Tractors, Bees and Hindsight

 

 I did some lawn maintenance work as a young lad. I also had a terrible allergy to bees and wasps. One afternoon we were mowing this large field out in front of a chemical plant up in Axis, Alabama. I was driving this really big Gravely brand mower. It had five blades on it and a large, powered vacuum bagger on the back. OK kids. Do not do as I do, do as I say. It was a three wheeled rig with a single wheel in the back. It gave zero turn a whole new name and if that single wheel in the back hit a hole it would bounce you pretty hard. It also had a kill switch in the seat so if you bounced just right it would just shut down. That being a real pain I decided to disable the kill switch so that wouldn’t happen. 

Introduce a few thousand yellow jackets. While riding along I disturbed a hole in the ground and out poured hundreds if not thousands of yellow jackets. Two or three nailed me right away and as I waved and flapped at them a few more got me, so I leapt from the tractor and took off running. Did I mention that I disabled the kill switch? You guessed it. After running about a 50-yard dash flapping my arms like a fool I realized the tractor was heading out toward highway 43. By the time I ran it down it was nearly to the highway. 

I mentioned allergies right. By that time, I was in a real-world emergency with my allergy to stings. I had been hit on the arms, legs and face. All in all, about ten stings and I was on course to full anaphylaxis. I had an EpiPen or two in my truck, but it was a half mile away. I popped a half dozen Benadryl and made it to the truck with not much time to spare. First pen done, then the second. Have you ever taken adrenaline? Amazing stuff. Needless to say, I survived. Once I could breathe again, I drank a bunch of water, paced around and bit and then I decided on revenge. I drove back to the scene of the crime, and I could see a couple of those little bastards flying around near that hole in the ground. You could have dropped a softball in that whole and never saw it again. I engaged the blades and parked the tractor right over the hole and I ran. I ran like a little bitch and kept running. I sat under a tree for about ten minutes while that Gravely made mincemeat out of a few thousand yellow jackets. It was very satisfying.  

After finishing up the job I literally had to scrape yellow jacket goo from the blade box with a putty knife. That was kinda satisfying too. The moral of the story is lawn tractors are better than bug spray, EpiPens are awesome, I hate yellow jacket and last but not least. Do not disable the kill switch on the tractor seat.

The thing about coffee

The thing about coffee

My earliest memories of coffee are of my Dad getting up very early to go to work.  I was about four years old at the time.  No more than five for sure.  Back then Dad was an iron worker and he left for work well before daylight.  Once I awoke to the smell, I knew my hero, my Dad, was about to leave for work so I would hurry into the kitchen.  I would smell what I had imagined was this wonderful potion but was bitterly disappointed by the taste even though Mom would load it up with cream and sugar.   Truth was I did not care how bad it was, I just wanted to drink coffee just like he did.  It was a brief time of sharing that I will never forget.

 Later on, I really didn’t think about coffee all that much till I was in my early twenties.  I worked at a Hilton Hotel owned by a cheapskate who wouldn’t run the heater in the lobby during the winter.  Coffee was warm and kept my fingers nimble enough to do the night audit.  I met a great friend there whose name coincidentally was Hilton, no relation to the hotel Hilton, and I would drink my coffee as he drank his Earl Gray tea.  He was a very interesting person and became a great friend and even an accidental mentor in a lot of ways.  The coffee was a prop.  It was an occasion, once the complicated part of the night audit was done, we would chat over these warm drinks.

It was there at that hotel where I picked up black coffee for the first time.  We had cream and sugar but had to go back to the kitchen to get it and get out keys to unlock the fridge and it was just too much trouble, so I went from blonde and sweet to strong and black.  There was a fellow named David who also worked the night audit.  He was a family-friend, and he, Hilton, and I had many long conversations over warm beverages on cold quiet nights in that big empty Hotel lobby.

Learning to appreciate black coffee served me well when I was in the US Air Force working on the flight line in far away locations.  The coffee, shared with coworkers who were much more than just friends; brothers, was a special part of many of the shifts we worked out on the hard stands in the Philippines.

Now, as an old man, well!  The oldest I have ever been anyway at 56.  I find myself drinking coffee while I work…  As a drink…  As a boost of caffeine.  It seems I am going to fast to drink it for what made it so special so many years ago.  I no longer pour a cup, hold it with both hands for warmth and just enjoy the aroma and place I am in.  It seems I am no longer mindful of the coffee, the friends, and those special moments that are punctuated only by peacefulness.

