Trouble Uninstalling a Program? Try This!

I somehow managed to download that crummy Ask Toolbar into my programs. As I recall, it came automatically with some other free program and the idea was to just uninstall it afterward. Well, I never could get it to uninstall. In fact, if I went into my Add/Remove Programs folder and clicked on it, I got no pop-up box of any kind. No options to do anything. Well, low and behold, Microsoft has come out with a free program called “Fix It” that will remove just about any stubborn program. And it runs online only, meaning that Fix It doesn’t get loaded to your programs folder. You just go to the MS website and use it whenever you need it. And it works fantastic with just about any Windows OS going back to 2003. Give it a try:


http://support2.microsoft.com/mats/program_install_and_uninstall

"Hot Rod Lincoln" (the fun way!)

Bill Kirchen was the guitarist for Commander Cody and Hid Lost Planet Airmen. He still performs all over the place and is still a wild man. Nobody has more fun playing guitar than Bill. This version of the song had several riffs from other well-known songs thrown in. It's always a crow pleaser.

1926 Ford Pickup - My Dream Truck

1927 was a transition year for Ford Motor Company as they switched over to Model A from Model T vehicles. Some vehicles from that year have elements of both automobile types. So 1926 was really the last year you could depend on the Model T actually being entirely Model T. I thought they went out with a bang. To me, the 1926 Model T was easily the best looking Model T and probably the best made one as well. It was also the first year that Ford introduced some colors. Up till then, every Ford was painted black at the factory. One of the nicest color schemes they came out with in '26 was green & black trim. I really like the pickup trucks from this year best. If you had one with a woody bed, it just doesn't get any prettier than this:

By 1926, Ford already had options for electric windshield wipers, heater (it got heat from the manifold), and electric start. The only thing you really need to modernize it and make it an everyday driver is disc brakes. And when was the last time you saw a pickup with a ragtop? These looked quite nice with the top down too. The 4-cylinder motor (Ford used the same exact motor for about 20-years) got about 20 MPG and had a top speed of 45 MPH. Perfect for in town use. What more could you ask for?

You may have noticed that this one has the steering wheel on the right. Ford had a factory in Australia, and that's where this particular one came from. They drive on the left side of the road down there.

I hope to have one of these for my retirement vehicle. You can pick up a fully restored one like this on eBay for around $15,000.  In fact, if some nice rich lady wanted to buy me one for my birthday I would consider it grounds for marriage! Just saying.

Annie Oakley's Poor Doggie—Dave

I found this picture on the Internet today and thought, this poor dog (his name was actually Dave) must have been shell-shocked and spent his whole life shivering. At the same time, it's kind of funny, no? Poor Dave the dog.

"I Think It's Going to Rain Today"

By Randy Newman. One of the best songs ever written and the best use of satire ever recorded.

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to chase love away
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
Think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
To help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it's going to rain today

Using Rubber to Extract Stripped Screws

This is an excellent idea. The video is aimed at removing small screws with the help of a rubber band, but I can imagine using thicker pieces of rubber on larger screws just as easily.

Was Allen Craig Trying to Get Traded

I've been saying all year that Allen Craig was playing poorly on purpose in an attempt to get traded. He's way too good to perform that badly at the plate. I know he was ticked off that his friend David Freeze got traded (so were a lot of us!), and I don't think he was at all happy about PED-HEAD Peralta joining the team in place of Pete Kozma. And as it turns out, when he's not on steroids Peralta can't hit any better than Kozma. He's hitting just over .250 and only about .180 with runners in scoring position. Kozma always had about a .300 or better RISP and he was a better fielder than Peralta. David Freeze had a slow start and a broken thumb, but he's been really heating up the last six weeks in LA.

The Cardinals as a team have been hitting poorly ever since the departure of Mark McGwire as their hitting coach. For the three years he was in charge, the Cards had the best OBP, the most runs scored, and the second most hits in the National League. His last year in St. Louis, Mac had six Cardinal players hitting right at or over .300 and five of them had twenty or more home runs. Mac had the sweetest swing I ever saw, and there was a period of time where the young guys on the team were looking just like him at the plate, but no more. They look lost up there. Is it Mabry's fault? It may well be. But Allen Craig is so good a hitter that he could be the hitting coach on any team. For him to be looking so bad at the plate, I can only believe that he was simply not trying. Mark my words, he wanted to get traded. So now he's got his wish and will be playing with the Bo-Sox next week. How much you wanna bet he suddenly starts knocking the cover off the ball?

