Ranting and Ravings

My wife flew home for a wedding a couple of days ago. When I got back from taking her to the airport I turned off the AC, turned on the Rolling Stones, and cracked a beer. I've been wandering around our little beachfront apartment in swim trunks, sweating my ass off, swilling beers, and getting pissed reading about the worldwide corruption of the political system. It could be the combination of heat, information, beer, and coffee...but I am not happy about the corporate elite who are dominating the world. I just want to live a quiet life of growing my own food and living simply, but those bastards just want to have a thumb on every aspect of OUR lives. 

Here is an article from Rolling Stone's Matt Tiabbi about those shit-headed assholes from Goldman-Sachs who are in the business of screwing all of us out of our money. The very fact that these scum bags are out there doing this to us while we just sit back and watch 'American Idol' is pretty heinous. The mainstream media has totally failed us when Rolling Stone is out there talking about the real issues of today. CNN spends more time talking about celebrities than true news events. Thank goodness there is a burgeoning alternative media rising up to fill the void left by the corporate conglomerate controlled media. Check out www.infowars.com for some pretty mind opening news and opinion.

I have to chuckle about the news cycle this past week. While cable news talking heads were bleating about the president's comments about Harvard professor Gates, serious shit was going down in the world. Just watch C-Span for a couple of hours and see all of the sobering items which are up for vote that WILL change our lives, but we don't hear a word about. We are about to get taxed on things ranging from toilet paper to kitchen sinks, our choices  on healthcare are about to disappear, we're going to get taxed on driving via an Orwellian GPS tracking system in our vehicles, and Obama is getting set to expand our military operations into bases in Africa. It's almost too much for a rational individual who wants to live their own life without the input of a million political hacks who sold their souls to the corporate Man. 

I just read that our local mayor and town council is up for reelection here in Carolina Beach. The thing is though that they are all running without opposition. Thank goodness for them I haven't lived here long enough to throw my name into the hat, but next time they had better watch out. I'm getting fired up here about politics and real change starts at the local level. If we're still living here in two years, then I will run for a public office. Until that point, I've made the decision to get involved by going to all the public hearings and putting out as many opinion articles which the local papers dare publish. Hunter S. Thompson ran for sheriff is Aspen a couple of decades ago and he ran without censoring himself. He through bricks at everyone, attempting to expose fraud and corruption wherever possible. I am going to follow his Gonzo example and be loud about my opposition. Don't bring your children to the meetings, because I'm going to use profanity when necessary...And it seems that there are few situation which call for the use of profane language like politics.

On a slightly more positive note, we finally got some juicy waves on Thursday and Friday. It was almost head-high with some power behind it. I surfed for almost 7 hours Thursday and 5 hours on Friday. My arms were noodles and my nose was crispy by the time the swell got beat down by the onshore wind. I am really looking forward to surfing some decent waves this fall. 

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more rants and entertaining stories. Keep on keeping on.

Pictures from the Past Couple Weeks

Drinks at the Tiki Bar

Beach Cruiser Gang

My Daily Car Pool

My Bad Ass Work Dog Cane

My Pregnant Work Dog Molly

Summer Happenings

Hello folks. Apologies for the lack of postings. Life has been busy this summer. I've been driving all over coastal NC chasing geese and running my work dogs. I've also been working at an island shop giving surf lessons and taking people on kayak and jet ski tours.

The island is packed with sunburnt tourists and vacationers. I've come to grips with the fact that this place gets trashed, abused, and thoroughly used for about 10 weeks out of the year. I don't know what it will be like to walk out to the beach again this fall and not see anything but pelicans and seagulls. The weekly vacation cycle is entertaining though. Every Sunday a new batch of pasty white families excitedly unpack minivans and head down to the beach for that first dip into the ocean and the following Saturday morning they tearfully take one last trip down to the seashore as a sunburnt dad repacks the van. 

I can't complain about tourists though. They allow me to have a pretty sweet side job. A couple days a week I cruise the beach in a little John Deer Gator and pick up beach rental chairs and umbrellas. The best part of the job is taking people out jet skiing and on kayak tours through the local estuaries. There are days where I'll do a early morning kayak tour, then a surf lesson, and then spend the rest of the day out on the inter-coastal waterway taking tourists on high speed jet ski trips.

My full time job for FlyAway Farm and Kennels is going well. I've worked on some great dogs who are now chasing birds at Air Force bases up and down the East coast. I get to travel all around our area to high end golf courses to run the dogs on Canadian geese. For the past month I've had to take a ferry each morning to one of the courses. It's awesome that my morning commute involves a 35 minute boat ride across the Cape Fear River. 

Charging around a golf course with a couple of wound up dogs in a Gator is a great way to spend a day. All of those guys in their little golf shirts and fancy pants look at me kind of weird. There are so many rules and etiquette on the course. I just have to chuckle at all of those guys chasing the little ball around while I get to charge around the course chasing birds and other random creatures.

The surf has been minimal for the past couple of weeks. We've had some fun days of surf around here, but nothing to get the blood pumping too much. I'm holding out for some good surf this fall and winter. The water temp is still around 80, which is just about perfect. 

On the literary and political front of life, I just finished reading through 'The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. The book is about four eco-minded individuals who are tired of watching their beloved desert be torn apart by corporations. They turn to sabotage in defense of their Southwest country and destroy all manner of things mechanized. It's a great book and brings up some very strong points. The phrase "Resist much. Obey Little" is a central theme of the book. The book is a loose retelling of Abbey's days defending the desert wilderness he loved. The only resource we can't get more of is wilderness. After driving around and across the country for a couple of months this winter I can't believe how much rampant development there is. Here at the beach there are huge condos going up in every vacant lot, condos that will only be used 10 weeks per year. I'm not calling for an all out war on development, but Ed Abbey makes some strong points in favor of pulling out survey stakes and monkey wrenching large corporate development. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and keep on keeping on. I'm gonna get back into this blog thing, so stay tuned for more postings.