there's little else to be said about the century change. It's just another year change. The "Millennium" happens next year. In the overall scheme of things, 1999 was quite a year. shit, I'm ready with a 3-days supply of water, batteries, creamed corn, sterno, Weber kettles, filet mignons and Marlboros. No bubbly this year, though. Gotta stay sober: I'm spending New Year's Eve — tonite — at my Garden Center & Nursery, waiting by the new 1500w generator for the power to fail, so I can throw a switch and keep the place running. Pickles and I will ride it out together. What else could a guy ask for? Wait a minute, lemme think on that. Think we've got Y2K problems? Here's something funny to read while we're all re-formatting and re-loading and tinkering with the RTC (real time clock).
Around The Garden Center.
Say What, New York City?
The Fat Police?
Huh?
Execute The Scum.
Terrorism Continues.
The Apocalypse.
happy
century changeover!
(see you on the other side)
Friday, December 31, 1999
Everything is pretty well assoned up and put away for the Winter; the "container stock", for example, must be stored safely so as not to allow the bitter cold to penetrate the root system in the pots, or it's all dead in the Spring. As soon as the ground thaws a bit, we'll be finishing up the last landscape job and some odds-and-ends work for clients, and then we're all taking a few well-deserved weeks off. Me? No, I don't get any time off; just some reduced hours for a few weeks, and then back to work to get ready for Spring.
Even though we were closed last Friday, Saturday and Sunday — first time in 10 years — I went down to the Garden Center & Nursery complex each morning to feed Pickles, work on the few remaining landscape estimates for Spring, check the greenhouses, make sure the water lines aren't frozen and thaw out the ones that were, take out the garbage, put out birdfood and pick up mail. No rest for the weary, but it sure was nice to sleep-in until 10am each day. At least Pickles was happy to see me.
The first 10 years in business, I spent building the business' brand name — John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery — in the region, and our reputation for quality unusual, rare and hard-to-find plant material. I was open every Holiday, for at least half the day for my customer's convenience. Now, I can finally close like "normal people", take it a little easier and enjoy some well-deserved time off.
The road traffic was horrendous on Friday — Christmas Eve Day — cars clogging up streets, intersections and towns. Everyone who had a car was on the roads. Final shopping daze. Cars loaded down with Christmas presents, cases of liquor, wine and bubbly for celebrating. Horns honking, kids screaming, tempers flaring, accidents and fender benders aplenty. I weaved my way through it all and got home. It looked like an exodus from civilization, rather than just another "shopping day". Made me glad I don't do that sort of thing at Holiday Season. Jeeez, I hate the Christmas Holidays for what they've become, and not for what they were intended to be. As a marketer and retailer, I can see the inherent decay-over-time occurring, very clearly.
On Saturday — Christmas Day — the roads in Central Pennsyl-tucky were totally deserted. I passed maybe 3 cars on the 14 mile ride to work. After taking care of my daily "chores", I drove to my parent's home for Christmas dinner, as has been the custom ever since I got divorced in '96. It was wonderful: relishes, Kuntzler baked ham, fresh candied sweet potatoes, corn, brussel sprouts (yes, I like 'em), and carrot-apple sauce cake for desert. Mom's quite a cook. No vino; too close to Y2-Chaos. I got Dad's InterNet connection set-up on his new IBM Aptiva 500, through MS OutLook Express and my dial-up; I dumped Netscape from his machine because of all the problems with v4.7's email preferences. Because the external ZIP drive and printer share the same port, I'm having trouble getting the Win98 O/S to find the ZIP. I'll try again later in the week when I'm up that way.
Okay, it's the '99 Christmas Season and I'm still doing "Y2K remediation work". Hell, I've done all the upgrades and patches, so I'm backing up all data files on ZIP disks, just in case. Like one of the local towns is quietly adding stop signs to all its intersections, just in case the traffic lights fail.
Instead of diddling around with numerous patches and other "remediative files" from Microsoft, I've opted to install MS-Office 2000 and get it all at once. My home SAG 450 and office SAG 600 each got a dose, as well as Lynn's Dell 333 and the front counter 233 POS (point-of-sale & cash drawer) unit. All done, breathe easier.
My 500kbps two-way, Cable Modem went out Sunday morning at the condo, and I re-booted the unit's electrics several times, without success. My local 50.666k dial-up really sucked until the CM came back on line later Sunday afternoon. 1/10th the speed of what I'm used to is very, very slow. Painfully slow; like what I use at work. I was at work by 10:30am, fed Pickles and did what needed to be done at the complex. I just couldn't warm up all day, even with all the heaters running at full blast.
Talk about frost on the pumpkin: it was 8°F with a wind chill of -11°F on Sunday morning, by far the coldest day we've yet had. Everything was frozen solid. I sure pity any animals outside in this weather. The Arctic front moved through Saturday afternoon and the temps dropped noticeably and quickly. Wednesday, we got a nice dusting of snow in the central Pennsylvania area, and it lifted everyone's spirits. What's the Christmas Season without some snow?
