New Guardrails, First Step In An "Addadecktomy"

Yesterday carpenter Bob from Chatham, Mass. just finished installing new guardrails on top of my enclosed porch. The new guardrails are made of pressure treated wood and are forty inches high replacing a twenty inch decorative railing which was coming apart and rotting after over twenty years of fighting the weather elements.

This flat roof is covered with rubberized material and is super hot on a Summer day.

My next project is to figure out how to install some type of stairway or access to this upper flat roof area as this location would provide me with a nice view of Swan Pond across the street. I then have to decide if my house wants an " addadecktomy" and if so what kind of deck material to use for this upper roof area. The rubber roof besides being hot has also slightly oxidized over the years so if you walk on or touch the surface you get a fine coating of black dust from the roof.

Time will tell when I proceed with the future improvements as an "addadecktomy" can sometimes be a tricky and expensive operation.

CUMQUAT OR KUMQUAT

Had any good cumquats lately? These delicious fruits look like mini-oranges and can be eaten whole the skin and all. I brought some kumquats one time to a Yankee swap Christmas party and everyone there enjoyed them. Anita Bryant was famous for the phrase ,"Orange juice, "Its not just for breakfast anymore!" in her famous television commercials for the Florida citrus industry. Well, I know from person experience that "cumquats, they are not just for breakfast anymore!"

Kumquats originated in China and are also found in Japan. You can also see cumquats growing in the Middle East,Greece,Florida, and California among other places. The eight to fifteen feet tall kumquat trees are said to be heartier than orange trees.

It is said on "Wikopedia" that a mixture of a few salted cumquats, brine juice, and hot water are a good thing to drink if you have a sore throat. It is good to cure a sore throat as soon as you can as you should strive to protect your uvula. " Saturday Night Live" had a skit a long time ago with comedic actors Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, and the late Gilda Radner where they discussed uvula care in a sort of public service announcement with the famous line "It'll behoove ya to take care of your uvula."

I remember that in one of the W.C. Fields movies W.C. said something like "Come here my little kumquat" probably to Mae West but I'm not sure.

So, remember "A cumquat a day keeps the doctor away" and for goodness sake "Take care of your uvula!'

"PISCATAQUA TUG BOATS"

Last Sunday August 2nd I was up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and took this picture of three tug boats moored in the Piscataqua River bank. Piscataqua is probably an Indian name which I'm really not sure what this name means. If I were to guess, I would say that Piscataqua may mean that one day an Indian boy saw a cat peeing in the river and thus the name Piscataqua.

After walking through town my brother Scott, his wife Leslie and I ate at a small riverfront bar where I order a margarita and also calamari.

I didn't pee in the river though like that cat from long ago.

"COOL BEANS"

Just picked these beans from my garden along with a few peas and home made sea salt for this "Blue plate special".

How these beans and peas grow from dirt,water, and sunshine added to the initial seeds is a mystery to me.

God knows.

YouTube - pigeon walking through downtown Portsmouth, NH

YouTube - pigeon walking through downtown Portsmouth, NH When the grey, grey pigeon goes bob bob bobbin' along. I was curious to see what this here pigeon was up to this August 2nd night in downtown, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. These pigeons have quite the life strolling the brick streets, looking for food, and watching the pedestrian and car traffic. Pigeons can fly up to fifty miles an hour and fly as much as six hundred miles in a day. If you kidnap a pigeon, blindfold this bird, and transport this captive bird many, many miles from their home; this pigeon could probably find its way home somehow they say as they can tell direction by the sun and the earth's magnetic field. That's why some pigeons are known as "homing pigeons". Although they are "bird brains", pigeons are said to recognize all twenty-six letters of the English alphabet. Maybe pigeons read the highway traffic signs to help them on their trips. Yes, pigeons are pretty talented and known to "work for peanuts".

SIGNS OF AUGUST (BY JIMINY)

I was thinking a few days ago that I never see a cricket in my house until August. August 1st came and went and I didn't see a cricket. "What the heck is going on?" I thought to myself, "Where are the crickets?".

