Security Tip Saturday

Hogzilla, Part 2

TWIT would like to congratulate Bruce Florence for shooting and bringing down Hogzilla 2.  Hogzilla 2 weighed 707 pounds and was over 7 feet in length. Bruce got Hogzilla 2 in Transylvania County, North Carolina last week.  The boar charged at Bruce, but when it turned slightly, it gave him a shot at its vulnerable side. The hunter shot it with his single shot .25-06 rifle. The boar continued running for only 20 yards or so, mortally wounded.  The dressed out portion of Hogzilla 2 weighed in at 580 pounds.  That's a lot of sausage and bacon. 

Bruce said that they've seen an even bigger Hogzilla on their trail camera; he estimates it to be over 1000 pounds.  He has already said that's next on his bucket list.  

TWIT wishes Bruce good luck on getting Hogzilla 3.  
 

Happy National Chocolate Month

Being sidelined with the flu earlier this month took its toll on me, faithful readers.  Here we are at the end of January and I just found out that this month was National Chocolate Month.  But never fear - we've got two days and a few hours to still celebrate. 

So please join me and the 'Rents in celebrating.  Tonight, we're having chocolate ice cream. 

Happy Birthday, Dad

TWIT would like to wish my awesome Dad a very happy birthday.  Yep, his birthday is the day after mine.  I was the best birthday present he has ever gotten; I remind him of that quite frequently.

Happy Birthday To Me

It's my birthday today, and if there were 48 hours in the day, I might be able to visit all of the restaurants that have offered free food on my birthday.  Here's the list:

Hooters - 10 free bonless wings

Wingstop - free French fries

Qdoba - buy any entree get one free

Logan's Roadhouse - a free appetizer or dessert

Arby's - a free 12 ounce milk shake

Krispy Kreme - one free donut (any type) and one free 12 ounce coffee or fountain drink

Tumbleweed - one free large queso 

Redbox - no free food, but they did give me one free movie rental

Hoosier Lottery - once again, no free food, but one free $1 Cash 5 ticket

The Time Has Come

The time has come, faithful readers, to part ways with my beloved BMW.  Someone has made me an offer in cold, hard, cash, and it's an offer I can't pass up.  Sure, it's a bit less than I'd originally asked for, but cash is cash.  I'm going to enjoy Birthday Week, and then this weekend, I will get the old girl cleaned out and get her ready for the next stage in her life.

Link Of The Week

Yesterday, I warned you, faithful readers, about the evil scammers out there posing as IRS agents.  If you get one of these calls, visit this website and fill out this form about the call:  http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml.

Security Tip Saturday

It's the first of the year, and that means that income tax season is upon us.  We'll be getting our W2's soon, and then the filing frenzy will be going on.  But I digress. 

In recent weeks, scammers have been hard at it by calling unsuspecting people and telling them that they are the IRS and that they owe money.  If someone calls saying he/she is an IRS agent and demands that you send money immediately, hang up; it's a phone scam. 

By altering their caller ID number to make it look like they're calling from an IRS office, these scammers often threaten vulnerable people like the elderly and new immigrants with things like arrest, deportation or the loss of their driver's license if they don't pay immediately for money purportedly owed.


Often leaving messages that say it's "urgent" you call them back, the scammers use common names and sometimes say they are from the IRS Criminal Division. They may even claim to know the last four digits of your Social Security number and send follow-up emails that appear to be from the IRS.  They often demand that payments be made by prepaid debit card. 

Once they make their threats, the scammers have been known to call back and again disguise their caller ID so it appears they are calling from the police department or the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Or sometimes when they call, they may say you have a refund due and ask you to provide personal information so you can claim it. 

The real IRS will contact you by regular mail first, if it needs to contact you at all. Trust me on this one, having dealt with the IRS back in the late 90's when the 'Rents dissolved their cleaning business.  And the agency never demands immediate payment by phone or asks for credit card or debit numbers if they do call. And the IRS never asks for personal or financial information by email, text or social media. 

Please pass this on to your friends and family.  

Stay safe. 

