Il Vicino vs Global warming/Ice Age

Following the thanksgiving holiday was a tough act to come up with. So Saturday evening was spent at the famous 'Il Vicino' on Montgomery NE. When we arrived the tables were filled and the line was a little long. One of the managers that we know and love is Casandra. She came over and gave us both a big hug. We told her there were 5 in our party including my wifes 94 year old mother. Cassandra immediately made preparations for us, including a place for Mom-in-law to sit in the meantime. It is wonderful to be recognised in todays world, especially for a 'Geezer'. One of the young waiters (a young Val Kilmer,and a democrat that wants to some day own a bar in Santa Rosa California), refered to the NM Film Industry, told me he had recently checked with "The Phoenix Agency". He told me the cost for listing with them is $700 dollars.Also they take 20% of your pay..Hmm. I guess if they can find a person enough work to offset the cost, it is a good thing. I told 'Casandra' she should also answer the 'Calls'. All of the young people I have met at 'Il Vicino' (including the talented, Pizza throwing "Bubba",) work while attending college. How refreshing and hopeful for the future.
This evening (end of this week) My wife and I stopped in again at our favorite 'Il Vicino', "Bubba", (all of the kids love Bubba, he gives them a piece of dough to play with and even bakes it for them.) "Bubba" was in his usual fine form, spinning the pizzas and getting great 'Air' He informed me that the very big 'Lion' oven with the fascinating wood fire, indeed had a name. "CHEWY", of course everyone knows 'Chewbaca'. I never actually saw that critter chew any tobacco during flying the 'Millenium Falcon' (was he a Leutenant Col.?)
Last Saturday evening at 'Il Vicino', conversation with the Florida Bro-inlaw and his wife was a nice respite. The Bro-inlaw and myself actually discussed politics. No angry words or looks. The wives actually discussed things they are concerned with. No harsh words by either party, Nice evening.
Christmas shopping this year is very easy with no massive crowds, just a nice smooth steady orderly flow. We are anxiously looking forward to the rare fly-in of the Wisconsin family, (I hope all of the imams boycot Christmas flying) Our youngest son, his wife and two daughters, one only a few months old. It has been many years since they have been here for Christmas. Our weather seems like Wisconsin weather today. Temperature in the teens and some snow to get us in the mood for Christmas.
Has anyone read the recent intensive Russian Scientific study (now the 'Russians' should know a little about snow) predicting the 'beginning' of another 'Ice Age' in about 60 years. Now that will sure put a dent in 'Russias' (true) 'Ice breaker' tours of the North Pole. The snow keeps falling on the continent of Antarctica in record amounts, building thicker glaciers that will eventually (10's of thousands of yrs plus?) march to the sea which is getting colder and more storm tossed. Cold spells increasing around the globe... Now just who are we to blame about all that? We just can't seem to control the weather no matter who gets elected.
According to my scientific cousin in California it's that, "Thousands of years old problem", of "too hot/too cold". The newest political fight over the 'Office Thermostat'..."ICE AGE/GLOBAL WARMING"...Make up your mind and just set the world at a temperature we all like. Now that wasn't so hard was it?
If anyone wants to take the latest film on global warming as gospel, you might desire to also check the countless 'Wikipedia' (Link on right sidebar) The "Maunder Minimum" sunspot study is interesting. (see "sunspot activity" during the last 'Little Ice Age') I personally found interesting, Grisda.org/origins/10051.htm linked websites on 'The Little Ice Age' (1450-1850). Also the extremely warm (much warmer than now) world temperatures around the year 1100 (ref. Grisda)("Tkachuck"?, an Eskimo should know,) (Grapes and wine production in England?..Really?) If you really want to look back, 'Wikipedia' the latest "Big Ice Age" when the 'Great Lakes' were plowed out by the "Glaciers" (no wheat from Canada?). Now wouldn't that cause a lot of 'Letters to the Editor', CNN would be 'Outraged' as the Associated Press (AP) demanded an 'investigation' (from an inside undisclosed source of course). "The Attorneys would be salivating in their Rolls Royces". Obviously Mr Gore never uses the same sites that I do in the wonderful tool he invented. (the internet) When President (2008) Bill Richardson gets me a Government job, working with the NM film industry, Al and I will discuss these things.
I just love the film industry I work in. "Creating the Illusion of fact" from a series of scenes set up with an "Agenda' in mind from the very start"... "ROLLING, ROLLING",..... "BACKGROUND, ACTION!"

Thanksgiving Days Invasion

What an interesting week except for the fact that I have heard 'Didly' about the films I answered the 'casting calls' for. I would have thought that 'Russel Crowe' and 'Steven Segal', upon seeing my name on their rosters, would have jumped at the opportunity to have the 'Famous Blogengeezer' in the background of their films.

