If you don't know who that is, she's the woman that gave Keith Richards up for adoption.
RIP, Betty and thank you for the laughter you created.
Friday, December 31, 2021
News flash. Betty White died.
One more good reason for wearing clean underwear.
I get TSA precheck because I have a TWIC card issued my Uncle Sam because I am in and out of oil terminals and other places. It also allows me TSA pre-check for no charge.
Anyway, when I renewed my card they rescinded the number of my old card without signing me up again and SURPRISE! I had to go through the usual hassle of taking shoes off.
I travel in a safari jacket so I can stuff my wallet into one of the pockets and take the whole damned thing off in a second or two and put it in a tray. When I clear it goes back on and I'm in business again. With pre-check it's a snap because I can leave my shoes and suspenders on.
Anyway I renewed my TWIC and when it renewed they cancelled the serial number of my old one but did not automatically reregister me. SURPRISE! No TSA Pre-Check and it was a royal mess.
Needless to say, the shoes came off and they went through my stuff. Because I pack my electronics in my carry-on they had to come out. They don't at TSA pre-check. That meant I had to unpack and repack. It also meant my belt and suspenders had to come off and I wandered into the scanner holding my pants up. I've lost a lot of weigh over the past few months and I guess I've gotten to small for my britches. When I was in the scanner and had to put my hands up gravity took over and my pants started falling down.
I don't embarrass too easily but I suppose I created a sight that can not be unseen. While the airport people do carry an ample amount of hand sanitizer, they don't have s single drop of eye bleach in stock so I guess whover saw what they saw are stuck with it for life.
However it was mitigated because I had listened to my mother when she told me to wear clean underwear in case I got into an accident.
At least the public wasn't subjected to having to look at a fudgy old set of drawers.
Mom, the general public thanks you for teaching your son a few manners.
As for getting back on TSA precheck? I got on that one instantly!
Thursday, December 30, 2021
International mail is now a mess.
There are all sorts of suspensions regarding international mail because of Covid and things internationally are a mess. Go figure.
I just found out about this because a number of hams are getting international QSL requests returned with "Mail service suspended" stamped on the envelopes.
There's a list the USPS has on line and as can be imagined there are a number of rare DX enteties on it.
I am finding out that there's a couple places that are not on the list that have opened remailing services.
An example of this might be a guy from Mongolia (on the list) can mail his card to the Caymans and have the Caymans (Not on the list) remail the card to the States.
If course the people in the restricted places can probably hire a QSL manager but I'm not sure what it costs. I think it is free and the manager makes a small amount of money through either donations or the small excess left over after postage. I often times add a buck when I QSL through a manager to make sure they at least break even.
PayPal seems to be the most common way of transferring funds.
I'm just pointing out what hobbyists are dealing with. Lord only knows how much money has been lost by businesses. It's one thing being a hobbyist pouting because he can't get a card and an entirely different thing when businesses start to go under because the postage systms are not working together.
This whole thing is stupid but it is what it is. We, the People have to deal with it and let's leave it at that although it is interesting to note you can buy a down pillow for $15 on eBay and a can of roofing tar is still about $11 at Lowe's.
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
I heard someone I think I would like to have a beer with.
Someone asked a guy why he didn't have a mask on. His reply was something I am going to steal.
"Covid's over. Find a new cause," he replied.
Excellent answer.
Monday, December 27, 2021
In other news. First World Problems.
.
Someone on Nextdoor asked how to get a scratch out of a stainless steel refrigerator. They seemed to be kind of worked up about it.
First World problem. Hit the scratch with a hammer. People will be too busy looking at the dent to see the scratch.
People keep forgetting how good life is if the worst thing you have to worry about is a scratch in a refrigerator.
Saturday, December 25, 2021
I just replaced a battery in a Timex Expedition which is a pretty good deal for ten bucks, installed.
The battery was running low. It still kept time and would probably be good for another several months.
I changed the battery because the Indiglo light was not working properly. It would go on and then turn off before I could catch the time.
I seldom wear a watch when I am out and about. Like a lot of other people I use my cell phone to keep track of time.
Where I do wear a watch is when I sleep, especially at work.
At work I sleep in basically a steel windowless box and it's easy to get disoriented a bit. If I wake up in the middle of the night I don't know if I an supposed to get up or go back to sleep.
Turning on a light to check a watch wakes me and if it's the middle of the night it makes it harder to get back to sleep. In fct when I get up to pee in the middle of the night I only use the night light as it provides enough light for accuracy but doesn't slam me awake.
Anyway, I replaced the battery and I'm good to go and probably for the rest of my career.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
Merry Christmas
That is all.
Friday, December 24, 2021
A Christmas eve post.
Since Trump was elected I have seen a return to "Merry Christmas" instead of the Happy Holidays bull$hit.
As most of you know, I'm a licensed ham radio operator and I enjoy working DX aka overseas stations.
I have been wished a Merry Christmas by six Hindus, four Jews, nine Muslims, an Estemenien, three Buddhists, a Zoroastinist, two Shintoists and a Taoist.
OK, I'll admit that's not a very accurate count but you get the general idea.
Oh yeah, there was also one guy from Brazil I was working and I opened his QRZ page and there was a picture of him with his wife. She looked like the happiset woman I have ever seen in my life so I told him to shut down his station for a couple of minutes and give her a big kiss. He wished me a Merry Christmas, too but I think it doesn't count because he's most likely Catholic but whatever.
I've only gotten a couple of Happy Holidays greetings.
It's been a good Christmas season from that standpoint.
