day 28

Haven't had the time to cartoon yet due to my serious housecleaning duties! No, really, got family coming in this weekend and need the house to look like at least Cro-Magnon people live here! As a treat, I thought I would throw out a bone to you readers and let you see what the "Hounds from Heck" really look like, cartoon to follow later....hopefully!


L to R: Zoe, Bruce and Minnie Pearl



I talked the 5th grade class about the oil disaster in the Gulf while Sub'ing the other day and explained what I remembered about drilling and well control. All those years in the Gulf on the rigs and that degree in Geology weren't a total waste. The kids really got into it and calmed down, listened and asked some very interesting questions! The more we hear about what happened, the more it looks like shortcuts and stupid decisions were made. The subsea engineers I worked with would never let a BOP go down with dead batteries and faulty Ram's in place. More is coming out daily, I just hope they do not take a business as usual attitude and think outside the box to shut the well down and get this mess cleaned up before it finishes off one of the most beautiful parts of this country!

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 27

I am beat, had to sub again today and this time got a whole fifth grade class all to myself.  The day finished up OK, just wore me down.  Now I promised you a cartoon everyday.  I did not promise a funny or even a quality one!!! If you have been following the blog by now you may have noticed that I will go back and tweak old cartoons to make them funnier or correct glaring mistakes in spelling or composition. Today's cartoon was drawn a week ago. Never came up with a good line, still haven't! But, in the need for continuity, I will post, but be warned, I think this puppy will be worked on plenty in the next few days!  The gag revolves around Bruce's first trip in our backyard.  He looked around and immediately jumped in the Koi pond and was drug out a  green furball from the algae!



rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 26

Well, I went out and bought a new fridge yesterday and it's coming today about 11 am.  The funny thing is this morning I opened the old one and low and behold the damn thing was working!! We are thinking about putting it in the garage for drinks and stuff, but I'm not sure I  trust it, it let me down and that spark is just not there, it's out of my circle of trust!  Another rainy day here, won't be able to ride the bike (and my new gel seat cover is on that sucker, so hopefully my ass won't fall asleep on the trail again).  I need to clean anyway, got in-laws coming in this weekend and want this "house-bitch" to prove he's on the job!!).  



 
rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 25

What a morning already, woke up, went into the kitchen and noticed water on the floor, never a good sign.  Ruled out the dogs, who were looking very innocent by the way in a nonchalant manner, then noticed that it was coming from the freezer section of the fridge!  The damn thing is only 7 yrs old and had already been fixed once before, the original warranty and the extension we got with the last repair were both expired explained the Sears girl on the phone ( after a 20 min wait!).   And they can be out bright and early on Thursday!,,,Thursday?  screw that, I'm off fridge hunting this morning and whoever get on here the fastest makes the sale.  Other than that, Mother's Day was a big success!  She liked her stuff and the kids were not total monsters.  Well, off to mop the floor, again!

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 24

Normally by this time of the year, my son and I have gone camping at least once. This year we are in soccer hell and unable to get out, that and the horrible weather. My biggest problem with him in the woods is his fear of bugs! Not a great trait for an outdoorsman, but he loves to get out to fish and camp, just maybe in an antiseptic jar somewhere! Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there, you know who you are! Today was kind of a rush job, our Happy Mom needs the computer to finish her paper. 

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 23

Today, I am a zombie, no way around it. Yesterday in Nashville, all that flood debris got my allergies going and I had to do it......I took a benadryl! They work, but they knock me for a loop! We lost today at soccer, the kids had missed 3 games and no practice last week and they were running around like a bunch of zombies too! I stole this joke from a friend on facebook (thanks Jeff!). Now, off to yard work, or maybe a nap! yeah, nap sounds goood!


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 22

I am tired! Spent the day helping friends clean out their homes that had about 5 ft of water in them. They lost it all, even the cars in the garage, all the photos, the computers, TV's, clothes, the works. The whole area looked like a damn bomb had gone off, the whole thing really sucked! The people there were very upbeat, they knew they were still safe and had dodged a bullet. I know we are lucky! Such is life....



rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 21

We have a sick one in the house this morning and he will require a trip to the pediatrician. Andrew woke me about 3 am with a seal bark that would wake the dead and a bad sore throat, so it's off we go! Todays cartoon is true, the boy will not eat anything with flavor, which drives me crazy! And no food can be touching so we found some cheap plastic school cafeteria style plates and he loves them! (the only exception and this one is a puzzler is sushi! and I mean exotic stuff that I only tried a few years ago, Dragon rolls with eel and tuna and avocado???) Yesterday, I got on the bike again and this time I rode that sucker all the way down the town's expansive greenway system and back, wanted to see how the flooding effected this area. Not so bad, but my butt still hurts today! Tomorrow the wife and I are going to a big civic luncheon honoring area 6-8 grade artists (which happens to include our own Madeline!). She won second place mixed media and never mentioned it until we got the invitation in the mail! I hear the sick one barking in the distance and I'm sure the Young Master is ready for his tea.....