Maybe this is a lamentation or maybe I just had to write it down so that I could remind myself that coffee is for friends.  The cup should be taken deliberately and not as something you do while you do other things.  We all need to slow down in our daily lives and have peace, coffee, and good friends more often.  So, be still, enjoy your coffee for the old friend it really is while you sit among your family and friends or all by yourself, and don’t be surprised if I call you to have a cup with me.

 

Tony Hines
April 28, 2021

School Shooting Because of Neutered Men

Why are we so violent?  I believe it is the direct result of the feminization of American and the world at large.  Before you fly off into triggered land hear me out.  We tell boys they cannot be boys.  They cant have playground fights, no one is allowed to win or lose and we give everyone a trophy even if they do lose.

It starts well before that though with this totally destructive Dr. Spock lunacy about spanking children.  If you beat your kids there is a warm place in hell for you so please don’t conflate spanking with beating.  We have basically told our children there is no need to compete, no need for boys to be boys and there is no consequences for failure or irrational behavior.

Aggression and competitiveness are all parts of the male psyche.  I know many women who are very competitive as well but we’re talking about boys for the this exercise.  The feminization of men has told them that the last million years of evolution that made them who they are is invalid.  Who they were born and have evolved to be is irrelevant they must be passive, feminized and less, well…  Male.

The thing that made me believe in this theory even more strongly than ever before was the person who I had this conversation with who vehemently disagreed with me.  He was a successful gay man in his late forties or early fifties.  I have known this fellow for decades and he is a regular, well-adjusted and gainfully employed person.

As I exclaimed that you can’t go telling boys that they can’t be boys because it frustrates and confuses the hell out of them he was telling me that was ridiculous and then it hit me and I asked a question that cemented my theory on this forever.  It occurred to me that just being a boy and just being gay might be very similar things.  I asked him what his life was like before he came out?  Before he admitted to himself and the world who he was born to be?  He started to answer and then fell silent. Then almost under his breath he said, “Oh my god!” and repeated it three times. “Oh my god!” “Oh my god!” “Oh my god!”

He explained that when he was coming of age gay was not nearly as well accepted as it is now and it was pretty terrifying to tell family and friends so he fought it with everything he had and he tried everything from dating girls to religious conversions and all sorts of things and just became more and more frustrated and nearly suicidal.

I asked him after that if he thought telling boys they can’t be who they were born to be could be part of the problem.  He still didn’t really agree with me but he totally understood the angle I was coming from. If a man is born gay or straight he is also born with many other characteristics that should not be bottled up and suppressed any more than his sexuality. Sexuality is very close to the id and is the strongest drive in any human but what other drives are there that should be cultivated rather than repressed?

No one is advocating “Lord of the Flies” but maybe boys need to be boys.  Maybe young men need discipline, clear definition of right and wrong and they need to be challenged.  They need to win.  They need to lose and they need to know the difference.  The need to feel the pain of losing and the joy of winning.  They need to understand that when they lose it is their fault and that if they want to win they have to work harder and learn and practice. 

When I was growing up we had John Wayne.  He was the good guy.  The other were the bad guy and it was very clear what was right or wrong.  We fought like animals, we ARE animals by the way and we never really harmed each other.  We hurt each other but rarely a lasting scar.  Normally after all this mortal combat we became great friends with our momentary foes. 

In the high school parking lot there was a dozen trucks with loaded guns in the gun rack and the doors were never locked.  We never thought about shooting each other.  We knew right from wrong and we knew what consequences were.  The first time we were told no or spanked for being stupid was so long ago we didn’t even remember it but the lessons were engrained.

We were disciplined, we didn’t talk back to our teachers and god forbid our parents.  We got paddled at school and knew we were at fault and why we got in trouble.  No one came and rescued us either.  I got whipped with a belt at home if I got paddled in school.  Now we don’t paddle kids we put them in time out and they sit in time out steaming and simmering and just get angrier and angrier.

Human nature is a strong force and while it can be corralled it cannot be buried and forgotten.  It existed before there was conservatism, liberalism or feminism and it will exist when all of those theories have long gone.  Boys need to be boys and parents need to grow up and do what is right for their kids not wat is easiest and shuts them up for the longest time.

Touch the Spire

If in a country there was a central city with a magical spire in the middle and we implored all the people to come and touch the magical spire so that they could be healed would we then also deride them because they started from different places or because they chose a different path?  I see faith matters this way far too often. 