Oh yeah. One other thing. I was picking something up and some Karen commented she was running late in her shopping. I told her I had gotten it taken care of long ago because all I had were my grandchildren and they all got BB guns and slingshots and had the joy of watching her come unglued.
Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS.
You can take Happy Holidays to a taxidermist and stuff it.
Edited to add. One of the 'Happy Holidays' set got a shock. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of mistletoe and clipped it to be bottom of my flight jacket and offered to let them utilize it.
The people around him within earshot were very amused. He wasn't but that's OK.
Something just occurred to me.
A 12 inch aiming black at 200 yards is about 6 MOA and I suppose for a stock barrelled 10/22 keeping them all in the black at 200 yards is actually pretty good when you think about it. Of course keeping them inside of 2 inches with a centerfire is damned good shooting.
One of the quickest ways to disappointment is to have unrealistic expectations of things. This means people, places and things. Expecting good weather during hurricane season for a vacation trip to a tropical paradise is a shortcut to disappointment. So is expecting one hole groups at 200 yards with a .22 rifle that was designed as a plinker.
It's one thing to take a 513T (an expensive Remington target rifle) out and go up 56 clicks from a 50 yard zero and expect it to be damned close to the X-ring and another thing to try and get a plinker to achieve the same thing. It just realistically ain't gonna happen.
Interlude. I just saw where there is a Special Event Station up and running in French Guiana and turned on the rig and tuned in to it. It was very weak but had no pileup. I figured I'd give it a try and expected for it to be one of those non-QSOs where he gets maybe a half of my callsign and has to let me go without getting it all.
Bam! QSO! I was pleasantly surprised he read me a lot clearer than I read him. I was the opposite of disappointed. My expectations were fairly realistic. I figured there was a chance but knew it was also likely I would be unsuccessful. I got a pleasaant surprise but would not have been too disappointed if I had not been successful.
One of my pleasant shooting experiments was when I took a very shot out barrel and replaced it with a new commercial barrel, a Criterion. The old Army accuracy standards for Garands was 3-4 MOA with ball ammo. A buddy of mine gave me what he called 'some pretty consistent USGI ball' and I printed about 1.25 MOA with it which pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting something in the 2.5 area and for that combination it was a realistic expectation.
Ham radio is another field of endeavor what I have learned not to have unrealistic expectations. I suppose if I really wanted to do it right I'd have a different tuned antenna for every band. I don't. I have a multiband DXE 43 foot vertical coupled with a tuner to make it work on all bands.
While it seems to work OK, I know I would be better off with with about seven different tuned antennas but this is only a hobby and that's about as far as I can reasonably see taking things. The vertical has gotten me all around the world with little hassle and that's close enough for me. I can switch bands and the tuner adjusts things automatically. If I went the other route I'd have to unplug one antenna and plug in another to change bands. Why bother?
I just saw a picture of someone's 3 million dollar antenna farm. That ain't gonna happen. I can also legally run 1.5 KW but that ain't gonna happen, either. Let's keep it somewhat real. Radios, power supplies and tuners are expensive enough as it is.
Back to the 10/22 project.
We shall see what we shall see. If I can ring a 12 inch skillet at 200 yards fairly consistently I will be a reasonably happy camper. Anything better is just gravy.
Thursday, December 23, 2021
"What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
I asked the woman on the dock that was helping my tie up a 368 foot long oil barge at about 3 am. It was a rainy, snowy miserable night and she was hauling one of my deck lines in to drop the eye over a bollard.
"WHO says I'm a nice girl!?" she shot back loudly. It sounded like someone was going to get their ass kicked!
For the next few years she worked there we got long fine. It was one of the greatest opening shots I have even received.
YOU try tying a boat up when you are laughing your ass off at 3am in a rainy, snowy blowing night!
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong discovered the
remains of Alice Kramden.
Her husband, Ralph, was never charged.
click on the picture.
Yesterday was a GREAT day!
I had to get my TWIC card renewed and that's federal.
I walked in and was asked if I had filled out the renewal on line. I hadn't and the woman looked disappointed. I looked at her and asked her what her name was and she said it was Sue.
"Well, Sue, you are no longer a face and nameless government automaton. You are now a human being with a name and a face," I said.
It proved to be EXACTLY the right thing to say and she said she'd squeeze me in before her next appointment that was in a couple of minutes. I was in and out of there in record time.
Of course the rule I have is I will make anyone I meet happy even if you are one of those people that isn't happy unless you are miserable.
I crossed someone's path and instead of saying 'Excuse me' I opted for 'Merry Christmas' and got a Happy Holidays in return.
"Save your happy horse$hit for someone else stupid enough to believe you," I said. "I'm a ham radio operator and have spent the last four days on the air talking to people from all over the world and every Hundu, Jew, Taoist, Buddhist and Muslim I have spoken to has wished me a Merry Christmas so please help yourself and feel free to use the piece of mistletoe clipped to my shirt tail!"
I made two people happy in one day!
Make that three. I was on the air and made a quick contact with a guy in Brazil. I opened his QRZ page and there was a picture of him and his salt and pepper haired wife with the most beautiful smile.
I told him to go QRT a minute (shut down) and give his pretty wife a big kiss.
The band was open and his pileup was pretty good white noise so I left it. Then I called again and told him if he didn't I was going to fly down to Brazil and give her one from me.
He sounds like a truly happy man and I think I just made him a little happier.
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
The Mayor of Philly and the dope dealers...it pays to advertise.
Several years ago there was one hell of a blizzard that stoppd the entire state of PA for a number of days. For the first few days the only people allowed on the road were first responders and heating oil trucks...it they could even move.
