Cold is Cold

Did you know it's colder at the South Pole than it is at the North Pole?

The South Pole is surrounded by a large land mass covered by a thick ice sheet. The North Pole rests in the middle of the Arctic Ocean which acts as an effective heat reservoir, warming the cold atmosphere in the winter and drawing heat in the summer.

Even though it's warmer, I don't think I'm taking a vacation to the North Pole.

Nothing New For Old Year

You Had a Bad Year

Your year was horrible. There's no other way to say it. A lot went wrong for you, and you're still recovering from it. The good news is that things probably won't get worse for you. So look forward to the new year, where things will hopeful be much better!

How Did Your Year Rate?

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On the bright side, there's still a few days left in which to turn it around!

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

This never was one of my favorite AC/DC tunes;  it's arguably one of the ones they're most famous for, but I much prefer others.  I can't hear it now without thinking of the following chilling story.

Back when I was roughnecking, I went to work for a younger guy named Ricky;  I had worked with him before, the son-in-law of the driller.  He was always sleepy and I resented him going to sleep out on the rig and subsequently forcing me to keep an eye on things.  I also was worried about driving home with him, afraid he would fall asleep at the wheel.

I had a horrible dream about being with him in a wreck and decided to quit that job.  At the time, it was easy to find another rig that needed an experienced hand, especially working morning tour (nights/graveyard) during the winter.  I told him that night that I was going to quit and brought all my clothes home with me that next morning.

Needless to say, he was upset;  I'm sure most of his anger was because he'd have to find someone to fill my spot and that his spoiled rotten wife would be P.O.'d that he'd have to spend most of the day looking for another hand instead of driving her around so she could foolishly spend his paycheck.

(I felt sorry for him;  she not only spent his money on stupid crap, but couldn't be bothered to pack him a decent lunch.  Many times I had seen him open up his lunch box to find a couple of bologna sandwiches...just meat and bread, no lettuce, tomato and not even any mayo.  If he was lucky, he'd have a bag of chips and a few candy bars - if she hadn't eaten them already)

We were sitting in front of his house where I had parked my pickup the night before;  he was trying his best to talk me out of quitting, but I wouldn't change my mind.  As I had mentioned, it was a cold winter morning and when I thought my idling truck had warmed up enough, I told him I'd best go on home.  He didn't answer;  he had fallen asleep.  I opened the door and got into my vehicle.  He didn't wake up.

I decided I would go eat breakfast at the local cafe and did so.  As I was driving out of town to go home, I passed by his house and saw him with his head on the steering wheel, still asleep.  It was a nearly new car and outside, so I didn't worry about him being gassed by the car fumes.  Like I said, he was a sleepy head.

It wasn't but a few weeks later he fell asleep on the way home, driving his brand new truck, and side-swiped a cattle truck.  The rest of the crew was asleep too and thankfully none of them were seriously injured.  I spoke to the county judge/coroner after that and he said there wasn't enough left of Ricky to pick up in a body bag.

I don't expect his spoiled wife was all that fussed about his death; she really was a dreadful person and was having affairs with several men in town.  I'm sure she was looking forward to the death insurance check.  The pickup sat in her front yard for months, towed there after the wreck.  Someone finally offered to buy it for scrap and she accepted the offer but first wanted to get a brand new stereo out of the vehicle.

A friend of mine was called and asked if he would pull the stereo unit out of the car.  He accepted (I think he was one of the men that was sleeping with her on the side)  the driver's side dashboard was caved in, so he was having to take it out from the front. As he was wiggling the unit out of the dash to better get to the wires to disconnect them, the stereo came on.

This was the song that was playing when Ricky died.

Magical Mind Reader

Kickalicious

Norwegian kicker could be headed to NFL



Music in video is The State of Massachusetts - Dropkick Murphys

Merry Christmas!

To all my friends, family and loyal readers, I hope you have a:

Christmas Card

Here's my Christmas card to everyone, e-style.

It's the best I could do.

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Christmas "Quotes"

"Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal." - Lenore Hershey

"Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit." - Kin Hubbard

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." - Garrison Keillor

"Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year." - P. J. O'Rourke

Strange Quotes About Santa:

Let me see if I've got this Santa business straight. You say he wears a beard, has no discernible source of income and flies to cities all over the world under cover of darkness? You sure this guy isn't laundering illegal drug money? - Tom Armstrong

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. - Shirley Temple Black

Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people once a year. - Victor Borge

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighborhood after dark. - Dick Gregory

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, He must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, Must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking?  - Arlo Guthrie

I played Santa Claus many times, and if you don't believe it, check out the divorce settlements awarded my wives. - Groucho Marx "The Groucho Phile"

Strange Christmas Facts 

Saint Nicholas of Myra, the original Santa Claus, was the patron saint of children, thieves and pawnbrokers.

Based on surveys, 17 percent of people will embarrass themselves in some way at the office Christmas party.

A Mongolian wild ass can run 8 mph faster than a reindeer.

  It's Donder, not Donner.

Christmas pudding should be stirred from east to west.

56 percent of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets.

53 percent of Americans plan to "re-gift" this year.

1 in 3 men will wait until Christmas Eve to finish their shopping.

1 in 6 men would like to get rid of all the "gift-giving nonsense."

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

On Christmas Eve in 2001, the Bethlehem Hotel had 208 of its 210 rooms free.

It's "God rest ye merry, gentlemen," not "God rest ye, merry gentlemen."

There are 1.76 billion candy canes produced every year.

Kris Kringel, a man in his 40s, lives in North Pole, Alaska, and delivers pizzas for a living. He drives a 1984 Ford Tempo.

Based on a 1999 estimated population count of North America and Europe, on Christmas Eve of that year Santa Claus had to visit 42,466,666 homes in a 12-hour period -- that's 983 homes per second.

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Merry Christmas & Love to All !

From
Me

'n the Beej