Having been around the world a few times I have seen many men seeking the truth and all form varied perspectives.  In this place I mentioned above would you tell a man who just touched the spire that he wasn’t worthy because he got there by walking from the East because you got there by taking a train from the West?  The point was to touch the spire.

Every man has a different path.  He must because no two men can truly start from exactly the same place.  Follow your own path, touch your own spire and don’t let others diminish your success.

I am a Veteran

I am a Veteran.

I have been told for the last eight years that I was illegitimate.  That everything I have was ill-gotten gains and that it was stolen from others.  I have been called the enemy, a terrorist and a bitter clinger clinging to God and guns as if that was a bad thing to do.

These were not perceptions that I gleaned from things I thought I heard imbedded in dog whistles and innuendo that is what the President of the United States said about me, my heritage, culture and belief systems.

I am not and was not bitter.  I do cling to the traditions and freedoms afforded me by my creator and guaranteed to me by my guns.  I was the enemy of those who wanted to take my freedom and my private property to include the fruits of my labor and my income.  I am still your enemy of you think you are going to steal from me.

I am not a terrorist and as I sit and watch people too lazy to vote out looting and rioting because their candidate didn’t win I kind of think they are terrorists.  I will treat you as such.  If you try to burn my stuff you will see true terror. 

We working class people are fed up with being derided for being privileged while we work 60 hours a week and a person who hasn’t worked a day in their life has the same lifestyle we do because they confiscate our earnings and redistribute them to the unworthy and ungrateful.  I don’t hate you because you are feckless and weak but you still can’t have my stuff.

You chicken shit little snowflakes need to crawl back to your mother’s basement and masturbate over those participation trophies you were cursed with as children because out here in the real world there are none of those.  It is blood sweat and tears full of busted knuckles, disappointment and grief. 

We working class people are Orwell’s rough men.  We trade that work ethic for the most rewarding and epic happiness that a man can achieve and that is communion with our God and security and fellowship with our families and friends.

The Thing About Luck

I get very tired of being told I am lucky. As was said before, I find that the harder I work the luckier I am. If you think success is too easy for some then raise the bar. They will be back there again and again.

My Father had a meager education but a monumental ambition and he turned out to be... "Lucky." My Mother grew up in the same dead end hole in the wall end of the county as my Dad and she was determined to see more and learn more and she was also, "lucky."

I do feel lucky to have grown up around that determination and ambition. Set a path and pursue it. Make your own luck and maybe you can drag the rest up the hill with you instead of letting them drag you back down it.

Tony Hines

The Old Man and the Tea

There was an old man and woman who did not know each other sitting on opposite ends of a bus stop bench when an angry and disheveled young man plopped down between them.

He went on about how he hated the city they were in and he hated the pollution and rude, selfish people. The he said he couldn’t take it anymore and was going to Chicago. The old man chimed in and said you’ll hate it there. There is lots of pollution and the people are rude and selfish. The bus came and took the young man away. The old man and woman still sat quietly.

Next a cheerful and bubbly young woman came up singing a tune and sat between them. She said hello to them and went on about what a pretty day it was outside and how excited she was to be moving to Chicago. She lamented leaving the quaint little town and the wonderful people but she was still very excited to go somewhere new.

The old man smiled, nodded and congratulated her. He told her he had lived there as a young man and that she was going to love the city, the beautiful skyline and all the wonderful people. The bus came and went taking the sweet young lady with it leaving the old man and woman.

The older lady then asked the man where he was heading. He replied nowhere really. “I just like talking to people who are heading somewhere new,”

She apologized for listening in and asked why he just told the angry young man that Chicago was awful and then told the beautiful young lady how nice it was.

Then the old man spoke. “I have been around the world several times and loved every place I have been. The one thing I have found everywhere I went was me. I had to go to places and do things I never wanted to do but ‘I’ was there with me no matter where I went and I could never leave me behind or arrive without me. That young man sees darkness and he will see it there. The young lady sees sunshine and she will see it there because his darkens and her sunshine are both within themselves.” Then he asked, “So where are you headed this fine day?”

She replied, “I was going to Chicago for a change of pace. My husband died a month ago and I can’t seem to find peace until just now. I think I will skip Chicago and have a cup of tea across the street. 

Will you join me?”

The old man smiled and said, “of ‘course. I love tea.”

