that the phone was answered by some guy in India.
Why am I not surprised?
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Someone that called suicide hotline reports
Monday, March 29, 2021
I had a talk with a maritime academy grad the other day and it was interesting
He has a degree and I do not.
We were talking about people we know that had good formal educations that were replaced by people that didn't, including High School dropouts and vice versa.
Although this is rapidly changing, the seagoing maritime trade is one of the last businesses where formal education isn't a requirement.
It is perfectly possible to find a captain running a 1200 foot long ship that entered the business sweeping the floor and worked his way up.
Something to be said for that.
Incidentally, the proper term for a person that started off as an ordinary seaman and worked his way to an officer's position is 'Hawsepiper'.
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Karens sometimes can be entertaining
because little is funnier that a woman getting all worked up over something she doesn't understand or know about.
Guns that jump out of locked safes and suddenly go off, the noise and bedlam caused by drug deals and all of the rats that live in abandoned buildings.
Do any of these people even think?
Noise and disturbances caused by a drug deal?
What do drug dealers do these days? Do they hire a rock n roll band to give a concert to announce that they are selling heroin? Perhaps they drive around in a truck playing music like ice cream trucks announcing that they are having a special on cocaine.
Doubtful. It's a criminal transaction and the participants do not want attention drawn to them. If it's done right you could be 6 feet away from one and not even know what happened. (Drug deals gone bad are a different animal altogether)
While nobody with half a brain wants to live in or even near a crime infested drug zone the reason isn't because of the noise the drug dealers make.
Someone warned me on Nextdoor that the police read it daily.
I told him I was more than aware of that and the reason I post some of the stuff I do is because cops need entertainment, too.
ttp://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
Friday, March 26, 2021
There are some things that are just morally wrong to let slide by.
On another board a woman was warning us all about a phone scam that seems to be going around.
Phone scams have gone around since Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone.
The first phone call made was by Bell.
The second was made by a hooker peddling her wares.
The third phone call in history was made by some greasy thug trying to bilk either Bell or the hooker out of their hard earned money.
Anyway, the scam she got was that her grandson had been arrested and needed bail money and that the caller, a supposed bondsman would take care of it.
She wanted to know what to do.
Someone right off the bat had a very creative and innovative answer. You hang up the phone.
I told the woman that when I get a call like that I ask them, "How could that possibly be? My grandson is already doing hard time in prison for murdering a con man that tried to cheat his grandfather."
Needless to say, some idiot wanted details on the alleged murder.
"If I've told that boy once, I've told him a dozen times. If you don't want a body found you plant endangered plants on top of the grave so it's illegal to dig it up. Kids don't listen and now look where he is!"
Another idiot got dealt with.
As usual I made a sarcastic Nextdoor post about buying beer for kids so they can wash the dope out of their system.
Some Karen screeched "I just took a screen shot and sent it to the POLICE!"
I answered that she shouldn't have bothered because the police check the site out regularly and be I often make posts like that just for their entertainment.
The local police department has a pretty good sense of humor. A couple of them I have run into have given me amused comments about some of my posts.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Why is everyone treating Covid like it's the Black Plague and we're living in 1350?
Let's look at it for a few minutes.
The Black Plague killed off over 1/3 of the entire European population. That's one out of three people dying of it.
Now THAT'S a plague!
If they were to let Covid run free it would probably kill well under .05% of the population, if that.
Now there are any number of things you can do even without the Amazing Vaccine to avoid contracting it in the first place. I won't bother to list them here.
The Karens and Matts are panic stricken and I have heard of a few trying to sneak into the over 65 years old line only to be refused. A few have stood there in tears when they were refused.
What the clinics SHOULD have done is to make it clear that if you tried to buck the line you would be sent to the end of it and have to wait for six months before you were eligible...and enforce it. It would only take a couple of people finding themselves at the end of the line to stop that kind of thing because their moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth would be epic.
What the people should do is look at the disease for what it is. It has an incredibly high survival rate. It's not the plague. Nobody is pushing a cart down the street shouting "Bring out your dead!" Corpses are not piling up in the streets.
