A Bubble Bath....

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about a story that happened near here that has fire stormed around the internet. It was about a fire suppression test at Ellsworth Air Force Base, which is 20 miles from where I live, that occured in a hangar. The test, which uses a foam suppression system that cascades from the ceiling, was supposed to douse the hangar floor with 2 meters of foam. That didn't happen. A technician who works for the supplier, Rapid Fire Protection out of Rapid City, didn't get to the shut off valve in time and ended up with a little more that 6 feet of foam... check the pictures out below...

This is a full sized pickup outside the hangar.

The owner of Rapid Fire Protection is peeved at the pictures and story saying, "We look like a bunch of fools." Well.... Ya goddamn right you do...

The aircraft in the foreground are B-1B Lancers...

Got a whole lot a clothes that need washing????? Call Rapid Fire Protection at 1-605-348-2342.

Eric

America

Last week a British music producer recorded a Mexican version to the American National Anthem to honor the Mexican immigrants here in the US. I say.... Let's hang this producer from the highest tree in America.

When you decide to come to this country and become a citizen, you give up your former countries support in anything. You should not be able to publicly display the countries flag along side on my flag. You chose to leave because that country didn't supply the nessesary means to support you. I am not saying that you can't be proud of your racial heritage but don't change the American way of life to suit your former way of life.

English is the language of this country. Learn to speak it fluently or get out. Your flag is the United States flag... no other.

Eric

Do You Really Know Easter????

I know.. this is coming late and after the fact. But an opinion to the Rapid City Journal which stated that Easter has been celebrated for 2,006 years, I was skeptical about that. Adding the fact that the modern calender did not start the minute after Jesus was assassinated. Do Gooder Christians think they know what they are talking about when quoting scripture or anything religious.

Okay, a question.... Why would the rest of the world keep time with the death of a man that most religions don't believe is the son of God? So, in essence, the modern calender really isn't based on the death of Jesus. I think the Do Gooder Christians think that for the shear superiority of it. Anywhoo...

The celebration of Easter isn't even a Christian one. Passover maybe because it was used from the Jews. Christians believe that Easter revolves around Christ because that was told to thier parents and so on and so on. Easter isn't even mentioned in the book so many people seem to know everything about. There is no definitive date to mark the death of Christ. They (early Christians) used the Vernal equinox because most other non Christian religions have a celebration at this time for the arrival of spring. The celebration of the arrival of spring means what was once dormant, comes alive again, ie: ressurected.

The celebration of Easter actually is pagen in origin. The celebration of a pagen queen whose name translated into Easter. I hate to rain on the proverbial Christian parade but.... it's pouring on this one.

Eric

Sick Of It...

Alright.... I've had enough of winter. It looks as if spring isn't going to happen again. Winter to Summer again. I remember as a kid that Spring seemed to last forever.

I had things to do today but can't remember what they were.

Eric

Okay...

Yesterday we were having a discussion concerning the immigration policy and American's view toward illegal immigration. I mentioned that a columnist had written that The United States should invade Mexico an chop it up into states blah blah blah... One of my co-workers said that the united States doesn't invade and conquer anymore. I disagreed with her saying that invasion and assimilation is America's specialty and continues on today just as it has over the course of this countries history.

America doesn't charge in killing people indiscriminately like in the 1800's. But pushing the American way of life on people not prepared for it is no different. I didn't realize or think about it until long after the Iraq war was raging. America takes the fight to the enemy now which is good for the American public, no American civilian casualties.

I disagreed with the columnist about the invasion and snatching of that country. The only thing valuable in Mexico might be the petrolium stock but the rest is useless. And do we want the citizens of Mexico wandering north through our streets... I don't think so.

I'm anti- immigration if you can't tell. I believe you have to give the people who are naturalized citzens here the chance to get jobs and offer them low interest loans before any immigrant. We have a large contingency of homeless and less fortunate here already, do we want more. Low social sectors lead to an increase in crime. Not just petty crime but major crimes.

Take care of the American citizen before you take care of any immigrants.

Eric

The Immaculate Athlete...

