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10th Day of Christmas America’s not Back to Normal But the Patriots are

Posted: January 3, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

A while back I wrote a piece about what what both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick had to do in order to be considered successful in their new situations: Brady in Tampa Bay and Belichick in New England.

It goes without saying that Brady winning a superbowl means that he is a success and everything else is gravy.

But now with one game to go in the Season the New England Patriots are back in the playoffs and more importantly with a 10-6 record after week 17 would be in the playoffs even if another playoff team was not added.

Additionally they can still win their division if they win and the Bills lose or tie and while it’s unlikely that the Chief and Titans also somehow implode they could still actually end up as the top seed and get a 1st round bye

This is the first time that Bill has made the playoffs with a starting QB not named Tom Brady and with one game left to the season puts his record as a head coach in games when Brady has not started at 35-40 with the potential to get to .500 in non Brady games sometime next season.

Given these facts we have to conclude that Bill Belichick has not only had a successful season (no matter what happens in the playoffs as there are no pushovers in this field) and if Zac Taylor’s Bengals were not tearing up the league the top contender for coach of the year.

I would not be surprised if they are bounced in the 1st round by Buffalo, or the Chiefs, or the Bengals or the Titans or, if they win the division the Colts. But neither would I be surprised if they won a playoff game against any of these teams.

I’m sure the NFL is praying for a Brady vs Belicheck superbowl but while it’s unwise to ever bet against Brady I think it’s unlikely that Bill and Mac Jones can get past that really tough field to set up that matchup.

But no matter how you slice it we must conclude that Bill, like Tom have proved to anyone that doubts it, that both of them deserve all the credit in the world for the six superbowls that they were able to win together and the nine that they appeared in .

Report from (South) Louisiana: Good food, Good Times, and Happy New Year

Posted: January 3, 2022 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

ARNAUDVILLE LA – Welcome 2022! I did not post last week – you may not have noticed (ha!).  As you may or may not recall I retired from teaching in May. As a state employee in Louisiana, I did not pay into Social Security but instead into the Teachers Retirement System for the state. However, previous private sector jobs means that a little Social Security dividend may be on the horizon if I can get nine more quarters. So, I have picked up a part time job working as the secretary at my church. It is a nice three-day a week gig, 18 hours, and eventually I’ll get my nine quarters. All that to say, I didn’t post last week because I was juggling off days so I could go out of town over the New Year’s weekend.

There’s no way I was staying in Shreveport over New Year’s weekend, I mean…seriously. Guns fired in the air…sounding like a third world country.

We spent the past week in my beloved south Louisiana, in a tiny town called Arnaudville, which I love. The population here is about 1500, but we are 15 miles from Breaux Bridge, about 25 miles from Lafayette, an hour away from Baton Rouge, and a little further than that from New Orleans but I don’t need to go to NOLA except to see the WWII museum. 

I’m sure I’ve waxed rhapsodic about my Cajun paradise before, but man it has been a great week. You’ll never find friendlier people anywhere on the planet – of this I am convinced.

This part of Louisiana is a conservative bastion. NOLA is another story, but Cajun Country is ultra conservative. We have had very interesting conversations with people here and met many like minds. As a rule, these Cajun people are hard-working, family oriented, and faith based. Work hard, play hard.

It is depressing to think about returning to Shreveport this week. Shreveport is a culinary desert. Nothing but chain restaurants and heavy on the Mexican and Chinese. You would think that just three hours to the north of Arnaudville I could get decent seafood, but you would be wrong. I can get decent frozen seafood, but here, in south Louisiana I can get seafood fresh and prepared in delicious sauces that would make you weep. Lump crabmeat topped with crawfish etouffee, hot steaming crawfish seasoned with a spicy Cajun blend, and fried alligator so tender it melts in your mouth.

We have stocked our freezer in our Air BnB with food to take home: chicken thighs stuffed with boudin and pepperjack cheese, wrapped in bacon; a pork roast stuffed with bell peppers, onions, and garlic, a pork chops stuffed with crawfish dressing. I can’t get food like this three hours from here.

Last night we went to a local brewery famous for their beer of course, but also their wood fired pizza. My favorite is the Alien Autopsy which is topped with a spicy tasso ham, andouille sausage, and candied jalapenos. For New Year’s Day they offered an eggroll stuffed with black eyed peas and shredded cabbage. We listened to live Zydeco music, people danced under the live oaks, and we talked with a local business owner for hours about the state of our country. His recommendation, in short, is for all the producers to just go “off the grid” and quit feeding the system. Quit supporting the welfare state.

