Traumatic By-Product

The weird by-product of times like these is that you find out who really matters to you and your family.  Your friends come to the surface and the pretenders fall by the wayside.  Very valuable insight.   Too bad something traumatic has to happen for this revelation to surface.
~
I think that true wealth is defined by the quality of your friends and relationships.... and we are so fortunate to be extremely wealthy.
~
This will pass.  We will all emerge from the backside a little older, a bit better and a lot wiser.
~
It's easy to take a hit with friends like you.

Tuna Lips said...


I take this time to recall my pappy's wisdom, said it come from the ancients: thems that don't run you into the bog and smash yer still make yea stronger. In fittin' with yer thinkin' on by-products.






Voices in me noggin', gots to run . . .

Sendoff

A nice get together last night as Ryan's friends came by to give him a little sendoff.  Tyler Gill brought over his Bags which ultimately resulted in a minor vehicle collision involving Brendt DiOrio and Gail Johnson's cars. 
 ~
Money changed hands over the Bags competition, and songs were sung as appropriate.
~
No other incidents were reported, and neighbors refrained from calling the police to the best of my knowledge.
~
We'll look forward to a grander repeat when Ryan's hiatus is complete.

POTW Week 37

It's been such an emotionally taxing summer.  This weekend will be no different.  One of these days, it will be time to kick back and put it into neutral.... but not for the forseeable future.

ANNOUNCING....

Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 37th week of 2009.

Jimmy Carter
Maria Rowin
Lauren Rathbone
Parker Sides
Jill Phillips
Chip Clancy

In the meantime, we can pretend to be calm and to cope.

Shameful Politicians

When the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry (ugh!), was running for President against George Bush, and his election seemed on track, the Massachusetts Democrats successfully changed the law so that Republican Governor Mitt Romney could not select a Senate successor to Kerry.  (Kerry ultimately didn't win, and our livelyhoods were temporarily spared.)
~
Back then as now, the Dems had the vote in the Mass Legislature and pulled off this blatantly political move.
~
But....They never figured on Kennedy taking the pipe like he did.
~
So now the Democrats, with the endorsement of the Obama administration is advocating a return to the old law so that our Democratic Governor, Deval Patrick, can make the selection.
~
Does this sound hypocritical to you?   They probably have the votes and will shamelessly pull off this sad, base, maneuver.  They are just so freaking shameful.

Pisc said...

You should read the legislative history from 2004 and the calls from Dems to vote for the principles of democracy and public determination and against political patronage (an actual quote, I used it in a letter to my rep). So, by the logic used in 2004, switching is a vote for political patronage and agaist the principle of democracy. It does little good in the present instance, but they know we will be coming back, like a case of herpes.

Maria Rowen said...

House Republican Leader Bradley Jones said he will try to stall the measure, though he conceded Democrats could ultimately push it through with 81 votes(Washington Post). So with Democrats outnumbering Republicans 35 to 5 in the Senate, looks like a fill-o-bust majority win for the ‘Dums’.

Getting Back to Basics

I know that most of you who follow this Blog for its Boatbuilding theme have been severely dissappointed.  The Boats have taken a clear second position due to the politics of the day and other daily annoyances.
~
While my purpose is not to cater to you, I also feel that it is time for Boatbuilding to come to some sort of center stage.  The Marblehead Gunning Dory has been lying fallow for too long with the frames, stems and bottoms built and the gunnels waiting to be cedar stripped.
~
So I have to get Kate's Adirondack Chair assembled and out of the garage, and put finish polyurethane on the WorkBench, then the stage is set to resume the Dory..... unless I get set out on yet another tangent.

Periodic Tax Rant

Got my 3rd quarter estimated tax payments in on time yesterday.  The Federal government is my biggest creditor by far.  And I don't even get the chance to purchase the services that it provides.  The government spends what it wants, even if it doesn't have the money, and then charges us.  If we refuse to pay, they seize our assets, and we go to prison.
~
Am I missing something?
~
If I am getting this wrong.... let me know.
~
I always get a kick out of our Founding Fathers, who were repulsed by a tea tax, threw it into Boston Harbor and revolted against tyranny.  Those guys never got a load of the income tax that we pathetically wimp under and pay.   They would be extremist crazies if they lived today.
~
Definitely the Home of the Brave.   NOT the Land of the Free.

Self Loathing Paintbrush

Somehow I didn't see it coming.
~
In my relief that this country elected a Black President, I thought that the race issue would finally be passe.... that race as an issue would take a back seat.
~
But it's just the opposite.   Now the liberals are pulling out the race card every time they sneeze.
~
Obama couldn't possibly be unpopular because he can't pull the troops out of the Middle East.   People can't be peeved with him because he wants to convert our health care system to something akin to the United States Postal Service.  It can't be the boondoggle economic stimulus package.
~
No.  None other than Jimmy Carter, the biggest goofball ever to sit in the Oval Office, explains to us that the reason of our discontent with Obama is because we are racists.
~

When will we finally realize that the real racists are the liberals...  the Jimmy Carter types who look at themselves in the mirror and try to disguise their self loathing by painting their racist subdued thoughts on everybody else.
~
To dismiss the discontent with Obama as racist... is in itself racist to the core.  This country elected a Black President by popular majority.  The Liberals cannot deny this, but they can never let issues stand on their own merits.  That would be too truthful.

