those emails!

And I'll blog a little more!

And speaking of friends... My great friend Bill who's now working with me here is really turning into a real railroader.

I was deeply troubled and worried there for a while, but after he got his shit together he's turned into a real asset on my crew.

I'm really proud of you Bill... Even though you still crack on me about being old.

I'll still kick your ass, you young snot-nosed punk!

And again, speaking of really bad things happening while one is handling really heavy equipment...

The photos above and below are what happened to us around 1 AM on Thanksgiving night.

Happy fucking Thanksgiving!

We had just pulled 31 cars off "C" Dump, where they dump the loaded cane cars into the mill and "kick" them out the other side. Bill had counted me down past the "C" switch, and getting on the point of the shove, he gave me the "Ahead" order on the radio. He was around 1,200 feet way at the point of the shove as I steadily eased the throttle back and gained speed. At around 5 or 6 miles an hour my train felt like it was starting to bog down and it just didn't feel right. It's hard to explain.

Anyway, I immediately knocked off the throttle and instead of rolling to a stop, my train stopped dead.

Ungood.

I got on my radio and asked Bill if anything was wrong and he told me to stand by, he'd look back.

My conductor was way up the track getting us lined into a storage track and came on the radio...

"Bill, are there cars on the ground...?"

"Eh, yeah... Several..."

Oh Shit!

I heard Jay call our Yardmaster and tell him what was happening as I centered the reverser, cut out the generator field and tied a handbrake on the locomotive and walked down to see what mess I had made.

After an investigation it was determined that about mid-way though the cut a thin flange had "picked" a switch, sending about 9 out of the 31 I was shoving over a frog and putting them on the ground.

No one's fault, but I'm really glad no one was hurt. Just a freak accident. I'll tell you one thing though, Bill's face was white as a ghost and I know it scared the living shit out of him... If anthing can be brought out of this on a postive note it all reenforced a really healthy respect for the equipment we use and a better respect for all of us on why it's very important to always be 100% aware of your surroundings when working on the railroad!

Photographs and rambling diatribe Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

First Day as an Engineer!

2009-10-02T09:28:00.004-04:00

The first day went off without a hitch and went pretty smoothly. I'm really enjoying being an engineer! Actually, it was the first night, or early morning as I'm now working the Midnight to 8 AM shift and after being on days and evening shifts for so many years here it's a little hard getting back into the night shift swing of things. I'm pictured here above, at around 3 AM this morning during a lull in switching moves, seated quite nicely in my new office, a EMD SW 800 switching engine.

Another new thing is my buddy Bill (Pictured above, AKA The Rambling Hillbilly, some of you might read his blog also) from West Virginia and the Athens Volunteer Fire Department finally took my advice and moved his happy ass here and is now working with me as the Midnight Switchman on my crew... Those paychecks aren't hard to take, are they Bill?

My happy crew, Jay, my conductor and Bill again... Sweaty and dirty... Funny, in my new job I don't get dirty anymore... It's kind of a novelty to me now that I'm not covered in sweaty filth when I got home this morning!

And here I sit... Photo taken just mere moments ago... I'm going to be taking one of these self portraits every day throughout the entire sugar crop and I have plans on those that I'll reveal later... It's pretty funny if not entirely original...

Like I said, I'm trying to get my body-clock reset and it'll take a few days with the help of some melatonin so my postings will be erratic... Also I've got a ton of emails from dear friends I've still yet to respond and I feel bad for that, to but for now my bed is calling out it's Siren Song to me, so I'm off to the Land Of Nod...

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2009-10-01T21:27:00.002-04:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month...

I know what you're all thinking. Why is a guy worried about breast cancer?

In 2003 I lost the most wonderful woman in my life, my mother, to breast cancer.

Please, I know times are tough and the money is tight... If you only donate to one charity this year, please donate to the Susan G Komen foundation and together we can find a cure.

http://ww5.komen.org/

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

I'm either a really huge nut magnet

2009-09-26T11:45:00.004-04:00

Or a really huge asshole...

I'm leaning towards the latter.

Let me do a little splainin'... A while ago I met a woman at the Tiki Bar here in town. Contrary to popular belief I do not got to the pub after work to "pick up" women, I go to unwind for a while and bullshit with friends. So it was unusual for me to "chat up" a woman in the first place considering I had met my ex-wife in a bar and swore I'd never do that again.

So against my better judgment, I bought this, ehem, lady a drink and we started talking. A short while later we'd exchanged numbers and agreed to a date the following Friday.

During this conversation I had made it perfectly clear I wasn't looking for a new wife, nor did I need anyone to "take care of me" in any way, shape or form, and the most important thing I expressed was if I say I'll call you at a certain time, I'll call you. I do NOT need someone calling me every day, several times a day. My cell phone had been an electronic leash in the past and I never, EVER wanted that again.

Sure! I agree with you! Sez she...

So we get together the following Friday and for once I did have a great time... I even danced if you believe that... But red flags began to show there ugly little faces throughout the course of the evening... She doesn't work... Hasn't for a while... Been on "disability" for over ten years but she looks to be in pretty good shape to me... The she whispers in my ear during on of our dances if I could score her any coke...

BIG, GIGANTIC RED FLAG...

There's a lot more, but I'll leave most of that out... But needless to say by the end of the night I had the distinct impression that she was looking for a meal ticket and the last thing I need is another woman who's got a chemical dependency problem who doesn't work and wants me to pay for all her shit.

Then the phone calls start coming... First it was two calls the following day. I talked to her on both occasions and while I still liked her, I was backpedaling and playing it very cool. I wanted to learn more about her, but I was also sure at this point I didn't want to have a relationship with this woman. I explained to her over and over I had to work the following day and wouldn't be available (Remember the earlier talk about the electronic leash?) and she agreed that I'd call her later in the week... I get off work and check my cell phone for messages... She called six fucking times!

I didn't return her calls that day, because if I did it would set a precedence that it was ok to call even though I had said earlier I'd call later in the week... By Wednesday, I had a total of 27 calls from her and 15 text messages.

I was livid.

I called her then and told her to just stop calling me. The bullshit was already starting. She text messaged a few more times and called again a time or two, but in the end I had assumed (wrongly) that she had finally gotten the message when the calls and texts stopped coming.

I should tell you all also this woman lives in Naples, about a two-hour drive from here, so at this point I thought I was safe...

Wrong again.

Fast-forward to yesterday. It had been a long week at work. I was tired and sweaty and just wanted a few ice-cold adult beverages before I went to the house, got a shower and went to bed. Me and a buddy from work had bellied up to the bar and we were talking shop, sipping on a cold one when who should walk in...

What the FUCK, over?

My buddy bails on me (thanks a lot pal!) and leaves me alone with her... It was then she tells me she's fallen hard for me (puleeze!) and can't stop thinking about me... Again, what the fuck! Can't this woman get the message? Now she's just following me... She's begging me at this point to change my mind and the more she begs the more and more I'm turned off. She then tells me she's found an apartment here in Clewiston and will be moving here to be close to me... Destroying whatever good mood I had left. Then I tell her I'm going home to take a shower and go to bed... She wanted to follow me home to "visit" with me for a while.

Of course I say no... Nope, I'm going home alone, you CAN NOT come with me.

"Are you going to come back to listen to the band?" she asks...

"Most definitely not." I reply...

"Then who am I going to dance with?"

