Eight Feet Deep

Computer are so much fun. Computers are so much fun. Computers are so much fun. Computers are so much fun. You get my drift. Perhaps I can write something with a tad less sarcasm tomorrow.

“Charlie how’d your Angels get down like that? ” Joel Veitch and Elbow, “Independent Woman.” WARNING: This goes on and on ad infinitum, or maybe no warning is needed. You choose.

John Forsythe. Quite a guy from TV. Now won’t Jill Munroe be surprised? Or will she?

Today doesn’t feature what I would call springtime weather. But it is close enough.

It’s cloudy outside and windy. The weather bureau, rather their electronic station, down at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport in Nederland calls the skies “fair.” I’d say that’s fair too although I’d call the skies cloudy. Unless it is significantly different 15 miles away, then it really doesn’t matter. It’s not one of those blow-dry days where there is about 15 percent humidity, clear and the winds are blowing about 40 mph sustained that you sometimes see in the spring.

No the humidity — I like to call it the “humididity.” I don’t know why. — is 63 percent. Winds are from the Southeast at 20 mph with gusts up to 26. Now I’ve given you the weather report, goodbye.

Seriously, I am afflicted by Spring Fever. It hits me like a ton of bricks during the Spring. I get drowsy and lethargic and just want to stare out the window. So how is that different from any other day, those of you who know me might say? Well,  I also get the urge to go somewhere, it doesn’t matter where, almost. It’s kind of like I got me a “travelin’ bone,” the kind of which sung about by Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Long As I Can See The Light,” or “You Got That Right” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I’m not totally sure what a traveling bone is. I hope it’s not something dirty.

My definition is for “traveling bone:” To go somewhere, whether determined or undetermined, forthwith.

I already made a start by putting in for annual leave later this month for a week. Where I go, I have no idea. It likely won’t be far. I also plan to take another week off next month.I talked to my friend Rene last evening about coming out to visit him and Martha in El Paso. If I find myself cheap enough air fare, I am gone.

Another friend mentioned last night that from where I live in Southeast Texas to El Paso is about the same distance as Chicago. Well, actually Chicago is about 150 miles more than El Paso to Beaumont. Although it is closer to St. Louis from here than to El Paso. Not that any of that makes any difference except to say that Texas is a big ol’ damned state to traverse.

 But no matter where I go, near or far, I got to go take care of that traveling bone. Give it to a big dog, on a porch somewhere. Or whatever you do with a traveling bone.

Everyone have a Good Friday and an even better Saturday.

Once again I find myself in Telecommunications War and as we well know, war is Hell.

It started out with the modem running exceptionally slow. I call Verizon. They do their song and dance. They want me to re-run my VZ Access program. Every time I do that the whole computer seems to end up screwed.

Verizon tells me it is a computer problem. Well isn’t it always?

Dell. Oh, Michael, Michael Dell. You do a lot of good for people. Why do you want to screw your customers?

I go through maybe four people. They do all kind of tests and scans. They say I should do a restore to factory condition. They do this. I do that. My computer continues to crash. Dell’s answer, to everything, is to buy something. That’s okay. Everything will be all right if only you buy something. Buy this!

I finally told Dell I want to see a human being who will take a look at my machine. Oh not that! That would cost US money! We can’t spend money on you no matter what your warranty says.

So, I have turned them in to the Better Business Bureau, once again. The reason is for deceptive trade practices in that they are not abiding by their warranty. Someone from Dell finally called late the other night and said my “case is being escalated.” I told her that my case is also being escalated with a complaint to the BBB. We shall see what happens. The swine. Escalate this!

Some  good news, sort of.  Authorities have managed to get indictments against nine of the so-called “Hutaree” militia group in Michigan for various charges  including seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction. But the FBI does not believe that the recent arrests against the group, which allegedly conspired to attack police, does not signal an increase in anti-government and hate groups.

A federal intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press indicated the likelihood of violence from  the Michigan or other groups is low. That no violence erupted upon the arrests of the Christian militia members or something similar to the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff near Waco also lowered  the chances for such conflict, say federal authorities.

Still, a lot of animus exists out there against the government in general and the fact we have a black president specifically. The latter has to be particularly galling to the many hate groups that have littered the landscape for many years.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Map” shows 66 such groups alone in the Lone Star State, where I live. Several of these, mostly comprised of Klan members, are rooted in my community. The scope of such groups as defined by the SPLC, which monitors domestic hate groups, are somewhat wide-ranging. Included in the SPLC definition of hate groups along with Klans are anti-immigration, the black separatist Nation of Islam and the controversial Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints which live in a compound in Eldorado, Texas.

Government can sometimes placate anger while other pissed-off people might eventually mellow, especially in times of national unity. But there seems to be no one easy fix for hate. It’s the latter we need to keep in our minds and on our radar screens.