Working on a Trip Report

So, a million years ago (1984) I took my Grandmother and Aunt on a cross-country trip. We both had time and I worked at a bar where I could leave for 30+ days.

I have been copying what I wrote out to my grandmother (in a book for her) and fixing pictures. It is amazing how much i have changed (and how much I haven't).  I have a lot of exposition in the book, but you probably don't want to hear that. Instead here are a few pictures fro the trip (of people you don't know either).

The dedication page from my photo book to Zela

My Uncle Bo (Elmo Lee Green)

My Aunt Afton (Uncle Bo's wife)

Aunt Ruby's Family (My Grandmother far right, next to Martha, my aunt).

Aunt Ruby and I (Aunt Ruby was my Zela's Aunt).

Front Left, Great Grandma Mitchell (my Grandfather's mother)
Far left, Aunt Lula Mae, far right, Aunt LaVon - Granddad's sisters

Quintin and Clifton (my 1/2 brothers)

Mom, Martha and Danny
Until her death, Martha referred to my mom as "Sis", even though she was my dad's sister. But she always wanted a big sister, and my Mom was always up for it.

And My Family Tree Just Keeps Getting Weirder

So, we all know my family tree is tweaked. Not the least of which is on my mother's side, with Mormons marrying multiple times and bringing over new wives from England.

I knew my father's side was pretty inbreed from the backcountry of Kentucky - intermarriage is rife.

These are not my relatives.

But we are going way back now to pre-revolutionaryVirgina. Drury Tucker is born in 1719 in Virgina. He gets married and has a lot of children, including William Wolford Tucker (my relative and later a Revolutionary War Lieutenant) in 1752. His wife, Susanna Douglass (2 ss's) is from Midlothian Scotland (near Edinburgh). His wife dies in 1765.

Meanwhile, a Miss Frances (Franky) Penn is born in 1735 - also in Virginia. She gets married in Ambrose Lee and has many children, the one we are concerned with here is Nancy Lee, who is born in 1762, tens years after William Wolford. Ambrose dies in 1764.

In 1767, two years after Drury's wife passes away, he marries Frances Lee (3 years post her husbands death) and Frances and her children move in with him.

So in 1767, young William Wolford Tucker is 15 and in a joined family with (among others) his sister Nancy Lee who is 5.

In 1777 - at 25 year old William Wolford Tucker joins the new US Revolutionary Navy. He later is a Lieutenant with the Virginia Regiments.  

in 1778, William marries his step-sister Nancy. She is 16 and he is 26. William's father is also now his father -in-law via his marriage to Francis (Franky) Penn - Lee - Tucker.

  

Well's Princess Tiny Hands has had a night to sleep on it - and decided to double down.

From today: July 29th, 10:00 AM EDT

(breath deeply 1..2..3..4..) WHAT THE F*CK

Really, I know I can't convince anyone, I am preaching to the choir. But, how can people support this guy?

link

Good Morning Fellow Inmates

Day 851 of the lock-down has really brought the crazies home. Home, home, home on the range. (Note: This is not a Trump bitch, this crap is just so blindingly stupid one has to laugh. All the way to the morgue. Or barring that in Texas, all the way to the refrigeration trucks lined up because the morgues are overflowing.)

Yesterday the President of our country... The country with the most scientists, Nobel Prize winners and top rated Universities in the world... That country, he tweeted out a video that stated Coronavirus has a cure, Hydroxichloroquin and zinc prevents people from "getting" Covid 19 and the government is covering it all up. (Do you really want a link to this bullshit?)

Before twitter and facebook could pull that bullshit down, it was viewed over 8 million times.

The main speaker was Dr. Stella Immanuel, but she was flanked by a South Carolina Representative to the US House. Republican (as if you couldn't guess*) Ralph Norman. In the video, Dr. Immanuel also stated that face masks did not work at all in helping to prevent the spread of the Virus.