"Frankly, I don't give a fuck WHO you dance with. I'm going home." With that I paid my bar tab and left for home. A while later, after I had a shower and got some supper, I get a phone call from another buddy of mine, explaining to me that there's some drunk woman at the Tiki Bar creating a scene and some people have have been trying to get in touch with me to do something with her...

What the FUCK, again...

Call the fucking police and leave me the fuck alone. I am not her husband, boyfriend or keeper.

I told my ex-wife years ago I'd rather be alone than put up with bullshit like that, and I meant it then, and I sure as shit mean it now.

I've got my own problems to deal with. I do not need another emotionally crippled, chemically dependent psychic vampire sucking the life out of me again. It seems to me that that's all I attract anymore.

If that's all there is out here anymore I'll just stay alone.

And be an asshole.

Final exams are over...

2009-09-18T13:17:00.002-04:00

Took the last two exams this morning... I think I did well on both. The first one was easy, but the second one I was having a hard time with a handful of questions... Not that I didn't know the answers, I was having a hard time coming up with the wording of what I wanted to put down... That and I hate essay questions.

Half~ day of work today and our instructor took us all out to luck to boot!

All-round pretty good day if I don't say so myself!

Next up is working every day on getting more practice at operating the locomotives until the crop starts in a few weeks.

Dad, I'm finally there. My only regret is you're not around to see it.

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Have you fogotten?

2009-09-11T07:13:00.001-04:00

Eight years ago today it happened...

I know I'll never forget.

The Government Can!

2009-09-01T23:05:00.003-04:00

This would be even more funny if it weren't so Goddamn true!

Tip O' the Hat to Doberman!

Been quite busy the last few days and haven't really had a chance to compose my own rants, but I am thinking of my own prose later on in the week!

My favorite Mormon says it again!

2009-08-31T20:11:00.002-04:00

Wake up America before it's too late!

Let's all stand together to take it back!

Fuck, this shit gets me so Goddamn angry it's not even funny.

Is this the America I grew up in?

2009-08-30T17:31:00.005-04:00

Can anyone say "Police State"?

1st Amendment is going down the toilet along with the rest of the Bill of Rights, and nobody seems to care.

Why isn't this officer being charged with violating this guy's 1st Amendment Right to Free Speech?

What the FUCK, over!

Hat Tip to Doberman at http://iluvsa.blogspot.com/

Another busy week

2009-08-29T16:07:00.004-04:00

Week two of my locomotive engineer's training was another busy one. Practicing using the air brakes, train handling and troubleshooting problems with the locomotive. I'm having a blast! It's a huge boost to my confidence that my instructor trusts me and one other guy to run a locomotive by ourselves for the Switchman trainees learn to mount and dismount moving equipment and making cuts and couplings on trains. He just sends us out on the locomotive now, knowing we're not going to tear up shit...

I'm still trying to get my sleep pattern regulated... I've been going to bed early and not spending any time reading my favorite blogs or doing any posting myself. I think I may have screwed that all up yesterday though... I went to the Tiki Bar after work yesterday afternoon with all good intentions of only staying for Happy Hour... Got there around 4:15 PM... And at 9:30 I was still there... I staggered home and feeling no pain I was able to stay up just long enough to watch the Space Shuttle launch at midnight. Crawling out of bed today at the crack of noon with a pounding head I had to remember I'm not 25 anymore and can't hang out and drink all night like I used to! I also vaguely remember being rude to one guy at the bar last night, but that's not going to worry me. The guy in question has pretty thin skin and likes to be a smartass to people, but doesn't like to get the same thing back, so a little tit-for-tat was warranted.

Next week I'm going to try to post more... There's a lot happening in the world that's been pissing me off and I haven't had a chance to vent about it lately.

I'm doing well on my other goal though... I've been able to drop 10 pounds in the last two weeks and have been eating a lot better. More fruits and greens... Less red meat. It's also helped that its been in the mid 90's all week with 100% humidity so I've been able to sweat a lot of it off.

I can now get into my work trousers without having to suck it in and hold my breath to button the fly!

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Been busy...

2009-08-22T13:52:00.002-04:00

The last week found me really busy. By the time I got home in the evening, I had just enough reserve energy to get some dinner, get a shower and crawl into bed. No time to blog. I did get several nice emails from friends wondering where I disappeared to. Thanks guys!

For the next several weeks I'll be working on the locomotives, running in the yard and the main line. This is going to be weekdays, on day work. Once the crop starts though, I don't know what shift I'll be working. Since I'll be going from the the highest~seniority conductor to the 6th lowest seniority engineer, I'll most probably be working nights throughout the sugar harvesting season.

Also, it seems like my idea for "Music Monday" wasn't all that popular, so starting Monday I won't be doing it anymore. I'll still be doing "Funny Foto Friday", so keep an eye out for that! You never know what my warped mind will come up with!

All in all, I'm just really glad to get back to work, as I was starting to go stir-crazy, with really nothing to do every day except play on the interweb and drink beer... Wait, that's not really a bad thing, is it?

I do have a few goals set for myself over the next winter... 1st is the lose about 20 lbs... I'm 210 lbs right now, and being 6'2", that not really a bad weight, mine is all in the middle. I've been getting my balls broken by some of the guys I haven't seen since the end of the crop in April, asking what my Due Date is... So my 1st goal is to lose my gut.

2nd is I'm finally getting some much needed dental work done. I've put it off for too long, and I'm sick of people asking me why I never smile. So in about 6 months, I'm going to have one of those fabulous Robert Redford smiles. My dental plan covers it, so why not? I'll blind the ladies with my pearly whites!

Anyway, not much else going on at the moment...

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Back to work today!!!!!!!

2009-08-17T00:13:00.003-04:00

I'm back to work today, so I'll leave you with this song for Music Monday!

Wake Up America!

2009-08-15T03:14:00.003-04:00

And the last word... I want to know why this photo above is racist, hurtful and mean~spirited,

And this one from a few years ago isn't?

Wake Up America!
This might be our last chance!

A Very Long Road...

2009-08-12T21:21:00.005-04:00

Several times I've been asked why I changed careers and what inspired me to take the job I'm in now. I did write about it before, but I'll reiterate my story again for those of you who are newcomers to my little slice of Cyberspace.

Pictured above is the Torresdale, PA railroad station. It sits about 3 miles from the house where I grew up, along the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and New York City. Four tracks of electrified 140 lb. rail linking Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia & New York, it sees the heaviest passenger and freight traffic in the country.

Once the main line for the Pennsylvania Railroad, then when the New Your Central and Pennsy merged, the Penn~Central railroad. By the early 1970's it was then Amtrak passenger service and ConRail for freight.

When I was about five or six, the big thing for me and my dad to do was on Sunday afternoons after Church (if you've ever been subjected to a 2~hour Latin mass at a Catholic church you'd need an outing to recover...) was to head off for a few hours of train watching. My dad would listen to the Phillies on the radio and I'd sit on the hood of our car, a 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon, and watch the trains go by.

Sometimes I'd even get the engineer to blow his whistle at me!

What a rush for a five year old!

Then one day, I can't tell you exactly when it happened, a HUGE GG-1, (pictured above) still sporting it's old Pennsylvania Railroad colors, pulling a cut of shiny new Budd Company Am coaches, came through the station at a crawling speed. I know now that the train was under a "Slow Order" and was just doing a slow pass through the station obeying the rules, but to this five-year-old, he was slowing down to show off his great machine just for me!

When that huge locomotive came even to where I sat in awe, the engineer leaned out of his open window in the cab, gave me a huge toothy grin and tooted his whistle just for me!