I was stuck at work and crew change was a couple of days late. We were tied up for a couple of days and I was watching TV.
Slowly the main roads were dug out and it was news as to what was and wasn't open. On the news the Mayor was seen standng out amid a crowd of maybe forty or fifty people milling around him smiling for the camera. The neighborhood had dug itself out and the streets were clear.
The Mayor was babbling about how the real Philadelphia spirit was being displayed here and how proud he was of the people of the neighborhood
I'm from Pittsburgh and I didn't get the significance of it but the guy next to me was a hometown boy and sat there laughing his socks off.
"I know that neighborhood," he said. "Most of those people behind the Mayor are drug dealers. They probably hired all the local kids to dig the street out so they could go back into business!"
"Wow!" he continued. "Win/win. The Mayor gets a photo opportunity where he can spout off and the dope dealers get free advertising that they're open for business! Look! Some of them are making gang signs to advertise!"
Even back then if didn't surprise me a bit. That's what politicians do.
Sunday, December 19, 2021
If the world hates you
then so what. I'll have you know it hated me first.
I don't have time to bother with hating them back...OK thruth is I take it on a case by case basis.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
I just read where that chowderhead mayor of NY isnt approving any
natural gas permits in the city anymore.
Pimplebrain move. What are they going to heat with now? Coal? Wood?
Hmmm... I do know of a guy that says he heated his home with junk mail. He had a device to roll newspaper and other junk mail into logs and he said he managed.
The next skyscraper is probably coal going to use as that's what some power plants use to make electricity. Of course NYC already has periodic brownouts which means they don't have enough electricity as it is.
Where do we get people like that idiot?
All I can say is that if you live in NYC and voted for that imbecile you are getting exactly what you voted for.
The same thing holds with the pressure people are getting these day to get electric automobiles. It's a joke because the big shots are trying to steer us to a technology that really isn't ready yet.
For one thing the grid hasn't been built up enough to supply the necessary power to charge that many vehicles.
**********************************
In other news I just read where some woman is all upset because the guy she was dationg bailed out after she let on she had $380,000 in student debt.
My guess is it's a double Master's in something like woman's dance studies or fine art, neither of which is going to land her anything remotely close to a lucrative career with any remote chance of paying it off.
I can't say as I blame the guy. I'd have grabbed the eject handle and given it a good, hard jerk if I was in his shoes.
I don't know how it is out your way but $380K here will buy two pretty decent houses in the suburbs.
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Any GI, current or former remembers CIF
otherwise known as Central Issue Facility. It's where they go to get their field gear issued and turning it back in when you clear post is a nightmare. They get upset when you try and turn in field gear with shrapnel and bullet holes in it.
Apparently this GI was trying to write off some of his field gear as a combat loss after an explosion tore off one of his arms and blinded him in one eye and destroyed his field gear. He was required to submit a sworn statement and shows he still has a sense of humor.
Any GI that has ever had to clear CIF will like this statement he wrote.
Friday, December 17, 2021
Ahh, yes. Another "Hey! I have children!" type.
Fine. YOU have children. I don't. So what?
YOUR children are not MY responsibility and a I am not willing to surrender MY basic rights just because YOU want to be an irresponsible parent.
Stop hiding behind your children.
YOUR children are not MY problem.
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The day before yesterday I was out and about and encountered two different mothers pushing strollers. Both were walking facing traffic which I consider a smart thing to do as they can see what's coming.
Both times I slowed down to well under 10 mph and because nobody else was on the road I swung into the oncoming lane to give them wide berth as I ghosted past them.
I was above and beyond and I don't mind this. It's a courtesy I am generous with. I consider it a part of being a good citizen.
The first woman I passed showed her appreciation with a warm, thankful smile. I smiled back. I don't mind going a little out of my way for someone that's even remotely grateful.
The second woman looked at me like I was Charles Manson or someone, obviously resentful of the fact that she had to share the road with someone else. She can kiss my ass. I did my due diligence and went a lot further than most. Enough is enough.
Actually I didn't expect any kind of reward, she could have looked straight ahead and ignored me and I would have thought nothing of it. Instead she gave me a dirty look of resentfulness.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Speaking of kids, the kid that used to mow my lawn blew my mind and left my brains dribbling out my ears.
I figured that all things considered, he'd come back a low B and C student. I didn't think he'd flunk out. There's no way in hell he'd do that. Still, you have to take a lot of things into consideration.
First time away from home, access to beer and other things, a number of party animals around him I kind of figured he'd be pretty much a normal freshman that passed his first semester.
Instead he blew the first semester out of the water with a 4.0 which left me stunned. NOBODY gets a 4.0 on their first semester!
I'm damned proud of him.
Then again he's a sneaky little bastard. He knows which side his bread is buttered on. He's had to cough up for his first year and he's probably going for a free ride scholarship.
Keep hittin' 'em, Kid!
Thursday, December 16, 2021
I get sick and tired of being called a Republican. I'm not.
The reason I vote almost exclusively for them is because they are better than the alternative. Both parties suck. One wants to get into your pocket and the other wants into your bedroom.
I am more of an Old School Libertarian, not to be mistaken for today's washed up so-called Libertarians. I am a pretty strict Constitutionalist and as a result believe in a strict meritocracy.
One of the things that makes me laugh is when I say I believe in a meritocracy that I get called a racist. That's a joke.
In a meritocracy race, sex, etc etc and so on don't even enter the equation. I base it strictly on the ability to do the job in question whatever it is.
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
That sidewalk lemonade stand taught me well as a child and helped me embark on a life of crime.