She did NOT talk about her positions that: 

• many gynecological problems are caused by having sex dreams with demons and getting hit up with demon sperm
• that infertility and STDs are caused by your spirit husband
• that vaccines are made with alien DNA
• that our government is run by reptilian space aliens.

When Donald Trump was asked why he tweeted her misinformation out he said (and I quote):

“I think they are very respected doctors. There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it, that she’s had tremendous success with it and they took her voice off. I don’t know why they took her off. Maybe they had a good reason, maybe they didn’t.”

Which is, no doubt, what any good Reptilian Alien overlord would say.

* For some reason Republicans have become the anti-science party. They deny global warming, covid 19, evolution and bacteria.

Day 800 of the Lockdown

We in New York are in day 7 or 800 now. Not much has changed. We cannot go inside to eat, only outside. To take advantage of this, many restaurants have built temporary outside dining on sidewalks or in the parking lanes.

It isn't bad, but traffic is close.

And it is quite hot (notice I did NOT say f*ck all hot - which is what I mean). It is around 93 F (34 C)and humid. And, once you're in a lane, usually not a lot of shade. And right now, nearly no breeze. So while you are allowed to go out, it isn't particularly comfortable there.

Apparently none of these owners has been to the desert to understand a bit of fan and cooling mist would be welcome. Even if the mist doesn't work (humidity, I get it), still a big-ass fan would be quite helpful.

Big-ass (r) Fans.

What our Coronavirus Relief Bill Needs: $1,700,000,000.00 for a new FBI Headquarters

$1,700,000,000.00 That is One Billion and 700 Million dollars for a new FBI HQ. (Or $11,450 for each dead American to line Trump's pockets.)

You may ask why the FBI funds are in the Coronavirus Relief Bill.

• Is it because the building is useless? - No.
• Is it because the building is ugly*? - No - but that is the excuse
• Is it because they might move FBI into a new HQ outside of town? - Yes, but how cares about that with 148,000 dead people?

So President Trump has dictated that all new Federal Buildings have to be built in the Neo-Classical style (columns, marble, serio-greek religious temples of design). And the Hoover FBI Building isn't classical in the leas (FYI - J. Edgar Hoover, not Herbert Hoover).

But why seek to change it right now? Well, follow the money. The Trump Washington Hotel is next door. The current plan is to move the FBI out of downtown and sell the building and/or property to a hotel builder. But a new hotel, or cheaper hotel next to Trump's Hotel and that would cost him money. So he wants to scuttle that plan while he still has a chance to make money of the Presidency.

For those keeping track at home. This is Un-Constitutional (emoluments clause), political bribery (against Federal Law) and unethical (against Senate Rules). ... And also just a shitty way to treat the public - as your personal piggy bank.

* The building being "ugly" is up to the viewers taste. I will say that in regards to design, I tend to agree with President Trump on this particular buidling. It is not forceful enough to be brutalist, and seems to strive for that 1970's Mall crossed with Prison vibe. It also screws with the streets in a walkable area - as it is a giant "stay away" building that doesn't interact with pedestrians.

It's Minor News - But it brings me Way Back

This week-end John Saxon died. Sure, it wasn't as important as 145,000 Covid deaths. And John wasn't as big a deal as Olivia De Haviland. 

But John Saxon with his big expressive eyes and one of the few beef cakes to show up on TV without a shirt. He was responsible for an uncomfortable / funny feeling - in all the right and wrong places -when I was hitting puberty. I watched many a crappy sci-fi movie to see John Saxon running around in a jumpsuit or toga.

He made, according to IMDB, he made over 200 appearances in TV and Movies. He looked, in the late 1950s like he was going to be a star. But he never quite broke out so he transitioned into B movies and TV. 

He was a friend of Bruce Lee and co-star in Enter the Dragon. Bruce put him in because Bruce's original co-star was too tall, and John already knew Karate. Later he was Gene Roddenberry's go to star for Star Trek like shows based on a ravaged Earth. And no, I am not a fan of hairy men, but at 11 or 12 you take what you can get on TV.