As the train passed, I sat in awe... As the last passenger car slid out of sight heading south to 30th Street Station I said to myself, "Someday, I'm going to do that!"

The dream really never did fade in me, no matter what I did in life. I always had that urge, no matter what I did in life. No matter where I was, I'd find an excuse to go somewhere and watch at least one train go by, that little boy in me still wishing to be up in that cab. I know my father always wanted to be an engineer, and I'm pretty sure, wherever he is, he's proud of me right now.

It took a long time, I'm knocking on 44 this coming December, and an even longer circuitous road to get here, but I'm finally here. A long road for that little five year~old boy sitting on the hood of an old Ford Falcon to the man who is, starting next Monday, after five years of working track gangs, operating ballast regulators, working as a conductor, is finally going to Locomotive Engineer's School.

Dad, I know what you were feeling when you witnessed those K4 Pacific's highball it through Frankford Junction when you were a boy back in the 1930's. I only wish you were around now to see me with my hand on the throttle!

Photos pinched from the Interweb, Melancholy reminiscing Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

A few words on Gun Control

2009-08-11T00:01:00.004-04:00

Almost everyone her in the US can tell you what was to be the first battle in our War of Independence. The Battle of Lexington Green in Massachusetts in April, 1775. Paul Revere, riding his horse throughout the night spreading the word that the “The British are coming, the British are coming!”

But what’s now conveniently left out of the US History textbooks today is why the British were coming.

And why was that?

Here’s what they’re leaving out: General Thomas Gage, military governor of Massachusetts, under direct orders of King George, decided to counter these moves by sending a force out of Boston to confiscate weapons stored in the village of Concord.

Confiscate the weapons…

And why did the British was the weapons confiscated? Well, to be able to properly control one’s subjects, first you must be able to take away their ability to resist. It’s the main reason our founding Fathers put the Second Amendment into the Bill of Rights, or collectively, the First 10 Amendments to the Constitution. They, of all people knew that any Government could grow to distrust its people, and in time, subjugate them. The only way to really insure that this would never happen is to give the citizens the tools in which to defend themselves from tyranny.

Take away the guns, you have slaves.

Here in the US there’s one insurance policy on “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” And along with the First Amendment, the freedom of speech, is the right to keep and bear arms.

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

The use of the word “Militia” is that every man, from the age of 17 to 60 is the Militia. It doesn’t mean the National Guard.

“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." (Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788)

"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." (Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750 August 17, 1789

“...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." (George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380)

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." (James Madison, The Federalist Papers #46 at 243-244)

"the ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone," (James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper #46.)

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States" (Noah Webster in `An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution', 1787, a pamphlet aimed at swaying Pennsylvania toward ratification, in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, at 56(New York, 1888))

"...if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and who have arms in their hands?" (Delegate Sedgwick, during the Massachusetts Convention, rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail, Johnathan Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol.2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888))

"...but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..." (Alexander Hamilton speaking of standing armies in Federalist 29.)

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. . . Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." (James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46.)

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." (Tench Coxe in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym `A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people" (Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788)

"The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to Congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both." [William Rawle, A View of the Constitution 125-6 (2nd ed. 1829)

But the powers that be are right now, and have been for quite some time, slowly taking that one thing, the very key to our Republic and our voice. Because once you’ve taken the tools away to defend ourselves, to rise up against tyranny, all the other Amendments in the Bill of Rights will topple one after the other like a house of cards.

Adolph Hitler disarmed the countries he invaded, even his own people. So did Stalin.

The one freedom I hold the dearest is the ability here in the States to defend my home and family from intruders. While each of the 50 State’s laws vary on the subject, for the most part (for now) if someone is breaking into your home at 3 AM, you can defend your home and family by whatever means is at your disposal. No laws saying you have to see if he’s armed or predetermine what his intentions are.

At 3 AM, or at any time for that matter, if someone is in my home without my permission, I’d have to conclude his reasons are nefarious and he’s not trying to sell me a subscription to the Weekly Standard. He’s getting “X” Ringed in short order.

Like I said before, the Government is slowly taking every last freedom away from us, but to be completely successful they first have to take away our guns.

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8)

“The strongest reason for people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." (Thomas Jefferson)

And now where does that leave us?

But I hear the argument all the time. “But Tommy, the criminals are getting the guns! We have to stop that!”

Well, here the news for you nimrods who don’t get it. The criminals will Always have guns. Do you really think the criminals are going to obey the laws? Look at Great Britain. Has their gun bans stopped the criminals? You can not own a firearm in Britain and yet the shooting have skyrocketed. And if you are one of the veery lucky few to actually own a legal firearm in Britain, use it to defend yourself and see what happens to you. British police are now arming themselves for the first time. Hmm. Bobbies arming themselves?

Those gun laws are really working out for, aren’t they?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1334043/Gun-crimes-soaring-despite-ban-brought-in-following-Dunblane.html

Every place here in the States where the gun laws are the most stringent, the crime rates have gone through the roof. Where I lived in Arizona, almost everyone had at least one firearm and carried one regularly and there was almost no violent crime.

And what about Kennesaw, Georgia?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n15_v46/ai_15729634/

That’s a story the Left doesn’t like to talk about. But then on the other side of the coin, Washington DC has the most restrictive gun laws in the country, yet the homicide rates are though the roof.

The only thing taking away the people rights to own guns achieves is effectively enslaving them.
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country." --Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942

Kind of gives you the Warm & Fuzzies, doesn’t it?

Did you know that the Gun Control Act of 1968, the most restrictive legislation on gun ownership to date, is almost verbatim of Nazi Germany’s “Weapons Control Law” of 1938?

It’s far too large to reproduce here, but you can look it up if you don’t believe me.

“But Tommy! What’s wrong with banning machineguns and other military weapons?”

It’s not about the type of weapons. It’s just the slow chipping away of freedoms. They did it with this type of gun today, and they’ll use that rationale in every instance. It was the type, then the magazines, next it’ll be the type or how much ammunition you can buy, then how many guns you can own… Like a single drop of water on a granite boulder. Enough drops of seemingly harmless water over the years will completely erode the rock.

As for machineguns. Did you know it’s still legal to own a fully automatic firearm here in the States? They’re regulated to all hell and expensive, but you can legally own a machinegun here. I have several friends that own them. They’re called “Title III” or “Class III” weapons. You’ll pay as much as the cost of a brand new car for a legally transferable M-16, but you can still legally own one. And not once, ONCE mind you, has one of those legal automatic weapons ever been used in the commission of a crime.

My final words are this;

Gun ownership is not about duck hunting or target shooting.

It’s about your personal freedom.

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Let's go back to the 80's!

2009-08-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

This song brings me back to High School...

Have a great Music Monday!

Photography Lesson #1

2009-08-07T01:04:00.001-04:00

When taking snapshots of the kids, be sure to check the background!

Happy Funny Foto Friday!

See you all on Monday!

A New Genocide

2009-08-06T01:19:00.003-04:00

The fifteenth anniversary of the "Rwandan Genocide" was this year, and some predict yet another African genocide is about to unfold soon in Sudan. In South Africa, however, where the evil white supremacy of Apartheid was dismantled and black majority rule established, all is happiness, a veritable cakewalk to utopia, a socialist's dream come true...If you believe what's being told by the media here in the US, if South Africa is mentioned at all in the nightly news, which it hardly ever is.

