Had to change up my WordPress password and hope that is enough. Some stuff on my layout page got deleted and moved and I can’t tell you where my blogroll went. Sketchy connections at hotels perhaps. Anyway, when I can I am going to fix it. I tried some rudimentary stuff, but that didn’t work. Hopefully this is nothing on the scale of Kenny’s site or WRSA. As soon as I noticed stuff I immediately changed the password. I may have to enable 2 factor authentication, which is a royal pain in the ass, if it continues. Worst case scenario…… I also own Eatgrueldog.com which , if I have to, I can make live. All I have to say is that if you are taking fire, then you are over the target.
Just got into my replacement rental and finished up for the day. We just sat down with some bubbly that we had for the event and toasted. Whether here or there, this is what we were after. We have now, another shot for another term. I do beleive in evil and I truly beleive that the Godless Communists that were aligning against were in fact the embodiment of evil. I am thankful that the wife and I are intact, though I must say that it is the most disappointed I have ever seen her in the 35 years that I have known her. Now we are going to count our blessings and try to make the most of what we have been given. I know that Trump leaves a lot to be desired, but by God, I sincerely beleive that Trump is an American to the core regardless of his many failings. I am hoping that the America we knew once has at least a breath of life breathed back into it. I extend my toast, from my family, to my friends and fellows. May we live free in America and prosper as a good and just nation and leave our progeny free of the chains of oppression. Until next time my friends….
Wrecked the rental car on a mountain turn. Only doing 18 MPH and decided to go sledding. Took on a guard rail on an angle and crunched the front end. Lost the headlight and pushed the drivers side of the front clip in a little. Once I checked that it was drivable I moved it to the bottom of the hill away from the site. Shortly thereafter, the locals started to pile up into the accident zone starting with a 4 door pick up with a 20 Ft. Trailer pulling 4 wheelers. We tried to go back up the hill to re-route and find flatter traveling but the damn van, a late model dodge front wheel drive minivan, would have no part of it. Took me 4 minutes to make it almost back to where the wrecks were happening and we were finished on that hill. Talked to a local who stopped and said there was a go around down the road that wasn’t as steep. It was less than a 1/4 of a mile and as soon as I was on it…. It wouldn’t climb the hill. I got out again, checked the damage, made sure the traction control was on….And it wouldn’t climb the hill. Thankfully, we are in rural Pa. and not the ghetto and the locals can actually give you helpful info. By now it was near whiteout and we had no head lights. The drivers side got busted and the passenger side stopped for whatever reason and I was left with 3 running lights. It was time to admit that we were going to have to back to my brother’s and lick our wounds. He gave us a route that took us about 10 miles out of the way with” The dead man’s curve” being the only major hazard. The route was nowhere near as steep and I was being real thankful about the dead man’s curve advice when we came up on it. Locals don’t joke when they say be careful and I went down it at about walking speed. So now we are back at my brother’s place and screwed with about 6 inches on the ground already. We are going to have to give up the rooms in Alexandria for the non event and deal with the rental company tomorrow. I took a picture but can’t get it off of my Tracphone burner smart phone that I got for this trip. Maybe tomorrow I will get some cords and see if I can post it. Out for now. I am off to the crying room…..
Happy Inauguration Weekend! We understand that the weather has caused unavoidable changes to inaugural plans that are disappointing and frustrating for everyone. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that this is a historic occasion. Our team is committed to helping make this as special as possible for all our guests. To that end, I wanted to share the information that we currently have. Congressman Bilirakis is excited to open our offices to you for a reception that will take place from 11-3. There will be food and drinks as well as televisions to watch the inauguration ceremony. Anyone wishing to attend our reception should go to one of the perimeter pedestrian access points listed below and then call our office (202) 225-5755. A staff member will come down to escort your group from the pedestrian access point to our office. Due to enhanced security measures, one staff member can only escort 15 guests at a time, but we will do the best we can to keep things running smoothly. All House Office Building entrances will open at 5:00 AM on January 20, except for the Longworth South Capitol Street door, which is a 24-hour entrance. Perimeter pedestrian access points for Members, staff, and escorted official visitors on January 20 are listed below and can be seen on the map.
First Street and C Street, SE
New Jersey Avenue and D Street, SE
South Capitol Street and D Street, SW
At this time, we are still awaiting guidance from the inaugural committee about the events taking place at the Capitol One Arena. Until we get this information, we can’t answer questions about who has access to the arena or what will transpire there. Once we get that information, I will update you via email.