He and Bruce Lee made Enter the Dragon and stated a long friendship.

An Italian from Brooklyn, Saxon often played swarthy or Puerto Rican

This, I believe, was from Genesis II

From the sequel to Genesis II where men were kept as sex-slaves by the women. He spent much of this in a toga running around with other men in togas - saying they didn't need women.

 

This is the plot Synopsis from Genesis II - don't tell me it's not perfect.

Storyline

A man awakens from suspended animation and finds himself in the 22nd century, where he finds that women rule the world and that men are slaves called Dinks. He is captured and sold as a slave, but escapes and hooks up with a male rebel movement. Written by Anonymous

"hooks up" heh heh heh

Fun Fact

For those of you who saw Hollywood on Netflix, Saxon was 17 when he was a discovery of Henry Wilson (the Jim Parsons horny agent).

Happy Monday

It's Monday. The dog is getting fiesty - which is great. Rusty is great little dog, bar the constant peeing. He is not getting the hang of this. Thank good ness for doggie diapers or we would not have a floor left in the house. But we are doing our best.

We took him on a drive to Connecticut yesterday for a little hike. It was very hot, but we wanted him to associate something good with the car. Up until now it has been trips to and from the vet.

It was a nice hike. 

It was hot, but the good thing about this hike is it is totally shady.

I do like this area in Connecticut right over the New York state border. It is the area of Greenwich and Upper Stamford. Beautiful, but too expensive to really live in.

And clearly it tuckered out once Rusty the Pup.

The car ride home.

Whomever: PLEASE listen to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortz spoke about the treatment of WOMEN by men. Not her, persay, but how WOMEN see this all the time. She is not gratuitously rude, mean or offended. But it is how WOMEN get degraded all the time. How this language a Congressman gives permission to say this to any woman.

Take the few moments. please.

I am not sure "Fucking Bitch" is a 'Sexist Slur'

Humm. I wonder about the framing of the BBC report. See above. It regards calling a sitting United States female Congressman a "Fucking Bitch" as a sexist slur.

They are not alone in using euphemisms - Fox News calls it a 'clash', ABC News calls it 'berated'. But the plain truth is a male, older United States Congressmen called the youngest United States female Congressman a "Fucking Bitch" in public on the steps of the Capital building in front of other Congressman and a national reporter.

Let's not pretend our virgin ears are shocked. He called her, in front of colleagues and the press a Fucking Bitch. This fits a pattern of Republicans.

The President called Nigeria and Ghana Shithole Countries.

The President wanted to grab women by the pussy.

The President called a United States Congressman Shitty Shift.

Republicans are rude, inconsiderate assholes who slur others and then pretend SHOCKED. The profess to uphold standards of decency. On the floor of Congress, Representative potty mouth did NOT apologize. Rep. Yoho said he is a father and a husband and finds those words offensive.  He implied he would never say those things, as he is a Gentlemen.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn't not fly off the handle. She did not over-react. She did not cry or act like a sniveling bitch like Congressman Yoho did. (Women in power cannot react or they are called, hysterical or catty or  on the rag.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez simply said (in addition to what is quoted below) that being a father or husband doesn't magically make you a gentlemen. Actions make the person. And while Mr. Yoho is a father, so what. She is, in fact, a daughter. And her father, if he was still alive, was a gentlemen that didn't demean women, either in private or in front of the national press corps and other Congressmen.

In many areas of policy I do not always agree with Ms Ocasio-Cortez. She  endorsed Bernie Sanders - whom I do not particular support. 

But if you watch her on TV, she is prepared. She has thought out arguments and askes excellent questions of anyone in front of her - regardless (or irregardless, which the OED just made a word and it drives Eddie crazy) of their political affiliation. She doesn't make me hit my head and scream "why are we paying you for this?"

And why? Because college educated former bartenders are da bomb (as no one, ever, says anymore).

A Different Way to See America

I listened to an an Ezra Klein Podcast the other day that made me think.