The African National Congress, the terrorist organization run by the Communist Party that took over the country in 1994, is the main political party and shows no sign of losing power. For the foreseeable future, South Africa seems destined to be a one-party democracy run by ANC Party Apparatchiks and crony's to the ANC. I'm not going to sit here and explain it all, because I really don't know it all. I'm still learning about South Africa. What I do know is the ANC is run by a bunch of communists, and back in the early 90's when I was still in Philadelphia I was physically ill when Nelson Mandela came to my city to receive the Freedom Medal from President Clinton. I know then what he really stood for... Something I've fought against my entire life. Communism/socialism that would enslave me.

Of course, here in the US, where we actually have a democracy that (at least in theory) has two whole political parties or more, “democracy” is not quite the term for political systems dominated forever by a single party. For now.

The one thing one ever hears about South Africa is in terms of AIDS and crime. As for the former, it has more HIV-positive people than any other country in the world, and AIDS is expected to reduce life expectancy to the age of 36 by 2015. That's all you here on Fox, CNN, ABC, NBC & CBS, if South Africa gets a short 45-second mention at all.

What one never, ever hears is the truth about the systematic campaign of murder and torture carried out since 1994 against South Africa’s white farmers. Some 1,600 have already been murdered, and while the government claims it’s simply uncontrollable crime, the indications are that it’s a deliberate effort to exterminate whites and drive them off the land.

A White Genocide.

But that’s only farmers. Some estimates put the number of white Afrikaners killed by blacks since 1994 at 30,000 or more.

30,000 murders? Of white south Africans? Why isn't this on the news? Oh, that's right.

They're white.

Silly me for asking.

I beg to ask this. If this was 30,000 black farmers tortured, raped and murdered, what would the media coverage be like here in the good old US of A? And would the ObamaGod be sending Marines in like Bubba Clinton did in Sierra Leone a few years ago?

You all know the answer to that question.

Form my digging around and a little research, I've found that whites in South Africa are becoming economic slaves. They pay 80 % of personal taxes, despite earning only 50 percent of total salaries. Afrikaners as a group pay the highest portion of overall tax in South Africa, 36%, while white English~speakers pay 32 %. When he was in exile in Britain, Thibo Mbeki, South Africa President from 1999 to 2008, is reputed to have said, "We will suck the whites dry" and that is more or less what is happening. South Africa is like a small, First World economy like that of Denmark or Norway, still run by whites, but which must support a welfare state for 40 million blacks.

What is happening in South Africa is simply the deliberate transformation of a Western society, economy and political culture into a Third World Shithole. The transformation is taking place because the dominant race of white Westerners has been pushed out of power by the majority non~white, non~Western race. But as I look at it, what’s happening there is not unique.It's starting to look like it's happening here, in the Good Old US of A.

But getting back to the Genocide... I may not be the smartest man in the world. But I do see what's happening. The trillions of dollars spent in the last six months scare me. The Cap and Trade bill scares me. The Heathcare bill scares me.

But what's really scaring me is the new Socialism coming to us, the genocide of not only the white South Africans, who just want to be left alone, farm their lands and live in the only country they've known... But to us, the every~day Americans who, right under our very noses, our every thread of identity being stripped from us until one day, in the very near future, we may be next for the "Reparations" and "Taking Back" of what's "Owed" to the perceived oppressed.

You, my friends are witnessing the slow Genocide of the United Sates of America.

And the really sad part about this, and I do truly grieve for the slain South Africans, is that even now, even though there's now the slight beginnings of rumblings in the hinterlands...

No one seems to care. About the murdered farmers on the Veld, or the demise of what I really believe is the Greatest Nation on earth.

And that's truly sad.

This is the first time in my life, since their deaths, I'm glad my parents are gone.

They won't have to see this.

Grrrr....

2009-08-05T06:00:00.005-04:00

I'm still having problems with my connectivity... So I'll leave you guys with this today. This is NOT the America I grew up in.

Ireland sure has changed...

2009-08-04T01:31:00.003-04:00

The Shamus O'Granahan clan on their recent family outing in Londonderry to protest John Bull's tyranny again... Singing songs of the IRA like "Patriot Games", it was a heart~felt gathering of true Irish spirit!

Young Timothy Sean McGranahan, alter boy of the local St. Patrick's Catholic church, expresses sadness of the hated Brits trying to draft their loving Irish father into the British Army to fight against his fellow Irish!

I had to look into the mirror today to see if I was really Irish...

What the fuck, over?

Great song

2009-08-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

And an inspirational poem that's kept me going even when I've felt like giving up...

Enjoy!

Happy Music Monday!

Problem solved

2009-08-02T10:56:00.002-04:00

I think...

I was thinking it wasn't my computer, and it appears it isn't. Looks like my DSL modem is taking a shit. It's working for now, and I'm just waiting on a new one from ISP to arrive in the mail.

So I'm back, sort of...

Computer problems...

2009-07-30T11:40:00.004-04:00

I've been having some computer and connectivity problems the last few days. As soo as I get them resoleved I'll be posting again, visiting your blogs and returning your emails. Until then I'll be beating my head against the keyboard.

Sad news

2009-07-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

I've been is sort of a funk yesterday and today because I just got word that a dear friend of mine, Robin's husband passed away suddenly yesterday of a massive heart attack... He was a great guy and I'll miss him.

Rest In Peace, Jimmy.

The Journey

2009-07-27T00:01:00.000-04:00

Found this little nugget on YouTube yesterday when I was searching for a video for today.

A very good David Gilmour-ish blues instrumental by Mike Garvey...

Enjoy!

Happy Music Monday!

Can people really be this stupid?

2009-07-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

Yes they can.

Look who we have in the White House.

Happy Funny Foto Friday!

See you all Monday unless something Earth~Shattering happens and I just have to blog.

It never fails...

2009-07-23T07:37:00.002-04:00

Every time I need to get up early I don't sleep worth a damn the night before. I'm getting new living room furniture delivered this morning and I tossed and turned all damn night.

First I can't breathe... I'm laying on my right side and my nose is instantly clogged. I roll over to my left and it immediately goes away, but then I get a cramp in my arm... Roll back over and here come the flood again. This goes on for I don't know how long...

Then the damn acid-reflux kicks in.

And I'm out of antacid.

These guys better get here early is all I've got to say.

Moor trane pix!

2009-07-22T15:10:00.003-04:00

In about 5 weeks I'll be back to work... I'm chomping at the bit. Working the way I do I get the whole summer off, but the idle time is starting to get to me. I'm ready to get back. I thought I'd post some pictures of last year's sugar crop...

Locked into a siding waiting for the industrial job to clear up. They were coming from Weatherald lead bringing in a cut of covered sugar hoppers to be filled at the refinery.

And there they go!

Looks good on the roll-by!

They're past so now I can throw the switch and line us out of the siding...

Is the grass really greener?

2009-07-21T13:10:00.002-04:00

I've been speaking with some friends recently about immigration. Not the immigration debates that have been going on here in the States for a while, but immigration in general. For a while now I've been seriously considering retiring to Micronesia.

Fifteen years ago I'd have never though about leaving the US except for a vacation or long trip, now, with the way this country is heading, I'm very seriously considering immigrating to that tiny archipelago in the South Pacific to while away my Golden Years, if not for anything else, to get away from an ever increasingly oppressive Government.

And it got me thinking. What is it that drives the human soul to leave everything they've ever known behind and start a new life?