Americans live for competition. Look at the merchandising of sports stuff. Sports play a big role in Americans lives, mine included to a point. It's alright to root for your favorite team or a team in which you have a personal connection such as a relative who is involved. BUT...(there is always that word when I speak eh?) When a team or individual consumes your life that's when things become stupid.

While growing up, I didn't really have a favorite player in any sport I played. I played Little League and was a Boxer. I strived to become a good, proficient player. Take a look at the Little League World Series when it is playing on television this year. The kids playing copy the nuances of big league players right down to the Gary Sheffield wag of the bat. Any coach trying to teach you the fundamentals of the game will tell you that that isn't a correct way to swing a bat. It might work for Sheffield but isn't correct for young players. Letting young athletes to copy a player leads to no individuality and style. A copy is a copy.

Back to my point... A portion of sports crazed morons hold sports above all. An athlete can do no wrong by them, an athlete would never do that.. blah blah blah... Well.. athletes are doing wrong. Drug scandals, Forced sex, Lying.... that is the consummate athlete of today. Should we explain to our youths that athletes do wrong things sometimes and that being an individual and having your own method is the best way??? Copying is just that.

I'm not sure how other countries view sports celebrities but America has a twisted view of theirs. I could never live my life through the accomplishments of other men. I believe that most who do are trying to compensate for personal inadequacies in their athletic life, ie: The 36 year old, drunk at the bar praising his own high school glory days with the Dale Jr. bumper sticker plastered all over the back window of same pickup truck he owned in high school. These are the jamokes that usually talk as if they are members of the team... "Yup, WE nearly won the Super Bowl last week." Or they talk as if they personnally know the players... Delusional!!!!!

I just read a news piece about the Duke rape thingy. The Alumni are upset that the University President fired the coach and that the athletes are being treated unfairly who were possibly involved. I see it this way... when did sombody place a game over a person's well being and life? No Alumni are speaking out over the victim in this case. It's all about the integrity of the school. Integrity... now that's a big word. Too bad nobody really understands what it means.

Eric

Uhhh Yeah...

We picked a contractor to fix the hole in the roof. Baumeister Construction of metro Piedmont is going to do it. I was amazed how fast the Insurance adjuster and the contractor came to do thier jobs. The insurance adjuster is going to get the ball rolling on Monday with an estimate of the damage.

Franks Tree Service came out on Thursday to remove the large sections of the tree from the roof. We didn't end up with to bad of water damage, just some spots. But from the sound of the adjuster... we will end up replacing all of the sheet rock in the kitchen. I'm unsure on the actually cost of the damage until Monday. Baumeister Construction came out Thursday to patch the holes until they can begin the fix.

For now the custom interior hole in the kitchen has to remain until the roof gets done and we receive "cashola" from the insurance people. Here are some pictures of the roof damage.

I can't seem to find the pictures from inside of the house. I'll look and post them as soon as I find them. I'm sure we'll have to get the home leveled again by a mobile home mover too.

Well more later and constant updates...

Eric

And The Pictures...

Pictures do no justice. The size of the tree is pretty big. It did damage to the inside because of the vaulted ceiling in the kitchen. And now it's raining.... Maybe I'll ask the neighbor to come kick me in the balls for good measure.





Eric

What More Could Possibly Happen....

I think I'm declaring that Western South Dakota sits just inside the 6th gate to hell. I am truly surprised more serial killers and wack jobs that end up in the news don't come from this area.

On Monday, the high temperature in Piedmont was around 83 degrees. Marnie mowed the lawn. In our backyard sits a 3/4 dead whatever tree that I was hoping I could get cut down soon. BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! It started raining on Monday night as a severe thunderstorm flew threw at a hundred miles an hour. Tuesday... it gets colder and a small snow storm rolled threw with wind. As the day strolled along the wind grew stronger, it got colder and it began snowing hard. By Tuesday night they had closed Interstate 90 that is the major road through here.

