an old dog's tale.

Tuck

     Tuck was a German shepherd / elk-hound cross mutt dog, I guess as some would say, but to me he was a friend and one of the best dogs I had owned in my life. He would stay where I put him, if it be in the pouring rain outside a bar on a dollar bet to just telling him to stay, or the same on the side of the road till a car passed and then forgetting to tell him to come and then look back to where I told him to stay and see him still sitting there obeying. A simple,” Come her Tuck”, would get him to my side in no time flat.

      For this I would give him privileges unexpected by other dogs, such as a run down a back country road in southern Ohio as I would just poke along in my old pickup as he ran in front of me. Sometimes we would go for miles up and down hollers as they say down there without seeing a car or even a house at times. If he saw a groundhog, he would immediately give chase, and sometimes he would get his prey. It was all natural hunting and later on when times were bad for me and money was short, Tuck would provide enough meat for himself and other dogs , just by hunting like this. He was really good at spotting the groundhogs and they sometimes never knew what was coming and sometimes farmers didn’t either.

      One time I was out with Tuck and I was out exercising him and he was maybe 30 feet in front of me as I rounded a corner opening up to a nice little farm homestead complete with a farmer sitting on the front porch of this quaint little perfect place, shining in a green valley, it was a dreamy story and half white farmhouse with a nice porch across the front, and this farmhouse stood in front of an old weathered barn behind and a perfectly tended garden on the far side.   Idyllic to say the least it was on my right side and it was early spring with the grass a bright shining green and the brilliance of the leaves shimmering in the cool breeze, along with aromas of spring rejuvenated your soul from a hard winter such as we had just had. .

      I noticed the old farmer was almost laying down in the old rocker as he slouched down and stuck his feet up on an old planter and was holding up the day’s paper as he lounged his way through the morning catching up on current events outside the realm of his property fences assuring that the words displayed would suffice for his lack of need to venture far and see for himself just what the world was up to. As if time or purpose meant anything to him so far out in the country. Still he was focused with his nose in between the folds of the paper. I watched Tuck as he suddenly lunged from a stiff walk to a full out run, stretching his legs as suddenly I realized he saw something and I quickly searched the direction he was headed to see if I could see what he was after.

      The road was perched up on the side of a hill and offered full view of the farm situated in the valley below offering clear views of the front porch, and the farmer and tuck tearing up ground looking as if he was headed straight for the farmer on the porch. I looked beyond the porch as I came out into full view of the panorama opening up before me as I drove on along on the road, and I could see the garden beyond and a huge groundhog standing tall in the middle of it.

       I looked at Tuck’s path and the garden, and I could see a straight line, as straight as an arrow across the farmer’s porch. I figured Tuck was going to have to cross the porch and the farmer to get the groundhog in the garden on the other side. I only took my eyes off them for a half a second to get my bearings on the road long enough to keep me from ending up in a ditch , only to see Tuck make a mighty leap and land on the side of the open porch in one large bound. The noise of him thudding hard on the low slung porch startled the farmer and quickly he responded by putting the paper down, and looking in the direction of the noise, but by then tuck was sailing right over the farmers outstretched feet sailing a clear 2 feet over them and in another thud landed on the other side of the small porch landing on the edge and lunging again for open air as he landed about 8 feet further into the air. I watched the old farmer as his head turned this way and that trying to catch up with the noise only to see the ass-end of my dog as he tore through his garden, blinded by the bright morning sun to watch Tuck grab a surprised huge groundhog by the neck and throw him in the air. Only to Tuck’s surprise that the groundhog was so huge, he hardly got him off the ground, as undoubtedly this groundhog and the farmer had a working arrangement, where he would eat all he wanted and the farmer would plant more for him.

    Regardless the fight was on and the dust flew and the garden was  getting tore up as I now focused on the road, having just missed the opportunity to drive off several times as I watched my dog in some rather complicated maneuvers doing things unimaginable to this farmers garden. I just drove along and acted like he wasn’t my dog and that I never saw him before till finally I was beyond the sight of the farm and the farmer not knowing exactly the fate of my dog or the groundhog, or even the farmer, as he undoubtedly thought he thought he was hearing things only to see the butt of a dog who wasn’t his, flying over his feet and then tearing off into his garden and killing a big old groundhog that had he had been feeding no doubt.

      I stopped the truck in the safety of a hidden cove of trees and whistled my familiar long whistle calling Tuck to me.  Here he come running down the road and up into the truck he went, as expertly as he flew over the farmers feet and landed in the corner of the passenger side of the trucks bench seat and looked at me as he took long breaths with a slight frothing at the mouth and looking a bit disheveled. He looked at me for a second as if he was saying, “Hurry up fat boy we better skate out of her”. That I did as gravel flew and soon he was leaning out the window looking for his next adventure as his hair flattened in the wind. .

     Now I don’t know about the farmer but as far as I am concerned, it was definitely something to remember, especially that old farmer wondering what was going on as old Tuck flew through the air and scared the heck out of him as well the fight and the eventual disappearance of the dog , in just the same time as it took for it all to happen. And all he had to show for it was a dead groundhog, and some damaged plants in the middle of his previously well-kept garden. I am sure he would have something to talk at church about the next Sunday and way more relevant to him than what was in that newspaper,  and something he surely wouldn’t  forget for a while.

multiple use for greenhouse.

My Easy Breezy Quiche Recipe

        I still need to work on it some and can’t wait for my organic eggs from my own chickens to make. I still have all 8 Rhode Island chicks as well I have my two old retired chickens totaling 10 chickens. I also have my 6 ducks and one goose that have survived the winter successfully. What a hardy bunch they are. You could say I am a fowl man trading cows for chickens. But chickens don’t kick as hard, and really when left on their own can get along quite well around a homestead cleaning up flying insects as well as grubs and whatever else in pests that afflict your plants and shrubs.

       The down side is that they are clueless to where to take a crap. Any porch or wherever the mood strikes is fair game for them when left to roam. They also love to dig in the mulch either because it’s loose or because it yields that many bugs. I am clueless as I watch them tear things up.

babe watching chicks 

      I started to move some dirt in preparation for starting my house and at same time it was good soil I had prepared for a garden bed close to the house, and didn’t want to waste it by just mixing it in with other dirt as it was highly organic. In the process of moving it I also moved a bird house and placed it on its side, only to notice a starling that had occupied it last year was trying to get in the birdhouse as it laid on its side. I went out right away and straightened it up and moved it to an area where I have a group of other birdhouses and will wait till nesting season is over before moving these birdhouses if I have to. I encourage birds also by providing housing and feeding them also, as regular birds also keep down the pest populations as they forage for food for themselves and their young.  