Obama and Lincoln

Funny how people want to compare Obama to Lincoln. At first blush I am recoiled by the idea because history writers have made Lincoln into some kind of hero because he got shot in the head. Lincoln did more to destroy the rights of states than any president Then he divided this country to the point of war and during that war more Americans lost their lives than in every war we have fought before or after. Maybe Obama and Lincoln are more alike than we think they are. So far Obama is right on course to be the second Lincoln. I wonder what his death toll will be?

Green Energy

When it comes to green energy solar seems to be the panacea.  It is limitless and at current standards works but with the improvement of batteries and collector technology it seems the sky is the limit.  For solar to be successful though we have to have a paradigm shift.

Currently the solar technology push is following the old tried and true.  In a central location build a massive array of equipment and collect as much energy as possible and then distribute it for a profit.  There are so many things wrong with this they are too many to mention but I will cover a couple.  The biggest is that it requires upgrades to our aging electrical grids, the other is a insane amount of real-estate it take to make a centralized collection facility.

For solar to work is it has to be a distributed and specifically decentralized system where much smaller collection systems are used right at the location where the power is needed.  The advantages to this are huge.  The largest economic advantage is that is requires zero upgrades to the grid.  As a matter of fact it greatly reduces load on the grid making it much more dependable.

This system requires collectors on every house and building along with batteries and some rewiring.  When there is no sun light you will still want to be on the grid for backup.  In most municipalities the local utility is required to buy back your excess power so that is even an attractive notion as well.

Back to the grid for a moment though.  Think about a large neighborhood.  Let’s say for discussion purposes that exactly 25% of the houses face each of the four directions and they don’t want to look at the ugly collectors on the roofs so they have to be placed on the back of the house.  During part of the day you may not have a perfect angle but during the other part you will and during some seasons it will be better for one house than another but they are all right across the street from each other.

When your house is at the perfect angle you are creating more than you need and your neighbor is getting the excess others generate or at least a little sip from the grid if his is not at the right angle.  In this model power does not have to be transmitted across huge ugly lines from one end of the country to the other because most of the poser is generated locally.

This is the solar model of the future.

Norton Booker, Broken Triangle Regatta 2015

Check out this little video.  I just pieced a few clips together from the ride.  We were on a Melges 24 captained by Kenny and crewed by Amy, John, Spencer and myself.

We won first place overall by about a half mile and had a great time averaging 10 plus.  Top speed was 18 knots.

Video of the race

At the 9:30 spot in the video you will see us round Theodore Channel marker 10 and the race is on after that.  At 13:00 you will see us passing boats like they are sitting still.  At that time we're doing between 14 and 18 knots.

At the 13:40 area you see us nearly dump the whole rig.  The GoPro flips and at looks at the mast head for a minute and then all there was left to video record was us zipping away from the fleet.

I put the beginning, just leaving the dock at the end.  If you watch it all the way through you will get to see Kenny's catlike reflexes save the day or at least the paint job at about the 16 minute mark.

Leukemia Cup Regatta 2015

Middle Bay Light Race 2015

Quick little video of Middle Bay Light Race on board Starfire.  I just cut to the deploying the chute and then dousing it to round the lighthouse.

The Water is Your Mother

The Water is our mother.  Since we climbed from that primordial ooze a few million years ago we have been drawn back to her like a child.  She is always there.  She loves us, feeds us, treats us to unbelievable beauty.
Sometimes she takes us home.

She has no malice.  She gave us life and she can call us home any time she chooses.  Fair winds Mikey.  We will miss you.

Dogs are great role models

Dogs are great role models. They really just wanna hang out with you, almost any time. I can walk through the house and ask if anyone wants to go to the store and it's a fifty-fifty crap shoot if any humans will go with me and even then it's mostly so I will buy them something. Once the dog hears the word "go" she doesn't even care where, she is up and at the door. She would rather ride in the truck but she will walk with you too, either way. If I could take the boat to the store she would be in heaven. She doesn't care if I buy her anything or not. She just wants to be your constant companion.

Sometimes you tell people things and they kinda judge you on it and even hold it against you and even tell other people even though they swore they wouldn't. Dogs never tell your secrets. They never judge you either. They don't care what color you are, if you are tall, short, skinny or fat they just want to be with you.

