Times are TOUGH!

Last Friday I went to see my stock broker. I usually do this stuff online but he was paying me for a change so I had to go see him.

I keyed the address into good old Map quest and I thought "Great! Out in front of the mall. THAT will really help narrow down where to find him in the mall! STUPID MAP QUEST!" Here see for yourself... (click pic to embiggen if you wish. (yeah, I make up words, leave me alone!))

I mean right smack dab in the middle of the road. C'mon!!

Well after a few laps around the building. I called him again and he said he had seen me drive by three times and look south, can I see him waving. Oh Shit! There he was! I had been avoiding eye contact with him which turned out to be really embarrassing in the end 



My Broker!

WOW. Retractions all the way around.... Map Quest is dead on! He was in the road! I'm sorry Map quest...

MMMMMmmm, I shore do loves me some humble pie y'all!

I HAVE THE POWER!

My wallet was stolen last November. The credit cards were replaced within 10 days.

I am still waiting for a new a drivers licence. I was in Illinois then. I got online and sure enough I could get a duplicate issued and mailed ONLY to my home from the website. Makes sense and no problem-o because then my son could send it to me up north.

Ironically I had to wait for a credit card to be re-issued so I could use it on the website to pay the fee for a duplicate licence. :)

So in December I still don't have a licence so I check my credit card statement and the modest payment to the state of Texas never hit so I assumed I somehow or another did not complete the website correctly. You know some silly like not hitting the confirm button AFTER hitting the submit button. (Being a UNIX guy the plebeian "Are you sure?" thing of the GUI baby universe often throws me off! ;) )

So I hit the Texas  "Department of Public Safety" (State Police) website again and ran through the process again looking hard for the "confirm: or the "are you really, really, REALLY sure" button and I am pretty sure I got it right this time.

So along comes January and still no licence (several blog posts detailing many Christmas travel adventures with no valid ID will be written, this I SWEAR!)   So I get online again and I get a big red box saying call this phone number. Well it turns out I have been flagged for trying to get two drivers licences online and now I have to come in person to get it.

No problem, I moved home over Christmas so a in situ meeting is not the issue it would have been in Nov. or Dec. So I head on over.

The line stretches out the door into the parking lot. thank goodness it was a nice Texas day, in Illinois this line could be deadly (literally). When my spot in line gets to the door I see this GEM of government think....



A tough call; laugh or cry? I chose hysterical cackling followed by sobbing in the shower when I got home.

At first I thought I could have made an appointment and not stood in line?  Damn! THEN the stunning reality, the full soul crushing weight of the sign sinks in fully.... Even when you have an appointment you STILL have to stand in this line before your appointment will be "honored".     

As a man who thrives on efficiency I begin to shiver, then giggle then drool while still giggling. As a defense mechanism from such madness my mind detaches and floats away into a safer happier place. Why my mind chose to "vacation" in an old vision of the LSD inspired movie "Yellow Submarine" I may never fully understand. (Click play on the song below and keep reading, its a great sound track for the surreal tale to follow)

Only after vomiting off the edge of the sidewalk do I begin to regain contact with reality and as my super-ego reconnects with the wet ware I catch myself mumbling "we all live... in.. a..yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine". Whoa!

I was getting many dirty looks from my fellow line inmates for vomiting but as I wiped my mouth I simply stated, "You did not think I was going to give up my place in line for that did you?" 

The dirty looks become glares.

Never one to back down in the face of reason I just growl, "You folks just better pray I don't have to poo before this is over" 

No more eye contact is made with me. I have firmly establish my alpha-ness over this line herd!    

Anyway, I eventually work my way up the head of the line.  

Sidebar... Back in the 90's I fell in hate with our Governor here at the time, you may have heard of him. George W Bush. He signed a law requiring all Texans to give their thumbprints like convicted criminals in order to receive a drivers licences. The Prints are digitally encoded onto a magnetic strip on the back of the licence so they can swipe you license and make sure you and the licence match.

Hi big brudder! Wanna play some catch?   I realize I have these old fashioned ideas about the Constitution and right to privacy and such so I was outraged. Me and perhaps four others (by my count)

Back to the present story... deep in the belly of the beast.... I reach the lady with the computer! "Ok sir, lost licence, no problem, I just need your social security card?" 

"Ooooo, I don't have it on me."

"I am sorry sir, you will have to get it, we need it to identify you" 

"OH!", tapping my side of her computer monitor, "You have my picture right here don't you"?

"I am sorry sir, I will need your social security card to identify you."

Pointing at the thumbprint reader "Uh, you have my thumbprints in that system there and here is a reader, you can't match that? After all that is why fearless leader Bush made us submit them right?" (sadly noting there can actually be benefits to evil which is why I suppose so many sheep accept it)

"Sir, I have to have your Social Security card to identify you."

"Do you know how easy it is to fake one of those? Do you know how long I stood in this line? Whereas the data you have in this computer is secure and I don't have to stand in line again"

"Sir, I have to have your Social Security card to identify you"

"So you are saying that if I was a mass murderer and the state police (you!) arrested me right now I would be executed as John Doe because I don't have a social Security card?  

Silence.

In exasperation at the prospect of another day in line I simply say "FUCK!" and turn to walk away.
In that snotty tone only a public facing civil "servant" can use she ordered me to "watch my language"
"No ma'am! I still live in this funny place called America and I actually have the right to be rude and crude. So FUCK!!"

I'm not proud but it needed to be said... much like lancing a boil. It ain't pretty but it's utterly necessary.

OK! Irony tiiiiiiiiiiiime! Are you ready? 'cause this here is the kicker!

