What The – !?!

I need to stop reading the newspaper. My blood pressure is still high from trying to comprehend an article I read yesterday morning…

** For the article in its entirety, see:  http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/06/18/petition-seeks-return-of-grizzly-bears-to-the-west/ **

GrizzlyHabitat
slow witted, ain’t he?

An environmentalist group, is petitioning  Federal Wildlife Managers to go forth with an update to a decades old recovery plan to help the grizzly bear move off of the “threatened” species list.  The group, the Center for Biological Diversity, has filed a lawsuit with the US Fish and Wildlife Service accusing them of using a ‘fragmented approach’ to recover the threatened species.

Are we still talking about grizzly bears?  Just who is threatening them?  I mean besides the idiots that want to relocate them? Those same idiots won’t be doing the ‘relocating’, will they? Nooooo. They expect the US Fish & Wildlife Services to do it. In other words, we taxpayers will be paying for the Grizzlies moving expenses.

“110,000 Square Miles of Potential Habitat Identified in Colorado, California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico Could Support 4,000 Additional Grizzlies”. HA!  Someone actually did a study and came up with this hooey.  Did they think to ask the species’ who now occupy this ‘potential habitat’? Both Black Bears and Humans are already here in the Sierra Nevada. My family lives in the Sierras, and we vote NO. NO. NO on Grizzlies! Let them stay in Alaska and Canada where they like it. They will hate the “forested areas” in the southwest also. Why? Because they are in the FREAKING DESERT!  Please re-think this plan and don’t send grumpy grizzlies out west.

According to MY studies – there is a species that lives in a diverse range of habitats. Humans. But humans are not an endangered species. So they don’t need any protection, or consideration apparently, when environmentalists protest, file lawsuits or make demands in the name of a defenseless species. Humans, could become a ‘threatened’ species upon relocating Grizzly Bears into their habitat.

There are no caribou or elk up here for grizzlies to eat. What deer we have are few, thanks to the mountain lions. Can Grizzlies out run a mountain lion? Probably not. So that leaves the grizzlies a few scrawny wild turkeys, domestic animals, and people. To eat.

Do the math. People are by far the easiest to catch.  If that does not stop the environmentalists from their ridiculous quest, perhaps the red flying squirrels, black-backed woodpeckers, and gray wolves will. Grizzlies could eat those endangered species too.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a busy organization. They are suing US Fish and Wildlife Services for several species who they claim had ‘inadequate protections’.

  • Black-backed Woodpeckers
  • Southern CA Red Flying Squirrel
  • Florida’s Microscopic Ichetucknee Silt Snail (WTF?  a microscopic snail?)
  • Southwest Jumping Mouse
  • California Gray Wolves
  • Western Pond Turtles
  • Lesser Prairie Chickens

In my humble opinion, someone should do a study on how  ‘environmentalist’ groups keep screwing with Mother Nature. Better yet – a relocation plan to a different habitat that ‘would support them’ might be in order.

I have no idea where that would be.  😉

.
.
photo credit: yosoynuts via photopin cc

WHAT DO YOU MEAN Obstructed Ocean View?!

Hubby has always wanted to go on an Alaskan inland passage cruise when we retired. His brother & wife also wanted to do this, so this year the guys figured out which cruise line, date of departure, airports, etc. With the help of brother’s travel agent everything got arranged…

Well… you probably already suspect  that something is wrong. Because something always goes wrong when hubby and I travel. It’s a curse.  Usually the wrongness presents itself during the trip. Not before we even pack for the damned thing!

In my opinion, the first thing wrong was the cruise by-passed Anchorage, it was the major place I wanted to see. I wanted to have lunch with my cousin who lives there. I stopped pouting when hubby promised we would take another trip (someday) to see my cuz.

The itinerary from the travel agent says our cabin is a category ‘OV’ (for ocean view), which we requested, and paid all that extra money for.

So, as soon as our trip was finalized (meaning we paid it off),  I get on the cruise ship’s website. I wanted to find out what the ship offered. I found a cool “find your cabin” feature. I type in the cabin number, and up pop’s a deck layout and you get information about your cabin by clicking on it.

Oh. Hell. No.  I admit I was shocked, but not that much. This is the kind of crap we deal with when we travel. It’s so annoying that I’m starting to stay home and give up on the whole vacation idea.  Anyway, click on the photo below before reading the next paragraph. That way you will know what I was seeing at the time.