The odds of surviving the disease for anyone under the age of 70 are over 99.5%. Over 70 the odds drop a but to about the 95% range. You also have to realize that most people over 70 have preexisting medical conditions to begin with.
I am not saying that Covid isn't a danger or a threat. Of course it is.
What I am saying is that there's an awful lot of over-reaction to it. This ain't 1350 and Covid is not the Black Plague.
Settle down, people!
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Someone asked me what my all-time experience with stupidity was.
I have a friend I met that was a Marine Gunnery Sergeant on recruiting duty years ago. I would occasionally do something with him. We had plans to do something or another after he got off of work and I dropped by a little early, went into the recruiting office and sat down in a corner to wait for him.
In walked a concerned mother that said her son had just enlisted and she was concerned. The Gunny asked her son's name and confirmed the young man had enlisted and was going to be headed to boot camp in a short time.
The mother indignantly asked the Gunny, "You're not going to teach him to use guns and things like that, are you?
That's got to be the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.
I do recall interupting and asking the Gunny if he wanted me to do the explaining and the Gunny said he'd do the explaining.
When he told me he'd handle it she snapped and said she wanted to hear it from me. Apparently she had mistaken me for the father of another recruit.
I promptly told he her son would be taught to gouge out a person's eyes, break their ear drums, cut throats, crush testicles, shoot people, stab people and operate all sorts of firearms and other weapons, blow people's arms and legs off, burn them to death. I added that when he graduated from his training he would be a trained killer praying for war so he could try out his newly acquired skills.
I also told her he'd learn how to keep things clean, make his bed and take care of himself and learn to live among a group of trained killers on a daily basis.
When I was through she looked at the red faced Gunny who shook his head an agreement and said, "That's about it."
She said, "We'll see about that!" and stormed out.
Shortly after the kid shipped out.
Some time later I asked about the kid and the Gunny told me there was a real horror show at Parris Island when the mother showed up and demanded her son be released.
Apparently he got pulled out of training for a few hours and a couple of officers pressured the kid to sign a release of some sort that would discharge him. I was told they try and get rid of a kid like that because the parents often go to congressmen and it sometimes causes them grief. It's a lot easier and politically expedient to release the trainee.
The kid refused to sign and demanded to be returned to his platoon. He was returned and graduated with his platoon.
Still, asking a Marine recruited if they were going to teach her son to use guns and things rates up there pretty near if not at the top of the stupidity list.
It wouldn't have been nearly so bad if she'd asked about the Navy or the Air Force but to ask something like that about the Marine Corps is outright total stupidity.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Funny how this happens
Has anyone noticed that how every time a gun control law comes up in congress there's a mass shooting somewhere?
Kind of strange how that seems to happen.
Right now I am watching a Nexrdoor thread
about someone complaining about the noise generated by gunfire from a sportsman's club rifle range.
Now the club has been there since the 1940s and over the years they have bought up as much of the adjacent land as they could. The membership has been fixed and hasn't changed in decades. Therefore there iss no influx in new members.
There is no shooting before 0900 and it's religiously adhered to. The range is set up with heavy woods on three sides to muffle as much noise as possible.
There are solid butts out there to catch stray rounds and behind it there is dense woods for quite a long ways, adjoining the State Game Lands.
Of course someone is complaining about the noise.
I give him about as much credibility as someone that builds their dream house a half mile from the end of a busy runway of a large international airport and then gripes about the airplane noise and wants the airport to shut down.
Come to think about it, there are a number of people on another thread complaining about the deer because of the damage they do. I was quick to point out that they were the ones to move into the suburbs where animals live and it's they knew it long before they moved into the 'burbs.
A few years back I saw something on the boob tube about people moving into the desert in the Las Vegas area. It's rattlesnake country.
They were interviewing a black woman that had wandered out onto her porch one evening without paying attention and got bit by a pretty good sized rattler. I immediately wondered who/wht she was going to try and pin the blame on and she immediately won my respect and admiration by admitting that she should have know better than to wander out without paying attention.