Flashback Friday

The weatherazzi has the city in a frenzy; they are calling for a "dusting of snow" tonight, with more snow to the south of Louisville.  When I was a kid, I would have been praying for at least a few inches of snow, in hopes that school would be cancelled.  Today, it's just an inconvenience.  

As we all know, In Louisville, a true dusting of snow can have just as many wrecks and traffic issues as when we get 2 or 3 inches of snow.  Ask anyone in Louisville and they will all verify that I am speaking the truth. 

Something You Don't See Every Day

Yesterday morning on the way to work, I truly witnessed something that you don't see every day.

I was stopped at a redlight, and ahead of me I saw a new car with the new car sticker on the window pulled over in the median.  The driver, a 30-ish woman, got out of the car and walked over to the side of the median.  Based on what I saw, she had most likely hit a cat that was sprawled out on the side of the road next to the median.  She got out of her car, walked over and in a split second, she picked up the cat and came back to her new car and put the cat in the front passenger seat. 

This left me to summise that it was either her own cat and she was just taking it home to either take it to the vet or to bury it, or it was not her cat and she was taking it to the vet.  Either way, that impressed me.

Oh Happy Day

It was a happy day today.  But yesterday sure didn't start out very happy. 

I woke up at 3:00 yesterday morning and had to go to the bathroom.  As I was walking down the hallway, I noticed it was a bit cool.  I didn't think anything else of it and went on back to bed after conducting my business.  When I got up at 6:30, once again I noticed it was pretty cool in the hallway and bathroom.  I looked at the thermostat and saw that it was 60 degrees in the house.  Yep, the furnace was out. 

I decided that I would wait till I was ready to leave for work before I woke up Dad to give him the great news.  I was surprised, shocked even, that he took it better than I thought.  He and Mom got up and by the time I was pulling out of the driveway, they had a nice fire in the fireplace.  He was the first to say that of all of the days for the furnace to stop, it was one of the better days, with the temps forecasted for the low 60's.  And he also remembered that the furnace was 25 years old.   After discussing the symptoms (very little heat coming out of the register when the furnace kicked on) we both diagnosed it as hopefully the thermostat or blower.

I called our heating and a/c guy, and he said he'd be out by lunchtime, and sure enough, he was there before noon.  Thank the Lord and Trane, because the problem was as simple as you can get: the filters.  Our furnace and a/c is a "pulse" unit.  I have no idea what that means, other than the filters on it are electronic, and they had gone bad.  They simply weren't filtering out all of the gunk they filter, and the gunk caused the blower to get bogged down and not blow. He said they could be replaced with other non-electronic filters, and he put one in and the old Trane unit was good to go.  He said he'd be back in a day or two with two more filters for us for spares, and advised us to replace the filter every six months. 

As I said, thank the Lord and Trane that the problem was just the filter.  And I thank Diva Stacy for telling us about this heating and a/c guy.  A shyster heating guy could have really fleeced us and we would not have known any differently.  They could have said that we needed to replace the blower, or heaven forbid the entire furnace.  But they were very honest, and cheap, too.  

I will continue to sing the praises of Litsey Heating and Cooling, and Trane.

Another Calgon Day

This has been another Calgon-take-me-away day.  I don't feel like explaining all of the details about today, so I'm going to postpone it until tomorrow.  For now, Calgon, take me away. 

Once Again, I Hate Electronics

I'm back to battling with my Lexmark printer, faithful readers.  I fooled with it for over an hour on Saturday and yesterday.  Luckily, the electronic gods were smiling down upon me because I was able to print out only one page yesterday -- the page that had the confirmation where I paid for Dad's license and registration for the Odyessy.  Other than that one page, nothing will print.  

I'm so frustrated with it right now, that I'm ready to just unplug it and put it in the trash.  But before I do that, I'm going to have a friend at work install Windows 7 on my computer.  It's still running the antiquated XP, and I'm thinking that might be part of my problem.  The guy gave me a great deal of only $45 for installing it;  that's about 1/6 of what it would cost if I took it out to a computer shop or if I bought the Windows CD myself.  This guy has done computer work on the side for years, and I trust him.  When my patience has been restored, I'll unhook everything on the desktop and lug it into work for him.  

