Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival

I was thinking of getting up to the Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival in Rangely, Maine this weekend. Sam Bush and the McCroury Brothers will be there.
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It's only 230 miles from Boston, about 100 miles northwest of Sunday River.
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Or maybe I'll just stay home and play my Gold Star Model GF-100FE Pro Banjo with Flying Eagle Inlays (5 String) .
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That will be harder on Joanne, who doesn't appreciate my Bluegrass artistry.... but I'll save a lot on gas.

Water Polo Break

I took a little break from the hectic pace of Nanepashemet Telecom today and decided to watch the Olympic Water Polo match between Australia and Hungary.
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Peeps.... previously I have demonstrated to you that Soccer is more exciting than watching paint dry.... by painting the wall next to the TV and noting the time I starred at the wall vs. the time watching the Soccer Match.  
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Soccer won hands down.
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But, I'm not sure that Water Polo would pull off the same result.

Olympic Placemarks

The Olympics are an important milestone.   The fact that they happen every four years makes a crucial difference.   There is no..."We"ll get them next year" .... in the Olympics, because if you don't win now, there is no telling where you'll be four years from now.
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Because they are separated by blocks of time, the Olympics tend to burn placemarks in my memory, that erases the years and brings loved ones back to life.
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Some of my placemarks.....

Jim Ryun losing in the 1500 to Kip Keino of Kenya and Bob Beamon leaving the world record by over a foot in the long jump in Mexico City.
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Dave Wottle coming from the back of the pack to win the 800 meters, with my father jumping out of his chair cheering him home.
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Steve Prefontaine losing to the evil Finn Lasse Viren in Munich 5000 meter run.   Frank Shorter of Yale, winning the marathon, after an impostor jumped on the track.
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Joan Benoit of Cape Elizabeth, Maine and Bowdoin College crushing the field in the first women's marathon.
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Tommy Smith and John Carlos with their Black Power salute on the victory stand after a world record 200 M sweep.
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Al Oerter winning the discus, four Olympics in a row.
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Bruce Jenner waving the American Flag after an impressive Decathlon win.

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The Sprinter Flo Jo, Florence Griffith-Joyner with her spectacular finger nails that our friend Elaine Coughlan so admired.  Both died way too young.
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Jim McKay and the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes by Muslim Terrorists.
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Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks and his brother, Michael, in the Boxing competition.  I remember watching this in the Landing Restaurant Bar in Marblehead with my friend, Joe Collins.
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Lots of Olympic memories.  Some years I was more attentive than others.... especially when my brother and I were so into track and field during high school and college.
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Not sure if anything will be burned in from this Olympiad.  But hopefully, I'll keep the memories that transport me back to friends and family every four years or so.

CrossHairs

A good friend of mine, who has shared my outlook and philosophies for the most part, has told me more than once that "Revenge is a dish better served cold."
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I would have to agree, given certain karmic consequences.... but when you have someone who went out of their way to screw you and yours... now squarely focused in the proverbial crosshairs....  can't really let the opportunity pass while the dish cools off.
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My Lawyer certainly doesn't think so.
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And Ive never minded mixing it up anyway.  So as Maximus said to his Field Captain..."At my signal, Unleash Hell." 
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Or a reasonable facsimile.

Immunity

Whitey Bulger says he is going on the witness stand at his murder trial to testify about his immunity deal with the FBI.
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This has got to be hard on the family's of the victims, if the FBI cast askance at their loss.

Happy Weekend

Peeps...
I know that I was in a blog lapse this weekend, but between Tommy O's deck, the final touches at 32 Beverly Ave., and the Olympics, I pretty much fell off the wagon.
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We got all of the framing done on the deck and I called for the inspection today.  Then we will start to lay the decking.   Using 2x10's and 6x6 posts with a three board 6x10 laminated beam makes this deck a bit overengineered... ok .... it could easily be used as a heliocopter pad.
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But the O'Shea's will need a solid platform with the type of serious partying and entertainment that is  their hallmark.
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Across the street at 32 Beverly Ave., the new screen door looks great and the refurbishment of the back deck was also a total success.   Even the basement stair rails were completed with a bit of the Nanepashement flair that you all have come to know and love.
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Bobbi Cody, the Marblehead Code Inspector, (classic code inspector name) came by and blessed the Nanepashemet House with a certificate of code compliance for the pristine residential shrine that is the birthplace of the Nanepashemet Blog.
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The tenants are happy, the code inspector is happy, the O'Shea's are happy.... that really is the overall final work product of Nanepashemet .... Happiness.
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Course, I would have liked to have seen Shalane Flanagan from Marblehead medal in the Olympic Women's Marathon, but she seemed to be content with tenth place after suffering leg cramps, and 10th in the Olympic Marathon is really a huge accomplishment in the overall scheme of things as well.
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All that weekend happiness left me pretty sore though.  Just can't frame a deck in 90 degree weather like I used to.