"Thanksgiving Day" was the high point of the family gathering to talk, louder and louder and louder until the room was reverberating and the dog got nervous and 'snapped' at the youngest granddaughter, sending her away very distressed. Nothing serious (thanksgiving) for that minor happening. Two of the Brothers-in-law got into a short 'snapping' of sorts over politics. No actual bites were inflicted (by dog or brothers-in-law). No punches thrown. No knives flashed. No guns drawn. No tables overthrown. That is common among all families....Isn't it? The Thanksgiving affair combined the talents of all involved. I cleaned my plate so I got two pieces of my wife's pumpkin pie with 'whipped stuff' on top. We also were graced by the presence of the 'Florida-in-laws'. Their air flight was more eventful than some past years but not totally intolerable (no Minniapolis Imams, yelling Alah, Alah, Alah, to make them concerned how this flight was going to end). At my son and his wifes beautiful new home, the girls all stayed back in the 'girls room'. They are getting to the age where they are self sufficient. There is no doubt they are 'All American' girls that will be the future of our Great Nation.

While watching the news last night before bed, the commercial for JC PENNEY came on. Day after Thanksgiving, "Five AM" opening for 'The Big Sale'. I just had to go one time to see what this stuff is all about. I have heard that it is 'Brutal Combat' and 'Hand to Hand' 'grappling' for choice items. Needless to say, being a man that loves action, I was enthralled at the concept. Remember I am to be in a film starring 'The Gladiator' (Russell Crowe) What a way to develop my 'Character'.

I awoke at 'O dark thirty', dressed for the encounter, walked out to the 'dock' where 'Thee Black Diamond' was moored. Casting off the lines, I navigated in the direction of The 'JC Penney'. She had been 'anchored' at Coronado Mall for a few years. I quietly sailed around through the harbor and appproached her from the south, dropping anchor close by.
I arrived at 4:45 Am to a line of about '100 Morbid souls', (just at that door). While approaching the long line, wearing my 'Greek fisherman's cap'. I just had to holler out loudly "ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? They all yelled back in unison, "YEAH"! I then hollered at them, throwing my fists high into the air, "THEN LETS ROCK". The mood of 'My Boarding Party', then turned much more festive and everyone started talking. A couple of ladies with the, (entire lines mandatory), 'CHRISTMAS' (happy holiday-NOT) shopping list in hand, asked what I was there to find? I said, with no hesitation..I came to witness and report the happenings at this 'boarding' scene (invasion). To ..BLOG..About the 'Mayhem and Chaos' that had been reported in previous years.

At 5 AM, I ran through the open 'Gangway' with my hundreds of 'Invaders' to find row upon row of sales clerks at their stations, manning the 'Port' and 'Starboard' terminals. Almost silence among My 'Boarding Party'. A "Nice Orderly Military Fashion", takeover of the 'Cargo Trader', flying the flag of, the 'JC PENNEY'. As I advanced through the 'passageways' there was no disorder in the ranks of either 'crew'. All held their discipline, to which I was dismayed. No 'Carnage' not even any obscenities. I must break out more Rum for the next raid. My crew was way too pleasant.
The rumors about the other 'Cargo Traders' were vivid. Circuit City had a line around the building, somewhat like the 'wraps' of our own galaxy. The line still existed after the 'Opening Salvos' were fired. The main 'Booty' was the large screen flat panel HDTV's for about 600 dollars instead of a thousand or more. I should have gone for that 'vessel' instead of the 'PENNEY'. Next year I intend to study the 'Charts' before the 'Voyage'.

Family party and a 'Call'

Ah, finally a casting 'Call'. Check out my 'new link' in the right sidebar, 'NM Film'. In the 'Locals' category, you will find the latest casting call is for a film working with none other than... 'Steven Segal'. Now doesn't that sound like fun? I will be at the Embasy Suites before 10:00 am on Sunday. It sounds like many background 'Extras' are needed. A friend 'background Extra' gave me a heads up on this one. Thank you my friend.

