Past Death Do We Spam

What's a guy gotta do to stop getting junk mail? Well it appears dying aint quite enough. My Mother-in-law recieved this in the mail the other day.



Make sure you don't bring the pesky kids but Zombies or Cremation Urns are required. The invitation expires in 2 weeks. I guess it doesn't matter how long it's been since you've expired. So exhume the Ex and come on down.

Not sure which is creepier, that they would send this out or that the post office would deliver it.

Simply Christmas

The Santa Fire Truck is a yearly tradition. They throw candy and Santa takes the kid's Christmas lists.



This is my Moms Christmas Village. We go to their house every Christmas Eve and exchange gifts.



One of our cats amongst what was the explosion known as Christmas Morn. Not sure what it is but theres something about this cat I dont trust.



We havent had a white Christmas in 63 years here. This pic is the day after Christmas. It started on Christmas Day about 5 PM but I still dont consider it a White Christmas. It is quite lovely tho. I had to have college girl at work at 6 am. Yawwwwwnn.



Little A and the dog enjoying the snow.



The older girls playing Just Dance 2 on Wii. If they find out I posted this they will gut me like a fish.

Have a Simply Suthern Christmas

I want to say Merry Christmas to all those who have made my first year Blogging so enjoyable. Thank you for you for allowing me to follow you and for returning the luv thru comments.

Our Tree





My Christmas Wish is for God to Bless you and your families.
Merry Christmas to All

Happy Something or Other, As You Choose

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted Gregorian calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message.

The Sun Sets On This Job

Here is the Plant I worked at. It was a pretty nice place in the middle of nowhere;



It is in the Harquahala Valley just outside Phoenix, AZ surrounded by mountains. It is the driest place I have ever been. Still it has a raw rugged beauty. Wish I more room to post more pics but I liked these.





This is Saddleback Mountain, Not to be confused with Brokeback mountain.



I took a lot of pictures of cacti. Aint that how you spell it? I was surprised that most of them looked pretty rough. They seem to like growing on hillsides. This one seemed a bit shy.



And so the Sun Sets on this job with bittersweet feelings.

I Got A Sweet Suite

This is going to be short on words as we depart at 5:50 in the morn.

The sandblasters didnt have the site ready so I couldnt set up to pull samples.

I sat in the hotel room today and worked on my latest project. It is coming along nicely, I think. See.




I didnt get out today except for lunch so I dont have many pics but I did get some room pics and an AZ sunrise. I caught it just as it peaked over the mountain. Then I realized that everyone on the busy street below could see me in the window. OOPS!




My suite is great. It is prolly the nicest I have ever had except I am all alone in it.

There's A Reason They Don't Call Me Smooth

Well, Actually there are several. And that was before todays fiasco.

The day started good. I got up, Showered and shaved. I left home for the airport on time. Caught the right shuttle. Checked in and moved right thru security with nary a glitch. All things good pretty much ended there.

I waited till a few minutes to loading to go to the restroom. As I am heading in I hear, " Sir, Sir!!" I turn around. Sir Thats the ladies room. I look up. I had turned in about 2 feet too quick.

I get on the plane. I wanted an aisle seat but I can live with a window seat. Two things didnt work well with this. This was a 4hr and something flight and the very nice lady on the aisle just had knee replacemant and barely got in the seat. Soooo, My teeth were floating on arrival. I did find the correct gender bathroom first shot this time.

I had found and scheduled a shuttle to pick me up. I had a minimal wait but as I was getting in the van the dude slammed the door on my foot. It aint broke but it still hurts.

The shuttle dropped me off at the hotel and left. I walked in to a truly nice receptionist and it was actually her face on the Hotel website. Things is lookin up. Reservations for Simply Suthern? Uh, Crickets. None here. I called the advanced crew. Oh we forgot to tell you we changed. SWEEEEEET, Thanks guys. Well, Like I said the receptionist was really nice and called the other hotel and the manager came and got me in his pickup.

When I got the the correct hotel they declined my card. What?? Seems I ran out of credit. Well I fixed that, Kinda.

I aint ate since 7 AM and on my watch it was 5 PM so I thought Hey. Since I have no wheels I will run across 8 lanes of traffic to the "In N Out Burger. I found out after ordering that they dont take my card. OK so I pay with my other. Dining in? Yep. Well here is your ticket. Your order number is 13. Great. Well I aint real superstitious but the way the day has gone I was a bit nervous to play Frogger back across those eigth lanes. But I survived.

So that is my day. Tomorrow, if I wake up and they want me on site I will be climbing on scaffolding in my harness. I hope today is done and over.

Sweet Dreams Y'all

Go West Young Man

It's cold here. Not in the single digits but still it is rather uncomfortable for southerners.

So what do you do?




You answer the phone. Hello, Do you have the time to bring your scooper out to Phoenix to pull some samples? How fast do you need me?? Can you be here Thursday? Oh!! heck yea!!

So it's time for another trip. I get to fly this time. I am a bit excited. This will be as far west as I have ever been. Mid 70's during the day will be quite a treat compared to the highs in the mid 40's on my last trip. I will be on call the first day so I will be working in the hotel room. I might just set up out by the pool. It's a dry heat right?

I will be a few miles outside Phoenix. They usually dont stick power plants real close to town. This is the first trip I have been on where I dont get my own car. I will have to catch a cab for the first time in my life. I know, deprived huh? LOL

I have a question. How much for a 20 mile trip? Do you tip the driver? I dont typically tip the pilot.

So hopefully I will have something to write about from the trip. Hopefully it wont be about me getting groped by the TSA.




I heard this last week "The TSA pat down is so thorough that the American Medical Association has determined that you only need one every 5 years".

What Flicks Your Bic??

The Thanksgiving Meal didnt do it.

Getting the tree set up didnt do it either.

Shopping on Saturday after Thanksgiving wasnt even close.

Then Wednesday afternoon it hit me. It's Christmas time. What was the thing that set off the Christmas in me? I bit into a yogurt covered pretzel and the flavor rang them old jingle bells in my brain. It was kinda odd how it happened. Then this morning it was reinforced when I heard Alabama sing "Christmas In Dixie". When I got to work I fired up Porky Pig's " Blue Christmas". If you've never heard it, it is worth your while. LOL

What's the things that suddenly says it is Christmas time to you??