While at work Tuesday night Marnie calls me up at about 11:30 to tell me that we had bark in our kitchen and a hole in the ceiling. Most of the top of this dead tree came crashing down on the roof of our house. We now have a 19 inch around, part of a tree lying across our roof. Another piece just as big is leaning against the house. The force of the fallen tree smashed a 2 1/2 foot X 9 inch hole in the kitchen ceiling with a crack in the ceiling sheetrock that runs half the length of the kitchen.

Arriving home around 12:15 am, I immediately grab the camera to click the moment of our lives leaking through the roof. (Pictures to come later folks). I take a bunch of photos inside and outside the house in the blizzard. I notice a large section of this tree lying across the power line. We try to call Black Hills Power, our stupid fucking electric company, to see if they want to come out and advised us of the situation. Of course we couldn't get a live person on line to tell them. Luckily, The Sheriff stopped by and called it in to 911 dispatch and they called the Power Company. This was at 1:00am. The power people finally got here at about 3:30am to tell me that the branch would be okay on the line and they would return in the morning. So, I start reading the news on the computer before going to bed and feel the house shake, I'm thinking the goddamn rest of the tree came down to finish us off. It was the power people removing the large branch from the line. So I go outside to see what the hell is up, thank them for scaring the shit outta me and told them how a simple knock on the door would have been nice before they started to climb all over the roof.. I come back in the house and go to bed.

I live on a rented lot. It's size is 3/4 acre by 1 acre, a nice sized lot. I'm going to have to find out whether the lotlord has to have insurance on the land while it's being rented. He's a typical slumlord with out the falling apart buildings. In the last 5 years we have replaced the water pump, done our own electrical work and all the maintaining of the property. I understatnd that simple maintenance is required of us like mowing the lawn and stuff like that but I consider the dead tree to be part of his problem. So I'll check to see and call him to tell him what his tree did to our dwelling.

I'll keep you onformed of the progress of our crisis.... more later.

Eric

April 18th, 1991....

The date above was a bad day for me. I lost my father to cancer.

My father, to me, was a strong take no shit kinda guy. To see him wither away in less than 5 months was hard.

I remember it was just before Christmas 1990 that he found out he had cancer. Come to think of it I didn't realize the potential for failure in the words he told all of us until it was too late. I figured he could beat it like he did everything else.

My father wasn't perfect mind you. When he drank, you knew it. But in general, he provided for us pretty good.

You regret things when you lose a parent. My biggest regret was that I didn't sit down and have a serious conversation with him. Talk about stuff that he was interested in and add my two cents. Talk politics, even though he didn't like them. he wasn't a very religious man but became one once he knew that he was dying. The above picture is him with my daughter. He loved Kahlyn.

Well Dad... I love you and miss you very much. I hope you caught the boat you were looking for 15 years ago.

Eric

Hey... She Was Rich...

Why do American care more for the wealthy if something horrible come to them? Natalie Holloway was a blonde rich white woman (not child) of 18 when she disappeared in Aruba last May. Here we have an adult who was drinking and carousing and she ends up missing.

If this would have been a 18 year old black or latino woman.... page 6 of every newspaper in the world. Why do people care?? Well I chalk it up to the mass media. Greta Van Susteren had this story running every time she was on TV. It was " Oh my god... a wealthy white woman is missing... AHHHHH!!!"

Where was Greta when the two black children came up missing a couple of months ago? They eventually found them in a river and chalked it up to an accident.

Everybody has the idea that Holloway is dead, including myself. Why are we harping about it still? With the exception of me here. Isn't the media a funny thing???

Eric

And Now..... The Dumbest Person on the Planet...

Please read this and you decide...

Read Me...

Eric

And I'm Home..

Another night at the work place is over. It's simply amazing how so 5 minutes is when you are expecting it.

I picked the kid up at a friends house on my way home. She noticed lights in the sky to the north. She asked if they were the Northern Lights to which they were.
I'm off tomorrow... I think. They had two of us to work tomorrow so I'm crossing my fingers the other person shows up. I know I need the money but sleep is soooo cool.

Eric

Okay.....

Technology Abound...

When I was young, technology was simple. All the phone had cords, nothing digital. Analog rules. We would actually role play for fun.. you know cops and robbers type of stuff. We would ride our bikes for something to do not exercise.