I have been busy inserting links in my format template. It's about time. The program I hand typed in, was not paragraphing properly. I then placed an 'em' to my contact on the east coast. Her brilliant young son, is an international computer 'Guru' of the '10th power'. He immediatly diagnosed the problem from the relay of my description. I needed paragraph tags, in my program. Of course the 'Blogengeezer' could have eventually figured it out...If I lived to about 101. Now everything is in a ..."Nice Orderly Military Fashion"... (Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge). To show my extreme gratitude I gave their company a glorious 'link'. Be sure to check out ..'The St. Petersburg Collection'... Fascinating stuff, I own a few of their finely detailed miniatures (their little eyes look at you as if they are actual living creatures). I also own both of their outstanding full color, glossy, Publications. The two books, latest of which, ("Grasshopper", Remember the tv series 'Kung Fu'?)'Guru' traveled from his job in Japan, to China, to oversee. The Chinese hotel desk clerk slipped him some of those wonderful 'North Korean', (USA counterfit currency) 'Super notes' in currency. 'Now' Grasshopper is very aware of Chinese hospitality. He really loves working in Japan. "Ahh-So!, 'Grasshopper' Guru". Most of his past travels have been to Russia to keep on top of the family business of 'Miniatures'. A Lot of his time is spent on the US side of the oceans, doing miniature military 'Soldier Shows'. He also has a 'real' job on top of it all, and is going back to College soon. His father is also the Historian and CEO. The 'Mom' holds down the 'Fort' in the office. This is one, only one, of thousands of stories of business success available to everyone in our Great Nation, the United States of America. When you Vote for our nations leaders, be sure you do not ever 'Destroy' this very unique, free enterprise, system in the USA. It pays the dollar price of 'Your' Freedom. Our highly intelligent, 'always amazing', dedicated and professional troops, pay the 'Sweat and Blood' price.

A 10th birthday of one of our five wonderful grandaughters was celebrated at our home last night. Only the three local cousins and we, 'the grandparents as well as one Great grand parent', attended. A festive table was set with my wifes finest tableware. Sparkling cider was poured, always popular, Spaghetti was served. The girls made their own banana splits. I never knew they could make them that big. The girls keep their three, special, American Girl dolls at our home. This gives them a special option for their time with us. They spread their sleeping bags on the floor of the den, then played with the dolls, watched DVD's, then again played with their dolls, and watched DVD's, until the wee hours. This morning after watching a video of the actual birth of the latest of the two, Wisconsin cousins, (one of todays marvels) we all went to the neighborhood Mc Donalds for breakfast complete with the three girls climbing around in the tubes. We all take this for granted 'as always available'. Please remember that they grow up rapidly, so never, ever, take these times for granted. They will be only mere memories in a lightning flash of time.

Motorhome stuff

A search of ..nmfilm.com/..found a series of interesting rolls in the NM film industry. ranging from war survivors to immigrants and even a radio show. None of them fit my characters description. The 'Geezer' will have to fall back on his pastime of fixing up the motor home for it's next adventure.

The 'shades' that were promised to me by Monaco Coach, (see previous 'blog post from 11-03) arrived on Tuesday. Inspection revealed they were much improved over the originals, as I was told by the nice people at Monaco. After a learning curve of about two hours to get the first shade replaced, I found a pattern of procedures that seemed to do the job.
The easiest way to do the replacement, was to remove the screws retaining the valence frame. Usually about four to five screws that were accessed by contorting the upper body into a stance like a person in intense pain. Cramps followed the position needed to see the top screws under the top overhang. The sofa and dinette helped to cushion the knees.
The entire first frame fell out of it's place on to my head, when I removed the last screw...DUH. The following frames were supported by a stick until I let them down. Much smarter than the 'fall down' method.
With the frame laying on the table, the removal of the shade was much easier. The new replacement was screwed into place and tied to hold it from flopping all over. Now the entire valence frame was lifted and proped in place by the stick. The lower, easiest screws were installed first, followed by the 'contortionist accessable' screws up under the valence. Repeat that procedure five times and the day/night shades are all in place.
The difference is like...well, day/night. Now we can sleep till dawn without the glare of the big parking lot lights of the 24 hr super Wallmarts. We really only use that as an evening stopping and shopping point as we are travelling to far more exotic destinations.

At one Wallmart in Grants Pass Oregon the drug dealers were so busy it gave us an opportunity to watch that lifestyle from our motorhome. The sad thing was the family (they all lived in their big loaded down car) used the kids to do the transactions. (minor legal infraction for the kids) What a sorry pastime for our nation to go through.
The first signs of this becoming a lifestyle for some folks in our nation, was in the 60's as some (adults?) were touting the benefits of this 'so called' mind expanding, stimulating chemical lifestyle. I saw it as a future blight on our entire society, and I was young. Oh well history has it's own way of remedy for every problem man can conceive.
The days are bright and sunny with the temperatures in the high forties at night and the high seventies during the day, here in the sunshine city of albuquerque New Mexico.
The autumn colors are still bright because the wind has not blown away all of the leaves ...yet. The paper says that seniors are coming here to live because the prices for homes are lower than other parts of the nation with similiar weather.
We really do have four seasons and even more if you want to drive up to the mountains which are just a half hour drive from town. Now isn't that convenient for us city dwellers.
Breakfast in the sun on the veranda, Ski for a couple of hours then return to the city to watch the sun set. The local ski scene has not been as good for a few years as the drought has taken it's toll of the snowfall. Maybe this year will be better, like the 70's and 80's when the snow covered the tallest trees on some runs. We did have a great summer 'Monsoon' season with record rainfall this year. I look forward to the fresh 'Powder' snow being 'Snorkle' deep again, as it was during the years my three excited sons (and their friends) and I, loaded up the van in the pre-dawn morning darkness, drove to the days or weekends (motels and pizza), Ski area choice. Each day we endlessly roamed the ski slopes of NM and Colorado in search of 'The Perfect Run'.