     The soil I had taken out went into a straw bale garden I am starting by the greenhouse where I plan to plant plants and flowers to show how easy and how well these straw bale gardens do when built. It is an experiment for me as well. I also intend to do a couple of vertical gardens with walls being built out of rustic wood with pockets for plants. Most of these eliminate bending and take up far less space as well provide shading and privacy for those who want that in their landscapes.

     Also I have managed to erect a swimming pool in the greenhouse and I expect to use it as therapy for my back which lately is causing me more problems than necessary. I am hoping to just lounge around in pool and by decompressing my spine with the buoyancy of the water and eliminate or reduce pain I am experiencing. The greenhouse will allow me to enter the water quicker as I am achieving temps of 95 degrees on 60 degree days. This will help heat the pool quicker and moderate the inside temp of the greenhouse and add extra moisture to the air. As well as provide security to the pool. To me this all sounds like a win- win situation.

    My quiche recipe is as follows. 4 eggs

                                                             1 ½ cups of half and half cream

                                                            2 tbsp. flour

                                                            1 cup of ham

                                                            ¼ cup of diced green peppers and onions

                                                            2 cups of any cheese desired
                                                            Salt and pepper to taste

                                                            Going to try prepared pie crust instead of just spraying pan with shortening

      Anyhow I whisked the eggs and flour and cream together and folded in diced ham and peppers, and in my case this time sprayed a stainless steel frying pan with pam and poured mixture into pan and placed in oven for 40 minutes. Oven needs to be heated to 350 degrees.

       I had a problem with bottom sticking and is reason I would use a prepared frozen pie crust next time , and allow time to set after baking to allow to cool as it can be very hot and burning taste buds influence your perception of how good it is. Babe gave me the seal of approval after I picked out green peppers for her. She hastily hogged it down. The upper portion of the quiche ( the un-stuck portion), was great and stayed together well . I am looking forward to varying this recipe adding spinach and Swiss cheese as well a variety of other ingredients. This will be even better with my home grown eggs as soon as the new chicks start laying.

      Babe has taken on a motherly role of watching and calming the critters down as she lies by the cage watching them. Just recently she came to me and I thought she wanted outside; instead she dragged me back to the cages of the chicks and wanted me to fill the feeder and change the water for them. After I opened the cage she went outside knowing all was well. 

good intentions are just that

Plans

      It’s Monday morning and to get a jump on the week I should have made plans yesterday for today. When in fact I had made plans only not yesterday but last Friday as I figured I would do my worse job first today after I was able to get moving. That job is cleaning up brush from tree tops we had harvested and are laying in the field. This is something I have to limit the work as much as possible, yet still get it done or at least the ones laying in my fields out of the way so I can mow hay unrestricted this summer.

      I figured I would dedicate one day / week to the task as it does have a limited amount of chainsaw work and the rest I can do with the tractor such as cleaning up limbs, etc.. Well Monday arrives on the cold side, a little nippier than I like, especially when I have a warm greenhouse and sunshine to make it warmer. Plans change and so do mine this morning. I might spend some time outside cleaning and trying to get my grain drill out of the garage as I need to spread some limestone stored in the greenhouse. The fields would easily benefit from the addition of the limestone. So it is a win-win situation. I like win-win , you get those times when you can do that and couple it with another win and it makes for a great Monday. This I hope is the plan for today. As I create more space in the greenhouse, help the fields, and clean the garage some more. The wood can wait for a warmer day . Well I hope that the same is planning to be the same way where you are at.

     Mondays are hard to plan for as you know for sure and according to Murphy’s Law, if it is going to go wrong it will Monday morning. Still you can’t get rid of the day and pick one more appropriate, maybe Friday would be nice. Have a Friday on Monday, start and stop the weekend on the same day? Don’t think that is going to work so we just need to get on with it and git her done. Signing off and gitting her done. 

open house Yockey farms greenhouse will be May 23,2015

Mother’s Day 2015

      This year will be May 10^th, 2015, which is the last frost free date for the state of Ohio traditionally, meaning that you really don’t want to start a garden outside without considering frost protection before this time. That’s ok with most backyard gardeners as traditionally I believe people also never get their gardens started that early. For the last 2 years I have been trying to target the best date to have my open house and this year I believe I will have it May 23, 2015, 2 weeks after Mother’s Day, on a Saturday. It is in between Mother’s day and Father’s day , and is before the parks fully open swimming and such. Everyone is more into still doing spring yard work , and getting their backyards spruced up for grilling season.

     I will have a wide variety of trees available including a couple new but old varieties partial to Ohio, but looked over for their future planting possibilities. These are the hedge apple and the bass wood tree. The hedge apple or Osage orange tree is a tree characterized by traditional plantings in fence rows, where apples would fall down hillside and land in road and cars would smash as they go by in late autumn. These bright green apples are sometimes collected and used as deterrents to spiders when placed in windows and closets. Another purpose and the one that resulted in the hedge apple being planted in fence rows was that they made good trees that grew fast and when dead their wood would resist rotting and would hold a fence. When alive and young and the supple tops could be bent over and broke, then pinned to the ground and grow another tree. They are finding a renewed use as a riparian fence line border. Along rushing streams where spring flooding is causing erosion. The trees are planted and again over a period of years the tops can be bent over till you get a wall of roots and foliage with sharp thorns and that catches debris and creates formidable defense to rushing streams carrying valuable topsoil away. I plan on planting some here to show their use as a riparian fence but will have a limited amount available but would order any quantity you need for the project you have.

      Unfortunately the trees may not arrive till mid-summer and not the best time to plant due to water restrictions in terms of sustainable rainfall at this time of year and may dry out to much. In this case I could pot and water here more conveniently and assure you have an adequate supply of trees for your fall planting project. I buy young bare rooted plants and get them started in our natural good old Ohio organic soil and get them a good start and weed out weak plants. Or I can provide you with the young whips and you can do it yourself.

      The other tree I am impressed with because I’m a carver I guess, and has a down the road value and that is the basswood tree. It is a smaller tree up to 30 feet but can get up to 60- 100 an live up to a documented 2000 years, and is a broadleaf tree which has a potential for reselling as crafting wood for fine sculptures as it yields a medium hard carving wood white in color. Its cells are compact and show little band color in terms of growth rings giving a carver blank slate so to speak, to color evenly, as well cut a good edge leaving sharp detail. Before the trees are harvested you will enjoy 20- 30 years of shade and habitat potential for your backyard. They are hardy and in no time will stick their necks out and let you see where they are and avoid weed eater disease. Soon the spreading branches will easily be able to support bird houses and start to provide shade for the environment.