The speaker said this: (as close as I can remember, you can listen here):

Most Americans, including President Trump, talk about America as us. 

• "We won two World Wars."* 
• "We won the most Gold Medals at the Olympics." 
• "We kicked the British out of the United States."
• "We have the biggest economy."
• "We set up a fantastic form of government."

But, when it comes to bad history we don't think "we" - we think they.

• "They kept slavery alive for 150 years."
• "They lynched thousands of blacks during Jim Crow"
• "They took land from the Native Americans"

If we want to take the best of America, then we also have to commit ourselves - however personally blameless - fixing the worst of America. Sure, I never personally kept Black Americans down. I never personally interned Japaense-Americans. But then again, I never personally won a UCLA football game over the dreaded Trojans. I did not personally win any medals at the London Olympics.

This doesn't mean I have to rend garments and beat myself up over what happened years or decades or centuries before me. But, it does mean I should work to fix it.

You don't have to agree right this second, but think abut it. It is a different way of looking at the world.

Now, after you thought about it. Think about it from the viewpoint of Black Americans or Native Americans. For Black Americans:

• "We helped win two World Wars - and then were segregated at home and discriminated against when getting a job."
• "We won the most Gold Medals at the Olympics - and then were sent home in segregated ships (olden days) or received millions of dollars less in endorsements (current days)."
• "We kicked the British out of the United States - and then, after fighting the British, were kept in slavery."
• "We set up a fantastic form of government - where a slave was counted as 3/5s of a human being."

I get annoyed when a waiter doesn't wait on tables in the order the tables were sat. Image an entire life of this.

Anyway, I am not suggesting any fix. just a different way of thinking about things.

*Yes I know "we" didn't win either one by ourselves. And yes I know that "we" were very late to both parties, but, Gareth, I am looking at this through the eyes of Amerians.

"Evangelicals" for Trump are not just Hypocrites, but also Kind of Dumb

Pity the "poor" evangelicals for Trump. They have sold their support to a foul mouthed*1, adulterous*2, lying*3, lazy*4, worshiper of mamon*5, tiny-fingered vulgarian*6 because they hate women, fags and minorities.

AND, they can't even make an ad - which any 10 year old with a iPad could have done.

The problem with this ad? The image of Chaos and Violence is from Ukraine in 2014 (link, link). And, in fact, the "police" here (on the ground showing how America is just like that) is a member of the illegitimate regime that rigged, lost and tried to steal the election in Ukraine with backing from Russia. That regime was found guilty of cheating, the tyrant had to run back to Russia. And the illegitimate regime was represented by an American Lawyer, Trump's pal Paul Manfort.

So they are either stupid (which I am going with) or saying if Trump loses, he will behave like this disgraced Russian stooge dictator supported by Trump's friends. 

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references

*1 Commandment 3: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain

*2 Cmd 7: Thou shalt not commit adultery

*3 Cmd 9: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor

*4 Cmd 4: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (Golfing on Sunday breaks this one)

*5 Cmd 1: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Obviously money and power worship here) AND Cmd 10: Tho shalt not covet (he covets other people's money to the point of cheating).

*6: Cmd 3 again : Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain

Note: Grabbing women you don't know by the pussy or boobs would probably also have been a commandment, but even the God of the Israelites assumed some basic knowledge of manners.

Rusty!

He's cute. Still recovering a bit from the surgery.

Gallows Humor

This is funny if you think of maps with or without names attached. (FYI - this was satire, a nearly impossible art in Princess Tiny Hand's America.)

No. Nope. Nothing to see. No parallels here at all.

There is no parallel to what is happening in Europe's "last Dictatorship" and what is happening in Portland right now. None.

You see in Belarus, they are peacefully demonstrating against an overbearing government and security police are rounding up protestor and journalists. And they are throwing them into jail.

In Portland they are rounding up protesters and journalists and throwing them in unmarked vans, for hours tied up, then asked to give up their rights, then sit- still bound - in jail for 2-3 hours and then released. Americans get beat up and threatened, BUT THEN they are released after a few hours!

