Rip Snorter's Blog

 

A few days ago I was messing around out front (trimming the tree those guys said they were going to come back about, prior to the yesterday visit).

A pickup truck pulled to a stop and an elderly Hispanic lady rolled down the window on the passenger side, stared past me, squinted, pointed at something up near the house, and said something to the driver.  By now she had my full attention.

"I want to get my cat back."  Pointing to one of the cats on my porch.

I looked over my shoulder, mistook which cat she was talking about, but she corrected me.  "No that one."

"That's not your cat."

"Yes it is.  It only ran away a week ago."

Well, I happened to know this cat has been around a long time, but what the hell.  Cats are metaphysical beings.  I moseyed up to the porch, talked to the feline in question, picked her up and cradled her upsidedownkitty style.  "That woman accuses you of having two homes.  She's going to take you to the other one now."

I stood on this side of the gate, she on the other, maybe three feet apart, she, eyeing the feline.  "This your cat?"

"That's him."

Well, I knew this particular cat is a female.  But what the hell.  Cats are metaphysical beings.

"She says you went through a sex change without telling me."  I lift the cat, still upsidedown cradled above the fence and the lady reaches up to take him/her.

At the point the cat decided the gag had gone a bit far, did what cats do.  Probably an experience the lady's still thinking on. 

"Does that cat have shots?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks"

Dancing lessons from God, I calls such experiences.  A way to get acquainted with the neighbors.

Jack

 

 

 

 

The other day tree trimming contractors for the Public Service Company of New Mexico came up figuring on cutting down that elm tree by the gate... I tell them they can trim it if they think it might threaten the overhead wires sometime, but that it’s staying.

We had a bit of a set to and they went off figuring to talk to the bosses and come back tomorrow...

Today the tree cutting contractor pulled in up front, stood at the gate trying to get my attention

I came out onto the porch

"We gotta take that tree down"

I come inside, get the camera run to the front snapping pictures of them and their truck

"Gonna get your pictures in the paper"

"What paper?"

 

"Go ahead and cut down that tree and you'll see soon enough"

"You can't do that, man. You got no right taking pictures" Him hiding his face, the others throwing coats over the painted sign on the truck, hiding faces, getting into the truck.

"We ain't going to take your tree man. If PNM asks just tell them we trimmed it." Everyone hiding faces.

"Erase those pictures"

I tell him he won’t be in the paper.... they drive off.

Qualifies as fairly weird in my humdrum weirdless existence.

Jack

 

Think about that guy for a moment.

He was tuned into all the possibilities.  His antennae were wiggling and waving around, discounting nothing, seaching for a stroke of luck, open to the possibility, the hope that a lightningstrike of fate would drop something of value out of the sky on him.

That guy wasn't looking for the 'big win'.  He was looking for anything. 

The dumpster diver was surrounded by wise, upright citizens who weren't dumpster diving.  Every one of those people had an equal opportunity.... they passed within feet of that million dollars.  But their consciousness wasn't sniffing the air for possibilities.

The dumpster diver was the only human being in the place who was listening to the song of abundance the universe sometimes sings.

He heard the song and he danced.

Jack

A wealthy senator somewhere wins a jackpot and immediately the grumbling aphorisms of barely disguised class warfare mentality, jealousy and reinforcement of the ‘poor man’ mentality bob to the surface of threads.  https://www.lotterypost.com/threads121585p2.htm

“Yeah, grumblewhine, the rich get richer.” As though those words represented some wisdom, some worthy truth about life.

A truth that didn’t apply a few days earlier when a dumpster diver found a million dollar ticket.

The irony is obvious. People are playing the lottery because they hope to become wealthy. But they hear of something good happening to a wealthy person, and they hate it.

Let me say that again. Lottery players want to become wealthy. But many of the same players feel a dislike for wealthy people. They hate to see something good happening to a person who is what they wish to become.

 

In my unique reality the universe listens to that sort of words and the underlying feelings and motivations they portray. The underlying pride, the identification at some gut-level of being ‘poor’, which they almost certainly aren’t.

There are a lot of reasons for a human being not to embrace negativity, ill wishing, resentment for good that comes to others, but this one is particularly damaging, in my view.  Damaging to the soul, damaging to the psyche, and damaging to the kinds of positive energy we'd like to have in our own lives.