       As we go long in our life and look at our yards I believe we need to approach the idea of cutting of our yards on a weekly basis, where also and in some cases, people are cutting 10- 15 acres of yard weekly . This is a waste of resources and not a bit good for the environment or the pocketbook. Undoubtedly it has been a boon for the lawn mowing and pesticide companies spraying their bee toxic solutions and killing the crabgrass and beneficial insects like ladybugs, praying mantis and bees as evenly as well as other pests. Yes gas prices are low and it is easier to return to the practice of mowing to the road edge, still we are losing millions of dollars in public money as well as private by failing to recognize the potential of eliminating a lot of mowing and weed eating and improving our environment with beneficial trees that are good for the environment and have secondary use. Do we really need wide expanses of grass to mow with our John Deere mowers, and become OCD when we see a few missed blades of grass, or one area of the lawn spotted or growing too fast? Read a book and relax the world will not end if you don’t rush out there and mow it all again. To better avoid this just plant more trees, mulch if you must and use your zero turn and trim and leave alone. Weed eaters are not really necessary every mowing if adequately managed with weed fabric and mulch.

     The hedge apples may not be good for your back yard unless you live close to a rushing stream where you want some kind of stream protection, or you want to keep pesky neighbors at the property line, and keep prying eyes at a distance due to the thorny nature as their best defense, and yours.  But the basswood tree will have the ability to provide years of shade and are also capable of having a pleasant aroma and are also considered to be a good bee tree from their ample blossoms. Seeds are small and inconsequential in yard management requiring little cleanup besides usual  leaf cleanup in the fall. Avoid planting over patios and decks as they are best suited for the back yard due to nectar and sap production as it stains paint on cars, and concrete. 

you can never have too many free bears!

Free Bears Anyone? 

        I will be having my 3rd annual open house again this year and intend to give away a carving as I have for the last 2 years. This year i am doing no other public carvings instead will be focusing on adding on to my present house. I am not taking orders for any carvings instead intend to fill my new place with my own carvings and carving extras as I go along. Money is nice but it isn’t everything. Someday I will no longer be able to carve with a chainsaw and I know it, I want mementos of the time when I could do it. I fully intend to return to chainsaw carving after 2 years and will start taking orders again t that point. In the meantime if you wish to see me carve or have a chance at a free carving I suggest you take a chance to come visit my open house in May. The day hasn’t been set, but I will try and make that date wrote in stone, or maybe wood soon.    

its like a zoo out there, and here also!

Farm Update

3-19-2015

 Babe and Lilly having their morning oatmeal 

      Well I am moving along on a lot of projects from raising peeps to chickens so that we can have our own eggs here ion the farm to installing a swimming pool in the green house to planting veggies for the third annual open house here at Yockey Greenhouse here on the farm.

       Well first thing I intend to talk about is the progress I am making on planting of veggies. Of primary importance I have found a non-GMO supplier of seeds and found that in Toddsseeds.com.. a GMO seed is one that has been altered genetically for a variety of reasons altering forever the original heritage variety , mutating in effect what would have taken eons for mother nature to do it naturally if it ever would. All the seeds sold there are heritage seeds and arte certified to be non-GMO seeds. This also means if you were to save the seeds from the produce, you could in effect regrow the same produce year after year, with no additional purchase necessary, and you can assure yourself that you are getting time tested and proven seeds that will yield year after year, without the need to purchase new seeds yearly as you have to with the so called hybrids. A little secret about a lot of the so called hybrids and that they are just heritage, or non-GMO seeds just repackaged and claiming to be better than original breeds. For this they claim a higher price for nothing and get you to dump the seeds at the end of the year. In effect , having you create a need for more so called hybrid seeds.

panoramic view of work at Bolivar dam

      I will have 5 kinds of tomatoes as well head lettuce like you buy in the stores, peppers , of both green and yellow varieties as well banana peppers and some hot peppers. I will also have melons and squash. By the time the open house comes along I intend to have some other varieties of veggies I haven’t mentioned yet. I am also working on some innovative methods of growing tomatoes easily in a container type environment. I will be making a straw bale garden, and also a method of raising tomatoes where there are 2 cages with the inner cage filled with my compost and the outer cage filled with tomatoes in a circular pattern. This supposedly cuts down the need for watering as once you have the compost moist it serves to keep the tomatoes in the perimeter moist and supplies them with much needed nutrients while at the same time providing support for the tomatoes keeping the fruit off the ground. I am also going to try growing strawberries in tubes and feed them a nutrient tea.

     These are just a few things I will have going on this year. Also I intend to be open for 3 weeks this year, with daily set hrs.. So you can stop by anytime or you can call and still make arrangements to come and visit if you like. Again as I did last year I will be giving away a carved bear to some lucky person who enters the contest. The rules will change this year and I am still working on them to make it fair and at same time allow me to get the best benefit from my work. Details will be added later. I have quite a few petunias growing now and will have hanging baskets available again this year. These will be hybrid as I don’t think it makes much difference if flowers are hybrid or not, as we don’t eat them, although my bees will pollinate them and make honey off the nectar , still the small amount of hybrid flowers is inconsequential to the overall production of honey.

work on back side of dam 

      I will be adding more chickens to my small flock as I purchased 8 Rhode Island reds to help us provide free range eggs to our homestead. I will be feeding them in addition to letting them roam and will also train them to return to their chicken house nightly to avoid being eaten by predators. I still have my 2 retired chickens and have found that they take to herding quite well and hope I can train the young ones by using these older chickens to show the new ones the ropes. I just need to get a new chicken house built. If I see that we have an abundance of eggs I will let you know and will be glad to sell you fresh eggs as they become available.

concrete batch plant?

       I plan on adding a swimming pool to my greenhouse as I need to use it for rehabilitation purposes as water, or swimming has a lot of health benefits available to it, and with adding it to the greenhouse it will help condition the atmosphere inside the greenhouse, at same time allow greater flexibility and privacy that one doesn’t normally get with a backyard pool. If at the worse I have to abandon this idea , I will throw some fish in it and use the water to water and fertilize plants. Depending on our watering needs it may not be a bad idea to have a storable water source to assure I have plenty of water during dry times. I will begin adding water to the pool today. As I plan on being in it as early as May 1^st. The sooner the better, as far as I am concerned. It seems every year it is harder to get through the winters and body aches, it will be nice to have some minor comfort I have found before with swimming.

rhubarb growing from seed

    So I have plenty of things planned for this year.  In addition,  I have also shut down my kevscarvings.com site since I am doing no carvings for anyone else but myself for the next 2 years. After I close the greenhouse for the year I intend to go full steam ahead on the foundation of my new addition to my house. I’m finalizing the plan and hope to have something soon for all to see. I still expect it to take me 2 years to complete as I had previously stated. Part of that is due to the drying of the wood I intend to cut. By my next birthday a year from Dec. 22 , 2015 I intend to be living in the new house. If you never make plans then you never have anything to change, but then again you never have nothing. I would rather change my plans than have nothing. Keep watching for more details as I go along.

these are my peeps

4G just isn't what it is supposed to be

Camel Toe Joe Returns

       Well since my internet has went from bad to worse I have had to contact good old T-Mobile again as it has been over five days since I have had 4G service, and now have to wait for another 3 days before complaining again. I was told by the crack staff at T-Mobile that I am not alone in my misery and that others have called and complained. Prompting Camel Joe to make a regular work schedule out of this at their cell tower just over the hill as once again we pick up on Joe’s day as he stops at Punjabs 7-11 and grabs a super 7 -11 quart of hot coffee with 23 sugars and 3 cream and buys himself 4 packs of camel non filters and 5 super lotto tickets. He slides a fifty dollar bill across the counter and pockets the dollar in change as Punjab gathers up Joe’s bounty and deposits it in a cheap plastic bag. Camel Joe grabs the bag and heads out the door.

