This culm region is broke and broken

Gage and I happened upon our street sign, obviously, after some artiste went and ripped it down and bent it in half. I took it home and called the police. According to an officer, the DPW boys will retrieve it at some point.

This is exactly why assault and battery should be overlooked in some cases.

I see the Wilkes-Barre Area School Bored (no, not sic) wants to blow a couple of hundred million dollars on the construction of a new high school, if not two new high schools. And I read that they cannot settle on a construction site, which reportedly requires enough acreage to rival the size of Rhode Island.

I say demolish Coughlin's "old" building, remodel the annex, build a new school from the ruins of the elder building and build on the vacant corner lot. Should be plenty big enough, and in the dead center of the city. In addition, some streetscaping could allow for an extra traffic lane so that the soccer moms could shuttle the kiddies to and from class. 

One of these days, The Department of Homeland Security (as if) will secure our unsecured 700-mile southern border, so expect the student populations to decrease over the short haul a a result. In effect, if you build it, perrhaps them, they, the illegals will not come.

The thing is, we don't need to purchase additional properties, we don't need to spent hundreds of millions, and we should not expect to have to attempt to educate the half of Central America that hasn't illegally jumped our wide open border as of yet.

I have begun to reseach just what would be involved and required to move Wifey and I to another state. Folks, corruption is still the rule in this region, public sector unions have reduced us to being walking, talking revenue sources and the long sought after "good jobs" are never coming.

The culm region is long since done. Over. Dead in the water. Broke and broken. It's time to move on.

G'nite

Diversity or: why Kunkle is suddenly looking pretty damn good

The asswipes in charge of this flailing nation relentlessly remind white folk that they need and must wholeheartedly embrace the fast accelerating demographic diversification.

My street was a lily white locale until August 2014.

Now, as the pictures testify to, diversity has arrived, bringing with it weekend-only remodeling without the required building permits (when code enforcement is off-duty), contractor bags filled with refuse being spirited away at dark (illegal dumping?) and construction debris being openly burned in a so-called fire pit.

I love that second pic: indoor Teknor Apex throw carpeting covering the flower bed area.(?)

I have spoken to both the Code Enforcement honcho as well as the mayor. So far, nothing.

In short, if this is what diversity brings with it, you can soon look me up at another lily white locale.

Later

Original EJC photo

I scanned the decades-old photo...

 ...of dear ole Dad.

Later

EJC's fiddle

Been busy with work, life and assholes, but this shout out goes to Alsea, Oregon:

Tell dear ole Dad that his ancient fiddle is headed off to the repair shop, about to be fiddled on yet again.

 Above: Great-granddaughter, Taylor Kate, with the aged violin. Yes, that's "great-granddaughter."

Above: EJC circa 1943?

Later

End Hiatus.

I’ve heard from a few who want me to blog on. I’m good with that...

End hiatus!

First of all, I’ve been working a ton, an antiquated concept---providing for oneself.

Also, I got me one of those 21 billion jiggawatt desk tops, which was long, lomg overdue. In  addition,  I went and added a 42 billion jiggawatt notepad. 

I upgraded to a smart phone, but in retrospect, seems like a fairly dumb undertaking.

Thanks to our Incompetent-in-Chief and his perpetually needy band of prehensile-prone myrmidons, come election day I will be going with a straight party ticket…something I have never, ever done before.  Sorry, but those aforementioned myrmidons don’t possess  even an iota of a clue, and need to be summarily dispatched back to the mythical kingdom of Utopia.  

You see, there’s more to governance than providing a warm, moist orifice to public sector unions, one-issue jerk-off clans and the growing hordes of illegal aliens. 

I suppose the Ebola vaccine can’t be too far off, being that evil corporations are out to make a buck. 

Doesn’t matter much to me since I avoid pills, vaccines and suchwhat like the plague. 

I’ve some new responsibilities on the professional front, including the transport and application of poison gas. 

Still no tattoos, steel rods in my face or green hair. Yes, somehow, I’m still yet to be invited to the freak show tent. What a freak! Hell, I’m so completely old-fashioned, I still like girls.

Anyway, I’ll be posting some malarkey and such here on these electronic pages. And,  if and when that sexy phone of mine allows me to, I’ll even add some pics.

Later

Work, work, work

Just another day at the mill..

Taken in Scranton.