BTTW at Tommy O's

Today, shortly after we hang up the Nanepashemet Telecom mantle in the late afternoon, it is BTTW (Balls To The Walls) time at Tommy O's Deck.
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We'll be undertaking the crucial step of attaching the ledger board to his house, and setting up the posts to level for the cantilever receiving beam.
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Tommy and Linda want to break after that and head to Essex for some fried clams.... which I think is an excellent notion.
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They have opted for traditional 7/8" Pressure Treated Deck planks over the popular composite stuff that is on the market.   Our PT Deck  at 32 Beverly Ave. was showing some wear after a dozen years or so, but we screwed down some loose and warped decking, then stained and sealed it and it really came out completely renewed and rather beautiful, so I have no trouble with the traditional wood choice.

A Warren Irritation/Obsession

Does Liz Warrren's new ad about putting people back to work like they do in China irk you?

Should we pay our people the same wage rates as the Chinese Liz?

 Or should we indiscriminately rip down their homes without due process to put a road or project anywhere we like?

Or should we ignore the enviroment and spew pollution freely anywhere we please?

 LIKE THE CHINESE DO????

Is Warren as off base as I think? .... or is it just me? Holy Freaking Cow.

Cutting through Boston today, I saw an SUV with a Warren sticker on it so I caught up to the driver to see what he looked like.... because I can't imagine who would support this poser.

The guy looked like a Goofy Bastard.

Amazing Olympic Events

The Olympics are moving further away from the capabilities of regular people.   I remember 20 years ago or so when we were awed at the performance of Nadia Comenici of Romania in woman's gymnastics  as she performed amazing feats on the unparallel bars and the vault.
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A look at her routine vs. the current competitors makes Nadia look almost pedestrian.... a truly amazing development.
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I was also watching the 10 meter synchronized platform women's diving  and have no conception of how these athletes twist, twirl, flip, and enter the pool in perfect identical motion.
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How the hell do they do that?

Doug's Tuna

Fellow Blogger, Doug Maxfield, http://northshorewaterman.com/  caught this 800 lb. Bluefin Tuna the other day, that was worth a little less than $15k to our Japanese raw fish enthusiasts.  ~

Congratulations Doug.   I personally prefer mine packed in oil with a little mayonaise and some chopped celery.  Potato chips and Ginger Ale on the side.

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That's Doug standing to the right.

Pretty Women

I was on a sailboat with a full moon in Marblehead Harbor having drinks and appetizers with these pretty women tonight.
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Life is good.... Even for Mountain of a Man standards.

Ethan Bowling

Kennedy Legacy

Who would have figured that in only one or two generations, this family of American royalty would father such self-indulgent, mis-guided. and frankly embarrassing offspring?
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Irish Catholic American working  class Democratic families like my own were so proud and hopeful for the Kennedy's.

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Jack Kennedy, a legitimate WWII hero, would have been labeled a conservative today, and his brother Bobby had extraordinary courage and conviction.  They protected the nation from a real Russian threat, and steered the nation away from the cancer of racism.

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We are forever in their debt.

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But, Ted got caught in the downstream backwash and can never be forgiven for what he did in Martha's Vineyard.  At the time, the whole nation was in denial that this unbelievable death occurred at Chappaquidick Island.   I remember just wishing that it didn't happen and hopeing that he was not to blame.   He was though....and, he should have been convicted of manslaughter.... The national sense of denial gave him a stay of that sentence.  Maybe he turned out to be a Senator of consensus as he grew older, but there are a lot of those around.  He was saved only because he was a Kennedy.

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It seems that John Jr. would have been the exception had he survived, but after that.... not so much.  Caroline's run for the Senate was a disaster as she demonstrated an inarticulate lack of passion and purpose. 

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Seems like a legacy of entitlement and self-absorption characterized by drugs, infidelity, and  a liberal epithet thrown out once in awhile to keep things stirred up has defined the rest of the clan.   Literally no one who is a thinking person could rationally be inspired by what has emerged from that gene pool.

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Caroline Kennedy recently has stated that the family is "at it's lowest point ever" as they scrap over the remains of Ted's estate.  Every family has it's phucked up issues.  Maybe it's unfair to have held the Kennedy's to a higher standard.

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But they gave us so much hope in the beginning.