    He tosses the bag in his trash littered seat among the empty Egg Mc Muffin paper wrappers and sleeves off hash browns grease stained and crumbled alongside the retonator. An integral piece of electronic equipment designed to boost your wireless signal from 2G to 4G. Joe reached over and patted the retonator as he knew that as long as he didn’t replace the one on the tower then Mr. Kevin L. Davis almighty one would be without 4G service.

     Having tried the pipe wrench trick the other day only yielded 4G service for the fraction of time that Joe had been at the tower working and only in the local area of the tower , the retonator was going bad and Joe had no idea that was the problem till he returned home and found another message on his phone where another person was without 4G service in the same area as the tower and that they had complained also after Mr. Kevin L. Davis almighty one had lodged his complaint.

     Well Joe thought you just can’t replace a retonator in one day. Although it is a pull and plug component , it takes time to sort out the problem as Joe started his Chevy pickup truck and swung into traffic and headed south to the tower. Joe had intentions of making this a week long work ticket. Plenty of time to watch porn movies, sleep and just generally do some target practice as he sorts out the problems at the tower. Retonators are expensive and you just don’t replace one without checking out everything else Joe thought to his advantage.

      Joe wheeled in the access drive unlocked the gate, and soon pulled the long hill in 4wheel drive as pulled up alongside the tower. He reached under his belly flab and found his keys and pulled on the chain and unlocked the gate, then the door, and opened the cell tower control room. He returned to his pickup and grabbed the retonator a couple of packs of cigarettes his 45, his Mr. Big cup of coffee and his laptop and returned to the control room locking the door behind him. He reached behind the fire extinguisher and grabbed his pint bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a couple of shots worth of Jack down the throat of his Mr. Big cup coffee and tasted it. A little weak he thought as he slid some more in and hid the bottle behind the fire extinguisher again.

      Joe hooked his laptop up to the diagnostic panel and did a quick trouble shooting check of the panel and it returned the same error code. Faulty retonator on 4G module.  Joe figured he would have to replace it today since he had been milking this job for four days now. His mighty boss had called and complained that they were giving out free passes to Mr. Kevin L. Davis Almighty and others as he keeps calling in and complaining that indeed it has been over 72 hours and his service had not yet been restored. These things take time Joe thought as he sucked on his Mr.  Big cup and lit up a filter less Camel coughed at the thought of the harsh smoke obscuring his black lungs as if it was possible. Joe would replace the damn retonator today although he kinda liked hanging out up here on this hill. Besides if he fixed this tower then someone else would have something they needed fixed or some kind of maintenance to do somewhere else.  Someone is always complaining about something somewhere.

      This tower was close to home and Joe kinda liked that. He knew where all the State Highway Patrol hung out and he would be on his best behavior heading home. Getting busted for OMVI was bad enough but having a weapon loaded and under the seat, might buy him some time in the county hotel. Oh well Joe thought. That thankless bitch he calls his wife would surely understand the reason then, that he has no money for her to blow after that. The kids are gone and it is just Joe and her. He thought the household expenses would go down but every time he turns around she is hitting him up for more money. There are only so many retonators to replace so she needs to mind her pennies Joe thought. Pennies make nickels, nickels make dimes, and dimes make dollars, as Joe’s grandma used to say. Joe remembered as he sat back in his chair ad swigged on his Mr. Big coffee cup and continued the phrase out loud as if he was talking to himself, and dollars buys Jack as he swigged on the extra sweet coffee and tugged with his lips on the Camel hanging out of his mouth, and almost laughingly choking on the sweet absurdity of what he was doing now .  

      Joe grabbed his wireless mouse and made pointed gestures at the corner of his laptop screen and started watching porn movies as he finished his coffee. He grabbed his 45 and headed out the door and began firing rounds at the birds and whatever else wandered within his area as he shot a box of shells threw it. At times acting like a fast shooting cowboy as he would quick draw from  his make believe holster casually pulling the gun up to his lips and blowing on the barrel as if to cool it off afterwards. after nearly doing a Barney Phyfe and nearly shooting a hole in his foot , Joe decided that maybe that was enough gun practice for the day and slid the gun back under the seat of his truck. Damn Joe thought to himself as he looked at his cell phone, it was nearly 10 o’clock and he needed to get that retonator up there by noon if he was ever going to get done today.

     Joe staggered to the back of his truck as he was starting to feel the effects of the Jack in the Mr. Big cup of coffee. The buzz was kind of overpowering and he knew he shouldn’t climb, but oh well Mr. Kevin L. Davis almighty needs his damn internet fixed, and that retonator is not going to get up there by itself, Joe thought. Too bad they don’t have those damn drones yet available to fix things like this as Joe could suddenly imagine himself sitting in the seat of his truck swigging on his Mr. Big cup loaded with Jack as he work the wireless controls of the drone safely on the ground as he spied the sides of the tower looking for where the retonator is supposed to go. Up, up it would go higher on the tower as it carried the part skyward with a lot less ease than what Joe could do especially when he was half tanked.

    Sorry Joe thought, no drone yet so he grabbed his life line and his tool belt, unstrapped his ladder and headed for the base of the tower. Joe sat the ladder up and made sure it was steady and then looked around as he did a mental check of what he needed to replace the retonator. He forgot his pipe wrench and so he returned to his truck and opened the cap of his truck and scrounged around under some tools and found a smaller version of the pipe wrench he carried to the top of the tower the other day. This should be good enough to replace the retonator thought Joe as he headed back to the control room and picked up the new retonator and headed again for the base of the tower. He checked his coveralls and assured he had his flask and a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He shoved the palm size round retonator into his pocket and proceeded to start climbing. At about the twenty foot level he entered the man cage and hooked in his safety line.

     Only 275 more feet straight up Joe thought, to get to the level where the old retonator was and needed to be replaced. He was already winded and grunted with each step up he took as if he was nearing the top and yet he was only just getting started due to the effects of the alcohol and cigarettes. Joe would labor up and stop every fifty feet or so and grab a Camel out of his cigarette pack and puff on it as he leaned back to support himself against the steel bars of the man cage . He would survey the countryside on this clear day looking for any game he might shoot when he returned to the ground. He could see nothing as he certainly scared everything off with his target shooting earlier. Even the field mice had scattered when he almost Barney Phyfe’d himself. Joe laughingly thought about how close the shot came to his foot and blew a hole in the ground.