As few people know, a child's lemonade stand in most places is a de facto criminal activity. They are unlicensed, uninspected and generally pay no taxes.
It's also a pretty good way of getting a halfway decent criminal education, too.
Most people think a lemonade stand's costs are just lemons, sugar and water but there's a lot more to it than that.
One of the first things I discovered is that a polce discount pays big dividends. It tends to get a lot of people off your back. Alice Kravitz was one. She used to call the police on me all the time saying I wasn't inspected by the Board of Health. The police discount more than paid for itself because when they dispatched a policeman to answer her complaint they'd run the siren for a few seconds a few blocks away. The table was on wheels and I't run it into the garage and lower the door.
The police, who knew a good thing on half priced lemonade would look around a bit, walk around the car, scratch their heads and leave. Later on one of them told Alice not to call the station anymore and threatened to give her a summons for giving a false report.
Then there were bullies to deal with and the protection racket was into business. A guy a couple of years older than me named Mike Fenster trashed the stand a couple of times and said it was gonna cost me if I didn't want it trashed again. Fenster wanted 50 cents a week to leave me alone. A buck to a couple of Junior High kids got both of Fenster's legs broken. In the long run it was a lot cheaper to pay the dollar once.
After Fenster's legs healed a few months later I approached him and put him on the pad. Alice Kravatz was on the warpath again and had figured out a way to sidestep the police. She went straight to the department of health who notified the police who would give me a siren warning and I'd push the stand back into the garage.
That's when Fenster earned his keep. I went on a weekend to the Cape with my parents and Fenster sneaked into Alice's yard and painted her beloved rock garden a combination of Dutch Boy white and Chinese red. He mixed the two and the rock garden was a sickly pallor of pink.
Alice immediately blamed me and went straight to the department and swore out a warrant which didn't get very far because I was in Cape Cod when the dastardly deed occurred. Alice stormed up to the lemonade stand screeching at me and threatening to have me jailed.
I looked at her and told her if I had any more problems she was going to find out that there was a lot more paint where the pink in her garden came from. She stormed off and when the police questioned my parents, my dad came up with indisputable proof I had been in Cape Cod the night of the incident. I then slipped a grateful Fenster another two bits.
The police, who were pretty good customers thanks to the discount then handed Alice Kravitz a summons and the magistrate fined her $20 for issuing a false report. Between that and the possibility of another midnight paint job Alice got off of my back.
By now the lemonade business was taking good care of itself and I expanded into the Friday Afternoon beer business. I wasn't selling beer to minors but word went out among the neighborhood dads that they could get a cold one for the road at Piccolo's Lemonade.
Those old WW2 guys loved a Friday afternoon beer and had Old School integrity. As a kid I could SELL them a beer just so long as I wasn't drinking one undeage. At that time the old WW2 guys figured under 16 or so was too young for beer. I was about ten at the time.
Friday afternoon business boomed. I made far more selling beer than lemonade. Lemonade broke even and became a front.
The local police knew I wasn't selling to minors and a couple of them would swing by Friday after shift and they'd get one in a bag for half off to drink on the ride home. Cops couldn't be seen drinking in public hence the bag. An extra quarter would get them a pack of Luckies, too.
Lucky Strike cigarettes were running about $1.75 a carton back then and sold in the machines for a quarter but had two pennies in the cellophane as change. They were 23 cents a pack. I didn't give change and I could turn a carton for $2.50 and come out 75 cents ahead. It wasn't too bad. In fact Ernie Colesto who ran a small market offered to sell me Luckies for $1.50 a carton because he knew I wouldn't smoke them myself. I made a buck a carton! Big money!
I adored Ernie Colestro. He was an Italian immigrant that got to the States in the 30s and enlisted after Pearl Harbor. He griped about haing gotten sand stuck in his typewriter and Utah Beach. Ernie wasn't writing company reports. He was a radio operator and used a typewriter to copy Morse Code with and griped that he had to copy his messages in pencil. He was a real character.
His face was a mess thanks to a shell addressed 'to whom it may concern'. He was one of the giants on whose shoulders I walked on as a kid.
Like a lot of the WW2 guys he was somewhat of an honest man with serious integrity. Ernie was dishonest as hell but had some very serious integrity in his dishonesty as did most WW2 veterans. They were men with principles.
He would gladly sell me Luckies at $1.50 a carton all day long because he knew I was reselling them to adults. Still, he would not sell me a single pack of Camels because he knew I smoked them and he thought that selling cigarettes to youngsters was bad juju.
One afternoon Larry Thompkins came around and demanded 25 cents not to knock my stand over. Mike Fenster, now on my payroll was hanging around. He was now on my side because he didn't want his legs broken again. I looked at Fenster.
"Mike," I said. "Give this man about 50 cents worth of hurt and flipped him a pair of quarters."
Mike tagged him and split his nose open like a ripe tomato and Larry ran off bleeding like a stuck pig. Mike ran after him shouting he had only earned a quarter and wanted the whole four bits. Larry got caught and got hammered. Larry avoided me until his dying day. He even called the 40 year High School reunion committee and begged off when he heard I was coming.
Ten minutes later a police car swung by. It was Officer Davis. The kids called him ' Officer Davy' to his face which he kind of liked. Officer Davy asked me what had happened. I told him the truth and Fenster cringed. I knew Fenster was in no trouble what I spoke up. Fenster had to earn a living, too.
Davy was a smart cop and I knew it. He got out of his car and slapped his nightstick into the palm of his hand and gave us kids an evil look.
