The New Adventures of Linus and Snoopy

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

For What It’s Worth - 63 Days and Counting

Baseball

Last night the Kansas City Royals blew out the San Francisco Giants 10-0 starting with a 7 run second inning that was the decisive blow to clinch the game for KC. Jake Peavy imploded allowing 2 runs and leaving the game in the second inning with the bases loaded and only one out. That was all the Royals needed to pile on more runs before finally ending the devastating attack with a 7-0 lead that the Giants had no hope of recovering from. This victory allows the final showdown for Game 7 tonight in KC. Game 7 has predominately been won by the home team as history shows, so San Francisco has their work cut out for them tonight as they face off for one last game of the 2014 season. It hopefully will be a close and exciting game tonight to end the long season that began way back in April.

Comedians

I’m listening to Richard Pryor of course with my earbuds at the job. I don’t think anyone today can get away with anything close to what Richard did back then. He was never even close to being politically correct. Pryor told it like it really was. He was openly honest about his life, martial problems, drug abuse, and social situations. Brutally honest. I can’t name anyone now-a-days who can compare with being so open and honest with his audience. He was hands down the number one stand up comic there was with only Robin Williams coming so close in comparison. Two comedians who left way before their time. We all are better off having experienced their comedy and genius. Heaven must be a pretty funny place these days.

Simple Joys of Life & Words of Wisdom

When you are dead, you don’t

know you are dead. It is

difficult only for the others.

It is the same when you are

stupid.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

For What It’s Worth 63 days and Counting

Retirement

Well, yesterday I drafted and submitted my official Notice of Retirement Letter to the USAF so they can start the Personnel Action to get that all in place. Yea! I guess there is no going back now! (yeah, like that might happen!). Jan 2, 2015 can’t get here fast enough. I will miss some of my friends I have made over the years, but that does not mean I can’t keep in touch with those peeps somehow. With so mush electronic media out there, it is hard not to keep in touch. Now I need to figure out when to have my retirement celebration luncheon and get that scheduled. It will be immediately after the holidays so I guess I need to have it either before or after that timeframe because most peeps will be out of the office for the holidays. I guess I have a little time to figure that out but a couple of friends who don’t live in the area want to attend it, so I gotta decide what day pretty soon. Decisions, decisions… :)

Departed Friends

I have had some friends who have passed away in the last 15 years or so and it is sad to know that they won’t be here to help celebrate with us, because some of them were involved n helping me move forward in my career. I would of never gotten to where I am now if it was not for some of these people.

Mr Lynn Ramsey who won me over from hating him to loving him and becoming part of his family. Thanks Lynn for having me Plan my Day and Working my Plan. I will always remember your smile and childish giggle. I wish you were here.

Mr Bernard Sinclair, my friend Barney and my brother. I always remember your friendship and your “Why Not?” attitude. I remember that one night feeling good over in Bruce’s music studio helping him record background vocals and later as we sat outside at In-N-Out Burger eating and I told you, “It don’t get any better than this!” We will always have that night and so many other times we shared. I hope you will be looking down and smiling that smile of yours. I love you my brother and wish you were here to share in this celebration, Ol’ Buddy!

Mr Luis Rosas… Luis, my mentor, my coworker, my friend. The last time I saw you was in Tucson and I was in a happy time in my life back in 2010 I believe. You loved my current situation and you smiled that broad smile of yours which was always a welcomed site. Your sudden passing last year was an unexpected shock to me which I’ll never forget. I miss you my friend, your words of wisdom, your kindness and your laugh! You were loved by many and you are missed. God speed, Luis!

Great Quotes and Words of Wisdom

When thinking about life remember this:

No amount of guilt can solve the past

and no amount of anxiety

can change the future.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb

Monday, October 27, 2014

For What It's Worth 64 Days and Counting

Baseball in October

Last night the San Francisco Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals 5-0 to move to a 3-2 lead in the Major League Baseball World Series Finals. The outstanding pitching from Madison Bumgarner was an historical event as he shutout the Royals throwing 84 strikes in 117 total pitches, the first shutout in the World Series Final since 2003. The series moves back to Kansas City for the remainder of the Fall Classic series and Game 6 is scheduled for Tuesday night at 5PM Pacific time. You know where we will be at game time! :)

Autumn Colors

Living in California near the beach does has it disadvantages such as no color changing of leaves into their autumn splendor. You need to go inland such as to the foothills just before you get into the mountains to see indigenous trees such as oak, maple and the such. It is a nice excuse to get out for a day trip to enjoy the scenery. It usually is a annual trek for us but I am doubting it happening this year due to certain financial constraints. Maybe in early December we can have a short road trip out that way just to enjoy the autumn colors for the day. We are hoping to be in New England next year at this time to see what all the commotion is about regarding Vermont and the autumn color show. I am dreading the automobile gridlock that I have heard so much about.