In Belarus, it is the administration's secret police.

In Portland, we didn't know who it was for over a week. So that is a fun guessing game! 

• Then, we found out it is the SWAT teams of the Border Patrol. There is no border in Portland by the why It is a 1,099 miles (or 1 769 kilometers) away at the Mexican / Californian border.
• We found that the Mayor, Governor and Senators from Portland and Oregon (respectively) also had to play this guessing game. They have since sued the federal government to have these neo-police removed.
• Despite what they nondescript badges say - they are NOT police. You know how I know, because it is illegal in Portland Oregon for the "Police" to use tear gas. But fascist these cryto-police ARE allowed to.

In Belarus, asking about the Security Police's oath to the Constitution gets you upended and taken to jail.

In Portland, a 30 year Navy Veteran who asks about the "police's" commitment to the Constitution doesn't get you picked up and sent to jail. Just lightly roughed up. Like this 20 year veteran who's "crime" was standing - not attacking the building the are "protecting" - and asking them if they are following their oath to protect the Constitution? He will have surgery on his hand, which they broke in two places - once all the definitely non-fascist fun in Portland ends.

Rusty is now Nutless

So Rusty has had his trusties removed. Unlike Trevor, Hastings of Ashford, Rusty still has a sad little sack, deflated.

His surgery went well, but the vet thinks he has an infection, maybe bladder. So he is drinking a lot of water, taking antibiotics and recovering. These are sone random pictures of him. Like I said, he isn't house trained, so he wears a diaper as we try to catch everything in time.

Yes, he is getting comfortable around the house

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Then I have some pictures left over from Vermont I wanted to share. Some thins were just cute as hell!

Wood Lillies grow like crazy everywhere up there!

A local's garden and garden art

Looking up a random creek.

Lots and lots of signs of beavers!

This trail had to have boards added after a beaver damn flooded the trail

Friends of Kelly (a friend of ours)

The Saga of Zela’s Automobiles (part 2)

Now for this part, we are going to have to take a circuitous route.

 

So, at some point I get my grandmother to at least reduce her driving. She is now driving a partially bondo’ed car with different color doors. I think this is a driving yellow warning to others.

 

At this point, my father returns to live in the same apartment complex she does. He, luckily, takes the lead in driving her around most times. But why has he moved back? Turns out he has Kidney cancer and 2 months to live.

 

Side note, I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. Two months my Aunt Fanny. During these 2 months my father asked, “Scott, was I a good father?” And I answered, truthfully, Dad, I love you and I love who I am. If we hadn’t gone through everything I wouldn’t be the person I am.

 

And he said, ‘Fine! I’m a horrible father!” And I though, Oh, this is how we are playing it. And so, for the next TWO YEARS of his 2 months to live, I was asked monthly, if not weekly, if he was a good father and I learned to say, “Of course!” And we moved on.

 

So, one day I get a call from my Grandmother that Dad has hit a car. Which is a surprise, because he was not a good father, but he was always a good driver. And I go out to Orange county and find that he had a black out. The cancer has spread, and some got in his brain. Now he isn’t allowed to drive the bondo-bucket either.

 

So I drive from my house to Orange County to take them to Kaiser ever now and then. They don’t want taxi money. They won’t use the Kaiser-Permente shuttle.

 

By the by, my house to Zela’s is about 20 miles and it is another 10 miles to Yorba Linda where Kaiser is. This can take anywhere from 20 minutes + 10 minutes (between 4AM and 9AM on the week-end) to 2 hours plus 1.5 hours (any other time).

The ACTUAL road from Zela to Kaiser - during the time I drove her.

 

But I do it. Then one day, I am scheduled to take them to the doctor. I call to see when they will be ready, and my grandmother informs me that they went yesterday to Kaiser. I ask, politely, who took them. And she giggles and hands the phone to my father.

