I rode my buddy Mel’s bike out to the Harley dealer for his wife Janet. They’re going to sell it for her. It was kind of sad in a way, but it was a nice day for a ride. I was surprised how light the Road King felt compared to Charlotte.
Personal
Happy Birthday Dad
My dad would have turned 98 today if he were still alive. He died at 78. He was just a good man who lead a simple life. Although he lived in the city most of his adult life in order to work in a factory he was always a good old country boy at heart.
This is probably my favorite picture of him. I took it at their farm near Lodi Missouri. He was probably around 70 when the photo was taken.
Happy birthday Dad, wherever you are.
Announcing Bad Bits
I’m pleased to announce a new member of the Bits & Pieces family….
Bad Bits. It was quite the dilemma getting it up and running, but it’s finally here.
While scouring for Bits and Pieces and Bits of Wisdom I was running across things that were terribly funny but inappropriate for the audience that these sites had developed.
Bad Bits carries some of the more offbeat, irreverent, disgusting, gross, sick, sexual stuff that isn’t found on our other sites. Bad Bits is probably NSFW, unless you work at home or in a unique kind of environment. I realize it won’t be for everyone and that’s understandable. It will lean towards the humorous but won’t always be funny. You can read about the efforts getting it up and running on the About Bad Bits page.
Thanks for supporting B&P and BoW the way you have. I hope you enjoy Bad Bits.
Keep in mind that first-time comments are held for moderation, but once they’re approved your comments should go up right away.
Check it out… Bad Bits
Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love
From artstechnia.com
Did you know that blocking ads truly hurts the websites you visit?
There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won’t hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers. Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and ate didn’t pay. In a way, that’s what ad blocking is doing to us. Just like a restaurant, we have to pay to staff, we have to pay for resources, and we have to pay when people consume those resources. The difference, of course, is that our visitors don’t pay us directly but indirectly by viewing advertising.
The argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature. We’ve all seen it happen. I am very proud of the fact that we routinely talk to you guys in our feedback forum about the quality of our ads. I have proven over 12 years that we will fight on the behalf of readers whenever we can. Does that mean that there are the occasional intrusive ads, expanding this way and that? Yes, sometimes we have to accept those ads. But any of you reading this site for any significant period of time know that these are few and far between. We turn down offers every month for advertising like that out of respect for you guys. We simply ask that you return the favor and not block ads.
I admit, I’m guilty of this. I just never gave it much thought. I read that an ad blocker would get rid of those annoying ads, so I installed one and merrily went on my way.
I get revenue from ads and I get content from other sites where I block ads. I feel bad about this. So, I’m changing the way I approach this. In the future I will allow ads from sites that I visit unless they have the really annoying ads that constantly pop up over the content or play audio automatically. Heck, I might even wait and see if that’s too annoying.
The Aunt Iva files
Sexy pose. Undated photo believed to be in the 1930’s. She was quite the looker in her day.
She lived 34,827 days. That’s 95 years, 4 months and 5 days.
Things I remember….
Friday and Saturday nights they were drinking beer with the neighbors in her back yard every weekend.
Going to her house when we needed money to go to the movies and getting change and Cokes and seeing the Marilyn Monroe calendar my uncle Dino had hanging on the wall in their rathskeller.
She went to Ray Rixman Dodge and bought a brand new Dodge Dart that was pink and black and white in color. Oh, she was a little drunk when she bought it and didn’t have a driver’s license.
Coming to our house and always trying to give me a kiss and me telling her to “Weave me awone”. (I had trouble pronouncing my L’s back then.) She got the biggest kick out of that.
More to come….
2,596 miles thru 10 states and back home
I survived the Grand Southeast Tour in pretty good shape. My Toyota Camry did just fine… plenty of comfort and no unintentional acceleration. I put the cruise control on about 5–7 miles above the speed limit and cruised on down the road. 
The roads were almost all in good shape and there was very little construction that hampered traffic. I ran into slower traffic leaving Atlanta Monday morning, which was expected and had minimal traffic problems in Mobile Alabama and Memphis. Nothing bad at all. For the most part is was an easy but long drive.
I traveled 2,596 miles through ten states in five and a half days. States I hit were Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and back to Missouri. A more accurate map is attached since I caught Hell for the other map.
I got Aunt Iva’s stuff taken care of and dropped off a few things to my cousin. I was so tired last night when I got into Tunica at about 6:30 pm. I got a room at Fitzgerald’s for $35 and that included a free breakfast buffet. I went to the casino snack bar and had a bite to eat and threw some money away quickly. I was back in my room and in bed before 9 pm. I don’t think I’ve slept that sound for quite a while.
I laugh at myself because I was too cheap to spend $10 for internet access, but then go down to the casino and blew $80 in about 15 minutes. Luckily I made that back up this morning before I left Tunica. All in all I was down $7 for my gambling experience. I don’t gamble often, maybe once or twice a year, but I enjoy it when I do.
On the road again
I made it 666 miles today. I ended the night in Biloxi Mississippi. In the morning I’ll head off to Slidell Louisiana to stop by and visit my cousin and drop off a few of my aunt’s things that she wants.
After leaving there I’ll head up I-55 towards St. Louis. Depending on what time I get away from my cousins I’ll hopefully make it to Tunica or Memphis. Then another overnight stay and the final 5–6 hour drive back to St. Louis.
Putting Aunt Iva to rest
I went by the cemetery as I was getting ready to leave Port Charlotte about 8:30 this morning to make sure they had everything they needed from me and to visit my aunt’s final resting place. They had ordered the year plate (2010) for her niche plaque. I asked if she was in the niche yet and they said that they were going to put her in there at 10 am today. They asked if I wanted to be there and I said I had to get on the road. I said that if I changed my mind I’d be back. I headed for the highway but thought about it for a few minutes. I knew I’d be upset with myself if I didn’t go back. I had about an hour to kill, so I stopped by Bob Evans and ordered her favorite: A bowl of sausage gravy and one biscuit. It was delicious!
I headed back to the cemetery and they were just getting ready to inter her ashes. I had no idea what to expect. Her ashes are in a nice golden colored metal box with her name and dates engraved on a little plaque.
As you can see, urns come in all shapes and sizes. There was a moment of silence and then the workers put the cover granite plate over the niches.
I’m so glad I was there for that. I think she would have appreciated the fact that I was there.