Again, we apologize for these unplanned changes and look forward to celebrating with you!
Respectfully,
Summer Blevins, Deputy Chief of Staff
Office of Congressman Gus Bilirakis
I’ve been in Gus’ office and it ain’t that great. Besides that, Gus isn’t even going to be there. Next I Need to find out if there are free drinks and food.
Just a tiny fraction of committed Trump supporters who traveled to Washington will get to see the ceremonies in person. The rotunda crowd will mostly be comprised of lawmakers, other high-ranking officials and Trump’s family. In addition to disappointed ticket holders, a shout out to Republican staffers on Capitol Hill, who watched weeks of work on securing tickets for constituents collapse, with basically no members of the general public able to attend. Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) told constituents in Washington for the festivities to “stay tuned” to email and social media about viewing opportunities.
“The vast majority of ticketed guests will not be able to attend the ceremonies in person,” according to a statement from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. “While we know this is difficult for many attendees, we strongly suggest people who are in Washington for the event attend other indoor events at indoor venues of their choice to watch the inauguration.”
A memo from the House Sergeant at Arms sent to House offices Friday told them to “relay to constituents that their tickets will be commemorative,” with few exceptions.
Well, it is official. I have purchased commemorative tickets to the inauguration, but at least the event is on anyway. I have a lot of blood and treasure invested in this game and maybe this is for the best. We were hoping that after all the years we had been putting in, we would have a payoff. My wife and I have been political activists since the mid 2000’s and have made multiple trips here to DC. At one point, I had a bunch of political aides on speed dial and we participated all over, in person. We got sidelined a few years back with a personal death and for a couple years, while not out of the game, we were under the radar. This blog that I try to amuse with on a daily basis is also a pointed political sword that I attempt to poke society in the ass with. So, while Trump is not the end game to this, he is at least a hope. I was personally at the point that I believed that we were living in a post political America and his election showed that when the people are fed up enough, we can still be heard even when faced with all the money, power and influence in the world. Yes, this is far from over and there almost certainly will be political turmoil coming in the near future; but that is still political and that is a good thing. At least we still have the hope of resolve without conflict on a large scale. I am glad this went forward as it did because I for one, refuse to live as a communist or a slave and revolutionaries historically have been shown to have short ass and hard lifespans. A reader also reminded me of some wisdom from Uncle Remus about crowds and such and I am not one to argue too hard with fate. At this point though, I am beginning to beleive in divine providence and I am willing to go where led. We are still waiting to find out where the “Event” is going to happen for the crowds and party faithful. We still have rooms in Alexandria 8 miles away from the capitol building for the 19th and 20th, 2 bottles of good champagne and commemorative tickets to the presidential inauguration if nothing else. In the meantime we are with family, doing family things and trying to figure out what goes next. Regards my friends and may this all work out well for all of us.
Apparently I know as much or more than they do at this point. Sounds like a world class clusterfuck is brewing. Reps office has no news as “Things are still up in the air”………………….(<<Look over there, that is a lot of little dots) I guess we are going to find out which side the coin lands on when it hits the ground. I can get one more update from this guy before 5:00 PM
Right now the wife is on the phone to our Reps office. It seems the inauguration event is being moved inside because of the arctic blast. Inside the rotunda the “Guests” are the only ones inside. We are guests and are hoping that we are on that list. We were invited by Rep. Gus Bilirakis at his office. I had questioned why the tickets couldn’t just be emailed and had that answered when we picked them up. They are fancy. Yep, high grade paper cardboard with an imprinted seal and an embossed logo of the US capitol building on the front. Fancy stuff that is not translating through electronic digitization without a 3D printer. Now, I realize that we are not high level dignitaries like the guy who runs the Regional waste Management operation or Silver level donors, but am hoping that as an invited guest, we can fit into the party. After we show up though, if that happens, they may be a little more careful about who they do invite. I had all that stress about the parking garage and it ends up that it is right underneath a high dollar office building 2 blocks from the capitol building. They rent left over spaces out to schmucks like me when someone has scheduled time off to make extra profits. After we parked there (Accidentally in a reserved area), instead of walking out the incoming traffic ramp as I wanted to, my wife got me to take the elevator upstairs like real human beings do. So,there we