Each Winter, I copiously feed the birds — we have everything from wrens, gold finches, barn swallows, chickadees, starlings, purple martins, balt orioles et al — daily. When I find birds trapped and nesting in GHs 1-4, I'll get a can of bait worms from a local convenience store, mix up a milk and bread mush with the worms (yuk!), add-in some birdseed and take trays of it to the GHs so the hatchlings can eat too. They were startled at first, but as the Winter dragged on, they got used to my intrusions and the food. I first did that in '96, right after The Blizzard, trudging out the the greenhouses through 5-6ft drifts to get to the birds on a daily basis. That's another reason why there are tens-of-thousands of birds living on my 20 acres, and very few insect pests (birds eat their weight daily in insects.
My blood pressure's dropped from 206/134 to 199/114 — heartbeat dropped from 96 to 92; still not good, but an improvement. My weight is still at 215, a far cry from the svelte 170 I used to be. I'm trying to quit salt, asser, cream and "cut back" on smoking. Yeah, sure.
What's all the fuss about, anyway? Rocker spoke his mind about the sewer of humanity that is New York City. I know; I worked there for 17 years and it's full of scum and filth. Oh, there are some very nice places in NYC, but it could benefit from a NUCLEAR DOUCHE and subsequently ridding itself of all that human trash.
Ever been to NYC? It's like the Calcutta of North America. Immigrant filth everywhere. The smell of urine, vomit and feces tickles your nose everywhere you walk. Been down into the subways? An incredible sewer of subhumanity. Sure, Rudy's cleaned the place up, since I worked there back in the 70s and 80s, and he's made it eminently more safe to exist there, but he did it at the expense of the subhuman filth that Rocker spoke about. It's the largest welfare state anywhere on the Earth. Bums, tramps, panhandlers, junkies, whores, homos, perverts, degenerates, lowlifes, illegal immigrants, mafia, drug dealers, gangs, alcoholics, slimeballs, subhuman garbage, ad nauseum. Eliminate this sub-group of humanity, elevate them to human-hood, educate and "discern" the results.
It seems to me that New York City can't handle the truth. If they'd like a real dose of the truth, put a reporter with a microphone in front of me; what Rocker said is penny ante shit, compared to what I'd say about that cesspool of filth and subhumanity.
The American Obesity association thinks it's time to treat fat like tobacco. Noting that half of the nation is considered overweight, the AOC is calling for the government to tax high-fat foods and make insurers cover weight-loss programs, along with a five-fold increase in the amount of money spent to research the causes of obesity. Currently, the National Institute of Health spends $103 million a year to examine obesity. Other experts have weighed in on the subject, and no less than Surgeon General David Satcher has said that obesity "deserves much more attention than it receives." Can the fat police be far away? Having humbled Big Tobacco — and they're working on the Firearms Industry now — the triumphalist government could easily move on to Big Fat. I can see it now. Class-action suits against asser producers. Laws against second-hand food. And vanguard towns like Davis, California, prohibiting eating high-fat foods on the street.
The first waddling Sweathog the Fat Police should deal with is that liberal scum bitch, Rosie O'Donnell, dyke-pig-f*cker lowlife. Execute her, Fido.
Next to stupid White Trash, only a idiot would pull a stunt like this: claiming that longtime exposure to racism caused him to commit a crime. His defense: cultural insanity. What utter shit. Hey scumbag, enjoy your f*cking prison time, scumbag. Sounds like a racist, bigot defense that the stupid fat shit for brains Al "pass dem donuts, whitey" Sharpton would try. Or Johnnie Cockroach, the murdering OJs so-called attorney. Remember this moron?
Just 45 miles to the north in a suburb of Harrisburg, a piece of shit, white trash cop bribed a little league player to "bean" another player in a baseball game. The cop's gone now, hopefully on his way to jail. Hard to understand why shit like that happens, but it does.
Here's a man who should be held up to others as a role model — not because of his skin color, but because of what he's done for the past 46 years, the content of his character — and the lazy, lowlife scum on welfare and the public dole should be made to emulate his service. Exemplary, to say the very least.
Why Bubba Clinton; in your perverted, twisted mind,
you're "entitled" to be reimbursed by US Taxpayers — that's you (not Clinton) and I — for your many scandals, but you defer, now? Good f*cking thinking, Clinton-ite-ista-nazi moron. Can anyone imagine such a thing? He's found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice by a federal court, and he thinks he is "entitled" to reimbursement for legal fees. Amazing.
American troops overseas have been put on
elevated alert because of possible terrorism in the new year. Hey: it's not "possible", it's "certain" with merely where and when to be determined.
Like the cesspool, New York City? Yep, I fully expect to wake up tomorrow and find part of the city gone. NYC can beef up all it wants, but the terrorists are already in place, waiting to strike.
Okay, time-out for a short breather.