As always, I'll keep you posted.  

Flashback Sunday

As I type this, the sun is out, the skies are blue, and it's 51 degrees.  Pretty warm for the middle of January.  It's hard to believe that 21 years ago today, Louisville was hit with a record snowfall.  On the morning of January 18, 1993, Louisville woke up to 18 inches of snow on the ground.  Yep, a foot and a half of snow.  The night before, they were just calling for a dusting of snow and maybe a little freezing rain.  And the city of Louisville was shut down for over a week.  

I remember that morning like it was yesterday.  I heard the 'Rents up, so I got up to see what was going on.  The house was dark because the power was off, and they had just come in from trudging out past the garden to bring in some firewood for the fireplace.  They had a roaring fire going, and Mom had the old school blue metal cowboy coffee pot over the fire.  After about a half hour of us warming ourselves in front of the fire, we heard a car horn, and then we saw two headlights. It was the infamous Teal Taxi, aka the Blazer driven by our old family friend/my company CEO Uncle Don.  The night before at church, Uncle Don told me that if it was bad in the morning, he would come pick me up for work.  Surely a foot and a half of snow equaled "bad".  But not for the Teal Taxi.  He came in the house, dressed like Nanook of the North and looked at me and said "Are you gonna wear your pajamas in to work?"  I got the hint and went to get dressed.  In the meanwhile, Uncle Don got a grocery bag and went to our pantry and filled it up with some supplies for our trip to work.  

Believe me when I tell you we were the only car out on the Greenbelt Highway and Cane Run Road. It was very slow going, but we made it with no problems. I should say the problems waited until we got into the office.  At this time, we worked in the infamous United Furniture Building, an old small two-story building.  When we walked in, that's when we had problems.  The pipes in the downstairs lunchroom had burst, so Uncle Don started working on that mess.  When I walked upstairs to the offices, I quickly saw snow on the desks, floors, and on top of filing cabinets.  Parts of the roof had caved in from the weight of the snow.  We found a small shovel and I opened a couple of windows and shoveled the snow from inside the building.  Then I got as many big garbage bags as I could find and cut them open and covered up the filing cabinets and computers.  This took up pretty much of our day at work. 

When we went home that evening, once again, we were pretty much the only car out on the roads.  But we both noted how every liquor store and bar on the way home had their parking lots cleared of all 18 inches of snow.  The same could not be said for the United Building. 

Crowding The Season

As I type this post at 1:15 in the afternoon, the temperature is 51 degrees.  Keep mind it's still the middle of January.  That having been said, when I went to Meijers this morning for their BOGO sale, there were shorts and flip-flops out in full force.  Hand to heaven, people were wearing shorts and flip-flops when it was only 50 degrees.  I just stared at those crazy people in disbelief.  

Flashback Friday

When I spray on my Calvin Klein Obsession perfume today, I think back to my favorite perfume from way, way back in the day -- Jontue.  It was one of the top frangrances from Revlon back in the day.  

I wore it every day.  I would even spray it in my bedroom to keep the scent around me.  I remember getting a lot of compliments on it back in the day. 

I did a quick a quick Google search and found out that you can still buy it today.  I'll pass for now, as I'm still content to wear my Obsession.  But it's good to know I can still get Jontue if I want it.  

Public Service Announcement

Dear car drivers that I encounter on my way to work every morning:

I've noticed a very disturbing pattern on my morning commute to work.  As I get within one half mile of the entrance ramp to the east bound expressway, I encounter idiot drivers that are trying to get over to get onto the ramp. 

Let me list some facts.  The road that we are on is two lane. You all that try to get onto the expressway know from the time that you pull out of their driveway that you will need to be in the left-hand lane in order to get onto the expressway ramp.  Yet you still wait until you get a quarter of a mile or less away from the expressway ramp to turn on your turn signal and attempt to get over to the outside lane.  This is not something new that is just happening.  This happens every single morning. 

Please, please, please put down your effin cell phones and pay attention and be in the turn lane at least a half mile before the expressway ramp so you can easily get on and not hold up traffic for everybody else.   