     Oh well shit happens joe thought to himself as he gathered up the strength somewhere in his obese body drawing on his fat reserves to get the energy to go on higher into the tower. Soon he could see the old retonator nestled in the side of the tower as he climbed closer to the top of the tower and out of the man cage and precariously perched on just steel rungs as the tower swayed in the wind that only exists up here at these heights. Joe was on edge now choosing not to look out but to focus on what he was doing. Looking out is ok at these heights but looking down is another thing. Joe found where the retonator was and could see the weather and being out in the elements had did a number to the old retonator. That and electrical flow had anodized the retonator and fused it into the slot making extracting the old one a bit hairy at these heights. Joe thought to himself. It is one thing to hold on but another to actually hold on and work hand tools at the same time. Never the less it needed a pipe wrench Joe thought as he struggled to find the small one he had had on his tool belt under a fold of fat. Joe fumbled around with one hand and soon found the pipe wrench and soon found the warmth of his body had heated the handle where his body had transferred the warmth into the cold steel, this was somewhat comforting to Joe as there is  nothing worse than freezing hands at this height.

     So Joe now with the pipe wrench in one hand grasping the tower in the other reaches behind his head and smacks the retonator while it is in its socket too loosen the rust Joe thought. Indeed it did loosen it a bit but not enough to pull it out by hand . Besides it was a twist lock mechanism meaning that once you loosened it you still had to turn it to remove the retonator. So Joe adjusted the opening of the pipe wrench around the round retonmator to where he could grip the sides of the cylindrical device and then he spun it with one hand and soon it was free. And slid out of the jaws of the pipe wrench before joe could retrieve it as if gravity sucked it back to the center of the earth. It dropped banging off the metal framework and hitting the top of the control room 250 feet below with a loud metal bang as if someone had shot the roof. Wow Joe thought that could easily be me. As he looked down and became a little uneasy.

      Joe caught himself thinking about what it would be like to fall off a tower like this and then shuddered a cold tremble through his bones as he double checked his safety line to assure he was tied in. He fumbled through his pocket and found the new retonator and installed it in the receptacle and it was a snug fit assuring the new o-rings would seal it against the weather. Joe then descended to the man cage where he could lean back against the back support and rest a few seconds before doing the diagnostics. His heart was beating hard and seemed as if was going to blow out of his chest and soon he had calmed enough to grab a cigarette and his cell phone and lit the cigarette as he punched at the face of his smart phone dialing up the diagnostics of the tower at a pre- specified set aside number, clearly seeing that Mr. Kevin L. Davis Almighty had indeed a full 4G signal now that the new retonator was in place.

      Before Joe returned his smart phone to his pocket he decided to take a selfie to send to his new online girlfriend he had never met in person. He climbs back up to the opening of the man cage and does a reverse selfie as if showing him in midair high above the tree tops with blue skies and puffy clouds in the background. Surely this should impress her Joe thought to himself. He pocketed the smart phone and climbed down a couple of rungs and then found his flask and took a couple of nips off the flask feeling the warmth rekindle the hyper buzz of nerves riding high on adrenaline from being constantly scared. The alcohol tended to relax him somewhat and soon he felt comfortable up there looking out enjoying himself somewhat till he felt the need to return to earth and he started descending as his job done.

    Soon he was back on the ground and loading his ladder throwing his tool belt and pipe wrench in the back of the cap on his pickup and then heading into the control room where his laptop and office chair awaited him, as well what was left of his quart size Mr. Big coffee cup . He added some more Jack from the bottle behind the fire extinguisher to what was left in his coffee cup thinning out its contents even more with the mind numbing substance within. He sat down in his chair and ran the diagnostics on the tower and could see he had a real good 4G signal even from remote locations he could ping off of. He switched the laptop over from diagnostics to Google chrome and checked out his Facebook account then went to his email and sent the selfie to his girlfriend he had earlier taken.

     They were Skypeing within minutes as he would talk to her as she was in states of undress. Her bulbous butt would bounce in and out of pictures as she would as she would say make herself comfortable beyond the camera lens causing Joe to get excited at each dress change as he could only imagine what was going on beyond his vison. They talked the rest of the afternoon causing Joe to take a liquid lunch as he finished up the pint of Jack and at one time excusing himself to take a leak. He walked outside and pissed on the chain-link fence to mark his territory and then flinging the now empty pint bottle over the hill. He returned inside to Kandy patiently waiting on him as they continued their talk as both now ragged on each other’s spouse. Soon it was quitting time and Joe dragged his now drunken body to his Chevy pickup and climbed in after locking up the tower and retrieving his laptop. Down over the hill he went, sled riding in the old Chevy till he came to the access gate.

     Joe locked the gate and  he sat there waiting for traffic to pass when he spied a State Highway Patrol cruiser coming at him from down the road going in his direction. Hell he thought. It isn’t a good day to spend in jail so Joe went he opposite direction and turned on the first side street taking himself far out of view of the patrol. At this he thought to himself, well I hope you are happy now Mr. Kevin L. Davis Almighty, now I will be late for supper and the wife will bitch at me again and ask for more money. Some days you just can’t win, well maybe today he thought , I know I have some winning numbers.

lets leave winter of 2014 behind!!!!

Take a Trip and Never Leave the Hospital

        Don’t know if I have told this one before of the time when I was in the hospital and had spent a week in bed with muscular contractions from my toes to my eyebrows , where my muscles would pull  indiscriminately rippling my skin as and contorting me in pain. This as a result from an operation called Chymopapain, where they inject the center of your spinal disc with a papaya enzyme. This drug is in effect a meat tenderizer that eats out the soft inner portion of the disc and relaxes the disc herniation off your spinal column eliminating the pain I experienced when I first herniated the disc, that is, all in theory. In actual practice it left me with muscle spasms that were uncontrollable and doctors and nurses were helpless in trying to alleviate and even worse pain.

      A little nurse came on duty one night when I was bedfast still after a considerably bad day and as soon as my time was up , as I had my shot schedule down pat as the Demerol was the only relief I had , I punched the buzzer and the nurse showed up with my shot of Demerol. It gave me relief but the day had worn on me, and she could see by the look in my face that the shot wasn’t going to allow me much comfort, as I had become immune to the effects of it. She asked if she was allowed, would I try and see if some other drug would allow me a chance to possibly work better. I said sure I was up for anything that would help ease how I was feeling at that point.

      It took a little while but she returned with an injection of morphine and a rubber tube to allow me to take it intravenously and I was for anything at that point. She wrapped the rubber hose around my arm and found my vein and as soon as she released the band I felt the warmth rushing up to my arm and into my head and suddenly I was transported into another place, where pain was my friend. I settled back and enjoyed the ride watching the Three Stooges on the TV, while the nurse brought me my liquid lunch.