Weird things are happening as a result of the so-called Millennium (not!) terrorist activity, worldwide. We're okay here in Pennsyl-tucky. I shudder to think otherwise. This Y2K shit is building pressure on lots of people, and even Santa's not immune to pressure. Me? Yep, I'm concerned, very concerned. Just as long as we're not in the west to east prevailing winds' way when the chemical/ biological/ nuclear fallout passes by. At least the Amish are ready for Y2K; hell, they live like that all of the time.
I have no problem spending the money to help people become productive, but get the f*cking mentally ill nutcases into asylums and the drug addicts into secure facilities where they can detox away from the public.
Sorry, but I don't think historians will be kind to Clinton's legacy; he's a criminal and lying scumbag. Those are facts.
I'm no fan at all of Jesse "The Brainless" Ventura, but
these religious nutcases are what I really believe he had in mind when he said that, "...organized religion is for the weak-minded."
This is another reason I hate what Clinton's done to this Nation and it's peoples. He's a traitor. So's
his bitch criminal wife, Hitlery, done huge damage which will have to be repaired over time.
Wow, talk about two losers: Michael "Wacko Jacko" Jackson, 41, and Elizabeth "8 failed marriages" Taylor, 67, are going to have a "sexless" marriage. Well, that's good, 'cause Mikey-boy has no, uh, genitalia. He's a dick-less gnome or eunuch or whatever. Those two lowlifes truly deserve each other. Maybe the fat, alcoholic Liz can finally keep the pervert Jackson away from molesting young boys. Let's hope so.
Well, how about that: last Sunday was the so-called Kwanzaa un-holiday. Read about the criminal founder of that joke/ scam un-holiday, and why Kwanzaa is for the idiots, morons and cretins of US Society. Why would any self-respecting black American participate is beyond me. Here's the liberal media's take on Kwanzaa shit.
"Go home to f*cking Arkansas, Hitlery!" is more along my liking. Anyone disagree?
Okay, time-out for another short breather.
Spending $900,000 to reach and take care of
"245,000 societal problems": homeless, mentally-ill, veterans, et al. Fine, but what happens to the ones who fall through the net and wind-up back on the streets, harassing people? Okay: douse 'em with gasoline and light 'em off, baby.
Does anyone with an ounce of brain to think it through, wonder why Central and South America are such stinking, filthy shitholes? Guatemalan elections? Yep, it's one of them. Ummmm, we elected (I didn't vote for him, either time!) and re-elected Clinton, didn't we?
If two people want to whack themselves, for whatever reason and as long as no one else gets hurt or whacked, the idiot government should stay the hell out of it. Anything the government gets involved in gets f*cked up.
Shooting her parents in the head as they slept on Christmas morning, warrants this murderous bitch a date with the executioner, especially being from Texas where they frown on that sort of thing.
This country's f*cked-up legal system has let this possessor of kiddie porn and attempted child molester out of jail, despite being convicted on both charges. He — an employee of the perverted and liberal Disney Corp — should be turned over to some of the perverts in prison for swift and sure retribution. Skip the KY Jelly, boys.
Time to execute this traitorous chink, Wen Ho Lee lowlife for "accidentally passing" US nuclear secrets to China scum. How the f*ck does one "accidentally" pass tapes along to a foreign power? And there's still 7 tapes unaccounted for. Shoot the f*cking scumbag. He's worse than a child molester.
Okay, time-out for another short breather.
Why is it when liberal scum make a crude or vile remark about a conservative, no one pays much attention in the pathetically liberal mainstream media? But let a conservative say something like that, and the press is all over him/ her like white on rice.
Allowing two murderers to plead guilty to manslaughter and then sentence them to only 30 years, is an abomination. They tortured, beat and whacked a 4 year old girl and all they'll do is 30 lousy years. They should be executed without appeal. Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, should have stepped in and demanded murder one charges with the death penalty as final and swift punishment.
Sure, let 'em party; they're dead in mid-stride now. If these filth are finally found and caught, execution is the method of choice to deal with terrorists.
It's been a real slow two weeks for executions; must be the Christmas-New Year thing which keeps murderers from meeting their maker in Hell.
No, no, no. Wrong. The subhuman, murderous idiot, scumbag scum Mumia Abu Jamal (aka Leroy Tyrone Johnson) needs to die for Killing a Philadelphia Cop 18 years ago, not be re-tried.
This extremely gross miscarriage of justice in New York is why convicted murderers should be executed and never, never allowed to appeal their death sentence. The f*cked up parole board and lib-dem scumbag judge should be jailed for the rest of the murderer's sentence.
Anyone who thinks that islamic terrorists aren't involved in blowing up — at last count there were 27 — commercial airliners, is sadly mistaken. Another one just went kaboom in England. Whether it's a missile, as in the case of TWA Flight 800 in '96, or a bomb as in the case of PanAm Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland, in '89, or the most recent EgyptAir Flight 990, it's happening on a regular basis. Much of it is either suppressed by authorities or simply not reported in the US media.
That's one reason I don't fly anywhere, anymore.
Bored on New Year's Eve? This'll keep you busy reading, if your connection is fast and your mind is sharp.