Click on Photo to enlarge
Click on Photo to enlarge

Our cabin has a window sure enough, but it is obstructed. Not just a little obstruction, like a pipe or a beam crossing in front of it. No. We are talking about Full Obstruction. The warning is in red text even. The cabin’s category is really  ‘OW’. I imagine that “OW” stands for ‘Obscured Window’, but in my mind it means OW, I’ve been screwed!

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of a fully obstructed window as a no-view situation. Ocean or otherwise.  I am not happy about this.

There is no way that I’m telling hubby about this ridiculous glitch. His blood pressure does not need to be higher. That, and I do not want to hear  about it.

Is that wrong? I feel I’m doing him a favor by sparing him the anxiety. Since I don’t want to rant about it with him, guess what?  I thank you for listening.

I immediately sent an email to the travel agent, asking her to re-book us into a non-obstructed ocean view. You know,  she should really check out the cabins before booking them, or at least double-check what the cruise line books.  My opinion of her professionalism has dropped a few points. Especially since I have not heard back from her yet.

Thank Goodness I found this little hidden detail, BEFORE we boarded the ship. I shudder when I think about how this surprise would go over during check-in.

If only this stupid error will be our last ‘issue’ during our trip.  Who knows – maybe we’ll get lucky and avoid hurricanes this time too.

TTFN  🙂

Ranting About Remakes

I decided to boycott remakes.   100x100_neverend

They (meaning Hollywood big-shots and producers) are taking our favorite movies, and screwing them over.  Do they need more screenplays? I have a couple in the works – where do I send them?  Something needs to be done to stop this insanity!

For example, I saw a movie I wanted to watch listed on the cable menu, and I set it up to record. When I start to watch the recording,  I realize that it’s a remake of the film I wanted to watch. This spikes my blood pressure.  Footloose without Kevin Bacon and Christopher Penn is like  The King and I without Yul Brenner. Oh, wait, they remade that film too. They call it Anna and the King. Like that’s going to fool anyone.

When Walt Disney re-released classics like Bambi to a new generation, they were the same movies you watched with your daughter, and she with hers. That makes family traditions that reach across generations. When the family talks about Bambi, we are all talking about the same movie.

100x100_three_men_and_a_baby  The number of re-makes in the past couple of years astonishes me. And I’m not talking about the re-makes of A Christmas Carol or new Star Trek movies. Nor am I talking about the classics. They are re-making movies that debuted in the 1980’s. Perfectly good movies that don’t need to be  remade.

Just because people liked the film does not mean it needs to be made again by someone thinking they can re-do a good thing and make money off of it.  People must be going to the theater to see these copy-cat movies, because  re-makes are being thrown out at us from every genre.

I researched  (OK, I did a Google search for “remake movies”), and discovered that Hollywood is remaking some of my very favorite films in the near future. I refuse to watch ANY of these debaucheries.

I put together a list of movies being remade soon or for 2015 release. I was astonished. Perturbed. Pissed. Ready to write a letter pissed.

Read it and weep…

  • War Games
  • Commando
  • Poltergeist
  • Drop Dead Fred
  • Overboard
  • Porky’s (a more tasteful version?)
  • The Orphanage
  • Soap Dish
  • Stephen King’s It
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
  • Honey I Shrunk the Kids
  • The Never-ending Story
  • Flight of the Navigator
  • The Wild Bunch
  • Cliff Hanger
  • Three Men and a Baby
  • House Party
  • Videodrome
  • Endless Love
  • About Last Night
  • Agent 47
  • Fantastic Four
  • The Harder They Come
  • Police Academy
  • Dirty Dancing
  • Escape From New York
  • Fletch
  • Highlander
  • National Lampoon’s Vacation
  • Short Circuit
  • Pet Semetary
  • Scarface
  • Time Bandits
  • Romancing the Stone
  • Weird Science
  • The Toxic Avenger
  • Godzilla
  • Gremlins
  • Jumanji
  • Van Helsing
  • The Monster Squad
  • Annie
  • An American Werewolf in London

See what I mean!

A website shows 20 of these films and gives details about the remake and the actors being cast. I read a few of these and things are WAY worse than I thought. If you are prone to depression – do not go there!

I’m serious.