       This was a beef broth undoubtedly where they had dipped the cow, shit and all, into a huge boiling pot and brought the resulting concoction out to me along with stale crackers, and a cup of tea, along with this arrangement, these green Jello cubes , neatly cut into perfect 1 inch squares and placed in a champagne plastic glass holder that when placed on the tray table would shimmer and jiggle with the slightest movement of myself, or even the wind passing by.

       In my altered state I was more amazed by these Jello cubes than I was the Three Stooges even though I have always felt a keen alliance with Curly. I would watch the Three Stooges for a few minutes and then I would watch the Jello cubes as I would be laughing at some stupid thing Curly was doing and shake the tray table and the Jello cubes would jiggle and jump. At some point when I am not sure but I swore that I saw them multiply in one of these jiggled moments. This increased my fascination with the Jello and I begin to watch them more to see if actually they were multiplying and at some point I jiggled the tray table to see if I could encourage this action, and sure enough they almost doubled in size.

       The next thing I knew they were spilling over the edge of the champagne plastic glass holder and accumulating around the base of the container almost shielding the stem, almost  three times as many as there was before. This was unsettling to me as I am a mathematical type person and can quickly figure some basic equations and realize that I would soon have a space problem as in the time I was typing this, the Jello cubes had completely engulfed the glass and were now spilling onto the floor. Figures of volume and size of a cube entered my mind and the volume and speed at which they were multiplying was increasing exponentially, as I tried to remain completely still to avoid letting them multiply. But soon enough they would jiggle as if on their own and a huge new pile of green Jello cubes would appear, filling the room to the ceiling as I reached for the cord of the button to summon a nurse and frantically started punching the buzzer.

     I felt as if I was in the last room at the end of a long hall and the nurse was nowhere in sight. Again and again I would punch the buzzer eagerly waiting for the arrival of the nurse, as the Jello cubes grew even higher. I begin to get sick as if I knew my fate as if I knew that I would soon die from all these Jello cubes as they would smother me, and then slowly retreat back into the dish that had brought my future fate to me. Where was that nurse I thought?

     In reality I was right across from the nurse’s station and she had only left me minutes before maybe fifteen at the most, and I was having a bad reaction to the morphine as a result of having been given to me on top of the effects of the Demerol, and that I was tripping. Also I could have easily slipped out of my bed and crawled across the floor at the worse, and within fifteen feet ended up at the nurse’s desk as I was that close.

     Still in my frantic state I had no perception of where I was, and my mind to say the least was playing a trick on me, but the sickness and nausea I felt was real. For as soon as  my nurse stepped in the room I sent a projectile stomach flush all over my bed and on top of all those Jello cubes and instantly the room cleared, as the nurse ran and grabbed me a pan to contain my enthusiasm of being relieved of the aggravating nausea within.

    My nurse never left my side for the next hour and even though she was a small woman she took extra care to clean me up completely and change the sheets and gave me a bath. And helped me through what was left of the ordeal. She would roll my huge frame one way then another till finally I was able to drift off to sleep as I was nearly as exhausted as she was. I never had a chance to thank her for the extra effort as I never saw her again, and found out she was just doing some extra overtime filling in for the regular nurse Ratchet who had the personality of a rubber boot.

      My wonder nurse that night did something for me, besides make me sick and then clean me up. Instead she broke the cycle of pain long enough for my muscles to quit contracting and within two days I was home recuperating, after almost three weeks of hospital stay. I doubt if she is out there reading this but my thanks to her and all her fellow nurses  who chose to make nursing more than a job, and try to help comfort, when it seems as though everything else has been tried. My thanks to her and all like her.

crack engineers she says!

Another week has passed

 Joe's dad when he was younger 

    Since I have been on here complaining about my internet, nothing has changed, it still sucks money. My service has gone from poor to worse prompting me to call corporate headquarters to troubleshoot my problems. This is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and my call was answered by a nice amiable young lady who went through the motions of trying to assess my problems here in Ohio. Assuring I had paid my bill and I was owed considerable amount of gigs, and that at this rate I would never use in a month. She assured me that their crack staff of engineers would get right on my problem, and in as quick as 3 days I should have my service restored to its full working potential. I will say something for her as she functions quite well as compared to me at this early hour of the morning I had called her. It was 10 here so it should have been around 7 am. She was pretty perky for that hour and had all her lies down pat.

    Well I doubt if anything is going to get done Sunday unless they pay overtime and I doubt they will for just me. Only thing I could hope for was that we have a mass outage and then maybe something will have to be done sooner. I love company when I am having internet misery. We all need to be non-functional if I am. So instead of today I can just imagine this scenario playing out tomorrow morning. Joe the tower climber is directed to my cell tower. Joe or Camel Joe as we shall call him is a three pack a day hard core smoker actually named Carl but all his coworkers just call him Joe.  Well Joe hauls his ass out to his rusted Chevy pickup with the ladder rack over his cap on his extended bed s-1500 Chevy. He lights her up, that is both the pickup and a cigarette and heads south dropping off Rt. 44 onto a snow covered access road leading up to the cell tower on the hill. Joe’s 280 lb. body has a hard time getting out of the old Chevy, slamming the door and watching the rust fall out from under the door frame as it slams shut. Joe reaches down under his mushroom top figure and fumbles about his waist in the sharp cold air. His fingers clumsily searching for his key ring, and finding it attached to his recoil chain and drags the keys ring, and chain completely out past his gut and up to his face where he stares at the keys searching for the right one to unlock the gate. He finds it and by now he is breathing hard and grunting his way through the drudgery of opening the gate.

    Safely back inside the pickup and he lights another cigarette. Kicks it in 4 wd. And starts up the snow covered road to the top of the hill. It looked as if no one had been in there in weeks, and Joe says to himself, ‘It figures I get this job.  I get to break this thing open with my truck and if I get stuck then oh well.’ Oh Hell, he thought, it is work.

      In this weather he will take what he can get. Besides he doesn’t have to worry about anyone coming by to bother him at least until they see if he makes it out. Old Joe pushed the old Chevy pretty hard throwing snow up over the ladder racks at times as Joe could see from his rear view mirrors. Well Joe thought as he pulled up to the tower on the hill. At least I made it up here that is half the battle he thought. As again he grunted his way out the pickup door and again fumbled for his keys and found the one that unlocked the security gate. The wind was a little bit more obvious up here biting at Joe’s fingers and his bare hands until his fingers became numb. Joe returned to the pickup and dug under the Mc Donald’s empty bags and empty quarter ponder boxes till he found first one glove and then the other, immersed  in a half drank cup of Mc Coffee, wetting a couple of fingers of the glove of one hand. Joe still pulled them on and except the wetness of a couple of fingers. They brought instant warmth to all areas of his hand except for the hole he had burned where his cigarette had become too short, eventually burning his fingers. This reminded Joe to light up another one and again he had the keys in one hand and juggling a cigarette in another and finally he gets the gate opened. He walks in further and unlocks the door to the control room and steps inside as if he is stepping onto the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, with lights flashing green, yellow, and red, indicating functions of the cell tower. Gauges and dials and an overhead light snap on automatically as he enters further, and a low hum from the electronics panel could be heard.