John Mozeliak has been the force behind this mess, trading off one great player after another while bringing cheating scum into the clubhouse. He deserved to get fired for that Peralta move. Trading Freeze was a mistake as well. Trading Joe Kelly will come back to haunt him too. We might as well give up watching the Cards for a few years. There aren't a team anymore. The chemistry is gone. At least we've got Rizzo and Abreu slugging it out in not too far away Chicago, which is right now the best home run rivalry baseball has seen in quite a while.

So long Allen Craig. You were the best thing about this team after Albert left.

Yahoobuckaroo (a discouraged fan)

Come Wander With Me

I heard this song on an old episode of The Twilight Zone the other night and was so taken with it that I googled it and found it on YouTube. From all the hits and thumbs up it got, apparently it's one of those strange eerie songs that affects a lot of people for a reason they don't quite understand. I'll post the original version below that Bonnie Beecher sang on the show and then a more modern soft rock version by Emilie Satt below it that's pretty neat.

Is Jose Abreu the Next Babe Ruth?

The White Sox completely overhauled their team during the last offseason and got rid of a bunch of dead weight while bringing a lot of new talent. The club has done a full about-face now and could even win their division before it's over. Center stage of all this is Cuban defector Jose Abreu.

Abreu is a rookie, but he's no kid at 27. He spent several years playing in the Cuban Serie Nacional league where he regularly hit near .400 and was known for his ability to hit home runs and get RBIs. He hit .453/.597/.986 with 79 runs, 93 RBI and 33 home runs in only 66 games in 2010-2011.

Abreu currently has 29 home runs and is on a pace to surpass both Babe Ruth and Roger Maris' single season records, and he may even do it in less at-bats than either of them. And in his rookie season no less. Ruth had 25 dingers going into July 1927. He had 30 by July 12th. However, the Yankees opening day wasn't until April 12th back then. Had they started April 1st the way we do now, Ruth would have had between 27 or 28 by July 1st. Abreu had 26 homers on July 1st. The White Sox played 10 more games in April than the 27 Yankees did, but Abreu spent 15 days on the DL at the end of May, and the Sox played a game on every one of those days, so by July 1st Abreu played in 5 games less than Ruth did and only had one less home run. Abreu is not only on the same pace as Ruth in 1927—he's ahead of him! Of course Ruth had one hell of a September back in '27, but Abreu has shown over his years in Cuba that he's just as capable. And did I mention that he's also great in the field?

To surpass Ruth and Maris' single season home run records as a rookie seems unimaginable, but I have a feeling this will just be a drop in the bucket compared to what Jose Abreu will do before his career is through. He's quick, strong, smart, friendly, and downright likeable. His teammates call him "Yogi" because of his imposing stature and amiable demeanor. Jose Abreu is the new face of baseball.

The Guns of Will Sonnett

This is the first episode of the series. The same YouTuber has all of them (I think) here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYT1s8V13YnF3la9TN0AXGg/search?query=Will+Sonnett

I'm not a big fan of westerns anymore like when I was a kid, but there are a couple that were so good that I still enjoy watching them, and The Guns of Will Sonnett was among the top two or three ever made. (No brag--just fact.)

Interestingly, this was the only western series that Aaron Spelling ever made. He had The Mod Squad on the air at the same time. Spelling actually produced and wrote for several good shows in the 60s and early 70s including The Smothers Brothers original show. The Rookies was probably the last really good show he made before he started putting out crap like Dynasty and Charlie's Angels. It was all downhill from there.

Now, if only somebody would upload all the episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel and Hec Ramsey!

Fish Oil & Baby Aspirin for Arthritis Relief

I have osteoarthritis in the padding (or facet joints if you want to get fancy with the terminology) of my lowest two vertebrae—the same place a lot of people my age get it. None of the over the counter pain medications have done any good for me at all. For the past year and a half I’ve had to sit down at work about every twenty minutes. I only need to sit for a minute or two and then I’m good for another twenty minutes. Sound familiar?

 

About a month ago I got the results back of a routine blood test. Everything was great on it with the exception that my triglycerides were a little high. (Yeah, I don’t eat very healthy foods most of the time.) My doctor said that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start taking fish oil because it will bring down those triglyceride levels in bad boys like me.

 

After a month of taking 1200mg of fish oil in a soft release gel every morning, I don’t know how my triglycerides are doing, but my arthritis is suddenly hardly bothering me at all! The doctor said nothing about the possibility of this happening, but I couldn’t think of anything else about my lifestyle that had changed. I figured I’d Google “fish oil” and “arthritis” to see if anybody else had noticed these effects and found that many indeed have noticed the same thing. Some of the articles said that fish oil it works best when taken with a small dose of baby aspirin. The two somehow work together to create a super-anti-inflammatory. I had already been taking a baby aspirin every day for my heart anyway, so there was my answer.