From history I know what drove my ancestors to leave Ireland on my father's side of the family and Germany on my mother's side. There was a time when everyone in the world wanted to come to the US, and for good reason.

Several of my friends here now talk of Costa Rica, Belize, Brazil... And me Micronesia.

I also have several friends in Australia... They're quite content in Oz... As well they should be. Australia is a fantastic place. But on the other side of the same coin I have new friends in South Africa. The talk there is getting out for good... To the UK, Canada and Australia. I'm just now learning of the true political turmoil there and I really see their point.

But what really drives people to do this? I moved from Philadelphia over 12 years ago. That was hard enough as it was. Move almost 2,500 miles away from everything I've ever known, family, friends... But you make new friends, settle in and start a new life.

But I was still in the same country of my birth.

To pick up and leave a country, and I don't care who you are, your birth country is in your blood and always will be.

Even as I think about it and plan for my retirement, it's a little scary. To pick up and move over 12,000 miles away to the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

Yet I still think about it almost daily.

Is the grass really greener on the other side?

I really can't tell you... But life is one big adventure, or so I've been told.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

40 years ago today...

2009-07-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

We first set foot on the moon. It was the first thing as a child I can remember watching on TV, and even though I was only 3 1/2 years old, I can still remember that day vividly, sitting on the floor in my living room with my brother watching it on the old Philco B&W TV.

And searching for an apt song video for today's Music Monday to celebrate this achievement, the FIRST video that's listed on YouTube is this one...

Yet, me, as a reasonably successful white man, I'm a racist. Just because I'm white, have a job and pay my bills, I'm a racist.

So be it then.

As true today as it was 50 years ago!

2009-07-18T12:41:00.001-04:00

I wasn't going to past anything this weekend but I found this 50 year old cartoon and it really hit home.

Check it out!

I think we've found him...

2009-07-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

Happy Funny Foto Friday.

Catch you all on monday.

Bill, the anwser is still no...

2009-07-16T00:05:00.001-04:00

My buddy Bill from West Virginia has been after me for the longest time... He wants my baby in the worst way. He'll be moving here with his beautiful wife in a few weeks to take a job on the railroad here with me, one of the reasons he came down last week. And still he's relentless in the pursuit of my baby.
My baby just happens to be a six-digit serial number, Springfield Armory, Glass-bedded National Match-Grade M-1 Garand I've had for a lot of years, won a shitload of service rifle competitions with, and quite frankly has been with me for a lot longer than my ex-wife and a lot more reliable.

Bill, I'm sorry. I love you like a brother, but you're still not getting my M-1. Ain't gonna happen. I'll be poor, destitute, living in a refrigerator box under a highway overpass, but I'll still have my M-1.

Like Charlton Heston once said, "From my cold, dead hands!"

Anyway. That's my baby Bill. You ain't getting her!

Looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks after you and the missus get down and settled!

Photos, pissing and moaning Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Fishing on the Big "O"

2009-07-14T14:36:00.002-04:00

I've made plenty of friends since moving to Clewiston in 2006. One of them is Capt. Ron, a fishing guide out of Roland Martin's fishing resort. When he doesn't have a charter, he sometimes come out on the lake and does some fishing of his own and do a little scouting as to where the really sweet spots are for Large mouth Bass fishing. Today just happened to be on of those days and he invited me me to come along and do a little bass fishing on The Big "O", or Lake Okeechobee, Bass Fishing Capitol of the World... Which also happens to be in my back yard! Above is a great shot of the sunrise at around 6:45 this morning.

Capt. Ron with his first Bass of the day...

Me and my "Lunker" (hah!) The only one I could hook today. Had plenty of bites, but couldn't set the hook until this little bastard came along.

Coming back into Clewiston Lock from Lake Okeechobee. Even though the fish weren't biting all that great today, we only caught 5 Bass in the 1 to 2 lb range, it was still a good day of fishing.

Interested in a guided bass fishing trip on lake Okeechobee? Check out Ron's web page:

http://www.sunrisefishing.com/

Tell him Tommy from the Railroad sent you! ( He doesn't know me as RT!)

The Ranger Tom Doctrine

2009-07-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

This is the Ranger Tom Doctrine, or "Why I'll never be President..."

Ok. First off, you don't like our troops? I'll bring them ALL home. Every last one of them. And in doing that I'll close down every single foreign base the US Military has. We'll cease being the World's police. Got a problem? Tough shit. Figure it out on your own. Earthquake? Tsunami? Famine? See how you fuckers like it when all those Yankee greenbacks disappear. The only allies the US will have from now on will be the UK and Australia. We're better allies with the Brits than with anyone and even them we had to kick out of our country twice.

Europe, Africa, the Middle East, you don't like it? That's just tough shit. Get a helmet and deal with it yourselves. We need our military here in our own damn country, not fighting your wars.

After the military is all back here, safe and sound, I'll seal off both borders. Hey, the Canadians are alright, but it's those damn Cannucks who refuse to speak English that annoy me. If you want to speak French, go back to France!

As for the French, if it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking German. Twice.

This is the land of the free. But come here legally. You're here illegally? You get your ass sent back to whatever third~world shithole you came from. No welfare, no nothing. A 30-year moratorium on immigration, except for Brits and Aussies. No ifs, ands or buts.

Government financial help for other countries? End of the cash cow. You bastards will never get another penny from us. Ever again. Rebuild your own countries. No more Marshall Plans here. We go to war with you, expect your country to be bombed back into the Stone Age (if it isn't already there) and then after we roll all of your corpses into the pyres, don't expect us to rebuild. You fucked with us, deal with the consequences. (Remember, Uranium-235 has a Half-Life of 700 Million Years and we've got shitloads of Minuteman III missiles)

As for the lazy fuckers here. No more welfare. Period. Get a Goddamn job. No job? Tough shit. I, nor any of the other hard working Americans are never, ever going to give you a free ride ever again. This country owes you nothing. YOU owe it plenty. Lazy fuckers like you are the reason I can't buy a TV made here, or when I call for on my Chinese-made computer for tech support I get some pindick in New Delhi.

Mandatory military draft for all those slackers and emo's who are between 18 and 21. Grow a pair of fucking balls, be a man and do something for this country instead of lamenting how hard your life is.

You're life isn't hard. You've had everything handed to you since you were in diapers by parents who gave you everything you asked for and were to big of pussies to tell you no and teach you how to earn something. Quit your fucking whining. You're 18 years old, don't know shit about shit and pull up your fucking pants! There's a reason it's called "underwear". It goes under the fucking pants.

Ok. Next on the agenda. Have a huge cooperation that's about to go tits-up? Tough. Deal with it. You are not getting one red cent of the tax-payers money. End of story. You should have thought about that before you took all those trips to Bermuda and Las Vegas on private jets. And spent millions of your shareholder's money for executive perques. Suffer like the rest of us, you moronic troglodytes. Your MBA doesn't mean shit if you can't figure out a simple cost analysis.

On to religion. You want to pray to whoever? Go right ahead. Whether it be Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Hairy Thunderer or a Cosmic Muffin. Just don't be an ass and try to shove your morality down mine or anyone else's throats. That's what made this country truly great. The ability to worship any way we pleased. But I don't want to be awaken at 7 AM on a Sunday morning by you banging on my front door trying to enlighten me on your way of thinking, because, quite frankly, I'll probably have one hell of a hangover and be in a really shitty mood if you do and not really dig what I'll have to tell you.