      Joe logs in to his work sheet marking technician Carl Wisen under one category, then  under other headings he needed to enter time and also why he was there, and his badge number. He accessed the computer with his security code and rubbed his nose on his sleeve eliminating the wetness that had coated his moustache. He drew long and hard on the cigarette again almost burning his fingers, cussing under his breath as he throws it on the floor. He punches in this guy Kevin Davis’ cell coordinates, and sees he is picking up signals off dish 3 hung on the south side of the tower. He does diagnostics on his phone number hoping that he wouldn’t have to climb the tower and repoint the dish. Joe not able to get a good signal said ‘damn’, under his breath as he realizes he is going to have to climb the tower. Oh well back outside into the sun and the brisk air, as Joe unleashes the ladder off the back of his truck and reaches into his tool box and grabs a pipe wrench and as he looks at it decides that should be good enough, and he straps it to his tool belt . He grabs another pack of cigarettes and an extra lighter, and huffs and puffs his way through the foot deep snow carrying the ladder to the base of the 365 foot tower and leans the ladder up against it, as he looks up it. He adjusts the base and extends the ladder to the man cage.

      He does a mental double check to see if he forgot anything. He had cigs and an extra lighter, pipe wrench, and cell phone in case he needed help. It would suck to get halfway up a cell tower and need to call for help and not have a cell phone. He had also stashed a small flask of bourbon inside his coverall pocket for moments like this. He promised himself he would not imbibe any till he reached the top and was coming down. Work first, play later, Joe thought. Joe started to pick his 280 lb. body up and up till he slipped into the man cage on the side of the tower and was locked in on a safety line and then he began climbing. After fifty feet he would take a break and grab a cig and look out over the countryside as the views were getting better. He looked out and wondered where that peckerhead lived at, that made him climb this tower in the cold. Joes finger’s had begun to freeze where they were soaked in the Mc Coffee, he would stop momentarily shoving his cold hand under his belly against his skin to warm it , and then he moved on and soon he was up to the 180 ft. mark and he knew he was almost halfway. He was breathing hard and fast, and needed a rest. The fingers on one hand were numb and a rest awaited him where he could stand on a platform at the 200 ft. level.

      The wind had picked up as he climbed higher , Joe didn’t seem to notice as he was starting to sweat as he dragged a pack of cigarettes out and fumbled one to his mouth as he searched his pockets for the lighter and bent low to light it and soon had it cherry red as his lungs somewhat refreshed with oxygen he had pumping through his veins. He sucked hard on that cig until in about 3 puffs he had finished and tossed it overboard watching it fall,  the embers glowed till they were out of sight. Joe stood and reflected on his job as he watched the cig disappear knowing one misstep and soon he would be another big butt going over the side, and as gravity pulls him to the ground he will have to remember all the words to the Lord’s prayer and say it in a few seconds just in case there is a Heaven and a Hell and a little prayer might not hurt at this time, especially if you know you were going to die. This could only happen if he unhooked his safety line at the wrong time. Joe tried to avoid even thinking about falling the whole time he was up there. Below his breath, he mutters, I only hope you are satisfied with your service Mr. Davis rather sarcastically and proceeds to head on up the tower and to even more demanding sights.

    250 and then three hundred feet, his pulse was racing as he neared the top of the tower and dish 3 came slowly into sight as the wind had started to take its toll and he found himself freezing a little more all the time, until all his extremities and even his exposed ass crack had now begun to freeze. The view was breathtaking and the tower would sway gently in the breeze sometimes moving as much as three feet in one direction and the wind would ebb, as the tower would drift back to its starting point. The tower was much narrower up here and there was foot pegs instead of ladder rungs and the cage was nonexistent at this height where you needed it most. He still had his life line tied in and he was only a few feet from the dish. He could see the dish and some of the problem as it usually is at this time of the year. It was ice covered as well everything was or had once been at this level. He was within striking distance of the dish, and at that he reaches down under his belly bulge, and on his tool belt and grabs the pipe wrench and brings it up and takes aim while holding onto to the tower with a death grip and lets loose with the wrench and slams the dish breaking the ice and scattering it all over him as the ice tumbles towards the ground.

     The climbing and  the tool belt had pulled Joe’s pants down as he climbed exposing more and more ass crack and when the ice was falling a sharp piece cleverly wedged itself into his ass crack and caused Joe to shudder a cold shudder he had never felt before as he muttered to himself while holding onto the swaying tower. I hope you are satisfied now Mr. Kevin Davis sir. Thank you for your fucking business. Joe’s heart always skips a beat when he has to do this and after he regained his composure and let himself down to  the 300 foot mark he started to breathe again, at that he reached behind him and inserted his finger in his gaping crack and was assured from the wetness that his body fat had melted the ice.  He then pulled out the flask and his cell phone to access the tower’s computer to check the lost connection. Yes the bastard’s getting 4G again, Joe thought, my job is done. This as he sucked hard on the flask of bourbon to calm his nerves down and to warm himself up again, this and  couple of camels, and a few more nips encouraged Joe to ascend even faster and soon Joe was back on the ground and loading up his ladder on the truck .

      He stepped back inside the cell towers control room and punched up the computer and started watching porn movies of Debbie does Dallas until he had drained most of his flask and smoked nearly all his cigarettes. He logged out on the time sheet and locked the tower up and climbed in his cold truck and waited for it to warm as he looked around. He cranked up some music and was soon was 4 wheeling back down the hill to the gate. He fumbled in the cold looking for his keys and found them and locked the gate and was soon headed to the bar. Thinking to himself I hope you are satisfied now Mr. Kevin Davis almighty sir.

     To me this would be T-mobiles crack team of engineers restoring my service as I would understand it to be. I doubt for 80 dollars a month I am going to get much more then Joe. Or Carl or whatever his name is. All I really care is that they fix the damn thing.

    The picture above was actually pics i received from an album of my family of people i have no idea who they are and live in and around Mt. Vernon, Ohio area. the reason i ended with them was because i couldn't burn them,  if you know of anyone in this area and if they would like to see the pics, have them get in touch with me. i have a lot of old photos and these are peoples relations and pics of disasters of the time. i will feature some of these pics from time totime. i would say it is pprobablypost world war 2 around 1947- 1952 from some of the cars in photos. 

is big brother watching the right people?