were, emerging from the bowels of the parking garage and being spit out into fine society like CHUD. We pop out in all our Florida white trash finest next to the concierge desk in one of DC’s finest office spaces. We have been in Florida for over 30 years and any kind of clothing from the North is long gone. I have come from the farthest south, dressed for cold weather, not fashion. I am wearing the best Carhart electrician boots I own, pulled from my unopened work stock. I have a Swiss military all weather jacket, gray and trimmed in black with layers underneath, that is sharp looking and any working guy would kill for. I bought black cargo pants that are fleece lined and I am as ready to stand in winter weather for the long hours required. I bought the wife some new fur trimmed winter boots and a black parka with the fur hood liner. While shopping for her, I found that “Puffy” coats are back in style. I know that my wife didn’t wear one in 1979 and she sure as hell isn’t going to wear one now. So, shopping online on my own I bought her a black parka that is just downright sensible cold weather gear. Well we pop out into DC world and the black guy at the concierge desk looks over at us and never skips a beat. “Hi! Do you need any assistance?” I look at him, look around at all the suits and skirts,expensive wool coats, the 40 Ft. tall atrium windows with the 15 ft. tall glass doors…. “Uh, apparently so……Can you tell us where we are?” He was nice enough and helpful enough to give us directions to the Rayburn building. He even pretended not to notice that he was talking to some dude with 2ft long hair in a pony tail and a goatee dressed like he had just left the swamps of Florida to land here. Thankfully that part all went well. We did our business at the Rayburn and returned to pick up the Minivan with our dog in it, praying that it hadn’t been towed. I was super stressed as we had been gone for an hour and a half and wasn’t cool until I saw my goofball sitting on the front seat patiently waiting. I didn’t realize that we were parked in the reserved area until we left and the nice Asian lady informed us that the next time we should be parked about 4 levels down. They didn’t make it clear all that 1 stinking little reserved sign closed the whole area off. Thank God that they didn’t tow my dog away. We had all of our traveling cash on our person and probably would have spent it all to get him out of hock. We also had a “Few” other concerns there in DC, our great capitol city in the Free United states that I won’t get into. Suffice it to say that I am from Florida and had planned to drop some things off at my brothers, besides my crippled old dog, before entering the forbidden city. On the way out, I graciously thanked the garage lady for her kindness. So far things are going well and I am about to jot downstairs to see what my wife has found out from the Reps office. Back when I can.
Tomorrow we will be landing in DC at a parking garage near the Rayburn building sometime mid morning. All of this was completely unexpected so it has shot some holes in the plans we had. The plan was to go to my brother’s house in Pennsylvania about 3 1/2 hours from DC and then to our room in Alexandria the day before the event. I am coming in from Florida loaded down with goods and I was going to drop all of them before going to our destination. I have an Electric scooter for my great niece who is starting college crammed in the back of the rented minivan( A belated Christmas gift.) My wife’s crippled service dog, the same one who recently survived sepsis, is also along for the ride. A ton of luggage, traveling cash, food for gifting and a bunch of other stuff. So, here is the crafty plan I have come up with: I am going into DC, parking in a garage with all our stuff, leaving the crippled dog behind with bed and blankets, taking the crippled wife with her walker and hoofing it a mile to go and pick up the tickets. Can’t get around it as we both have to personally show ID and get our own tickets. Seeing how it is DC, I am going to take all of my traveling cash on my person, that way it will be safe for sure. The weather is supposed to be mid 20’s with a chance of rain and I can’t think of a DAMN thing that can go wrong. If we all survive intact, I will update tomorrow night.
On the way out the door, packed up and headed out, we got a phone call From our Rep. Gus Bilarakis’ office confirming that we got the last two tickets available in the second or third round of the lottery for our district. We had our names in within a day or two of the election and after losing out on the first round, we were settling for the mall and then hopefully the parade route. Our travel plans have been made for weeks now including rooms and a couple of days at my Bro’s in Pennsylvania. The downside is that we have to go pick them up at the Rayburn Capitol building on Thursday or Friday during business hours. Now we have to reroute from our arrival at my brothers house in Penn. to go to DC to get the tickets. From there it is back to his house and then back to Alexandria Virginia on the 19th to overnight for the inauguration in the early AM. Starting to get a little cluster Fuckey, but we are not only there now but in the actual inauguration event. I will post as possible.
May or may not be posting in the A.M. Posting thereafter will be spotty. Will be staying just outside of DC for the inauguration. Hopefully shit will be cool. I will drop in as I can.
Eatgrueldog 