"Pic, if anyone tries to shake you down for protection money you call ME! I'll teach them what hurt really is!" he said. The look on his face told me he was going to put whoever it was in the hospital or maybe even the morgue.
Looking back on things I now realize that Davy would have smacked the perpetrator in the ass a couple times with his nightstick, put the fear of God into him and that would have ended it.
He turned to Mike and said he didn't want to take money from him but he didn't want to see Mike get into trouble, either. He also winked at Karen Angelico who was there for a glass of lemonade. We all knew Karen was a blabbermouth so word would go out. I'd never have to face a demand for protection money again. I flipped Officer Davy a pack of Luckies and told him to swing by Friday after shift. He did. I tossed him a beer in a bag that ended that.
Anyway, that is how I came to embark on a life of crime with my childhood lemonade stand. It proved to be a wonderful education and kept me from having to take out a college loan.
No Christmas season is complete without a tasteless Ralphie post.
He shot his eye out.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
A day of little to do which sucks.
I did some holiday cooking, though. I made chili because one of the neighborhood kids is home from college for Christmas break. He likes it because his mother really isn't a big meat eater and he is.
We got to talking about food once and I invited him in for a bowl of chili I had just made and he loved it.When I'd make it I'd sometimes have him over for a bowl.
He's home now so I asked him if he wanted a bowl and he jumped at the offer. I make a pretty good Old School skillet of it, saddle tramp style.
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I just read where a 14 YO boy shot a robber that was attacking his mother, right in the face.
The robber is being called the victim by the media. He is NOT the victim of a crime. He is the perpetrator and it was obviously a legal shooting. The victim was the boy's mother.
The perpetrator was the one that was shot and I have no problem with it whatsoever. Unfortunately the perpetrator seems to have survived.
Monday, December 13, 2021
I read where Biden wants to set up 500,000 electric car charging stations.
What I want to know is where the electricity is going to come from.
Unlike what a lot of people think electricity doesn't originate in those little outlets you have in your house. In order to make that work we are going to have to open a lot more power generating stations.
What's going to run them? Coal? Natural gas? Nuclear power?
I did meet an electric car owner that wasn't some kind of naive noodnik that babbled about how he was saving the planet. He called his electric car a coal burner which I suppose it is. Either that or it's a nuke or maybe a natural gas burner. It depends on what the power plant supplying his electricity is running on.
An interesting breakfast.
of baked halibut, peppers and onion and a couple of over easy eggs.
To quote the late Jerome 'Curly' Howard, "Food fit for a king...or an airplane worker!"
I would imagine the person that gifted me the halibut expected me to use if for a nice sit-down dinner but they forget my history. I was once a commercial fisherman and while fishing we'd occasionally dine finely on bycatch.
I have not had halibut for breakfast in years and I'm looking toward it as soon as it comes out of the oven.
It means a LOT more to me than a sit-down dinner.
Sunday, December 12, 2021
One of the things I have learned in competitive shooting is to be flexible.
I had a conversation with a man that was at one time considered to be the best rifle shot in the entire Marine Corps.
I shoot round targets with a 6 O'clock hold which means I aim at the very bottom of the target. I put the pumpkin on the post so to speak and ajust my sights so the rifle shoots high and puts my shots into the X-ring (when I do my prt, which is seldom)
The Gunny shoots point of impact, meaning he splits the round target. Where he aims his rifle, it hits. It's called point of aim, point of impact. (POA/POI)He's said that it's an individual thing and a point of impact sight-in works for him. Six O'clock hold works for me.
Still, in competitive marksmanship there are a lot of factors that come into play. The Gunny and I both inderstand what a point of aim (sometimes called point of hold) is. It is the spot you carefully aim at. We also know that the point of impact is where the bullet hits.
Enter the world of obsolete military firearms.
A lot of military firearms were set up along what is called the 'point blank' concept. The term 'point blank range' has been horribly misused over the years. most people think it's something like under two or three feet. It's not. Military battle sights are set up so that if a soldier holds center of mass on a human being and fires he will score a hit somewhere between the throat and the groin which of course is a disabling shot. The soldier has just inflicted a casualty on the enemy. I have heard that the point blank range on some military rifles goes all the way out to nearly 400 yards.
For target shooters we don't have to worry about stopping an agressor. We have to hit a paper target that doesn't shoot back. It's a rather peaceful sport.
I generallly make friends with just about any rifle I get handed and can figure out how to make it hit a target, assuming the barrel is not shot out.
I was once handed a surplus obsolete bolt gun and the battle sight was set up for the point blank concept. At 200 yards the rifle shot high as was to be expected. I simply held my sights on the bottom of the target framse and it did shoot a bit low. I raised the battle sight and did rather well that day.
This post isn't about rifles and shooting. It's about being flexible and figuring out alternative ways about getting something done.
Sometimes you have to look at something other than established practices to get something done.
Friday, December 10, 2021
Piccolo boards a plane.
I made my connection with plenty of time and spotted a young guy with a cast on his foot and some kind of pegleg unit so he could walk without having his foot on the ground. He was on the same flight I was on.
Of course everyone except me asks people with a cast on if they had an accident. I simply said, "Don't tell me. Let me guess. You intentionally hacked your foot up to impress some hot babe."
He laughed and his face lit up. "Everyone else asks me if I had an accident," he replied.
"Hey, listen. You get to board early with that injury and I am a tired old man that is stuck at the end of the line and that means I am going to play holy hell finding a spot for my bag on this full flight. I am now your assistant, OK?"
His luggage had been checked in and he only had a very small pack. I pointed to my carry-on and said, "This is yours and I'm helping you."