He may not be wrong.

Here in Arnaudville, there are two Catholic churches served by the same priest. He is fabulous. To attend an Episcopalian service, we’d have to drive into Lafayette, probably.  So, when here, we walk down half a block to the Catholic church and listen to Fr. Travis. He is young, energetic, and always on point. His sermons are amazing. And I love a town where you can go to the brewery to hear a live Cajun jam, order a pizza, and run into the priest. We were able to visit with Fr. Travis today and discuss several theological questions we had while the fiddles and accordians played sad Cajun ballads and lively dance tunes across the room.

I hope we can move here soon and get out of Shreveport. My son is in nursing school, starting clinicals, and I don’t want to move off until he is on his own two feet. But man alive, I can’t wait to get out of Shreveport. Life is short and I want to spend the rest of my time in a happy place with good food, good music, good people.

Here’s hoping the New Year brings good things to us all.

Thanks to Comrade de Blasio Covid Fascism will be on full display in Times Square New Year’s Eve

Posted: December 30, 2021 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Every year I stay up and watch the ball drop on Times Square.  I will not be doing so this year because New York’s communist mayor announced that he will impose full Covid tyranny on every single individual attending that formally joyous and raucous celebration. 

Comrade de Blasio is mandating that every single individual wear a mask and social distance.  That will go along way to dampen the spirits of anyone attending.  De Blasio descended into full Covid tyranny mode  by announcing that everyone over the age of five wishing to attend must show a vaccine passport. 

Vaccine passports are the absolute height of tyranny.  They are absolutely analogous to oppressive regimes requiring that people present their papers whenever they are seen outside of their homes or wish to enter any establishment.  Actually vaccine passports are far worse because in order to get one that individual must have two doses of one of  the deeply flawed Covid vaccines injected into their bodies.  If they do not comply these individuals are excluded from participating in every day activity such as eating in restaurants, going to bars, earning a living, and attending sporting events. 

Vaccine passports are a very insidious form of state sponsored discrimination.  They strip away an individual’s right to decide for themselves.  These individuals are separated from society unless they comply with the demands of the government.  They must comply or else they cannot participate in life to its full extent.  They are  now second class citizens.

The right to decide for ourselves is one of our most important God-given Natural rights.  That right is being completely trampled by vaccine mandates.  Governments have absolutely no right to interfere with any type of medical decisions. 

Governments forcing individuals to comply with vaccine mandates has no place in a free society.  A society that imposed vaccine mandates is no longer a free society.  A country that permits vaccine mandates or vaccine passports is not a free country. 

6th Day of Christmas It’s amazing what you can do without a Computer or Cell Phone

Posted: December 30, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The fifth day of Christmas didn’t start well for me. When I got out of work my driver side rear tire was flat. It was after midnight and while I got the car jacked up and had my full size spare ready for the life of me I couldn’t get my spare off.

Because it was so late I go a ride from DaWife and then had AAA take care of the tire the next day. It turned out I had picked up a nail so I headed straight to Viola Tire where I bought them to get it fixed as it was only two months old.

As they were very busy my plan had been to walk to Zeda’s for a Pizza and them come back for the car when it was ready but I ended up speaking to a lady by the name of Lynn who is a bus driver who was waiting for her tire rotation.

For an hour we talked about all kinds of things from the Feast of the Holy Innocents our various jobs, her boyfriend (whose family I know) my wife our kids and all the various joys and oddities of life.

In a year when human contact is not common the simply joy of meeting someone new and talking to someone face to face about all kinds of things was excellent. Even without COVID in an age when everyone has a face burred in a cell phone or in a laptop such times are rare. In fact my own laptop was in the car and it remained there until she left.

I hope I run into her again and I look forward to the day when DaWife and I might enjoy a lunch or dinner out with her and her boyfriend.

I’m very much enjoying my Christmas gift of the Pinball rental and I’m also enjoying the movies & TV Shows I’ve picked up from the gift cards my sons bought me (The three Musketeers 1948, San Antonio 1945 and the Time Tunnel 1966 a guilty pleasure of my youth which was my gateway to Dr. Who 8 years later) but I think of the best gifts one can get is human contact and friendship, so while some might think of this as half a day “lost” I’d put it down that pleasant time as one of the better Christmas gifts I’ve gotten this year.

Postscript: Here’s a blast from the past from Viola’s Fitchburg Tire from a dozen years ago.

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