Halloween

Since moving into my current flat (apartment) 2 years ago, I have never been home on Halloween to hand out candy. When we had our house in El Segundo we looked forward to doing so because all of the kids were always so polite. They all would say thank you as there parents waited anxiously at the sidewalk for their little ghouls and goblins to do their routine of saying, “Trick or Treat” and hold out their little plastic Jack-O-Lanterns. Sometimes the little ones would freeze at the door and not say a thing, so I would just stand there and look at them and tell them, “What do you say?” If they were still frozen in their tracks I would tell them, “You’re supposed to say Trick or Treat. You could always tell the rookies looking a bit lost for words but they were all so cute, the little ones especially were adorable. I don’t anticipate being home this year again since it falls on a Friday this year. I did think about getting Snoopy a little prison outfit for the little fugitive, but she does not go for too much of the costume wearing. She just isn’t that kind of pooch, but you never know? :)

Famous Quotes and Words of Wisdom

My boss hates it when I shorten his name to Dick,

Especially when his name is Joe.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb

Friday, October 24, 2014

For What It's Worth 67 Days and Counting

Game 3
Game 3 of the World Series will be played tonight in San Francisco hosted by the Giants, who are an even 1-1 games with the Kansas City Royals. The Royals have been unstoppable in this year’s playoffs until they ran into the Giants in the World Series. I am now rooting for the Giants, but would like to see it go for the entire seven game series just to see more baseball being played. The fall classic has always been one of my favorite playoff scenarios of sports along with hockey and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I do enjoy watching football, but for the past several years I really haven’t watched a lot of it likeI used to. I just have not had the desire to waste an entire Sunday watching football games. That could change after I retire, but you never know. I am looking forward to some more good baseball, that’s for sure!

Led Zeppelin

I have some DVDs loaded onto my Mac which I can watch whenever I am bored here at work. I have a few musical groups in concert downloaded such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and the like. I am currently viewing a live recording of Led Zeppelin from back in the early 1970s. How young they all looked back in their prime. You can kinda tell how far into the 70s the recordings go due to their wardrobe and how it progressed as the years went by. They were way ahead of their time with Jimmy Page playing his guitar with a bow, which is normally used with a stand up string instrument such as a cello or stand up bass. Even today, several decades later, you really don’t see much of that happening or any new experimentation with musical instruments being tried by any new artists. I guess some musician will come along someday and do something experimental and risky but I haven’t seen much of that happening unfortunately. Has anyone even come close to experimental playing like Page or Jimi Hendrix in the past several decades? I haven’t seen anyone who even slightly compares to these guys.

Famous Quotes and Words of Wisdom

People who avoid commitment are people who know just what a big thing it is.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

For What It's Worth 69 Days and Counting

I sit here in my cube wondering what to do next. What am I forgetting to do in regards to my retirement? I am afraid that something forgotten will rear it’s ugly head and cause a last minute panic to rush and complete some tasking. What exactly am I forgetting to accomplish? It is an eerie feeling in the back of my head not knowing what was forgotten. I hope by the time I realize it there is ample time to get it completed.

Game 1

Game 1 of the World Series last night was a romp. The visiting San Francisco Giants dominated the host team Kansas City Royals by a score of 7-1, breaking KC’s eight game postseason winning streak. Madison Bumgardner (aka MadBum) pitched a great game and was supported by some good fielding and defense as well as some strong offensive play. Hunter Pence fouled back a perfect pitch for him to hit out of the park but then followed that up with a home run on the very next pitch. Game 2 is tonight with KC hosting once again.

Friends

We all have lots of friends, but how many really good friends do we have? I would rather have really god friends than a bunch of them that have no idea who I am. I have many good friends I still keep in contact with from grade school as well as high school. My college friends were quite limited since I was working full time at the same time I was attending college. Then there are also all the friends I made while in the military. If you had to pick only 10 close friends that you could have, who would be on your close friend list? Would I even make it onto your close friend list?

Where I currently live, in the South Bay area, I would say I only have a handful of friends, and only a few of them would make it onto my close friends list. Why is that? I guess I can see through phony friends, and I really do not need any of them in my life at this time. Many of my local friends have moved to other locations or maybe it was I that moved away. Some of my closest friends locally have also died for some strange reason. Some of my friends from the work place have retired also, and they are geographically in another location. Some of my other friends from the job always lived in another location, like the friends I made in Colorado or even in London over in the UK. In my career field, you end up doing a lot of travel for work and making friends wherever you go. Someday I hope to run across them again in my travels.