"Sounds good," he replied.
Most people would be astonished at the number of people that will aid and abet a fellow citizen in the commission of a minor crime. Most people have a hidden spot in their heart for flouting the rules once in a while so I wasn't surprised when he went along with my fiendish plot.
So the call to board came and he led the charge, followed by me dragging my carry-on. I drew a look and instead of I'm helping out this handicapped person, I simply said, "I'm giving this cripple a hand."
The airline gatekeeper blushed slightly and I walked past her unchallenged. when we got inside the jetway my unindicted co-conspirator lookad at me and said, "I don't believe you referred to me as a 'cripple'" and laughed.
I looked at him and said, "Too bad you didn't have a head bandage. I would have referred to you as a f***in' retard and lit her up like a Christmas tree." and he started laughing so hard he had to stop for a couple of seconds.
While we were boarding he asked me about the airport we were landing at and I told him I'd return the favor by showing him the way to the luggage pickup area and he thanked me.
When we landed I waited for him to return the favor and along the way to the luggage carousel he commented on my making the airport gatekeeper visably upset.
"It's one of the absolute joys of getting old," I explained. "You don't have to play the stupid games anymore."
He laughed. "It must be nice," he said.
Middle age sucks," I said. "If I'd have known old age was going to be so much fun I would have started being an old man when I turned 40."
We both laughed and when I pointed to the luggage area he thanked me and we parted ways.
"How's Bubbles doing?"
asked a woman that works at a place I shop often.
"Eight-two years old and still shakin' em," I replied.
She laughed.
It's funny because a couple of years ago she was one of the quietest, shyest person I had ever met and to most other people she still is. It's taken a while but she's coming out of her shell. At least in her dealings with me.
Thursday, December 9, 2021
It was a long day.
Of course when push comes to shove and reality sets in.....
In the past few months I have guided several woman though obtaining their first firearm and I've toaght a couple how to use them.
Busy today
Just returned from a thrilling adventure at sea. Gotta get some work done at home.
I may add to this post later.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http:/ared away I'll add to this./piccoloshash.blogspot.co/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Hawaii is expecting a blizzard and a foot of snow!
So everyone reads that and assumes they will have to wear parkas and boots to surf on Wikiki Beach. Here's proof positive that there is climate change and that Al Gore & company are right! The Ice Age is coming!
Surprise! It snows in Hawaii every year. Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea have a 13,000 foot summit and get snow every year.
While they are getting clobbered with a blizzard everyong else is on the beach surfing as usual.
And that, People, is how places like CNN manage to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
One of the positive things Covid has done is those assholes that have to hold their face three inches from yours when they talk to you have seemed o have disappeared.
Monday, December 6, 2021
One of the things I am proud of is helping make the US mail free of prepaid mailers.
You don't see them anymore with your junk mail. Now you have to put a stamp on the self addressed letter to answer the advertising.
I had a small part with that one and I am rather proud of it.
What I would do is toss the junk mail into a box and deal with it about every week or so. I would take out the prepaid mailers and restuff them with someone else's junk mail and toss the letter(s) in the mailbox. I started sending them each other's junk mail.
A bank in Los Angeles might get a pizza coupon from Pittsburgh, a local realator might get an offer for a no fee Mastercard from a bank in Nebraska. The possibilities were endless.
I remember sending a televangelist a handbill from a local massage parlor once as well as sending a bank an advertisement from another bank offering the same credit card at a lower rate. It was actually fun trying to figure out which place to resend which piece of junk mail to.
I remember sending some some of fire alarm company a flier offering a free smoke detector from a local fire department and the list was endless. It was a joyous time of creativity that cost me nothing.
A couple of times I took about two month's worth of junk mail to work and the guys pitched in and added their feedback Some San Francisco bank got a safety alert notice from a tugboat in New York harbor, for example.
After the first time I did this a couple of the guys started bringing in all their junk mail from home with them and the horizons grew. It became possible for a Pittsburgher to send a chef's knife company in Chicago a coupon for a half-off pizza from Miami as tugboaters come from all over the place.
Some of the guys reported doing it at home and even having their wives and kids start doing it.
Later during the early days of the internet I mentioned doing it on one of the early chat rooms and found out I was not alone. A number of intrepid souls were doing the same thing and the word spread.
Finally the practice became so commonplace the businesses found they were not getting anyplace by sending prepaid envelopes so they stopped doing it.
You heard it here.
I am at sea...and trying to explain it to idiots ashore.
A lot of people involved in banks, insurance companies, pharmacies, and a lot more naturally assume that because they work M-F 9-5 that everyone else does. Too many people have no clue whatsoever that there are actually people out there that don't work in offices.
Anyway, I sometimes explain that I do not have the ability to run down to the bank and get something taken care of or refill a prescription at a friendly, local neighborhood Rite Aid.
It sometimes gets me a deer in the headlights look or it's confused telephone equivilent when I say that. A lot of people think that everybody can run down to the bank or to a drug store. It's enough to drive a person nuttier than a cukoo clock factory at midnight.
Everyone always assumes I can take advantage of all of the good things shoreside, which I can't when I am at work.
The worst one I have had to deal with recently was the insurance company that pays my pharmacy bill. The pharmacy could only give me a 30 day 'script because the insurance company wouldn't let them. I called the insurance company and explained I was a seaman and would be out of town when the 30 day script would run out.
"Oh," she said cheerily. "You can just go to the nearest Rite Aid and refill it."
"The nearest Rite Aid will be 4500 miles away," I answered.
"But Rite Aids are everywhere," she replied.