Speaking of enforced morality, The Government will never again reach as far as the bedrooms of the general US population under my administration. Go ahead and marry that horse if you want, but don't expect another word on how you're being oppressed or disenfranchised. No special treatment at all. Everyone is equal, period. It's your body, do with it what you want. I personally may not like what you're doing, but it's really none of my business to tell you what you should do. That's between you and your God.

Slave reparations? Stop beating that dead horse. I'm white, but my family had nothing to do with saves. We were to busy digging up potatoes in County Cork when all that shit went down. We owe you nothing, so quit your fucking whining, throwing race in our faces every time we turn around, because frankly, I'm sick to fucking death of hearing it. Get a fucking job, stop whining and do something with your life besides being an asshole.

Another forced morality issue. If people want to smoke, eat red meat of any other thing you deem harmful, I've got one word. It's none of your fucking business. Keep your nose out of other people's lives. Everyone who smokes at this point knows it's bad for them. They don't need you ramming it down their throats. Red meat and smokes. I love both, so shut up, I'm sick of hearing it! I'm going to light up another cigarette, dig into a nice T-bone with a baked tater smothered in butter.

Second enforced morality: Booze. Under my administration, you will be able to buy beer, wine and liqueur on Sunday anywhere in the Country. Maybe you religion doesn't like drinking, but I like my beer. So who gave you the right to ram your morality down my throat? No one. If I get done a 12-hour shift on the railroad at 7AM on a Sunday morning I do not want to be told I can't but a six-pack of my favorite adult beverage. You can go to church, I'll have a beer. Everyone will be happy.

Next, guns.

You are not going to get any one's legally owned firearms. Remember the Bill of Rights? Well, if you're not a felon, you get to keep your guns. Period. A Government who fears it's people is a Government who's to be feared. The founding Father's had this one right. You come knocking on my door for my guns, you'll get the ammo I've stockpiled, one round at a time.

Nuff said on that matter, Sara?

Lastly, Taxes.

We're taxed to death as it is. Apposed to what the Democrats think, it's your money. You worked for it, you should keep it. I support a 15% across the board income tax. That's it. No property tax, no luxury tax, no other taxes at all. Period.

Again... Why I'm not, nor will I ever be president.

Video pinched from YouTube

Somehow...

2009-07-10T13:29:00.002-04:00

I think they lost money on this billboard.

Happy Funny Foto Friday!

I'm a genius!

2009-07-09T20:24:00.002-04:00

"Well you see, Norm, it's like this . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

I knew it all along!

Happy Thursday. I can't copywrite any of this garbage because it's not mine. Sent to me today in an email and I had to share it...

Busy weekend

2009-07-08T12:25:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy few days for me... The pictures didn't upload in the order I wanted them to, so the story will be a little disjointed. Sunday my good friend, the Rambling Hillbilly from West (By GOD) Virginia and his beautiful wife Cindy came down to sunny Clewiston for a visit to do a little fishing and hang out...
Ever since I moved here Bill has been drooling over my close proximity to Lake Okeechobee and the bountiful bass fishing here... So here he is, fishing in the feeder canal to the lake... Plenty-O-bass here too, but he didn't have any luck. We spent a lot of time at the Tiki Bar though...

Me and the every so cute Amber...

Me and Amber again clowning for the camera. I love this bar!

The gang's all here!

Saturday was Skip's 4th of July soiree on the Man-Porch adjacent to the Man-Cave. A good time was had by all. I left this party and headed over to Randy and Michelle's house to watch Flint, their weimaraner... A very cool dog. I sat and drank Randy's beer and the dog and I watched a Documentary marathon about the American Revolution on the History Channel. Truly Flint is man's best friend!

Bill and Cindy hamming it up...

Always lots-O-fun at the Tiki!

Surprised Bill with a birthday cake Yesterday...

And you know, there's some people you can dress up, but you just can't take them anywhere... Someone always winds up wearing cake icing!

Anyway, I'm back to business as usual. I should be getting back to work again here in about six or seven weeks and I'm looking forward to that. In the meantime, I'll just while away the Happy Hours at the Tiki!

On another note... Still no photos of the raft race. As soon as I get them, I'll be posting them!

Music Monday...

2009-07-06T00:46:00.000-04:00

I think this time it really is...

Not getting any tonight!

2009-07-03T14:23:00.002-04:00

Even Beckam can had a dry night... Next time, wear sunglasses! Happy Funny Foto Friday! (Click on foto to get the full effect!)

I always wait until the last minute...

2009-07-02T13:09:00.002-04:00

I've got a busy weekend coming up. The Rambling Hillbilly and his lovely wife will be at the RT Command Center on Sunday, I've got to house/dog sit Saturday night~Sunday morning for a buddy of mine, and there's a 4th Of July soiree at Skip & Terry's house Saturday afternoon... And my cleaning lady just called to cancel cleaning my house today... My place isn't a mess, but she gets clean places us guys tend to overlook and since I'm having company I'd like the place looking halfway decent...

Oh well. Looks like I'm going to be busy the next few days!

All Hail ObamaGod!

2009-07-01T09:22:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm tied to a stake...

For saying anything against our God King, who is going to save us all from ourselves, because, you know, I'm to stupid to actually have an opinion or think for myself, so the Government has to do it for me.

I love my Country. I'm a true Patriot in every sense of the word. No one can take that away from me.

But I'm truly frightened by what's happening here and no one, save for a few, really understands or actually grasps the ramifications and the dire consequences of of what ObamaGod is doing.

This country is coming to an end as we know it. It will no longer be the country we grew up in, fought for and loved these 233 years.

And the really sad part is, nobody seems to care. As long as the Government takes care of them, they don't care that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is being shredded and tossed into the dustbin.

And frankly, that's sad.

Prickly City cartoons pinched from the Interweb

We Wuz Robbed!

2009-06-30T12:26:00.004-04:00

The raft race was a lot of fun Saturday, but although we think we had the winning design, we came in a distant 3rd in the first heat. That disqualified us for the third and final heat, so therefore we lost the race. It was a valiant effort on our part, but in the end, we were rammed on purpose and knocked to third. So there's always next year!

No pictures of that yet, I didn't have my camera with me so I've got to wait for my buddy John's wife to email me the ones she took. As soon as I get them I'll post them here!

Again, it was a lot of fun and a good time was had by all. A huge crowd showed up and even the local media and by late afternoon it was very drunk outside! I was in bed at 7:55 PM and didn't wake up until around 7 AM Sunday morning... I've forgotten how tiring having fun was!

A Dark Music Monday...

2009-06-29T00:01:00.000-04:00

Sometimes my mind wanders. It wanders a lot. I've been working on my novel, and it's going well, although it's turning rather dark. The whole premise was rather dark to be honest, but it's turning darker than I thought it would. This song pretty much sums up the story I've written so far, and IF I ever get it published, and IF it gets made into a movie, I'd really like this song to be included in it's soundtrack...

The lyrics are so damn powerful...

"...Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled

We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed up world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition

There's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon

Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

The taste was sweeter

The nights of wonder

With friends surrounded

The dawn mist glowing

The water flowing

The endless river..."

Those lyrics just hit home for me, especially at this point in my life. And fit in with the main character in the book. Even though I'm where I want to be in my life right at this moment, I still look back with disgust at some of the decisions I've made, things I've done, bridges I've burned... But in all they've been a huge learning experience to me, lessons I'll not soon forget, but that doesn't stop the bitterness from creeping in.

