Happy Birthday, America!

Wow here we are on the edge of 233!! We've seen a lot of tumultuous times in this Nation of ours, and I'm hoping we're once again on the right track. The last 8 years were tough; I personally didn't agree with many of the course of action taken by the individuals granted power to rule the Nation, and about all we could do was stand by dumbfounded and wait for a changing of the guard. And Man-o-Man, did WE GET CHANGE!

There are some that aren't excited about where we've gone in the past 6 months, but I must remind everyone it's ONLY been 6 months... it took a lot longer for the Nation to get where it is than that, and the repair crew is working hard to bring things back on course, but you can't turn a ship as large as this on a dime.

Many among the minority (that would be the party whose candidate DID NOT get elected) are arguing that things are getting worse, especially financially, but again I ask who is to blame for that? Honestly, do you think ANY of the actions of the past 6 months have caused the stock market, job outlook, auto industry, increase in gasoline prices, or the slump in home sales and increase in foreclosures to be what they are?? All of these are attributable to past actions that were still taking effect set in motion by the previous administration.

Between the years 1992-2000, the debt increases from $16T to $27T; from 2000-2008? It increased from $27T to $52T!!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, most commonly referred to as the "Stimulus Bill" was without a doubt a costly piece of legislation, but it has the potential to put many Americans to work, improve our infrastructure, education, health care and much more. And if you want to know where the money is going, is the place to find out.

But for this weekend, we celebrate... we honor our men and women in combat and our veterans, remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom, and support the efforts to bring America back to the proud status we once held as a Nation who supports the rights of all humans equally.

The Saga of Old Faithful

Well, it actually took place a year or so ago, but I'm finally at a point where I can write about it...

This is something I forwarded on to my daughter, decided to "share" with y'all.

We had ribs and CHICKEN LEGS last night. I had a bbq accident =( Last week, y'know, first bbq of the "new season", I had to burn all the yucky stuff off the grates, so like always, I started some coals, added some cut up pieces of wood, made a fire and spread it across the coal grid so I could put the grates over it to burn everything off, then brush them and re-coat them with oil to season them so nothing would stick... same old routine, do it very year and have been for 20+ years.

Well, for SOME REASON, much different results this year, and notsomuchfun... The fire got sorta out of control, caught some grease on the inside sides of the bbq on fire and started burning over the edge of the hood.... it caught the handle on fire (because it got so hot. it started it on fire from the inside!) and when I opened it up to put out the fire, it burned the hair off my hand and wrist!!!!

Worst thing was, no handle left on the BBQ and the meat grates got so hot they turned pink and lost all of their "seasoning" (which is what keeps meat from sticking). I spent the past week searching for possible replacements and it looks like anywhere between $280-400 to get one like what we have (mine was $180 10 years ago!) because almost all they sell anymore is gas "grills", which as you might like to know, I think are like patio stoves

So, I started a reclamation project on Saturday and think I MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE to bring my bbq "back from the dead".... scraped off all of the char and blistering on the inside of the box and hood (so it wouldn't drop on the food) and steel wooled the grates, then gave them a coat of oil and brushed it into them... started a SMALL coal fire (operative word here is SMALL!!!) and put smoker chips on it to try and slow cook the seasoning back into the grates, and repeated the oil, brush, fire, smoke routine 3 times... then it was on to the handle issue. Had a few branches I had saved from the alder I cut down last year and was looking through those and found one that had some possibilities... measured it up, cut it to size, drilled it out and used some steel concrete screw anchors for spacers between it and the bbq hood, and VOILA! Back in business!!



Still need to finish cleaning up the box (as you can see) and might consider giving it a coat of high-heat black paint (if I can get all the grease off the outside first), but then again, IT IS a bbq, right?? So maybe I'll just leave it looking MANLY.... ribs sure were good!!