"We don't have Rite Aids, Motel 6s, post offices or much of anything else in the middle of the ocean," I explained. I'm a merchant mariner, a sailor. I go away to sea."
"I don't understand," she said, confused.
"OK. You have a computer in front of you. Go to Google maps. Put in 'Atlantic Ocean'....You see the letter 'C' in 'Alantic?....That's where I will be when my prescription runs out."
"But what are you doing there?" she asked, greatly confused.
"I work there," I explained.
"But what could you possibly do there?" she asked.
"I man a ship. I deliver crude oil to east coast refineries to be made into gasoline and fuel oil. If I can't get a 90 day prescription then I can't go to work and if I can't go to work then no oil reaches the refineries. If no oil reaches the refineries they don't make gasoline or heating oil. If they don't make gas or heating oil you will have to walk home and freeze in the dark and it's all going to be your fault." I said. "Now you don't want to have to walk home and freeze in the dark, do you?"
"Uhh...well...no." she said.
"Well, if you give me a 90 day prescription then I will be able to go to work and you will be able to drive home to a nice, warm cheerily lit home," I said.
"Uhhh..." she stammered.
"Let me speak to your supervisor so we can get this ironed out," I said.
She did.
"Hello...What's the problem?"
"Your girl doesn't understand what a merchant mariner is," I said. "I'm trying to get a 90 day prescription so I can go back to work for a couple of months. There are no Rite Aids for refills in the middle of the ocean."
"Check with the pharmacy in ten minutes. I got this," he said.
"Presumably you record all of these calls?" I asked.
"We do," he replied.
"Please listen to the conversation I just had with that young girl. It should prove to be a useful training aid. Not everyone goes home at night after work." I said.
"I spent 4 years in the Navy," he said. "I understand."
Actually it's not just sailors that have minor headaches like this. There are quite a few people that either work odd hours or work away from home. There are truck drivers that don't see home for weeks at a time, construction workers that take camp jobs for months on end in remote areas. Doctors, nurses and policemen work 24/7.
When I grew up a neighbor was a consulting engineer that was gone for nine long months and the guy across the street did a lot of traveling for work.
Miliary service people generally deploy for a year at a time, unaccompanied by their families.
I wish people would open their eyes and realize simple things like the reason they can turn on a light to pee at 3 am is because engineers is up in a powerplant somewhere watching the grid and monitoring things carefully. There's also linemen and the like up at all hours either working or on standby.
There's a lot of other things, too. People have no idea how things get manufactured or moved. To them it's all magic.
The one that recently irked me was the kid that said that what happens overseas doesn't effect him as he stood before me in a Pakistani shirt, Chinese sneakers, Costa Rican pants and a Chinese hat. This took place while the Suez Canal was blocked recently.
A full ten percent of the world's shipping transits the canal. Ten percent! Because it was blocked a lot of ships rerouted and added 8000 miles to their trips. That's a lot of time, fuel and money! Someone has to pay for it and it's always the end used, the consumer.
At 25 knots that's nearly two weeks added to the transit. That means under perfect circumstances the ship is going to be two weeks late to it's next port and in that time perishibles can rot on the docks, schedules can be destroyed, shortages created and all sorts of global chaos. Tankers arriving at refineries two weeks late can cause fuel shortages with wide ranging effects. Talk about walk home and freeze in the dark!
Yet Suzie Homemaker will screech to high heavens that her Vietnamese farm raised talapia she wanted for dinner is two or three bucks a pound more. She will complain to her husband who will likely blame corporate greed when in fact the distributor has cut his profit margin to the bone just so as not to lose the entire talapia market when things return to normal.
But because the canal is in Egypt nobody pays it any mind.
It's not just shipping, either. Shipping is just a part of it. There just are so many people out there working alternative non 9-5 shifts and too many people are totally unaware of it.
There's just so much out there that we rely on that nobody gives any thought to.
It's grossly unfair for anyone to say that people should be aware of everything going on but it IS fair to expect someone to think about things when a subject comes up and at least try and logic it through ad be aware that there is a lot they don't think about and take for granted and at least try and learn a thing or two.
Hell, I just learned today that airline attendants hate opening Diet Coke because at 30,000 feet they have to be extra careful opening it to keep it from making a mess. As a result I'll switch to having a cup of coffee and make it a little easier on them.
Sunday, December 5, 2021
This goes back several years ago at work. The case of the missing sledge hammer.
I remember the time a deckhand dropped a sledgehammer over the side by mistake. Of course, he did what any self respecting deckhand would to to cover his ass. He found a sledgehammer on the dock, took it aboard, slapped a coat of paint on it and put it in the hammer rack like he was supposed to.
Any mechanic that's been in the business more than a week and returns to a job to find a sledgehammer missing knows exactly what happened and he returns to the tool room and simply grabs another one. He tells his port engineer who simply orders another one. Case closed. No headaches, reprimand, paperwork or other stupidity and a simple closure of a non-event.
Except this time the mechanic that got a sledgehammer cumshawed from him was fresh out of school and had only been there for three days and hadn't figured out all the rules yet. He complained to a certain port captain that happened to be walking by.
Immediately after I had met this particular port captain I asked someone else that knew him what he was like. "He rattles steel balls and looks for strawberries," he replied.
The steel balls and strawberries comment proved to be spot on when he came up to me and started grilling me about the dopey missing sledge hammer. Of course I knew nothing.
I was questioned several times over the following two days and decided that enough. I went into the office and told him in front of my port captain that he'd never get to the bottom of it and the best thing he could do was to let it sit a while and let me keep my ears open. I pointed out that every single seagoing person was probably going to keep mum about it.