Later

Saturday morning one-liners

Being that I’ve come to the realization that most of my life is behind me rather than ahead of me, I no longer give a sh*t about politics, local or otherwise. Besides, other than the growing legions of people currently raping the treasury, nobody else really gives a sh*t about the ongoing government overreach, waste, fraud and traitorous intention.

I figure I know how to start an armed revolution in this country. What we need to do is release an authentic-looking study which concludes that smart phones are accelerating global warming, or global change or whatever the carbon tax shysters are calling it of late. Yeah, is those twenty and thirty-somethings are led to believe that the powers that be are coming for their blessed phones, all hell would likely break loose.  Yeah, all of a sudden, we’d be getting a thundering roar of ‘no applicability.’

I’ve been noticing a pronounced uptick in abject discourtesy and a clear lack of civility coming from the self-impressed populace, and to be blunt, most of the under-40 folks I encounter remind me of myself when I was 15-years-old. And since I have an acute memory, trust me, this is not a fortuitous happening.

Since when are the laws of this formerly great nation cobbled together and announced by only one man? We need to get a handle on that.

Since this same man will not protect our sovereignty, our treasury , our culture, or our traditions, I think it’s time that we all pick a new destination we might eventually call home.

In a few days, Wifey and I will celebrate our 40th year as a couple. She’s certainly not the same girl I met at the Coal Street Park pool. Sadly, I AM still that 15-year-old boy she met while Eddie Day & TNT wailed.

Since I find myself surrounded on any given day by those who obviously escaped the Freak Show tent, those given to abject lawlessness and those too self-absorbed to resist making love to their sexy phones while they operate motor vehicles, the old auto-hostility issues are reemerging for Markie. In short, most of what passes as humanity these days need s a punch in the face. Sorry, but it’s become inarguable. You’re not safe from sexual assault at the local library?

Support your local police, folks. They are your very last line of defense. And, no, they should not be haranguing CDL drivers for the purposes of generating revenue, they should be out patrolling their municipalities. Do you hear me Avoca? Sugar Notch? Wright Township?

I would like to know if the Wilkes-Barre Taxpayers Association actually has a mission other than calling the elected slanderous names? Just curious.

If the state legislature really thinks that electronic cigarettes should be taxed, then the lot of them should face impeachment.

The U.S. seems to have only two remaining growth industries: government bureaucracy and tattooing. Meaning, we are both screwed and garish-looking.

Save for Sue Henry, I have abandoned WILK radio for 97.9X. If it were my call to make, the much-needed new lineup at WILK would be Sue, Fred, L.A. and Joe. Done!

Folks, it seems as if we’re well on our way to legalizing drugs all over the place. And some how, this passes as progress?

Guns, canned goods, water and ammo.

Later

@ Mill Creek

There are two distinctly different ways to beat the heat.

Insert hoagie into pie hole and collapse in a lump by the air conditioner, or...

Ignore it!

2014 River-Feat: Good, bad & ugly.

I participated in the 2014 River-Fest event, by paddling some 15 miles from Harding to Wilkes-Barre.

After some figuring, we agreed that this was my 12th such foray into a massed paddling event. Still and all (trailer park speech), this would be the very first time that I would take a kayak out under my power. For my 10-year-old grandson, this would be his seventh consecutive launch. And for the first time, Jeremy joined us, despite his fear of sharks, alligators and sea monsters.

Yes, thanks to some marital combat emanating from within my tribe, a conniving sort pulled this stunt---without warning--whereby we would be forced to fit four men in a 3-man boat. Cute. I'm assuming she hoped this would scuttle our launch altogether.

Thanks to David Buck of Endless Mountain Outfitters, I was able to gain access to a 12-foot Pongo just as the paddlers at the water's edge were being briefed on all things river safety. Namely, wear your vest, wear your vest, and wear your vest.

Being up a few feet, the river was muddy, something that should not be confused with pollution. Yes, there was some acid-mine drainage in the usual spots, as is always the case here in the Wyoming Valley. But when in shallow water, the river bottom was very visible, a good sign for any recovering, free-flowing river. And as usual, there was plenty of wildlife to be gazed upon all along the river's banks.

Anyway, I'll keep this short...

Later

 

The 2014 Wyoming Valley River-Fest is underway

I'll see you fellow paddlers in the morning.

2004 (the monsoon year) below...with Gage Andrew.

Later