Salvageable

The Town of Swampscott lost big yesterday when they failed to elect Sue Sue Raiche by a couple hundred votes to a seat on their Board of Selectmen. 
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But  before anybody panics, you have to consider that Swampscott isn't going anywhere, and Sue Sue isn't a qutter.
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Even though the Town will be worse off by the time she runs again and gets elected, there still will be enough to salvage.

Pretty Good Day

Those of you who know me best, know that I'm not a boastful person.  Don't really like to brag.  I definitely maintain a certain degree of humbleness. ..... and humility.
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But when you are a Mountain of a Man like me, that isn't always easy.
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Like today.... when everything in Nanepashemet Telecom went right.  I don't mean just good.  I mean "kick ass" GOOD.
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Left the house at 6:00AM and got back by 3:30 PM.... a whole lot better than when I left.
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I'd like to tell you about the good stuff, but then you may not understand.  This is high level stuff.  Not easily understood by laymen.... or laywomen.
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Now if Sue Sue Raiche pulls off the election in Swampscott, then this will cap it pretty well.  We'll see.

Return of the Prodigal Birds

After a full year's absense, two goldfinches showed up on the feeder today.
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I am pumped.

May Day

For some reason, May Day was a big thing when we were growing up in Lynn.  Kids would dress up in costumes and wrap strands of paper around a Maypole.
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The significance of the event has escaped me, but I dug out this old photograph of the kids in my neighborhood standing on the sidewalk in front of my old house in the Highlands.
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I'm the good looking one on the left in the Fireman suit.

Sue Sue Raiche said...
That little firefighter looks just like Ethan!

Tuna Lips said...
look like them munchkin folk from the wizard of oz. Theys sure growd them freaks good in Lynn town

Dubious Award

This would seem like an impressive award, but the fact is that we are the only radiotelephone communications contractor in Marblehead.
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Just want to keep things in perspective.
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But that doesn't mean that we won't raise a glass or two in raucous celebration of the achievement.
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And.... there's a good chance that we'll repeat in 2010.

Sue Sue for Selectman

Town faces fine for moving sand at Fisherman's Beach - Swampscott, MA - The Swampscott Reporter

If I lived in Swampscott, I'd vote for Susan Raiche this Tuesday for the Board of Selectmen.  If you want to know why, read the above article from the Swampscott Reporter.

This article is about a citizen who asks a simple question to intrenched bureaucrats. I sincerely hope that the people of Swampscott elect Susan Raiche to their Board of Selectmen. Wish I could vote!

More FreshAyer

Heading out with the Grandkids for some FreshAyer this morning.
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As weird as it sounds, this is always a fun trip that we look forward to.   Ryan always has new stuff to tell us, and seems to know more about Marblehead than we do thanks to all of the people who visit and email him, and he has indepth knowledge in the fields that he has been reading.  He is in unbelieveable shape and holds the camp record for fastest lap around the track.
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It's a no win system that ultimately the taxpayer pays for.  Makes no sense and I can think of many ways  to change it for the better.
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But....the  kids are always thrilled to see him and he's the same.  If the weather is good, everybody is in non-stop motion outside.  It makes for a really good time.
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Like I said... pretty weird.

Gardening , Football, and SuperPeeps

We took the grandkids over to Merrimack College today to see Ben Martin's Football team put on an exhibition at alumni day.   Scuba Steve and his fetching wife, Jill, were there too.
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Ben is the Offensive Line coach, and he has some big bruisers under his mentoring.  Merrimack Football is the official NCAA Football team of the Nanepashemet Blog, so it was an important event.
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Ben taught Grandson Will the three point stance after the game.  All in all, a very worthy and enjoyable endeavor for a warm Saturday afternoon.
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I was pretty sore though, due to the events of the morning.   Superpeep Brian Butler had asked to borrow the F150 for some dump runs and showed up around 7:15 AM to pick it up.   Since I was up anyway, I decided to get some work done on the Appalachia Project in the backyard before I had to shower for the Merrimack event.
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The water table and mud had finally subsided and I raked, weeded and spread grass seed on about 1/3 of the backyard before it was was time to clean up and drive to North Andover.  Worked up a nice sweat and maxed my back to the limit.   Ethan and Will had a great time watching Ben's team despite their limited attention spans.
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But I was pleasantly surprized when I went to get something in the F150  after we got back.  Brian had left a bottle of Black Seal Goslings Rum with a nice thank you note for using the truck.   Even though it was entirely unnecessary, it proved once again why Brian bears the coveted title of "Superpeep".
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There are not a heck of a lot of Superpeeps.   And you don't often get contact with many of them in the same day.   But between Scuba Steve, Jill, Benny, and Brian.... it was one of those days that make everything seem right with the world.