If I had not double submitted on the DPS (State Police) website I would have had my licence without showing my SOCIAL SECURITY CARD! Ponder on that a bit people! Let that sink in.......Yeah, I know right!?

So yesterday when I posted a much shorter and less humorous version of this rant on facebook I closed with "Rick Perry has been Governor of this state for 12 years, if this is the best our state agencies can do after 12 years of his "leadership" then he has no business being president"

Today he withdrew from the race! CNN Story Here.


BWUH HA HA HA! Can you feel my power young jedi's? I did not know I had it either but you people better start being nicer to me.

{waving three fingers....} "Its very warm in here ma'am; You want to remove your top..."

Chefs SUCK

Here is a post I meant to make anyway but another bloggers post about prepared food got me motivated...

Erika's residency in Springfield is nearly up and houses don't move that fast these days so I moved out Nov 1 (3 or 4 th actually and I STLL have stuff there! {sigh} being a nerd does have its downsides)

So I moved in with a new room mate, a working chef. As I moved in he began to unceremoniously go through my boxes marked "food" and throw most of it into a plastic tub labeled food bank. 

"Rob, I have very few rules here but your gas station food brings dishonor to my kitchen!" (exaggeration of course)

He gave me a very short list of foods I was allowed to buy and I was starting to think I had made an awful mistake moving in here. Then he swung open the refrigerator doors and there lay before my eye was an oasis! I felt fear as some sects of Christianity claim you get your own personalized heaven after the rapture.  This would be mine. When I saw this fridge I thought I had been killed (By an angry chef chucking 5 for a dollar mac and cheese into a plastic bin and had gone to my personal heaven

His fridge was full of stackable half gallon bins some with spouts some with little fold open doors. They were nearly refriderator depth and stacked neatly upon each other. They had lables like "Pulled Pork", "Baby Rays 'secret' BBQ Sauce", " Pork Chops, "Sirloin, "tender loin, "Roast beef, "Bacon, "Sausage (links), "Sausage Patties, Then in grease pencil the last "stocked on" date.

Whoa! Hello gluttoney have you met nerdy organizatrional skills? I knew you would like each other!

Then off course neat stacks of sliced chesses;  pepper jack, colby, mozarella, cheddar!

Then he explaimed that one of my duties as his room mate was to help him eat food before it goes bad. He is really sick of throwing out food that is not appropriate for the food bank.



Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -
What a fucking MORON!

AS I lay on the floor cunvulsing mildly and choking on saliva my sadness at no longer having hot women room mates began to fade...Just a little though; Everyone (should) know the male hierarchy of needs for happiness... sex THEN food THEN machines - DUH! (Oh that is why this is the most erotic picture on earth! )  

As Kool aid would say - "OOOooooooooh yeah!"

 As usual I drifted off track... I have been having a really good record lately on weight loss! I was immediatly scared that access to so much incredible food in nearly unlimited quantites was really going to screw up my progress.

It did not!

Terry would actually prepare me meals and I would not INHALE them! I would portion them up and eat them over a day or two though. My weight loss continued while I continued to eat, meal after meal, the best food I have ever had over a continuous period in my life! It was like "sunday dinner" with the extended family as a child but 21 meals a week! (flashback! post roast, mashed potaotes and grandma's noodles and home made dinner rolls! (Damn, more drool in the keyboard) but terry's left overs brougth home were that good!)

The first morning I was there Terry asked if I wanted some coffee as I dressed for work. "Sure buddy!"

"Cream and sugar?"

"Yeah!" 

I sat at the kitchen table and nearly chocked on my coffee! It was the The Best Coffee I have ever had! "My god Terry!! OK, so what kind of "chefs seccret do you use to make your coffee so good!"

"Huh? It's just Folgers and a Mr. Coffeee"

"Huh? BULL!"

We may say "cream and sugar" in our cofee or tea. Have you ever had real life actual HEAVY CREAM and SUGAR in a cup of coffee! I have not and grew up on a  farm (I have heard you can get a cup of coffee like this at Starbucks but being hetero I have never been to a Starbucks)

While I ate all the gormet food I wanted everyday I continued to loose weight.

Then I packed up and left springfield for Dallas. I got caught in a blizzard and spent a day in a rest stop (full post forthcoming!) I started eating gas station food again! Burritoes and 2 dogs for 2 bucks etc. I had no problem with portion control but I would consume the portions is shorter order. I begandto be hungry too often again. Now back in Dallas with a fridge full of "normal" food I am not gaining but weight loss has stopped and it is a struggle again. 

My hypothesis is that a a very good satisfying meal will alleviate hunger pain. I am starting to think That overall "satisfaction" plays a significant role in satiety. Perhaps as significant a role as volume.  

When I Had an omelets for breakfast with onion caramelized in butter and bacon fat, and then the main omelet cooked in bacon fat I would only eat a fraction of it and not get hungry again. Then my blackend roast beef sandwich layered with gooey pepper jack cheese, homemade mustard and homemade mayo (OMG Who ever knew mayo had flavor and was not just a throat lubricant!? I sure as hell did not!) 

My urge for afternoon snacking was gone! 

For people who struggle with weight, give this a shot, eat a small but extremely delicious meal. See if the average period from meal time to begineing of hunger pains of hunger pains has a linear relationship with quality of eaten (defined by flavor!) vs quantity!  

Oh yeah, the tittle, so why do chefs suck? 'Cause when you move out and have to fend for your self again, food is just never the same. Terry, oh Terry, how do you make that omelet so fluffy that if it did not have meat for weight it would float away! The egg portion would melt like cotton candy leaving the onions, peppers and saudage! I'm jonesing Terry, I need my fix! {Wailing} Oh Terry don't hold out on me this way!