Your fellow commuter, 
Puddin

New Shoe Wednesday

Today was a great day.  The first half of the day was very hectic - I had four meetings today - all before 11:30.  The first meeting was at 7:00, and the other three were back to back later on in the morning.  But I digress.  As I said, today was a great day.  Not only did I get to go out to dinner tonight with not one but two very handsome gentlemen from Mexico (sales reps from work) but my very cool ASICS tennis shoes came in the mail today.  I'm looking forward to wearing them tomorrow on my trips out to the factory.  I'll let you know how they feel.

Another Update From The Compound Infirmary

I am very happy to report that after two plus weeks of us three having the flu, we are finally feeling better.  To quote my Sweet Mother this morning, "We feel better than we have all year."  And she speaks the truth.

We have our appetites back, and we don't feel as tired, and we aren't coughing as much as we have been. 

It's been a very long ordeal, but I'm thankful for the Lord answering my prayers for healing for my parents.  I would have gladly taken on the flu again if it would have meant that they would have gotten better quicker.  

Thank you all, faithful readers, for your emails during this ordeal.  I hope to heaven we don't have go through this again. 

Thank You, Courier Journal

Yesterday morning when I got up, the Old Man was all pissed off.  Once again, the paper boy didn't give us the TV section that we are supposed to get with the Sunday paper.  We pay 25 cents a week extra for this section.  In the past year and a half since we've had to pay extra for this service, yesterday was the 8th time that we did not have the TV section in the paper.  

Believe me when I tell you I did not hesitate to call the Courier Journal and go off about it.  Within an hour, they had delivered us another full Sunday paper with our TV section.  Getting an extra set of Sunday coupon sale papers was a small price that the Courier had to pay to keep me happy. 

I Like Electronics A Little More Today

We all three stayed home from church again today so we could rest and so we wouldn't either spread or catch germs, and I have to say it was nice sleeping in.  But I digress.  As soon as I got up and poured myself a cup of coffee, I headed straight back to the computer room to fight with the damned printer some more.  When we last spoke, I had uninstalled and did a whole new reinstall on it, but didn't test it out.  To be on the safe side this morning, I went back to the Lexmark site and downloaded the updates for the drivers and software and then printed a Word document with "please let this print" typed on it, and lo and behold, it printed.  Now I can rest easier today.

I Hate Electronics

I'm still getting over the wicked flu/crap, and when I should have been laying on the bed or couch, I spent two hours today screwing around with my Lexmark printer trying (keyword) to get it to print.  I did everything I could do - I even ended up deleting it from the computer and doing a complete reinstall and it still won't work.  It will print about 1/4 of a page and then stop.  I give up.  If it wouldn't take too much energy, I'd get in the closet right behind me and load my Browning .380 and shoot the damned thing. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll get it to work. 

Brrrr Again

I'm sorry to give another weather update, but I'm still getting over the flu and today I feel worse than I have in a few days.  I'm attributing it to working the past four days without being able to take a nap like I did last week. 

For some bizarre reason, the temperature went up last night.  When I got up this morning, it was up to 21 degrees.  And it stayed at 21 most of the day. 

Back on the flu front, The 'Rents both said that they still feel like they have no energy or appetite.  But we're making ourselves eat some good old collard greens tonight, in hopes that they will give us the vitamins and nutrients we need to get back in action.

I'm going to make myself stay home tonight, tomorrow and Sunday and get as much rest as I can, in hopes of finally kicking this flu bug in the ass.   The 'Rents and I have the birthday week of vacation days later in the month that we need to be in top form for.   

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Brrrr, Again

When I got up this morning, it was zero degrees here at The Compound.  Yep, zero.  And it warmed up (pun intended) to a balmy 19 degrees today.  All I know is I was glad I had on my long johns the past two days.  And I got a chance to wear a cool new red and black stocking cap with our neighborhood high school's name and mascot on it, a PRP Panther.  

And on an unrelated note, the 'Rents and I are still trying to get our strength back from the wicked bout with the flu.  We don't cough nearly as much, and we are slowly getting our appetite back, but we all three feel zapped from it.  So we're just taking it easy. 