Throwing an anchor into the rocky bottom where misfortune resides and dragging the vessel toward it doesn’t stand much likelihood of bringing in wealth. Thumbing the nose at the incarnation of what one hopes to become isn’t one of the best ways to bring it into a life.

Strange, strange world we live in, master Jack.

Jack

 

Morning blogsters:

The other day the neighbor guy asked me what I'm yelling about over here early mornings.  Something with the cats, or just letting off steam.

I had to think about it before I realized I was singing too loud these predawn mornings.

Reminded me of another Jerry Sires song:

I'm an old hand at singing inside

Held back by a mixture of comfort and pride

Nobody knows, when it comes right down to it

I'm an old hand at singing inside.

Like all of the children who grew up on Hank Williams

I'm richer by measures untold.

But people might think it was downright unnatural

How Otis (Redding) took root in my soul.

But I'm an old hand at singing inside, etc.

Just take my old daddy now

Spent most of his life raising cotton and cows

But if you heard him sing the songs of his youth

You'd just wish that he'd take a bow.

Cause he's an old hand at singing inside.

Held back by a mixture of comfort and pride

Nobody knows when it comes right down to it

He's an old hand at singing inside.

Anyway, in my particular case it can be mistaken for yelling at the cats.

Jack

I was just looking over the RESULTS page.... noticed there are still at least three states without lotteries.  Probably each for a different reason.  But naturally, we all would like to see every state pass a lottery law, have a lottery so's if we happen to be traveling there we could buy a ticket. 

So.  How could Alabama, Utah and Nevada be persuaded to join the other states in having lotteries?

When PB or MM officials are there lobbying the legislators, tell them how much money's going to go into the state coffers in a ballooning annuity.  PB, or MM keeps the money and invests it for them, trickles it out to them over, say, fifty years, at which time the states will be rolling in dough.

Yeah.  I'll bet that would convince them what they're missing out on.  If annuity's a good deal for players, if it's a legitimate way to represent lottery winnings it ought to be a good way to represent lottery earnings, as well.

On the other hand, maybe it would be cool at the next national conference of state governors, for the states to give some thought to holding the lottery earnings for PB and MM, and giving it to those two worthies in annuity form.    The states holding the money, investing it for them, trickling it out to them in annual payments that go up up up over the next few decades.

Wow.  I'll bet Powerball and MegaMillions would just be delighted to have the states handling that money for them, investing it for them, giving them the same good deal they're giving winners.

Imagine the press releases.  States telling taxpayers the inflated dollar values the lottery's bringing in.... Dow Jones reporting the amazing profits of Powerball and Mega millions.

It's a winwinwin for everyone.

Remember where you heard it first.

Jack

Morning blogsters:

Feeling almost sinful about all the rain we're getting here lately.  Every day seems, a shower.  Water's overflowing the tanks for the village up behind the house, running in the irrigation ditches even though nobody's irrigating.

Puddles out in the driveway and on the road down to the pavement.  Having so much water's almost certain to lead to all manner of ribaldry, revelry and sloth.

On the other hand, we must be feeling reasonably charitable about it.  They're releasing water from Elephant Butte and Caballo reservoirs to run down the Rio Grande for Texans to waste.

This is going to take some getting used to, if it lasts.

Jack

 

 

The story on the thread about a dumpster diver who found a million dollar ticket https://www.lotterypost.com/threads121412p2.htm

brought to mind my old bud Deano... subject of one of the earliest entries on this continuum of blogishness:  https://www.lotterypost.com/threads121412p2.htm

The earlier entry was a different story, no dumpster divers involved.  But,  time was when Deano developed a middling good dumpster diver business.  All over Albuquerque there are street people running around trying to find anything worth a buck in dumpsters, along with food, just about anything.

Deano knew this, so he set up a schedule to be in specific locations on various mornings, buying whatever the divers pulled up, if it was worth anything.  Might be flashlight batteries near the expiration date, might be discontinued merchandise of all sorts, might be vitamin pills discontinued or outdated, but unopened.

He'd buy it in quantity or by the item, maybe a nickle on the dollar he could get for it at the flea market on Saturday.

Deano claimed that was the beginning of his success in the 'junk' business, which he considered a good one, always good no matter how bad everything else got.

Innovative business plan he began with, I've always thought.