Dealing with Companies online

The phones are not ringing to announce the desire of the casting offices for my services. My character is not in demand lately. The calls are posted on ..nmfilm.com/.. and none of those posted are my character. Oh well it is the time of 'The Beautiful People', We Geezers will have our chance some day soon, I'm sure of it.
Halloween was a blast. I dressed as my 'Old Sea Dog' character, complete with black Greek fishermans hat, black turtle necked sweater, 'drop stemmed' pipe clenched in my teeth, 40 foot length of 3/4" rope hanging strung over my shoulder, pants tucked into my black boots.
The kids loved it but were a bit intimidated by my 'growly' voice asking "AYE!..Are Ye from the 'Black Pearle'? did Captain Jack Sparrow send Ye"? "Did ye come to be strung from thee Yardarms"? "Do Ye want to be Keel Hauled"? "How many in yer crew"? As they departed I growled after them, "Have a good Voyage now Ye Heah". My beard is fitting for the scenes integrity. One kid asked "how do you talk like that? another kid pointed at another one and said "Look, at this guy, He's Jack Sparrow" Sure enough the other kid was dressed in Jack Sparrows outfit. I said to him "Ye lost a couple of feet since I last saw ye Jack", They all started talking to me at once telling me they saw both films and their reactions. They did not want to leave until the parents in the street called them. I heard a Mom, and I immediatly yelled out, "Do I heah a Wench"? I desire a Wench fer me Quarters, Me 'Black Diamond' Sails at Midnight". A roar erupted from the gaggle of parents in the street.

In the meantime I have entered into the world of dealing with companies online to resolve matters with products that have not performed as well as I thought they were represented to perform.
The first time we used our latest 2004 Holiday Rambler class A motorhome, the day/night shades did not block any of the outside light, as they are required to do. This is real important while parked overnight in the various high class (superstore) Walmart parking lots, during travel to other States Campgrounds.
The Quality of the originals were sorely lacking due to the fact they were made from fabric known as 'Pelon', (it turns to fuzz) which is not a true shade fabric.
A few e mail's later with full descriptions a'plenty from me, referring to the quality of the shades, Quickly resulted in the people at Monaco Coach, Walking up to the plate, picking up the 'Heavy' bat, driving a long home run, and sending me a complete new set of the new improved quality shades (5)for the total sum of $180 dollars. I accepted that offer, now I am waiting for them to show up at my door.
Needless to say Holiday Rambler or any Monaco products, looks like the coach to buy for our next unit. They, as is said, "Earned my Business". thank you Monaco Coach.

The next item was a top of the line, Class A full coach cover, ordered from Campers Choice in Red Bay Alabama, for $313 dollars in Oct of 2004. The cover was 'drop shipped' from Classic Accessories in Kent, Washington. For the last two years I have had numerous phone calls, many e mails and have recieved a total of three covers in exchanges from 'Classic' in Washington. Every time I called, I went into great detail about the covers being 'Mini-skirts' on my motorhome. Every call, I was assured that the next cover would fix my problem. All three were the same, way too short and did not cover the bottom 12 inches of the coach. Seemingly endless conversations (including measurements), with Classic, (Walmarts Supplier) all ended the same. finally I was informed they did make a taller version but I was never offered it in exchange. I paid for return shipping for the two previous returns. I felt exasperated to say the least.

I now have approached by e mail and phone, 'CAMPING WORLD', (the Co. that bought Campers Choice mail order division) about my total of three Classic 'mini-skirt' Class A MH covers. Quickly The 'CAMPING WORLD' folks ('AARON',a Manager in Albuquerque NM) stepped up to the plate, picked up the same 'heavy' bat and hit another Home Run. CAMPING WORLD immediatly offered me a full refund with no shipping charges, in exchange for my latest Classic 'Mini'-cover. I intend to now buy a new, top of the line, CAMPING WORLD, 'ADCO=Tyvex' cover from 'CAMPING WORLD' in Albuquerque New Mexico, to replace Classic's 'mini'. Classic taught me a lesson, I should have known better and stuck with the folks at CAMPING WORLD. They know the difference between 'winning the battle' and 'winning the War'. Thank you CAMPING WORLD. note: Holidy Rambler, Monaco Coach and CAMPING WORLD, are all owned by 'AFFINITY GROUP. I see a 'serious dedication to customer service' being their priorty. Free enterprise and competition are alive and well in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. I love this country....