She said something along the lines of, "I knew I was moving into snake country when I bought the house. I was warned. I should have turned on the light and looked first. It wasn't the snake's fault he bit me. Thats what snakes do."
I'd cheerfully have her as a next door neighbor but I digress. Her integrity was refreshing in this pass the blame to someone else world we live in. She showed character.
A person is expected to research the area they want to live and see if it it really what they want. Its OK to buy the house and remodel it but it's not OK to buy a house and remodel the area. You don't own it you have no right to change the things that were there before you moved there. You bought into the whole package and not just the parts you want.
The sportsman's club was there first as were the animals. You are the one that has entered their turf. Most of your neighbors were likely aware of it or if they were not they have accepted it.
Monday, March 22, 2021
I know you can't fix stupid
Which is why I pray a lot to St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of lost causes.
To steal and paraphrase a liberal line, If it smartens up only one person....
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Nosy people. I do not have children.
A while back a nosy Karen asked why I don't have children. I responded that I was planning on starting a family come June, 1922. When she asked why I was waiting so long I told her that my girlfriend's father doesn't want her to get married until she finishes high school.
First of all, my family or lack thereof is really nobody's business but my mine and my wife's. However there are any number of legitimate reasons for not having children. Let's look at a few.
1. Maybe the couple simply didn't want children.
2. Maybe they did have a child and the father lost it in a crap game. I told someone this once and they called me a horrid person. I gave them a confused look and said, "You know, my wife said the same thing. Why, she wouldn't talk to me for almost two weeks!"
3. Maybe the couple got married later on in life. I have a friend that married for the first time at 65. She's about the same age so children are not likely to happen.
4. Maybe the couple is incapable of having children. There are any number of reasons for this. I won't even get started here save to say here. It can range between 1001 medical conditions to stepping on a bouncing betty.
For some odd reason I can't fathom people don't like discussing personal physical/medical issues with total strangers.
Anyone nosy enough to pry into someone's business like that and gets a smart-assed answer has gotten what they deserve.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Divorced. Will work for sex.
This goes way back a number of years with a bunch of guys that were rather bored.
We were talking about the local panhandlers and arguing about if they were really poor or had figured out a way to scam six figures.
Then the subject of the various signs they panhandlers used came up. Most made the panhandler look pathetic and seemed to be real heart string tuggers,
One of the recently divorced guys dryly suggested he stand on a corner with a sign reading "Divorced. Will work for sex."
'That's a great idea!" said another one and the BS started flowing. Inside a minute the various ideas came pouring out followed by the inevitible bets.
I don't remember all the details but what the end result is that the wag was offered a pretty good chunk of change if he lasted an hour standing on a downtown Philly street corner without being run off by a cop. It paid double if someone offered to take him up on the offer.
If he failed to last an hour he was supposed to buy a couple of pizzas or some damned thing.
So we all piled into someone's car and off we went to Center City.
We picked out a likely looking corner and parked within sight of him. We sat in the car laughing at him standing on the sidewalk with the sign and a big dopey grin on his face.
A Philly cop ambled by almost instantly. we say him say something to Dave and walk on by. We later found out the cop smiled at him and said, "Good luck, Pal."
It wasn't fifteen minutes before we saw a fairly now expensive car stop with an attractive woman in it. A brief conversation took place. The door opened, Dave hopped into the car and off they went.
We went back to our work stations laughing ourselves silly and wondering what was going to happen to him. A few hours later the phone rang and it was Dave. He wanted someone to pick him up.
Needless to say, we all piled into the same dilapidated old japoly we had dropped him off in and took off. We found Dave where he said he'd be with the a typically dopey looking grin on his face.
He hopped in and needless to say, we wanted the details.
Dave said, "She pulled up and asked me if I knew how to clean out the trap under her kitchen sink. I said I did so she told me to hop in. The rest is my business."
That was over 20 years ago and from time to time the story still comes up over coffee in various tug and barges.