The thing I'm the most bitter about when I look back on my life is, once upon a time, I was voted "Class Clown". I loved to laugh, and to make people laugh. At one point it was suggested to me to become a Stand up Comedian. I loved to have people laugh around me, especially if I was the brunt of the joke, because if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

So comes the bitterness... Life, and it's events I've been through or seen have sucked all the humor out of my every day life. I've forgotten how to laugh, or even smile anymore. My entire essence, my life, has been sucked out of me by people whom I thought I could trust, lovers who never, not ever once gave one thought about really getting to know the real me... Listening, really listening to me, and not just hearing words and putting their own spin on how it should be or how I should fit into their over-simplified and childish view of the world, or how the real world really is...

Even my writing, this blog and my book, were taken away from me for a time. The only real pleasure I had in my life anymore. My Father has been gone over 17 years, my mother a little over 4... All of my family is hundreds of miles from me. I'm here alone. And the very last vestige of my personality, my essence which was my humor, has been stripped from me.

Sure, I love my job. But at the end of the day, where does that leave me? Sure, I have good friends here... But, you know, no one to actually share what little joy I have left. I vent my spleen here from time to time... I'm really trying to get my humor back... I put on a good front in public, to my friends here, but yet again, at the end of the day, I'm left feeling hollow and empty.

So this is a good song for me today.

Video pinched from YouTube

Funny Foto Friday is back!

2009-06-26T14:15:00.002-04:00

I saved a whole penny! Whoo Hoo!

See you all back here Monday!

Super-duper ultra-secret!

2009-06-25T12:15:00.003-04:00

I had hinted yesterday that I was involved in a super secret project... And here's a few more details.

Almost every year the Tiki Bar sponsors the "Great American Raft Race" in "The Beautiful Industrial Canal" here in Clewiston. Me and three of my buddies decided to enter. John and I have spent the past week or so constructing the raft in his breezeway. The rules of the race are fairly simple, NO boats or manufactured hulls, has to be home-made, human powered and at least 4' wide and 8' long.

This afternoon the vessel will have it's "shakedown" cruise in the basin. We've even named it, "The Damn Yankee Clipper" and we believe we have the winning design. The race kicks off on Saturday the 27th. at 2PM.

While John and I discussed the design, we pondered all sorts of things, like hydrodynamics, water flow and speed. But the most important thing was buoyancy. With the four of us on the damn thing, it's got to float over 800 pounds of idiotic middle-aged drunk men. We think it'll work, but in case it doesn't we'll all have personal floatation devices, like a beer cooler.

Since John and I have done most of the work in the construction of the vessel, the other two crew members, Skip and Ron have been tasked with the purchase of all the frosty-cold adult beverages on Saturday.

I think that's a fair trade.

No photos yet of the vessel, because they're still classified Tippy~Top, Super~Duper, Ultra~Secret.

Keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck in the race Saturday!

Didn't I...

2009-06-24T12:21:00.003-04:00

For the last several weeks it's been stinking hot. well over 100 F every day for the last two weeks and with the humidity, the heat index has been near 108 F. But no rain or storms to speak of for a while.

Living in Florida, I simply love the thunderstorms that roll through every afternoon this time of year. Violent weather is great! Anyway, since we haven't had a good storm in a week or two, Monday night I felt like relaxing with the sounds of nature CD I have... Rain forest thunderstorm. 53 minutes of booms and crashes and rain pelting the leaves of jungle vegetation. Set up for continuous-loop, I went to sleep in pure bliss.

Around 6:45 Tuesday morning I arose, shut off the CD player and went to the bathroom to do my morning business... As I busied myself I heard thunder. WTF? Didn't I just shut that thing off? Just then I saw a flash of lightning out my bathroom window. Duh. It's a real storm! I laughed and put on the weather channel.

It rained and stormed all day yesterday, well into the evening. Which put on hold another project I'm working on with my buddy John. I'll tell you about that later, because for right now it's Super-Duper, Tip-Top, Ultra Secret. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Anyway, not much else going on here in Hot, humid Florida at the moment.

Smoke Nazis

2009-06-23T07:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, our new God King, BO, signed into law the latest and strongest anti-tobacco legislation in a while. This gives the FDA sweeping powers. Just what we need. an even bigger and stronger Government.

No more "Lite" or "Low Tar" smokes, bigger warning labels, no more advertising directed at children...

Now wait just a damn minute. Advertising directed at children? I've never seen cigarette ads targeting children. It's just an excuse to get more intrusive into our lives.

Tell you what, Denis Leary was right. You can have all the warning labels you want. Have a black pack and call them tumors and we'll still smoke them!

Like one day we'll all look at the packs and say "Holy shit! These things are bad for you! I thought they had vitamin C in them and shit!"

It's legislation of morality. Someone else is shoving there morality down my throat once again. It didn't work in the 1920's & 30's with Prohibition and it's not going to work now.

For me it's not just a cigarette, it's a crutch. I know someday I'll quit, but that up to me to decide. Not some bloated government bureaucracy.

I'm getting sick and tired of being a second class citizen just because I smoke. I don't smoke in your house, your car and pretty much mind my own business.

Stay the fuck out of mine!

Music Monday!

2009-06-22T00:33:00.002-04:00

Saint Of Me @ Yahoo! Video

Thought I'd start something new... Music Monday! And what better song to launch MM that none other than the Rolling Stones doing "Saint of Me"... And apt song for me, because you'll never make a saint of me either!

I'm also going to be bringing back Funny Foto Friday also, starting this coming Friday, so look out for some irreverently funny fotos!

Who says there's no God?

2009-06-17T19:39:00.006-04:00

For a long, long time I've kept my mouth shut for various reasons, on various subjects. My friends and family have been hounded by my ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law, getting emails and phone calls telling all of them I'm a dangerous sexual predator... I've done nothing except try to move on from a failed marriage in 2004 and tried to live my life (except my rants here) in relative obscurity and tried to just get on with my life as best I could, doing what I've always wanted to do. Be a railroad engineer.

As recently as March of this year, a dear friend of mine who's now back in the UK received several emails from a "Ma Gallina" who is otherwise known as my ex-MIL, a one Nancy Vineski. How apt a name. Mother Hen doesn't know Chicken Shit. How do I know this? Well, my dear friend in the UK's family just happens to own a fairly well-off Internet security company and she found out all kinds of spiffy things like emails sent and received, to whom, dates and times from all different email addresses. IP's and URL's, names of actual persons who signed up for email addresses... All kinds of things I, and my attorney was very happy to receive.

I've done absolutely nothing to these people except for time and time again ask them to just leave me, my friends and family alone but they still continue to hound me.

I'm the bad guy because their wonderful daughter, who I was married to for over 7 years, decided that she was tired of me and decided to toss me out like the dirty dishwater. Her dope-smoking, ex-coke-head, defaulting on her student loans daughter. The daughter who failed out of Mansfield University because she was too busy partying, even though she had a full ride thanks to her grandmother. The daughter who I, through the help of my sister got her a job making more than she'd ever made in her life back in Philadelphia. The daughter who had a 425 credit rating when we met who I helped repair with MY money that I was making. I had a 875 Rating at the time.

Well, I was upset for a while, who wouldn't be? But I moved on. In the spring of 2004 I took a job with a railroad contractor out-of-state and was travelling, operating heavy equipment for this company in places like West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Far, far away from Arizona where I still lived. I'd be gone for 6 to 8 weeks at a time, and then home again for 2 weeks.