Internet Usage- Who is metering the Meters?

lily is monitoring my internet concerns today as well the bird feeder

     I pay good cash for my internet service. Whenever I run out I just access the T-Mobile site and the already have my bank information and immediately with draw the funds necessary to advance me however many gigs of service I need or desire. I try to buy the largest packages as I use quite a bit of service in a month. Keep in mind I have no contract and they are paid instantly but still I am treated like a second class citizen because I don’t want to have that contract or be obligated for an overpriced phone or internet modem. I have paid cash for all my phones and also for my mobile internet device. Now my question is who is metering the ISP or internet service provider.

     If I am selling firewood and although I may be selling pine it makes no difference to no one except the buyer and the state of Ohio which has a fraud division of their standard weights and measures, that would in effect or could force me into court if I was to sell a cord of wood at anything less than 128 cu. Ft.. This is the only way you can legally advertise to sell wood in the state of Ohio. When you see it sold by the truckload they are in effect selling firewood illegally. Now it doesn’t matter like I said before whether it is pine or oak or whether it was just cut, or has been dried for a year as it is supposed to be. If I sell wood in the state of Ohio at anything less than a cord measurement I can be hauled into court and face a fraud charge for selling firewood illegally. I have never seen it happen and flagrant abuses of selling firewood is quite common and it is up to the attorney general’s office to prosecute but rarely if ever do you see a case . Instead you see warnings in most newspapers where firewood sellers advertise.

     The state commonly checks the amount of gas that is being sold as part of their standard weights and measures programs, assuring that we are paying exactly what we should for in regards to our gas and also the amount in taxes we should be paying. This is part of a program ran by the county auditors and their results are sent to the state level to assure that all gas stations are fully in compliance with the standards. The same goes with anything sold by weight as scales all need to be calibrated within a certain amount of tolerance to assure that you are paying what you are supposed to pay for the quantity you are paying for. Who regulates our internet service providers? No one I can find.  Yet the state receives tax money based on the amount of service provided. And no one is regulating the meters of the internet service providers.

     My internet service provider cannot give me an accurate reading or daily usage amount of information I requested over the internet and I guess their argument would be it would be impossible to differentiate between bits used for advertising their product and what internet I actually use for my own pleasure and benefit. It would see that if I click on something like Facebook, that it is something I am using for my own benefit. My problem with that theory is that when I click on Facebook I not only click for my benefit but also for the ISP that is providing the service and all the information gathering programs running silently behind my screen. Gouging my personal life of facts concerning what I am looking at most in terms of products, so that companies can direct their ads to entice me to click away on their product. 

a frozen hunk of cold for your viewing perusal 

    Did I give T-Mobile the right to sell my personal information? Not really, but in effect I guess in the fine print their ass is covered by some clause a lawyer wrote up giving them authorization to run programs concerning my usage without my permission being granted. There is no button to opt out. I have a problem with this. My main problem is that I am paying for all those bits of information being gathered and dispensed to companies to further increase my usage rate causing me to come up short on a monthly basis the amount of data I would need to keep my service running. Every time you click on something an average of 10 percent of your data is used by someone other than yourself as advertising in one way or another. So if I have 11 gigs of service for a month and I lose 1o percent of it. Then in effect, I am paying for advertisers to attack me with 1.1 gigs of unwanted advertising I paid for. And on top of that I have to pay sales tax.

    To further make things worse, is that no one is watching the internet service providers as they turn up the pumps or turn them down as they so desire to assure that the flow of internet is exactly what I am paying for. Even when I click on yahoo, I will get a catchy ad from T- mobile telling me what a good deal they are offering me while they are screwing me. Do the ISP’s really think that we are that ignorant? I have to pay for that data gouging ad and would really rather opt out but can’t because there is no easy out button. So I have to pay for it and a lot of other advertising as well as fact gathering programs running behind the scenes. And on top of that I have to pay taxes on an unregulated amount of data. So am I paying an unfair amount of taxes to the state and federal government when there is no standard by which they are required to adhere too?

     I believe that just like gas stations and other businesses that are asked to adhere to standards then if you are selling data by the gig then you need to have you meters regulated somehow, some way. And this also means if you are selling, then there needs to be away to block ads from your internet service provider unless you specifically ask for it. This should be up to the state and our attorney generals to make sure that all internet service providers in our state adhere to the same standards. They are gouging certain portions of our communities while those who abuse the internet have virtually a free reign to use unlimited data.

    If you belong to a plan then and you have multiple phones and lines your per line prices are cheaper and you basically have unlimited data , and your monthly taxes are pretty much a basic fee you know what it is supposed to be. This requires good credit and a contract, of which I am capable but have no need for multiple lines except a telephone and internet service. This setup is not for me.

     I am not going to pay for more than what I need, or worry about sharing a plan with someone else, as I can take care of myself quite well. I just expect to get what I am paying for. Instead of a cord of wood I am getting a pickup full, and no one is paying attention to who is loading the truck. Why because the state is making money on internet taxes as well as permitting, and cell towers and whatever else is associated with the wireless industry. They could care less as long as they get there tax money.

    I just want what I am supposed to be paying for and feel that if the state wants their share of the tax money it obligates them to make sure that they are getting all that they should, and one way of doing that is monitoring the amount of data that internet service providers are actually charging us for. If they want to sell a quantity of service then someone needs to be watching these yahoos, and making sure that the state is getting all it deserves. Another question I have is how can you offer one customer unlimited service and another you charge for a specific amount. The one paying for that amount subsidizes the one with unlimited service, knowing full well without limits the unlimited service user is actually over using his service although paying more per month for contract service. In order for the taxation to be equal then all users need to pay taxes on all services used or quit with the quantity method of offering internet service.

       No one group should be charged more taxes then another. If joe blow is using 20 gigs of service and has unlimited service and is paying as much taxes as me when I have 11 gigs of service , and I can’t  be sure I am getting all of what I am paying for is this right. No it isn’t right. The problem is that it is singling out a certain portion of our consumers who refuse to or can’t afford to be in a contract and making them pay an unfair share of taxes proportionate to their income. The ones who least could afford the higher rates are the ones being charged. These are also the ones who should have access to the internet most, in order to be updated on transportation , free services , help available as a lot of charities and government health care providers are now using the internet most frequently and the target of their information is the people who can least afford the internet.

     To me this is the major reason we need the state to monitor all internet service providers to assure that we as citizens are getting exactly what we are paying or. Or got to another form of payment where all people are treated equally. How many internet service providers offer their services based on gigs of service provided? Who checks them?

Below is an article regarding who is watching the internet. surely not the FCC. I plan on forwarding this blog article to my representatives in the state legislature and in congress, to see if in fact there is anything being done to assure that the internet is being monitored , and will get back to you with my results if any responds. 

Firm That Tests ISP Meters: ISP Meters Aren't Accurate - And Many ISPs Simply Don't Care | DSLReports, ISP Information