Saturday, July 28, 2007

Pearls Before Swine has become my favorite comic strip. I don't have a fixed time to read it each day (job doesn't allow a fixed time for anything), but I usually try to read it when I need a spiritual pick-me-up. The humor is rather odd but right in line with my own sense of humor. A couple of recent strips are relevent to some of what's going on in the feminist/ former feminist camps.






You can find the daily strip at:


http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html

Saturday, July 14, 2007

More music- today I'm into Led Zep

People who think they know me, but really don't, are always shocked to learn HOW much of a Led Zepplin fan I am. I guess it's the all business, capitalist facade most of them see. Last night going to eat sushi #4 son spotted the Led Zep cd cases and asked if we could listen to them. He asked what my favorite song was. Care to guess? It's not Stairway to Heaven, it's this:



I'm also very fond of this one, it's sounds like they are having so much fun when they play it:


(o.k. I know it's not the best video, but it was the only one with the version from "Led Zeppelin IV")

#4 said his his favorite was "The one where the guy screams 'ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh". I guess that would because it has been used in a couple of kid's movies, including Shrek 3. this is for him:



And this one is Rootietoot's favorite. Probably the richest, deepest (musicly deep, not lyrically deep) song I've ever heard. It ranks close to "Jessica" by the Allman Brothers.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Another Mr. McMaster story

Since my afternoon commute home took me through Tennille (we lived S of town) I got to where I would stop and visit Mr. McMaster 1 or 2 evenings a week. The visit always involved an RC Cola or a Nehi from the old vending machine. I would always buy something: some screws, a drill bit, never anything of real significance. Mr. McMaster's son had a "new" store (which was probably 20 years old) in Sandersville which was doing quite well, but traffic was almost non-existence in the original store. Tennille was founded in the 1870's, and I believe the McMasters had been selling hardware from the storefront facing the railroad tracks most if not all of that time.

Anyway, I would nominate the elder Mr. McMaster as a National Treasure. I always felt uplifted after a visit. The Old Man had a wicked wit and sense of humor. Once, when I was perusing my woodworking catalogues in search of a vise to mount on my workbench to hold boards Rootietoot suggested I see what Mr. McMaster had before I bought from a mail order company. Good idea, I thought, so the next evening I stopped in. Halfway through the Nehi Mr. McMaster asked "What kind of hardware you need tonight?"

"Well, actually today I'm looking for a vice" I reply.

"Umm, what do you need advice on?"

"No, I need A VICE"

"Oh (chuckle chuckle) you need a vice. O.K. (digging in his pockets) I have some cigaretttes, and there's a liquor store across the way. But you'll have to pick one of those..." he paused with a twinkle in his eye "because the last cat house in this area closed after WW2."

Rootie and I went for a drive

It's the 4th of July. Rootietoot actually woke before me this morning, and after I ate some breakfast and had my obligatory 2nd cup of coffee, she suggested we take a ride.

"Where to" asked I.

"Does it matter" was the reply.

So off we go, with a county map that shows ALL the roads, including dirt ones, and a state map for once we crossed the county line. We went through Metter, Millen, Wadley, Barlow, Barstow, Midville, Riddleville, Louisville, Bipperville, Bopperville, Kipperville and Kopperville (10 points to the one who correctly identifies the 'literary' origin of those last 4). Eventually we found ourselves in Sandersville, home of my first job out of college, and where we were when #1 was born (actually we lived in Tennille, a suburb S on Hwy 15). We stopped and ate lunch then rode down to Tennille.

As we went through the mostly abandoned downtown area of Tennille we passed what was McMaster's True Value when we lived there. Mr. McMaster had to have been in his late 80's at the time, and McMaster's True Value was like a trip back in time. It was a genuine old timey hardware store and Mr. McMaster claimed to have anything you could ever need. It became a bit of a game with my father-in-law when they were visiting to try and ask for something obscure, and show that he didn't really have everything. Mr. McMaster always had the thing f-i-l was asking for, from a spring tongue for an old Stanley hand plane to .... whatever. The game culminated after one of my in-laws trips to the home place in Texas, from which he returned with an old hand pump for a well. "I'll get the Old Man this time" he bragged Friday evening when they arrived. He needed to replace the leather gasket and flapper that went inside the old pump. They acted as a check valve to keep the water from going back down as you pumped.

Saturday morning f-i-l and I ride in to town and go into the store. We get us an RC Cola from the old type vending machine that you have to pull the bottle out of, damaging your hand in the process.

"Well, what are you looking for this time, young Mr. Toot?" asked Mr. McMaster after pleasantries were exchanged.

"I need the leathers for a hand pump" said f-i-l with a pleased note in his voice.

"What size" asked Mr. M

"What?!?!"

"Do you need 2 inch, 3 inch, or 4 inch?"

"Uhhh, uhhh it's a 3 inch" said a stunned father-in-law.

"The thick kind or the thin ones? There were 2 different kinds of 3 inch"

"I don't know"

Mr. M dawdles back behind the counter and comes out with a VERY old wooden box. He opens the box and pulls out several oily rags.

"I have to wrap them in oily rags to keep them from drying out" he says, then holding up 2 different sets says "This is the thick one, and this is the thin ones. Which one looks like what you will need?"

"I have no idea"

"Well, pay for one and take both back with you. Send the one you don't need back with Young Mr. Daddio next time he comes to visit you."

Like somebody else might come in one day looking for leathers for manual well pump.