Well, August 2nd arrived and I spied this cricket on my bathroom floor. I quickly took a picture to commemorate the first cricket of August to visit me this year. How they get in the house I haven't a clue as I don't leave my doors open and I don't send out invitations for the crickets to visit me but somehow they know how to show up each year at about the same day. I just remembered that 2008 was a leap year with an extra day in February so I guess without that extra leap year day this cricket would have arrived on the equivalent day of August 1st. Maybe crickets don't take into account the extra leap year day every four years like we humans so their cricket calendar may be a day behind our human calendar.

I was reading about crickets on the Internet and it is said that some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein as meat and other insects have important vitamins and minerals. Maybe the federal government will soon start mandating that people start eating more crickets and other bugs instead of beef as cows are known to emit a lot of flatulent methane gas which is said to contribute to greenhouse gasses and global warming although this year we haven't had a hot summer in New England compared with previous years. Maybe crunching on crickets is already gaining popularity around the world and people are already starting to eat less meat. In Taiwan, stir fried crickets are a delicacy. The government in Thailand encouraged its citizens to eat locusts when pesticides failed to control them and distributed locust recipes (yum,yum).

Perhaps President Obama will encourage Americans to forsake beef and start eating insects as part of his "Change we can believe in" policy to help save the planet.

Crickets are one of my favorite insects and in the Far East crickets have been kept as pets. Crickets can jump up to three feet in height which is quite a feat given their small size. Imagine if a basketball player could jump the equivalent height? A basketball player sized cricket could probably jump about one hundred seventeen feet high. By Jiminy, you would surely need a basketball rim higher than the current ten foot rim in use today.

"YES WE CAN ! (RAISE YOUR TAXES)

"Yes we can!" (raise your taxes). Fresh off celebrating his birthday yesterday; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick can celebrate today August 1st as the first day of the new state sales tax increase as the state tax rises from a previous five percent to the now 6.25% level with a new tax now on all liquor products on top of the current excise taxes already assessed on liquor.

In this booming economy (not) it only makes sense to raise taxes to stimulate the private sector (not) to have employers expand their businesses and hire more people. I'm sure that the Massachusetts store owners in towns near the New Hampshire border are jumping for joy and singing high praise and gratitude for this new tax rate as they are all going to be swamped with new business and will have to hire so many more people just to ring the cash register. This new tax is "Change you can believe in!" "Yes we can" pay more now for everything we buy. Since some people attribute a higher price to mean usually a better quality product; then that must mean the Massachusetts Budweiser beer is far superior to New Hampshire Budweiser beer even though there is a Budweiser brewery in New Hampshire and no Budweiser brewery in Massachusetts. The reason I guess for a higher Budweiser beer price in Massachusetts than in New Hampshire must be because with Budweiser's "beechwood aged" process these cans of "Bud" are slightly older and must taste slightly better in Massachusetts as it takes time to truck the beer from New Hampshire to Massachusetts.

If this new tax is the type of "change" that the people of Massachusetts voted for then I say "Keep the change" and "Change is all we will have left".

"Yes we can!" have change in our government. Maybe a good place to start would be in a change in leadership in the governor's office and the state legislature. Then again, " We get the government we deserve", maybe Massachusetts is trying to regain its former title of "Taxachusetts" and was concerned that some other states were trying to get the better of us as they had higher taxes in some areas than Massachusetts.

We the people of Massachusetts will not stand by and let other states have a higher tax rate than us. We will fight to have the highest tax rates possible. We will NEVER surrender our right to have the highest taxes and only vote for political candidates who promise to waste money and raise our taxes.

Are you with me? YES! Do you support higher taxes? YES!! Can we raise the taxes even higher?

"YES WE CAN! YES WE CAN!!, YES WE CAN!!! "
TAXES ARE COOL!, IF YOU DON'T LIKE TAXES YOU MUST BE A FOOL!!

"LONG LIVE TAXACHUSETTS!!!" YEA,YEA, YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!