Friday, March 19, 2021
Another Legion post. How the French Foreign Legion got me into the tug and barge industry.
I am always leery of talking about work on a public forum for any number of reasons. As long as I work for someone and take their money I take their orders so long as the orders are legal. I also won't badmouth an employer, either.
Still, a couple people here have asked me what got me into the business...and how I broke into it. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the company I work for. It's about a company that no longer exists.
Around Halloween 1989 I had moved to Pittsburgh and landed on my feet to an extent. I found a job framing houses. In mid December I was laid off for the winter and wanted to go visit my parents around the holidays.
I wasn't married yet but we were planning on it. Much to her credit she was frugal and wondered if we could afford it. I pulled out an atlas, laid out the route and said I would hitchhike if necessary.
She crunched a few numbers and said we could afford a train ticket so I hopped onto the choo choo and off I went, with a change of trains in Philly.
On the train headed to Boston I met a couple of guys and we started talking and found out they were tug guys. I was interested in working on the water again so I asked if they were hiring. One of them gave me an 800 number to call and I put it in my wallet. He said I could call and find out.
It was a good visit with the family and when I got back to Pittsburgh I noticed the number in my wallet and decided to give it a try. I asked if they were hiring and the voice on the other end asked me questions on my background of working on the water. I told her I had been an Alaskan fisherman for several years.
I was offered an interview and told to pick up a ticket at the airport the following day and pack my seabag and bring it with me in case they hired me. I tossed my passport in the bag as an afterthought. It wound up saving my bacon. My other half was dubious but dropped me off at the airport and wished me luck. I boarded the airplane and flew off to Philly and was picked up and taken to the tug company's office.
I reported in and was handed an application to fill out. It was about an inch thick and started filling it out. I noticed that the bulk of the pages were for my work history. They seemed to want to know everything. If I had been a paperboy they wanted to know how many customers and how thick the paper was. I suppose they wanted to know if by bicycle had both pedals, too.
As I filled it out I started looking around at others who were doing the same thing and realized I really didn't have much of a chance. They all had seaman's papers and licenses. A couple had degrees from maritime academies. I had only a passport. I was screwed.
In addition to that, I ran my work history through my head, especially my decade plus in Alaska. I had broken into the fishing business by starting out on a trip by trip basis. I'd work over for someone that got injured or wanted a trip off for whatever reason. In one year I realized I had gone through well over 20 different boats in five years.
In Kodiak that could easily be explained and would not have raised an eyebrow but something like that in the states could not be explained. It was lethal. In Alaska it meant I was in demand. Stateside they would read it to mean I couldn't keep a job.
I also knew I'd play hell trying to be honest. I was down in points and the only way I could win was by a knockout. I needed something that would stand out. Something that would draw attention to me and get me in the other room for an interview. As I sat there I saw two long faces leave.
It was time to go for broke.
I got a flash of inspiration. Between about July, 1978 and August, 1983 I simply omitted everything and covered that period of time by writing in 'French Foreign Legion, Highest rank: corporal'.
When I had finished I handed it to the woman who scanned it. Her eyes opened wide for a second and she looked at me and said, "presumably you speak French."
"Oui, madame je parlez Francais." I answered. Thank God for junior high French class.
She got up and took my application into another room and returned. A couple of minutes later someone left the room smiling. He had been hired. I was summoned in next and realized I had bucked the line. There were people ahead of me.
As I entered the woman behind the desk said, "Parlez vous Francais?"
"Oui, madame, je parlez Francais. Je suis Piccolo, caporal la deuxieme regiment entrangre de parchutistes," I said. I finished by saying "And I have not spoken a single word of French since I got out of Legion Etrangere almost ten years ago."
She asked me what I had learned in the Legion and I told her that I could clean anything and clean it fast. She chuckled. "Good thing to know," she smiled.