Gun Control

The 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution states.... "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
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In other words, you can't take away our Black Powder Flintlocks and Swords.... because that was exactly what the FF's were referring to.
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The right to bear arms was conceived by the Founding Fathers when a farmer in his field basically had the same weapons technology as a squadron of Redcoats marching down the road.     The ability of local militia to defend themselves and repel an armed invader was available then, but long gone now. Time to ban guns. Technology has outrun the good intentions of our Founding Fathers.
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There's too many innocent people being gunned down by mental cases who get their high powered killing machines legally.    I've been taking my chances with a baseball bat handy anyway... would rather get the bad guys on the run, rather than come at us with legal weapons.
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If we followed the intent of the Founding fathers, every farmer would be sporting assault rifles and anti-tank grenades.  This is crazy.  If we ban guns, only the bad guys will have guns.   So let's ban them, define the bad guys, and rout them out.
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 I've been wrestling with this one for awhile, because I hate to take away a right that we have, and wouldn't mind packing a Glock myself, but it's the conclusion that I have arrived at.
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For the hunters and shooting enthusiasts among you, I would make this suggestion... Black Powder Flintlocks and Bows and Arrows.   That is the technology embraced in your Constitutional Right, and this should not be banned.  
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I never heard of a mass murder with Flintlocks.
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The patriot below has her actions illustrated by WWII Japanese.  Today's technology would blow her away.

Call Me Maybe

My Grandkids sing this song.

Weddings and Baudy Comments

Tommy O and I mixed and poured 16 eighty lb. bags of concrete mix into 4 twelve inch Sonotubes reinforced with four 1/2" steel 4' rebar each this morning to form the foundation for the O'Shea pool deck.  Then we laid out the joist system and Tommy is ordering the lumber while the concrete cures.
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I was going to do some odds and ends at 32 Beverly Ave. afterward, but there is plenty of time for that, and I have to rest up for the evening festivities.  We will probably end up doing some Saturday night stuff with the Johnsons whose daughter, Amanda, also was a recent recipient of a positive marriage proposal.
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So there will be a lot of deck and wedding talk tonight, in between the baudy Buck behavior with it's concomitant chastising from the females.
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Looking forward to it.

Engaged

Brady Boyle asked for my daughter, Katelyn's, hand in marriage last night.
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She said yes.
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Congratulations and heartfelt best wishes to two tremendous human beings.
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Brady has been in our life for some time now as one of Mike's Best Buds from St. Michael's and we are thrilled, happy, and a bit relieved as well.
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Joanne has had a contented smile on her face all morning.
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Celebration will be held in the usual manner commonly known to you Nanepashemet Peeps.
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Welcome to the Nestor Family Inner Circle of Trust, Brady.  I'm sure you'll find it to be an enigmatic, weird and wonderful place as we do.

First Dark and Stormy

Nathaniel Clarke dropped by with his girlfriend, Katarina, tonight and we introduced the attractive, Croatian-Aussie-Brit to her first Dark and Stormy.  As she proceeds forward in her life, she will undoubtedly find that the first was indeed the best.
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Our boy, Nathaniel, is a very special Peep and it's aways a treat when he drops by from his world travels.  He is going to a rather ackward wedding in DC with Mike and Pam.
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It is the ackward situations that define the person that we are.   Nathaniel will do fine.

Losers, Pretenders, and Perverts

Peeps...
Now that this Blog has gone internationally viral, there are a ton of spam comments sent everyday. 
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Some of the stuff is autodeleted but that still leaves a lot of sicko, perverted comments that I have to wade through..... not a good use of time for a Mountain of a Man.
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Generally, I could care less how disgusting the spam comments are... I just don't want to accidentally publish them and violate the purity and sanctity of this pristine Nanepashemet forum.
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So if you still have the need to comment on the wisdom and solace that I exhume here daily.... you'll have to join this Blog.   Naturally, anyone of you who joins will have your comments published unaltered, and in the pathetic form that you sent them to me.
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For the most part, the Pervs and other Dementos are too cowardly to sign up and expose themselves, so this should take volume of Spam way down.
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That will weed out the Losers, Pretenders and Perverts and save me precious and  valuable hours..... which I will convert to more of the thoughtful, insightful, and critical posts which you have grown to depend upon in guiding your daily lives.
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Screening

Today, when I was riding into Boston for lunch with a couple of SuperPeeps, I saw Adam Sandler playing pickup basketball in Swampscott.  He had some pretty good moves for an older guy.   That's the extent of my involvement with the production of "Grownups 2".
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And speaking of screening.... I learned how to fix window and door screens really well today and replaced the mutilated screens at 32 Beverly Ave.  It's pretty simple, and I will take the mastery of this trade to even greater heights in the days to come.