 

I am a bit perturbed and say, “Did you drive Zela to Kaiser? You’re not supposed to drive! “

 

And my father’s answer was, “No, it is fine. I drove, but she was sitting next to me in case I passed out and she could grab the wheel.”

 

Yes, the arthritic old woman will lunge over the center console and grab the wheel as you pass out! She can’t turn her head to check a left turn, but we are sure she can leap over the console and grab control on the 91 freeway! All the while pushing your passed out fat ass away from the wheel.

 

They told me not to worry and I agreed. I also agreed to let them do whatever the hell they wanted but I stopped driving then over the worst freeway in America (maybe exaggeration, maybe not). The image below is from construction about that time. FYI, this is NOT the worst part of the drive. Honestly!

This this is the drive coming home from Kaiser to Zela's!

The Saga of Zela’s Automobiles (part 1)

My grandmother Zela was an atrocious driver. Now true, she got even worse as she aged, but she was NEVER a good driver. While her husband was alive, he kept her in Nash Ramblers. The Nash Rambler was a heavy, underpowered tank of an automobile.

A Rambler - Now a Museum piece oddity

 

I believe I had posted the worst of her driving stories previously. She drove to work one day and hit a parked car.  She was upset and my grandfather helped calm her down, figured it all out and she drove again.  The very next day, at the same place, she hit a pedestrian (or car again – it got changed in the retelling). Again, my grandfather helped calm her down, but with this spoken caveat, “Damn it Zela, tomorrow at least drive to work on a different street.”

 

Zela loved her husband, but was a bit annoyed that she never got a car she wanted. After he died, her one purchase was a 1972 Chevy Impala 4 door with a V8.  That car was a rock! She bought it in 1972, and we took it across country on our trip in 1984! After she got a new car, it was gifted to a cousin, who drove it for another 2 decades.

Zela's was light biege, but otherwise, very much like this

 

But, the new car didn't help the driving. She continued to drive terribly. She ruined many a tire by her parallel parking “skill”. I get as close as I can, then turn the wheels and drive till I hit the curb. Sometimes it worked, more often she seemed to be parking diagonally, when no one else was.

 

I tried to get her to stop driving after 1995 and her accidents. That is another story and DID NOT GO WELL. As a compromise, I told her I would pay to fix the car, but she would have to find and pay for her insurance and if she wanted to drive.  I figured with her record, age and eyesight she wouldn't find anyone to insure her. She did! I actually called the agent and told him he made a terrible mistake and would pay for it later – and he did.

 

I asked the doctors to take away her driving and they wouldn’t do it.

 

At one point after one of her many accidents, I helped fix her car, but refused to pay for her to get it painted. My thinking, if you see a car with a mismatched door and bondo – you’d steer away.

 

After her final accident (I turned left, I know I looked at on-coming traffic, but that car that rear-ended me was speeding!), I simply refused to fix the car. And I refused to buy her another one. There were a bad few months in our relationship.

 

But her friends then stepping in and took her to the places she went to (brunch on the weekends, bible study during the week and shopping whenever she wanted to). So she relented and didn't complain too much.

 

She asked me once Everyone is happy, I’m not driving now. Was my driving really that bad? I actually did say back to her, “Now Zela*, you know I’m not going to answer that. There is no good answer.” We laughed and crisis aborted. But yes, she was a terrible driver.

For me the final straw (I know, not all the accidents?) the final straw was I drove out to see her one day, and just missed her. I saw her leave the driveway as I was driving up. I thought, since I drove all the way to Orange County I would follow her to the store or whatever. Well I followed and on Katella Blvd (a big road, see below) she decided she needed donuts (she was going to bible study).

I swear, true story, I watched her get to a gap in the medium (no planted and palm trees) and just pulled a u-turn to get to Winchel's Donuts. No signal. No move into the medium. Her head didn't move. She drove over double yellow lines mid-block. It was one of the scariest things I ever saw. I turned and left to go where ever I was headed before I stopped by. Ed and I were more convinced than ever that she couldn't drive.

 

* I called her Zela whenever I had to be very honest.