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 20

Another day of blessed sunshine and drying! The scene in Nashville is still pretty bad and the national news is finally getting it that something major went down here while they were concentrating on a Pakistani too stupid to figure out how to get gasoline to explode in the back of a closed car!! They say the damage to the trucking industry and the interstate infrastructure alone could be in the countless millions. We are still dry and reasonably unaffected but many of our friends living in Nashville are homeless or living in damaged homes. So with that, enjoy a funny cartoon about dogs.....


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 19

The flood waters are still up and downtown Nashville is still under water, even the Titan's football field has water on it. They caught the guy trying to bomb downtown New York this morning and from the first reports I've seen, he doesn't look like the sharpest knife to ever come out of Pakistan! Eventually, we may get one over here who knows what he's doing and I pray that day never comes...I don't consider myself a political cartoonist, but this one wrote itself.



rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 18

What a weekend! Over 13 inches of rain fell this weekend, whole neighborhoods flooded out, interstates shut down indefinitely, houses floating down the road and other than the weather channel, almost no national news coverage!! Is this a Katrina-like disaster? Time will tell. The big story the talking heads were going on about all weekend was the Time Square potential bombing. Didn't those idiots know that anyone with a 3rd grade reading level in English, Internet access and the ability to find a Home Depot could make a jury-rigged explosive large enough to take out the average American high school gym? The only really shocking thing is that it hasn't happened before!
Crap, I'm up on my soap-box now! Have a good day and stay dry.....such is life.


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 17

The flooding is getting out of control around here this weekend! There were actually houses floating down I-24 yesterday, We are OK for now and seem to be in the best high ground in this area, pray it stops!


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 16

More horrible weather today, Andrew's 3rd game in a row was canceled due to rain and heavy storms! He's a little bummed, Mom is home today and freakin' out pretty bad! The kids have already been stashed in the under-stairs closet twice and the potential for them to go back in there is high! We just heard that the interstate is closing due to flooding! And I thought Louisiana had bad weather till we moved here! Least we low on the "skeeter" scale!!


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 15

Now, one of my major passions is cooking and southern/Cajun cooking at that. I love me some bar-b-Que too! and have been trying to get rid of the propane grill and back to charcoal for years.
well I got me a little Cajun smoker the other day and am rockin' that sucker! I forgot what a difference it really makes. No, I haven't cooked a whole pig, but only cause I really can't find one up here!



rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 14

Well, back to the Sub world today and into the jaws of musical education, now I spent almost all my post-elementary school daze in some type of musical endeavor, unfortunately, as a drummer! Drummers are the village idiots of the Music world. We kind of read music, but not notes, just rhythms and stuff, oh, we may memorize a couple of notes for that big Chimes solo at Christmas, but come on, most of it was count 300 measures and then hit the friggin' triangle twice. Except for football season, we rocked football season!!! Today I watched the middle of "Fiddler on the Roof" six times, have I ever seen this movie before? No....but now I know how the middle part goes..I never knew Starsky (or is it Hutch) was in this movie. I go back tomorrow for more of the same and Madeline gets back from camp and Andrew loses his only child status. Such is life.....



rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 13

busy today, here is a rough draft for my friends who I do some poster work for!

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 12

We have a friend who is riding some ridiculously long charity bike ride and she needs a training buddy. So my wife volunteered me. This is totally cool, I gotta' bike and God knows I need the exercise. Got the bike out, literally dusted it off, pumped up the tires and road it for a while Sunday. I forgot all about those muscle groups and exactly how much they can hurt. I'll stick with riding a while but due to my inability to draw a decent bike this may be the last cartoon on this subject!

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 11

Well, my daughter is off for her first extended stay away from home this morning with a group of 6th graders for the entire week. My son is of course beside himself with joy! Our fear is that she has unrealistic expectations about the trip and my be coming to a hard reality check when she gets there and finds no room service. This is a science/ecology trip and she may end up metaphorically kissing a few toads before the week is out! The only one truly upset by her absence is her dog, Zoe, the rest of us??? Well....


rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 10

Well, last night was no fun, we had a bad storm system come through the south and we are still picking up around our neighborhood from the killer tornado almost exactly a year ago. So, the wife and I rearranged the entire garage in order to get both the cars inside in-case of hail and battened down all the hatches. We never actually got in the closet under the stairs, but we made damn sure we could get in there if we needed too!! When the time came for the storm to hit our area, it was very anticlimactic, as we only got a little rain and some wind. Our hearts do go out to the folks in Ms who lost everything. Such is life....

rigmedic40.blogspot.com

day 9

The Art class Sub'in wasn't so bad, the kids were rowdy but the year is almost over and the older kids in my last class were going to a camp all next week and a bit removed from the whole "school" thing by 6th period. This one is for all the art majors out there, or art historians, or anyone who saw "Pollack" with Ed Harris. We got bad storms coming today and everyone is a little worried here, the soccer game was canceled and I don't know about the marathon in Nashville. (/the one me and the misses are training for next year as we speak!).



rigmedic40.blogspot.com