Jack

 

 

Probably the reason non-techie comp users are such a frustration to techies lies in the fact that, beginning with Windows 1.1, those of us who were alive and accustomed to fighting through MSDOS manuals looking for commands to make the thing do something, we suddenly got spoiled into thinking comps could be made to do things,...........hmmm

User friendly.

Naturally, we don't have an appreciation for how difficult that must be for people who write software.

For instance, a couple of weeks back I described step-by-step in a blog entry the process I use to convert numbers taken from Lottery Post, New Mexico Lottery site, or anywhere else, to MS Excel 97.

About 18 steps involving the site, MS Notepad, MS Word, and Excel.  Just to get numbers that are plainly visible on the screen into a spreadsheet.

I've seen people ask a hundred times on threads how to do this, and I saw answers involving something called 'macros' and such, which I haven't a clue about.  So I messed around with it until I found a way to do it, posted the method on my blog, and have reason to believe there are a good many people out in readerland who are using that blunt instrument that I'd have thought software designers could have handled with a click of some kind, developed to a razor edge clean conversion and proud of doing it.

Similarly, consider the admirable capabilities of the various search facilities on LP available to Premium users.

If you go to make a prediction, all you have to do is cut and paste some numbers off notepad and you're in business.  The comp picks up those numbers, reads them and criticizes you for any mistakes you made.

But if you go to the SEARCH facility, it's an entirely different matter.

Say you want to find a complete history on a set of numbers.  Where and when they hit, that sort of thing.  You go to search, and it asks you whether you want to search Pick 6, 5+1, whatever.  Asks how many numbers you want to match.  Now you have a bunch of boxes.... type each number into a box.  No cut and paste for this baby.  Type each one.  If you don't have them memorized, refer to notepad and come back here, type a couple in, go back to notepad, come back and type another couple in.

Okay.  So you now have a page full of links to hits.  You click the link, does it take you there?  No.  It asks whether you want to look at the history of results.  So you go there.  You are looking at 2005, most recent results.

Ahhhh.  Okay, I want August 2002.....lessee, that must be about 30 pages in.  Click.  Shoot!  Must be seven or eight pages further.... pulldown .... add five more pages.  No, too far.... back three......

Okay.  Got it.  Now, backward backward backward backward backward to the page with all the links.... next link.... October 3, 2000........ Illinois.......... Yeah, pulldown, I want to look at the history of results..........  Hmmmkm must be about, what, 35 pages in?  Click.  Whoops, too far,  try 28, ooops, back too far..... try 30.  Ahhh got it.

Backbackbackback

Backbackbackback

Backbackbackback

Ahh arrived okay back to the SEARCH page....

Lessee.  Now I want to search Pick 5+1.  Different numbers. 

I'm sure there's a reason for all this, but I'll swear it ain't 2001 Space Oddessy.

Jack

https://www.lotterypost.com/news-121412.htm

Strange how often people throw away winning tickets.

Here's a guy spending $600 on a draw, but who doesn't take the time to bundle those tickets up and sit around looking at them trying to find out if they win.

The reason is that he didn't expect to win.  If he did, he'd have gone over those tickets more carefully.  This guy was evidently finding a flat spot in the convenience store and sorting through 600 tickets, tossing the ones with no win, but doing it in a fairly cavalier fashion, since he threw away the one he was looking for.

So if he didn't expect to win, why was he spending $600 on tickets?

That's a strange phenomenon I used to discuss occasionally with an old burned out casino blackjack dealer acquaintance named Anthony.  Blackjack players tend to do the same thing.  They'll sit around playing when the dealer or the table is hot, keep the green chips going to the tray hand after hand, grumbling, cursing the dealer.  Eventually they win a hand and you see shock on their faces.... surprise.

So, they're surprised they won a hand.  They sat there pushing chips out front and losing hand after hand, and they must have expected to lose because they're surprised they won.

Brings to mind a woman I mentioned from in an earlier blog entry.... young woman playing the slots, sneaking around because she was too young.... won a jackpot of several thousand bucks, but went wild-eyed and rabbited from the casino because she was under age.

So, why was this woman plugging her money she earned working behind the counter in a convenience store pizza wing into slot machines if she couldn't  win if she won?

I used to ride to the casino with a couple of guys who played slot machine poker.  Once night the driver had finished playing, got me off the table I was playing on and went to find the other rider, George. 