I also have friends that I communicate via electronics such as email, texting and of course our blog posts. I have friends back home in Illinois that I communicate with almost on a daily basis through the new media that has come about in the past 20 years or so. It is so much easier to keep in touch with so many others now a days with all the access we have to the various electronic sources and instant media just at our fingertips. Those who choose not to keep in touch will make up excuses rather than put any effort into staying connected. Who is so desperate to keep those peeps in our lives? Not me, that’s for sure!

Good close friends are the best to have. I’ll take less friends and for them to be true friends rather than to have an auditorium full of fake ones.

Famous Quotes and Words of Wisdom

I don’t care how attractive you think you look,

If you have an ugly heart, you’re ugly.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

For What It's Worth - 71 Days and Counting

Disabled Access

Did you know that if you are disabled that you can get free access into all National Parks as well to Federal Recreational Lands? All you have to do is apply for an All Access Pass, either online or via the old fashioned USPS (Snail) mail. Remember the postal service? Anyway, you apply for it and it is good for your lifetime. No need to get it renewed annually, it is free and good forever! It also gives you 50% off camping fees in all USNPS campgrounds. We also have free access to all California State Parks via basically the same process. Once you are issued the Access Pass, it is good for free access into all California State Parks for your lifetime. It is too good a deal to pass up and has come in very handy so far during some of our past road trips.

Postseason Baseball

Tonight the San Francisco Giants are in Kansas City to play the Royals in Game 1 of the World Series Championship. This best of 7 games series begins this afternoon as the red hot Royals, who hasn’t lost a game yet in the postseason by winning 8 straight games, host the Giants who has won the MLB championship twice out of the last 4 years. The Royals haven't been in the fall classic since 1985, when they won it all! The Royals definitely have built up a lot of momentum this postseason, but now they will be facing the Giants who has formed a mini dynasty of sorts controlling the National League teams pretty handily, except for maybe the St. Louis Cardinals. It should be a hard fought and interesting series to say the least, and may the best team win.

Flying Pigs

This was an interesting past weekend as we babysat a coworker’s pet potbellied pig named Twiggy. Twiggy was once a cute little piglet but the corporation has expanded since those days of long ago. She now must be tipping the scale at around 100 pounds or so making any handling of her quite a chore. Snoopy was evicted of her outside area and temporarily replaced by a chubby pig of sorts. This animal has been spoiled by her owner for many years and to get her to do anything we wanted was a major accomplishment and a monumental feat just within itself. Yesterday was the last day of the pig boarding as Twiggy went home with her owner. Snoopy was glad to have her outside area back under her dominance and where she could dominate her domain once again. She is still trying to figure out where the strange smells came from. :)

Simple Joys of Life & Words of Wisdom

The brain is the most outstanding organ.

It works 24 hours, 365 days, right from your birth

until you fall in love.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Thursday, Oct 16, 2014

For What It’s Worth - 75 Days and Counting

Well, today started out lousy and after receiving some good information recently, it has turned around quite a bit. I am feeling 100% better after receiving my information. My stress level has been reduced measurably and I am ready to start the weekend! Let the revelry begin! :)

Pig in a Poke

Well, this weekend we will have a guest visitor, my coworker Lara’s pet potbellied pig “Twiggy.” Snoopy doesn’t know it yet, but there will be a visitor squatting in her outside area for a few days. My coworker is having her house tented for termites in order to sell her house and she needed someplace to house her pig. So, I offered her Snoopy’s outside play area to keep her in instead of her paying @ $80.00 a day to have it boarded at a pet facility. I hope there is not backlash or any drama regarding this act of kindness. I need to ensure the pig cannot get out by using some plastic lattice I have available to use as a gate to block off that area. I know Snoopy can climb the lattice since she has done so in the past, but her pig can’t accomplish that kind of athletic feat. I hope all goes well and the pig does not escape or make a bunch of noise to disturb any of the neighbors. If so, we might be having lots of bacon and various other pork products for breakfast on Sunday! :)

Baseball

Well, last night’s NLCS game was a bit more exciting that the last few have been. Unfortunately the team I was rooting for, the Cardinals, came out on he short end of the stick due to some sloppy play by the first baseman on a couple of routine plays. I have a feeling he won’t be starting in the next do or die game coming up tonight. Whoever wins the National League Pennant is the team I’ll be rooting for regardless. I was just hoping it would be the Cards again this year. Sorry family members, I know you are hating me now. Apparently it is an unwritten rule that if you are a Cubs fan you must hate the Cardinals, but I rarely follow the rules. :)

Simple Joys of Life & Words of Wisdom

Life is too short to stress yourself with people

who don’t even deserve to be an issue in your life.

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Snoopy asks that you please… “Bark Less and Wag More!”

Until next time… Be Good!

- cb