It wasn't until I was ten or so did the first video game you had to put quarters in to play. Thus began my life with technology. I can say that I grew up before this medium. To live without it would be difficult. Cellular phones, something back when we didn't even think about. 2 soup cans and a string were the extent of the technology I was acustom to. Man, have we come a long way.

Thinking about a life without this stuff seems impossible. When will there be a time when technology takes completely over. When humans start not to think for themselves but have a computer do it for them. Are we sure we want to cruise down that highway? Maybe... maybe not. As humans, we think it's cool and fascinating. New shit every year.

We have seen the movies that depict the day when the computers take over. Terminator is a good one. I, Robot is another. The day a computer will take away your right to choose for the betterment and survival of the species. Hmmm.

Well, for now I will accept it the way it is. Ya know why???? It's all about the internet free porn. That's why the internet was invented... The Porn.

Eric

Son Of A Bitch.......

Yesterday, thinking I work in the morning... I checked the Palm and confirmed. Get up today, read the morning online news, which were the same as last night before bed. Jump in the shower, find clothes to wear, HotSync the Palm with current events and out the door...

I arrive at work, check my internal e-mail at work. I check the menu to see who's working with me. Not too bad. I chit chat with a few people. I then look to see who's following me out in triage on the menu.... Hmmm, Pam's down for triage at 9.... Brian's down for 5. Where the hell is my name? I check the schedule... Brian's not down for 5 it's Me!!!! Fuck I'm 9 hours early for work!!!

I say "Fuck" because I could have slept in but am relieved because I can go home and come back at 5. I hate it when I do that!!! Reminder to self... YOU WORK FROM 5p TO 1a FOR THE NEXT 3 DAYS YOU FUCKING MORON!!!! FRIDAY YOU ARE A 9a TO 5p!!!!! WEEKEND OFF!!!!!!!!!!!! IS IT THAT FUCKING HARD TO WRITE YOUR SCHEDULE DOWN RIGHT?????

Eric

Hey... Mind Your Own Business......

Look at the shape the United States has been in lately. The people can't come together and come to terms with the current leader, corruption at the highest levels, and nobody trusts what the government is doing. Do we want the government making decisions for us regarding our children?

All the time, we see studies show that our kids are fat assed slobs. But those studies are presented to us from the Dept. of Agriculture, another government entity. They say we can't trust the decision of a parent to provide adequate guidance to our children when it concerns what they eat when they aren't at home.

When did we make it okay to have somebody we don't even know to make important decisions for us and our children. Yet we still buy into the notion that the government and it's law makers are smart enough to actually make those decisions.

The govenment is saying that we can't feed our children right and that they are becoming fat assed and lazy. I think the govenment needs to stick to what they do good at, fucking up other people's lives in other countries.

Eric

You Look GREAT!!!!!

When do you finally say, "Fuck it... I'm not making myself up today and I'm going to the store". ? Living here in South Dakota, people get the notion that we still live in the time of Dr. Quinn. Well we don't. But lately, the way people are looking when they go out into public you would think South Dakota was the projects or something.

I understand that comfort rules supreme and that somedays you just don't want to work at going to the store. BUT... I see the same people day after day wearing the same clothes, usually a ratty old pair of sweats and a Dale Earnhardt t-shirt, who is the Jesus of the hillbilly.

Personal hygeine... That is something that everybody has to do. Body odor should be in the same class as second hand smoke, something I don't want to breathe.

So instead of a Great American Smokeout, we need a Great American Shower for these people. A bar of soap and a thunderstorm. We don't even have to offer a towel... the wind will dry them off. If this does happen, I'll be sure to be at least a hundred miles away from that.

Eric

Those Wacky Minorities...

Now I can talk all the shit I want about minorities. Just like Carlos Mencia, I too an one, well half a one and not a beaner. When you read the news about some outlandish crap going on, sure shit there is a minority involved.

Let's take a look...

Black and Crazy... Cynthia McKinney, a US House of Representive member from Atlanta gets on her high horse and goes Black Panther on a Capital Hill Police officer. McKinney is black.