 

I can’t tell you which brands are best because I’m new at this and have only taken one, but the one I’m taking is Nature’s Bounty in a 1200mg (1.2 grams) gel cap. I get it from Walgreens. Most of the information I’ve read says to take between 3 to 4 grams per day for arthritis. Until today I had only been taking one dose in the morning and noticed that my back would start feeling a bit tired and achy in the afternoon. Today I took an extra one at lunch, and my back felt great all day. I’m going to start taking three gel caps every day starting tomorrow.

 

I’ll leave a couple of links below where you can read more about fish oil and what it does for you. You may have noticed this Dr. Oz guy on TV talking fish oil up all the time. He considers it something of a marvel or wonder drug, and I’m inclined to agree with him. It’s good for all kinds of things including diseases of the mind like dementia. Give it a try. Don’t forget the baby aspirin in the morning too though!

 

Doctor Oz on Fish Oil--Omega 3

 

webmd.com on Fish Oil

"Newhart" - Best TV Series Finale of All-Time

Kind Couple Make Bench Out of Grieving Woman's Stillborn Baby's Crib

Nice article on Yahoo today about a woman who had bought a crib for her unborn baby. The baby, however, was stillborn. A man who makes benches was at this woman's garage sale along with his wife. They spotted the crib in the garage and asked if it was for sale, and after the mother told them about the stillbirth, they went home and made a bench from the crib and gave it to the woman as a gift. How's that for nice people!?

Yahoo Article

Making Flower and Water Gardens With Brass Instrument Bells

I stumbled upon this photo of an old broken saxophone hanging on a wall today, and I thought, Wouldn't that look great with some flowers sticking out of the horn?

Turns out I'm not the only one to have thought of it. Look at some of these neat creations people have come up with using old, broken musical instruments in gardens:

Yes, that's a piano below.

The saxophone waterfall below sells for $5,000! You could easily make one yourself for about $200.

This got me thinking about old phonograph bell horns. A lot of them were made to look like a flower and some had flowers painted on them as well:

I think some of the skinnier horns like those used on the early Edison cylinder phonographs almost look like a vase anyway. Doesn't this look like it's just begging to have a bouquet of flowers placed in there?

The Edison phonographs can be expensive though even if they aren't working. What you can sometimes find that's similar but cheaper is an old music box that's made to resemble a phonograph like this one:

Lastly, I got to thinking about the old RCA Victor phonographs that always had the picture of the dog looking at the phonograph horn as though he was wondering how sound was coming out of it. Wouldn't it be cool to have a phonograph machine like this with flowers coming out of the horn and a stuffed dog up close like he was sniffing the flowers?

File under "Random Thoughts"....

The Legend of 1900

This is a neat movie about a man who was born on a cruise ship in 1900, and he lived his entire life on that ship, never once having stepped onto dry ground. He became a piano prodigy as a young boy who just sat down at the piano one day and knew instinctively how to play. He soon became the focus of the ship's jazz band. He could play things no one had ever thought of and could write incredibly complex harmonies on the spot. People from all over the world took cruises just to hear him play. He was thought to be the best musician in the world. But he wanted no part of going on dry land and making a fortune. He refused to tour or make recordings. He did make a recording once but took the master disc after he heard it and smashed it saying he changed his mind because, "I don't want my music going anywhere without me." I thought that was very unique in storytelling. Most artists want the world to experience their artwork and want to be remembered after they're dead through their art. But if people wanted to hear this guy, they'd have to book passage and see him onboard the ship. And once he would be dead and gone his music would be completely forgotten because there were no recordings or sheet music of it. In fact, he often made up entire tunes on the spot, and they would never be played again. Only the audience that was there on that particular night would ever hear it. He probably spontaneously composed thousands of tunes throughout his life, many of them only heard one time. So his music truly never did go anywhere without him. I thought it was a very unusual kind of story. It's not very often I see such a unique approach. I don't think there are very many unique approaches left.

A Cuter Skooter

I caught this on Jay Leno's Garage yesterday. Randy Grubb styles car bodies to fit existing chassis but in this case he built six bodies to retrofit an existing line of 3-wheeled scooter. They look like the kind of toy race cars kids had back in the 1940s. They cost $25,000, but unfortunately he only made the six and will never make anymore because he likes his designs to be one of a kind and then moves on to something else. Even the six scooters are not exactly alike.

4th Grade Girl Playing Varisty Basketball

This is Jaden Newman. I guess this must be a private school she plays for because a public school wouldn't be allowed to play a 4th grader in high school. I'm impressed she can shoot as far out as she can at that age, let alone do it in a game against defenders (although the defenders aren't very good). Her dribbling is also very impressive. If she gets that first step around you, she gone. She averages 14.8 point, 7.5 assists, and 3 steals per game. Her shooting percentage is a whopping 58%!