George had pushed a couple of hundred bucks into the machine, but he still had a handfull of slugs left.  "Just a minute," he begged.  "I'll be ready to go as soon as I lose this."

Anthony, the burned out blackjack dealer,  arrived at the conclusion that human beings are so stupid it's amazing they can drive automobiles, much less manufacture them.

I'm more inclined to believe President Lyndon Johnson was correct when he said, "Americans would behave a lot more foolishly if they thought for themselves."

People don't grab the opportunity to think for themselves very often, but they tend to do so at a blackjack table, slot machine, or checking the 600 lottery tickets they bought. 

They thought about it ahead of time and decided they were going to lose.

Jack

 

 

 

Evening blogsters:

Fifty years ago lads in eastern New Mexico would have called this creature an Earth Baby.  It was considered good luck to keep one captive in a jar, or cottage cheese container in your room.  Which it usually wasn't if an adult discovered it, or if it escaped into the house as they were prone to do.

Many decades later a guy with a PHD in biology told me the real name was Child of Earth.  I don't know which is correct.  I always figured they were called earth babies because the face resembles a human infant.

The PHD didn't know any more about them, what they eat, how they live.  Kids thought they lived seven years, which they might.

This one showed up on the front porch, newly enough dead so's the limbs weren't stiff when I handled it.... In fact, when I first picked it up I thought it was alive, but only stiff from the chill.

Anyway, get yourself one of these, put it in a cottage cheese container and keep it in your room.  Good luck.

Jack

 

 

 

Afternoon blogsters:

Looked like a few bushels of pecans in those trees out back until the jays showed up.  Every bird in New Mexico is back there whacking hulls and shells.  I'm thinking there won't be many left for the human faction.

I filled the feeder/bath for them in an attempt to lure them away, but now they're just making the rounds back and forth between the pecans and the feeder.

Guess any pecans that get eaten by humans around here are going to have to be store bought.

Jack

 

 

 

From

I R S I Cheated on You

by Jerry Sires

 

Well hello there

Is this the Internal Revenue?

I’m calling up to tell you

That I have been untrue.

I know it hurts

To forgive

But still I’m asking you

IRS I do confess I cheated on you.

I know you’ve heard these same old words

Ten thousand times before.

But I feel your frightening presence

Knocking at my door.

I can’t sleep at night from worrying

Just you’re going to do

I R S I do confess I cheated on you.

 

Always sounded a bit like Ernest Tubb when he sang it.

Jack

Thanks luckierlady, for the link. http://www.jerrysires.com/Jsb/entrance.html

Does my heart good to see that bunch of old rounders.  That's Jerry in the hat.  Mike, Dean and Pat have been with him as younger men a long time ago.  Boomer looks like an older version of a guy who used to play with the Austin Lounge Lizards. 

That truck is the centerpiece for the song, "I found me a trailer that matches my truck".

"And the tires from the truck fit the trailer,

The trailer matches the truck's graceful lines!

Tell me, who do you thank when you have such luck?

I found me a trailer that matches my truck."

Jack

 

From Red Grain Truck Blues by Jerry Sires

The yellow corn sure looks good up ahead inside the red grain truck.

It's piled high to testify that some farmer had a little luck.

I sure like to drive these country roads

Even though they're changing every day

But I always was kind of slow

And sometimes I just feel in the way.

In the city there's people getting by

Taking in each other's dirty clothes.

Where fine homes and big cars all come from

I guess nobody knows.

But Daddy needs a new golf cart

And Mama wants a new suntan machine

Brother wants a race car

And sister wants a full-sized movie screen.

You can almost hear her cry, you can almost hear her moan

As another garage door opener

Is torn right from her bones

Still, I wonder how long it can last

When the teeming millions watch and want theirs too

It's all got to come from the earth

And she's about done what she can do.

You can almost hear her cry, you can almost hear her moan

As Singapore and Shanghai

Decide to refrigerate their homes.

But the yellow corn sure looks good up ahead

Inside the red grain truck.

The yellow corn sure looks good

Inside the red grain truck.

You Texans might still be able to catch Jerry playing in Austin, or out around Granger or Walburg in the honky-tonks and bars.  The group was Jerry Sires and the Stallions.  I haven't seen him in fifteen years or more, and he'd be about my age, but Jerry wasn't the kind to quit.  He might even have a CD or two by now.

If you see him tell him Jack sends his best.

Jack