Both of my dogs are black. I have never seen them get upset because the neighbors dog is white and he seems to dig them too. Completely non-judgmental. My neighbor on the other side has dogs of every shape and size and color. Some of them are rescues and so are my two dogs. I've never seen any of them make fun of each other and never seen the ones who are purebred look down on the rescue dogs. They just run up and down the fence and bark each other into exhaustion.

I think about their character, loyalty and energy and I am humbled. I pride myself on matters of integrity and loyalty but I believe I would be a miserable failure upside my dogs. They are not pure bred, the idea that I even know that shows that I have prejudices. They are not expensive or flashy and noticing that tells me I am materialistic and I scold them at times just because they love me so much that they want to lick my face. I need to relax a bit. 

I love my dogs and I respect them so much. I pray that one day I can be so loyal and honorable as either of them. We should all strive to emulate our finest friends. Not he butt sniffing in public part but the rest of it. Give your dog a hug and a good massage and tell him you love him because they are the best of us and while you may or may not be able to teach them a new trick, we can all learn a lot from an old dog.

Dauphin Island Race 2015 #HellOnTheBay

Dauphin Island Race 2015 | Garmin Adventures

Hell on the Bay

As for yesterday April 25th on Mobile Bay I just have to say one thing. Several hundred men and women went to the Bay to compete in a regatta that has a 57 year tradition where, up until yesterday, no one has ever been lost. There will always be a lot of second guesses about everything we and others do in life. What could we have done differently? I guess that is a healthy question but I do have one succinct answer. As for us and our crew I wouldn't change one damned thing. Everyone on our boat was unscathed and the boat is undamaged. We're hearing reports of wind readings sustained in the 70s and 90s. Could we have done something different or better? Hell if I know but at the end of the day we managed the best possible outcome and that is a boat full of family and friends who were all safe. Lives were lost yesterday in #HellOnTheBay but second guessing will not change a single thing.

The FDA Strikes Again

I would like to pay a hearty and well deserved thanks to the FDA. They have made the most effective and cheapest sinus medicine available so hard to get that they may as well have banned it. Pseudoephedrine is the most effective, cheapest and safest allergy treatment anywhere. (period) Because some crack head wants to make meth out of it is simply not my fault nor is it the fault of the millions of allergy sufferers out there today. In typical liberal progressive fashion they decide to attack the rights of the masses rather than to punish the actual persons who exhibit deviant behavior. Thanks again FDA! Thanks again for making the point that the government cannot be trusted to look out for the rights of the masses. Thanks again for proving exactly why we the people do not trust you the federal government.

The problem with liberal guilt

The problem with liberal guilt is that they don't want to own it. They feel bad so they give something away. It's kinda like this. A liberal and a conservative are walking down the street when they see a pitiful homeless guy approaching. The liberal opines about how bad he feels for the guy and the conservative says the homeless guy should, "get a job." Then the liberal has an idea. let's do something for him, you know give him a few bucks. The conservative exclaims that he will just drink it but pulls out a $20 anyway and hands it over. The liberal pulls out his wallet and explains he is low on cash and borrows a $20 to give to the homeless guy. The conservative just walks away with the full understanding that all he did was blow $40 and the liberal walks away feeling like he really did something good. Liberalism as a current ideology requires two things. One is avoiding responsibility and the other is guilt. This guilt is not for the believer but a sack of burdens he can heap on another person at any time to advance any agenda. You keep your baggage and I will keep my $40.

Drill, Baby, Drill!

With all the news about American becoming energy independent I keep hearing people say that it won’t matter or change anything for us here in the US because it is a global market. People who say that are incorrect at best and wrongheaded at worst. The first of the arguments is that it will not change the price at the pump because it is a global market. This may actually be completely true but it has nothing to do with whether it makes a difference or not. When you pay $4/gallon for gas the service station gets a cut, Exxon gets a cut and the federal government gets a cut but where does the remaining 40% of that go? It goes to the people who drilled, pumped and owned the oil at its source. It creates jobs there and supports the economy or governments there. I would much rather create a million jobs in North Dakota and Canada than in Saudi Arabia wouldn’t you? Those wage earners in Canada, The US’s very best ally, and those citizens in the Dakotas and other states spend their money here. In other words a lot more of it stays home if the fuel came from here in the first place. The other side of this is one that is more important than economics. It is national security. Once the US can procure, pump and refine its own fuel the Middle East becomes a lot less important to us. In short, I would rather pay $4/gallon for US oil than for imported oil that supports people who want to see the US destroyed.