Planning Board Hearing

Heading down to the City of Groton, Connecticut tonight for a Planning Board meeting.   We have a very worthy petition to install antennas on a Groton Utilities water tank, and I hope that the Planning Board sees the utter reasonableness and goodness of our arguments.
~
It helps to be on the side of the Angels with these things.

Mayan Frenzy

I've been getting dozens of emails from you Peeps who have a great deal of anxiety over the Mayan End of Days Prophecy.  You're going to have to learn to cope with this.
~
Just for the record, it doesn't bother me at all.  If we all go together, then that's fine with me.
~
I won't be heading to the mountains with ammunition and vegetable seeds planning for some survivalist scheme.  It just wouldn't be worth it.  If I lived and the rest of you didn't, who the hell would I write this  Blog for????
~
And as you have found out, the Nanepashemet Blog is central to life as we know it.
~
Plus, I really don't believe some died out Central American Indian Culture has a definite handle on the end of the world.
~
So I'm not in the least bit freaked out over this Mayan countdown.   But I'll keep it on the Blog for the next 1,000 days or so, because that cooincides with a personal date that is important to our family.

Maria Rowen said...


I can only speak for myself...but the NBlog along with HThoughts are central to my life...Maybe we could all take a break from the Mayan Frenzy and think about Mercury Madness! The planet Mercury went retrograde on the 6th of September and will continue in it's backward path until the 30th. When Mercury goes retrograde...some unexpected things can happen...so pay attention...sometimes even good things... *_*

Creating Value

I pulled this model to create value from the web.  Not really sure who to credit it to, but I didn't write it.

1. Investigate the attributes valued by the client.
2. Determine the individual weight the client gives to each attribute.
3. Compare our position with that of the competitors on each of these attributes.
4. Propose our own plan for exceeding the proposed value of the competition.

Nanepashemet Telecom delivers plain vanilla services to our customers, and I have been investigating ways to set us apart and make us more desirable vs. our competition.

Pisco said...


Whither the golf shirts? Golf Shirts, T-Shirts, a nice long sleeve denim blue shirt with the logo stitched in is great for the fall season. Christmas is coming. Do not forsake this linchpin to a tradition value model.

Mayan Prophecy

The Mayans believed that time comes to an end in the next couple of years.   Course there are not too many Mayans around to explain this.   They abruptly dissappeared with all traces and their homes were covered with tropical vegetation.  So much for giving us all of this doomsday angst and stuff.

The Official Countdown

The Mayan Calendar ends on Dec. 21, 2012, and there are all sorts of doomsday predictions following this date.  I personally don't really get too revved up over this.  If all of us Peeps are going down in a great cataclysmic explosive event together, then there is not much to fear.  A little bit of pain... then off to the next dimension.
~
The preservation of life on earth is such a balancing act anyway.
~
Everything depends on the Earth keeping its exact relationship with the Sun, as it plummets in orbit through space. A quick switch of the magnetic poles.... and the equator could freeze and oceans could shft.    And seven continents float precariously on a molten volcanic mass.  Course, this doesn't even take into account all of the comets and asteroids that could randomly smash into us and alter our climate past our ability to survive.
~
So the odds are definitely against us in the long run.
~
I'm in solid agreement with those who say that God has a hand in our overall well being.  But there are so many ways for Him to nail us if we really pissed Him off.

~
I've got my own reasons for watching the countdown.... and it has nothing to do with some extinct Indian culture.
~
Party on.

Maria Rowen said...


Sylvia Brown predicts the world wlll end in 95 years. (In 2007, she also predicted we would have a black president and not a woman president.) Who knows? It's the myteries of life that make life very interesting... So... If we are all still here on 12/31/2012...let's celebrate!

Who the hell is Sylvia Brown?
~

Maria Rowen said...

Who is Sylvia Browne? Don't you watch Montel? She is the number one psychic in America...I'll bet she knows who you are... (Sorry in the last post I forgot the 'e'on the end of Brown) ~  Isn't Montel that Black Oprah type guy who cries alot?

Jill Phillips said...

what are you trying to do? scare your peeps, because it is working! ~ Jill.... I'm not the freaking Mayans!  I'm not the one who started this thing.

The Point of 9/11

It's the eighth anniversary of 9/11 when Muslim extremists killed over 3,000 Americans.  I wonder what point they were trying to make?  Wouldn't you think that if 3,000 poeple died because some group was pissed off, we would know exactly what they were pissed off about?
~
But we don't.
~
All I know is that we got pissed off, kicked the shit out of the 6th largest army in the world, executed the Iraqi President and occupy the god forsaken countries of Iraq and Afganistan to this day.
~
So if the maniacs who flew into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania were trying to make a point... they probably came up a little short.  How did they think we were going to react after they attacked a bunch of innocent civilians on a Tuesday work day?  Did they think we were were going to roll over and cower?   Just seems pointless.
~
But then again, I'm not really sure what the point was.
~
I guess you have to be certain that you know who the pointless haters are, and keep your guard up, even if you're not clear on why they hate you.
~
We haven't really mastered our environment in our sophisticated modern culture.   We are still subject to the attack of irrational, wild animals, just like our club dragging ancestors were.