Baby Shower UFC Latino style... A pregnant mother attending a baby shower gets beat up by another participant. And a gun was fired. Everybody at this baby shower has a last name that ends in "gez", "nez", "rez".

There is plenty to say about non minorities but they do serious things wrong. Really nothing you can laugh at or shake your head about.... Okay I'll correct myself.. The Dick Cheney blasting a stinking millionaire in the face with a shotgun was pretty funny And you can laugh out loud over the fact the victim, who is such an ass kisser, said, " Ah Dick... accidents will happen".

I'm talking Crrraaaazy shit though. Warrants served at weddings, dangling babys from 4th floor verandas, Drive by shootings at houses not people.

Imagine the boring utopia all whites would be used to if it weren't for those wacky minorities....

The Witch Doctor Is IN!!!

Let's Hear It For The Meade County Commisioners....

I really don't like the cry of racism from anybody about anybody. Racism is a strong word and being called one is pretty bad. Native Americans in South Dakota have it hard when the white man makes decisions on requests or help. I have seen it first hand and will see it again a hundred more times until I leave this planet. Natives say, " What serves the white man the white man prevails." I didn't believe this saying because I thought it as a racist remark... technically it is.

What could have been a great gesture of trust and understanding was thrown out the window by the Meade County Commissioners. By allowing Jay Allen to sell alcohol next to the hill that the Northern Cheyenne call church is a slap to the face of any Northern Cheyenne who worships there. If it had been a bar that sat adjacent to any of the commissioner churches well things would have been different.

I normally don't back religious causes because the climate with the Christian Right but... in this case I strongly believe an injustice by the county government toward a people who travel over 200 miles to worship here.

The County Commissioners put alcohol above common sense. They said property rights was the reason they UNANIMOUSLY voted for the beer license. Bullshit... it was the money plain and simple. Come election time I hope all who were opposed to this remember.

Eric

The Race Is On.....

In America, the majority of people can be considered the minority. Minorities are booming throughout this nation. When will history erase itself with the mocked cry of racism?

Case in point, March 29 a black congresswoman disobeyed law enforcement by not stopping when going through a security gate in Washington DC. The woman was asked three times and refused to obey. A capital police officer grabbed the arm of the woman and she turned and struck him. Okay... first I see "disorderly conduct" for not stopping when told to do so. Then by striking the officer... "Assault". Regardless of this woman's racial convictions she should have obeyed the officer and stopped. She didn't do this. By crying racism, the real issue is forced into the background... a Congress member with no regard for authority. What type of signal does that send people, just because you are black and a member of Congress the laws don't apply.

Take my state for instant. Rep Bill Janklow barrels through a stop sign on a rural road with no regard for the safety of others and kills an innocent person. Another crass Congressional delegate with the thinking that the they are above the law. These people are representives to us and should act accordingly.

As for the black Congresswoman... they need to charge her with the appropriate crimes, convict and sentence her. Next time she might be a little weary of forcing the hand of law enforcement.

Eric

Planes, Trains & Automobiles... oh yeah, boats too...

If you think about the mode of transportation we take every year and the tragedies that happen to that mode of transportation, you would think that everybody would walk to thier destination.

Take the Cruise Industry. The latest tragedy to this mode of transportation is the fact that if somebody wacked you on the high seas, dumped your ass in the drink and voila... perfect crime. The investigation into the recent disappearances of passengers on cruise lines is pretty poor. Since these accidents (or not) happen in open oceans, juristiction is non-existant. Plus the ship you are getting on isn't even registered as a United States vessel.

Let's look at the Airline industry. I just watched a show on television about a flight in Hawaii. This happened in 1988. The roof flies off the goddamn plane at 23,000 ft. Thank the lord that only one person died. This flight attendant was sucked out of the plane. Think of all the accidents that happen in this industry.

Trains.... The fatalities in this industry are not the fault of the train industry but because some idiot thinks they can beat the train.

Automobiles... do I have to say more???

So the next time you plan a vacation. Don't watch these documentaries about any type of travel industry accidents. You'll end up taking you vacation in your backyard.

Eric