Brrrr

It's cold today.  Very cold.  When I got up this morning at 6:30, it was 21.  By the time I got to work, it was down to 18.  At lunchtime it was down to 15, and now at suppertime it's a whopping 12 degrees.  It's a bit windy, and I have no idea what the wind chill factor is, other than damned cold. 

A Quasi-Positive Update From The Compound Infirmary

I am happy to report that I made it to work today.  When I woke up this morning, I felt better than I had in over a week.  As the day went on, I noticed I didn't feel nearly as tired as I had during the week with the flu.  I had made up my mind that if I felt tired or started to feel sickly, I was going to go home but I made it through the whole day.  And even ate half of my #14 meal from the Happy Buddha for lunch.  That was a big, big step for me.  I don't think I'd eaten that much food in the past week put together.  I wanted to eat all of it, but was satisfied with half.  The 'Rents are feeling better and stronger, too.  They, too, have more of an appetite tonight, thank the Lord.  

We still are coughing a bit, but everyone I've talked to that has had the flu has said that the cough will linger a few weeks. Sorry for those that are around me at work.  

I think all three of us can see a distant light at the end of the long tunnel. 

Another Update From The Compound Infirmary

Today's update from the Compound Infirmary is not much different from the past few days, with the exception of me staying home from work and me not taking a nap today.  I wanted to, but never did.  I walked around the house a bit more, and bundled up and walked out to the mailbox.  Believe me I wanted a nap after that little trek. 

The 'Rents are feeling a bit stronger, and aren't coughing as much, and they sound a bit stronger. But like I've been saying, we still don't have any appetite and still feel tired.  

I'm going to try (key word) to go back to work tomorrow.  As always, I'll keep you posted. 

Another Update From The Compound Infirmary

We made it through another day with the flu, but there are some slight improvements.  First of all, we're not coughing as much.  And we ate a small official meal today.  Official meal, meaning more than one food.  We each had a small portion of bowtie pasta cooked with spinach and chicken, a half a piece of Texas toast, and two pineapple slices.  After eating it we all three felt so full like we'd just put away six plates of food at Golden Corral.  We still are incredibly tired and don't have much energy, and 90% of our day is filled with laying down.  But I know resting is the only way we'll get our strength back.   

I'm hoping for more to report in tomorrow's update, but for now, I'm going to go lay back down. 

Another Update From the Compound Infirmary

There's not many new things to report for today, other than we do feel a bit better, but all three of us are incredibly tired.  We still don't have much of an appetite, but we each had over half of a hot ham and cheese sandwich for supper last night and it tasted great.  The 'Rents appetite seems to be better than mine - they ate a scrambled egg and a piece of toast for breakfast.  But we're still just resting as much as we can and drinking lots of water and juice.  As soon as I post this entry, I think I'm going to take another nap.  

On a related note, I was talking to a friend at work yesterday and she said she's had this crap for two weeks.  She said her big mistake was going to the doctor for an upper respiratory infection - while she was there, she's positive she caught the flu from all of the tons of sick people in the waiting room.  

Update From The Compound Infirmary

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day were nothing but one big blur for me and the 'Rents.  Yesterday morning, we were up about an hour after drinking a cup of coffee and having a half a piece of toast and then we all went back to bed for awhile.  We slept till almost 1:00, and then we each took a long hot shower and put on clean, germ-free pajamas, and then we got settled back down in our respective chairs.  We all tried to eat a little bit of something for supper, but once again, we still didn't have an appetite.  Then once again, we got settled back down in our chairs, where we all stayed until we went to bed before 10:00.  

I was able to get to work today, and thank goodness the plant was shut down and there was only a skeleton crew in today, so it was very very quiet.  And on the way home this evening, I stopped and got couple more boxes of Kleenax, a giant can of Lysol, and a big container of Clorox anti-bacterial wipes.  Tomorrow, we're going to spray down everything we've come in contact with this past week.  We'll probably end up spraying each other.

Happy New Year

The 'Rents and I were in bed by 9:30 last night, and slept till after 9:00 this morning.  We're thankful we were able to get some sleep and rest.  With the three of us having the flu on the first day of the year, the other 364 days can only get better from here.