Grenade Pin

Clammers found cases with 126 grenades in New Bedford.  Some were live.   They were safely detonated and no one was hurt.
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That reminds me of an old college incident, in James House at UMASS.  The Vietnam War was in play, and a crazy vet was visiting his friend in the dorm room next door.
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In those days, a lot of guys would come back from the war, fresh from firefights and other horrific shit that only happened a week or so ago.  One day, you are on patrol, firing off your M1 in DaNang at VietCong hell bent on killing you, and the next week you are hanging out on campus at Amherst, MA.  I always felt bad for these guys who didn't have a college deferment, and was enrolled in Army ROTC preparing to go myself.
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This guy was really jacked in a lot of ways, and we all were leary of him.  It was my freshman year and he used to drill Aaron Boykin and myself when we had our uniforms on to go to ROTC class.    But that's another story.
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One day, he came into my room with a grenade in his hand, stuffed it into the hand of my roommate, Jeff Middleton, pulled the pin, and told him to hold the lever, or we would all die.  Then he left the room.  Jeff and I stood there with a WTF look on our faces.
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After about thirty seconds of standing there stunned, I said to Jeff that we should carefully take the grenade outside, walk it across the athletic fields, and heave it into the woods.  Jeff stood there ackwardly holding the thing with his hand clasped on the detonation lever.  We were too dazed to be afraid.
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Before we got the plan into action,  the crazy vet came back, put the pin back into the grenade, quietly took it with him. and left without a word.    We never mentioned it again.... like it never happened.
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I often wonder whether that grenade was live, and what would have happened if it blew up on the edge of the intramural field.  My guess is that if it was a dud, the vet wouldn't have come back so soon to take it back.  He would have let us sweat a lot longer.
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It's one of the many things in my life that could have gone drastically wrong...... but didn't.... so I'm sitting here blogging today.  There is enough stuff that could have gone wrong and did.... but I'm here anyway.

MattyL said...

this blog is the ultra balls.

-- Matthew Lyons

POTW Week 16

Joanne and I took the afternoon off and headed up to the coast of Southern Maine.  A nice drive along the ocean through Kittery, York, Wells and Ogunquit. 
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It must be soothing to live on the water like that.  Maybe a nice place to retire.  But I'll need a to win the lottery or make a score before I can pull that off.

Announcing....
Nanepashemet Peeps of the Week for the 16th Week of 2010.


Ben Martin
Brian Butler
Wayne Webster
Kelly Light
Jill Phillips
Maria Rowen

Plus it's close to the outlet stores in Kittery.... particularly the Kittery Trading Post which is my favority place to buy fishing tackle.

Dropping My Guard

I'm watching some lawyer expert on Good Morning America who sounds pretty smart, but is wearing a bowtie.
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I can't take anybody seriously who wears a bowtie.
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Course I shouldn't be watching Good Morning America anyway, but Diane Vargas is a substitute host, and she hasn't made my skin crawl like some of the other phoney liberal hosts that have been employed on that show.   Even though George Stephanopoulos generally aggravates me, somehow I can tolerate him, unless he is in his self righteous, political commentary mode.
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Maybe I'm getting soft.

Observation of the Pathetic

People who are completely self absorbed end up to be such users and manipulators.
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Since all of their thoughts and actions are directed to themselves and their own self pity, they unconsciously position everything in their lives in a vain attempt to ingratiate themselves.  They always look for others to pity them, and do for them.
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The problem is that it is so transparent.  Any idiot can see it except for the self absorbed perpetrators themselves.
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I was just saying.

Tuna Lips said...

In the fine fashion of them Brits and theys court of guvment wearing wigs and shit, I says harumph! Self absorbin folks is such foneys, takin' on airs, likes they never snacked on the dead skin fermentin atwixt they toes, or havin' relashuns with they own kin (the ears on Charile, the feller tha was buggerin' that cheeky mynx Dianuh but preferred to pleasurify someone that looked like his mammy, tells me that ain't nature in action), its galls ole TL.

But I keeps on keepin' on. No sense in takin' to the baser assemblages of humanity.