I'd be home a day or two, and a Deputy Sheriff would be pounding on my door... The charges and claims? I'd vandalized and destroyed the well at our house... I'd come in like a thief in the night and let the horses out of the paddocks... I checked the reports and all the times I was alleged to have done this I was over 2,000 miles away in the east, working. I had airline tickets, motel receipts and pay stubs to prove I was nowhere near the house.

How could I vandalize the house in Arizona and be in West Virgina or Kentucky at the same time?

I couldn't. Unless I've been able to finally figure out how to warp the space~time continuum.

Also, We had put the house up for sale and were going to split the equity. Did that happen? No, of course not. Every time I'd call the Realtor I was told that my ex-wife refused to let her show the house... There had been several offers but I was told she couldn't get into the property, and then I wasn't informed of the offers.

She let the house go into foreclosure, in spite I guess, just so I didn't get half the equity.

$45K down the shitter, on spite.

When after several months of her constant hounding, like getting play-by-play recordings on my voicemail (which my attorney still has along with the phone records) of my ex and her cowboy of the week playing in the bedroom of MY FUCKING HOUSE, I finally decided to pack up what I could fit into my car and head out of Arizona for good.

Unfortunately, I left my old computer with my entire address book intact and then the messages and emails started coming into my friend's and family's in boxes. I lost two really good relationships because of that. Even though I sent several Registered Letters to her attorney asking to be left alone. I didn't show up at the divorce hearings because I figured it was better just to let her have everything and just be left alone. I left Arizona in the Fall of 2004 with what I could fit into a 1994 Ford Taurus, leaving everything else behind. Books, photographs, personal mementos from my childhood. Everything.

One of the things I left there was a 1997 Ford F-250. I gave it to her basically, because without my credit rating at the time we'd have never have been able to afford it and I knew I'd never be able to afford it on the road the way I was at the time. It was still owned by the bank and we were still paying on it. At some point after I left Arizona, she stopped paying on it . How do I know this?

Well, after I left and made my way from Arizona, to West Virginia, then to Florida I spent the summer working on a Railroad in Twin Falls, Idaho... One day there was a knock on the door. It was a repo agent from the bank looking for the F-250! I told them (it was now the summer of 07') I hadn't seen that truck since May of 04'... You know what they told me?

My "ex-wife" told the bank I was the one that had the truck! Nice, honest woman she is, isn't she? She still had the truck, not paying a red cent on it, and told the bank I was the one who had it!

I believe that's called "fraud"

But yet again, I'm the bad guy.

The already mentally-unstable woman I was living with at this point (who, albeit stupidly, I moved back down here to Florida with) was now convinced I was some deranged, psychopath/serial killer/child molester/pedophile because of the bullshit this family told her. I know now this woman found my ex-wife's email address in a really old email of mine and started writing to her without my knowledge... And there's the crux. They fed this already deranged woman a line of bullshit and she took it, hook, line & sinker.

My ex-in-laws still can't leave me alone. No matter where I am or what I do, they're there breathing down my back.

Like I said, I'm the bad guy though.

But the other day I was doing a Google search and found this little tidbit of information and really had to laugh out loud! Check this out:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/pam/Victim_Witness/stafford_index.html

Or this:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/pam/press_releases/Stafford_06_11_08.htm

Or This:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/pam/press_releases/Stafford_12_20_07.htm

Read it all. It's a heavy, long read... But that is my wonderful Ex-brother-in-law... Mr. William Stafford, son of Mrs. Nancy Vineski. I wonder how he's enjoying Allenwood Federal Penitentiary? 54 months is a long, long time.

Nice guy to rip off old ladies and shut ins, isn't it? This is the same guy who showed up to my wedding with his 13 YEAR OLD child bride, who instead of staying with her 38 YEAR OLD husband, spent the day playing with my 11 year old niece! Don't believe me? I'll let you talk to my family. They'll tell you exactly what went down the day of my wedding.

The same guy who was kicked out of Annapolis for smoking dope.

The same guy who had an airline pilot's job with a major airline (who I forget which one or I'd name it) but was fired because he had a $200 a day coke habit, never to hold a pilot's license again.

Who at 38 married a 13 year old legally in Pennsylvania, whom I'm pretty sure paid off her parents with a large sum of money to get them to give parental consent.

But time and time again I'm attacked because I'm the bad guy. I'm the child molester. I'm the sex fiend.

But again, Karma is a fickle Bitch and what ever goes around comes around.

Allenwood may only be a minimum security prison, but it's still prison.

Nice guy, ain't he?

You, Mrs. Vineski, are a World Class Hypocrite. Like most self-proclaimed liberals, it's only ok when it's YOUR family or goes along with YOUR skewered beliefs. You've raised two wonderful, thoughtful and honest children, haven't you?

Sometime ask Cathy how many times she would talk to me about Jane dying and how much money she was bound to inherit... She couldn't WAIT until that woman died and she was counting the dollars every day. She would salivate! I used to hear about that daily. How we had to visit her to make sure we got the inheritance. How I would suffer through visits with that insufferable cunt just to make Cathy happy. Ask her why I never saw a dime of the $13K from MY mother's estate. Why I couldn't get home in time to say goodbye to my dying mother because your wonderful wife was to busy running up credit card debt in my name and couldn't afford to let me find out, because she was to busy squirreling away the money to leave me. Oh, and let's not forget the pregnancy and the miscarriage that there was no possible way I could have been the father, because she'd basically cut me off from sex at that point, and was in Atlanta on "Business" the requisite 12 weeks prior to me finding out?

But remember, I'm the bad guy. I'm the terrible monster.

Go ahead and do a Google Search on my name... You all have it. No prison sentences, no sex-offender registries, no nothing. Nada. Nil. Zip. Not even a Goddamn parking ticket.

And some people still wonder why in the world I can be so bitter.

I don't know. You tell me.

If you've got to ask what's in it...

2009-06-16T12:35:00.003-04:00

You don't want to know...

Most of you who know me know I was born and raised in Philadelphia and lived there most of my life until 1998 when I moved to Arizona. I really haven't been back except for a few short visits over the years, and besides my family, the only thing I really miss is the food.

Some things you can only get in the Southeastern Pennsylvania/South New Jersey area... Like Scrapple.

I love the stuff. Don't ask what's in it, just eat it. It's good. Because if you ask, you'll lose your appetite. Along with Cheesesteaks and REAL Italian Hoagies, for the longest time you couldn't get this yummy stuff anywhere else. Or so I thought.

So what do my eyes see when I was at the local grocery store here in Florida yesterday?

Yep... Scrapple! I got some and now it's in my freezer until I can remember how to cook the stuff.

Now all I need to find is some Taylor Pork Roll and I'll be a very happy camper indeed!

Today's LAT crossword...

2009-06-13T19:22:00.002-04:00

Todays was a bear... Took me almost three hours to finish it... The one big problem I had was 28 across... Was "Babs'" Not "Barb"

Copyright 2009 Thomas J Wolfenden

Friday LAT crossword...

2009-06-12T18:05:00.000-04:00

Ok... I finished the Friday LAT crossword, but a few answers have me a little confused. 18 Down, clue was "Drudge" and I'd thought it was "Plod", but it seems it was "Plan". Also, 22 Across, "Tar Heel State university" should have been "Eton" but "Elon" was what I got, because 11 Down "Having No Effect" was "Null".

Maybe I'm wrong...

I've been there before, just ask my ex-wife!