He took the bait and I saw MY port captain roll his eyes and supress a smirk because he knew I was up to something.
STRAIGHT back to the boat I went and grabbed a pad of paper and a 19 cent Bic pen and wrote the Honolulu Police dapartment. In the letter I explained the case of the missing sledge hammer and asked how I could get in touch with the famous Hawaiian detective Charlie Chan. When I was done I instantly sent it out with the office's outgoing mail. The next day my relief showed and I went home.
Just before I got back Honolulu gave me an answer. My guess is that a pair of pissed off robbery detectives were on someone's $hitlist and were given my letter and told to send me an answer.
The letter said that the Honolulu Police Department had been looking for Charlie since 1958 for back child support after he skipped town and left that poor, tiny little woman with all of those children. They explained it is thought he was in Rio but could not be extradited.
I burned off several copies of the letter and when I returned to work left one on a couple of port captan's desks and went to work.
About a week later my port captain boarded us with a big grin on his face and said that the angry new port captain tried to get me in trouble and sent a copy of it up the chain.
The problem with that was that the higher it went the funnier it got. He caught hell for wasting so much time over a $10 sledge hammer. When it was over and done with the new port captain steered well clear of me for quite a while.
Later I ran into one of the big bosses and he asked me if I had been able to locate Charlie and we laughed.
Saturday, December 4, 2021
Because you are stupid, that's why.
Somebody on Nextdoor was griping about a shoddy contractor and someone else wanted to know who it was.
I promptly posted that you don't go posting allegations on a public forum.
Someone asked, "Why not?"
Now the FIRST thing that came to mind was "Because you're stupid." but, of course, I didn't. They often times don't like the truth on Nextdoor. I explained to this dumb broad that it's called doxxing and a good way to wind up in court.
Some time ago someone started a thread where he named a contractor he said had cheated him. It backfired.
Several people said the contractor in question was their go-to guy because he did good work and charged fair prices. Someone else that knew the contractor got the rest of the story and the original poster wound up looking like a jerk. I believe the thread vanished as do many on ND.
Posting a name on an internet forum is bad juju unless you have absolute and total proof of wrongdoing. It's is a good way of finding oneself in court which is not a good place to be.
Another form of stupid I see are these people that post pictures (including license plates) of cars and explain that they were speeding. Virtually all of these pictures seem to prove nothing.
Here's a picture of some guy I followed that was driving 70 through our plan! I took it when I was right behind him!
Hey, idiot, I hate to inform you but you are more of a danger to us than he is. Not only were you speeding in a residential neighborhood but you were driving distracted while you were fiddling with your camera. You're the one that should get your license lifted. Besides, your little picture proves nothing. It looks like a car in front of you that you were tailgating.
The other one I liked was supposedly a guy blowing through a stop sign. The photographer's timing was perfect. Whoever it was clicked the shutter as the car was about a foot in front of the stop line painted on the street. It looked like the car was stopped dead at the stop sign they were accused of blowing.
One time I had some idiot of a guy I ran into tell me he was going to post something or another on line to get someone into trouble. I told him that if he did something like that to me he would likely come home to a smoking pile of ashes.
He was alarmed and asked me if I would burn his house down in the middle of the night. I exhaled audibly.
Then I explained that no self respecting torch would burn a house down in the middle of the night when people were at home because they could escape and call the fire department and went on and told him how to do the job properly and defeat all of his wonderful security systems and make a clean getaway. I even pointed out that you leave your cell phone tied to the dog's collar so it looks like you're at home. On top of that how to get the police to provide me with a halfway decent alibi.
He looked shocked and asked me how I knew about such things.
I explained to him that as the oldest son I was expected to take over the family business or if I didn't want to, I would pass it on to my brother and was expected to enter either the military or the clergy. I told him neither of those two met my liking so I chose an alternative.
"What might that be?" he asked, quite nervously.
"I embarked on a life of crime," I answered.
Then he asked why I was not in prison.
"Because I have been a rather successful criminal," I replied. "Jails only house unsuccessful criminals."
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this:
http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
Friday, December 3, 2021
What do I do for a living?
I'm a criminal.
On my 21st birthday, as the oldest son I was given the choice of inheriting the family manor, serving in the military or entering the clergy.
These were the normal choices given to the eldest son of an affluent landowner of the time. I chose none of these.
Instead I embarked on a life of crime.
I explained that one time to a nosy guy that asked me what i did for a living. He was horrorfied.
The woman behind me that overheard it was quick on the uptake. Much to her credit, she laughed like hell.
Every once in a while I use that line to weed people out and it seems to work wonderfully. I find out who understands my outlook and who doesn't in an instant by the way they react to it.
Cup size registration doesn't sound good to a lot of women.
But vaccination records do, huh?
I see where a pack of Democrats are trying to force a national vaccine registration on us so people can look up who and who was not vaxxed.
Some woman thought it was a pretty good idea.
I countered by proposing a cup size registration for women so guys could look up their cup size and if they've had a boob job or not. I said it sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Of course she screeched to high heaven that her boobs were nobody's business.
I replied that if you give the government the authority to make a registration of someone's medical records you give them the authority to make a registration of woman's boob sizes.
She looked stunned.
Of course if they did that the woman would have a right to demand a junk size registration which would lead to taxation of a man's junk.
Update.
I just had a telemarketer start asking me personal questions. Of course I fed her bullshit for a minute and then responded with, "What's your cup size?"
A short amount of hilarity ensued before she hung up.
I think I'm going to go this route with telemarketers for a while and see what happens.
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