She asked me several other questions about the Legion and I do believe she was expecting a Beau Geste tale of fighting in the desert and Arab maidens but I disappointed her by telling her I had spent most of my time maintaining much of the regimental equipment and that my few deployments had been pretty much uneventful. I figured I didn't want to lay it on too thick and have the whole thing come crashing down.
Never set yourself up. My lie had done its job. I had gotten my foot through the door. This was not the time to get greedy.
Besides I was concerned of the stolen valor issue. I didn't want to be a fake hero and what I had done was odious enough. There is also nothing worse than telling someone you won the Legion of Honor by shooting 38 Tauregs off a camel's back and having them ask you how the hell they got 38 Tauregs on the camel in the first place.
Then she asked me about what licenses I had and I said I only had my passport. When she asked for it she opened it and a piece of paper fell out. It was a lifeboatman course diploma I had forgotten about. She looked at it. I explained I had taken the class at the community college out of boredom in case I wanted to apply on the Alaska ferry system.
"Well, that's a damned good start," she said and picked up the phone and called someone. A minute later someone walked in.
"Lou, take this man to Baltimore and get him a Z-card. We'll drug test him tomorrow and he sails Wednesday. Get him a room at the Ramada."
She turned to me, "Behave yourself at the Ramada. You will report here tomorrow for a urine test and you'll sail Wednesday morning."
That was when I knew I had won by a knockout. I had the job!
She got up and as I was leaving she shouted, "Hey, Jeff! Guess who we got working for us now? A real, live French Foreign Legionnaire!"
Everyone looked at me and inwardly I cringed because I knew I was going to have a whole trainload of questions to answer when I got to the fleet.
We drove to Baltimore. Along the way I had my picture taken and entered the exam center there. It was here the passport saved my bacon. The Coast Guard needed more ID than a simple driver's license. I whipped out my passport. The petty officer took one look at it and said I was good to go.
An hour later I had an entry level Z-card in my pocket. I knew it was a valuable document and even if things didn't work out for the tug company I had a very valuable credential and could find decent work elsewhere.
The next day I peed in the cup, filled out the necessary tax papers and hung out, making myself small but available and about noon I went back to the hotel. I did not hang out at the bar. I knew a trap when I saw it. When I called home my other half was stunned and happy for me. She knew if I got my foot in the door I'd run with it and do well.
The following day I set sail on a tug as an entry level ordinary seaman.
I didn't get home again for five weeks.
55555555555555555555555555
Aftermath.
Six months later the tankerman trainee program opened up and I didn't have enough time in company to be eligible. If I recall you had to have two or three years. I asked to take the test, anyway and the instructor humored me and let me take it.
I was already aware the program was going to open and had one of the tankermen coach me beforehand and I wound up getting 100% on it. I had taken the test after I had finished my tour. After it was graded I went home.
About a week later I got a call from the instructor. He was embarrassed. "I just got asked why I didn't accept the only guy that got 100% on the test. Report here in a week to start the course." It proved to be another knockout. I reported in as requested and did well in the course.
I had saved all of my fishing sea time on the proper forms and when I went to the Coast Guard to test for my tankerman's endorsement I sat for not only the tankerman's test but the whole battery of Able Seaman's tests and on top of that, All the tests for my 100 ton master's license, complete with a sailboat and towing endorsements! I passed them all and was issued a new Z-card and a license certificate.
When I turned all of this in to the office they were stunned.
In under 11 months I had almost doubled my pay!
A couple of years later I had made a friend in the office. I had gotten another application and filled it out and quietly handed it to him and asked him to replace my original, citing I was tired of all the questions.
He quietly did and I never heard about it again. He also removed the note stating I was fluent in Mandarin Chinese. How the Mandarin Chinese note got there is another story.
Some time later the company folded and I found myself working for another outfit. I got lucky again. I was nervous as hell and interviewed poorly but got hired on the say-so of another person I knew from the old company.
The application if I recall was fairly simple and I filled it out honestly. By now the internet was up and running and I knew things could be researched easily enough. After the interview and hiring I drove home and met the most interesting person I have ever met in my life which is yet another story.
I have never been laid off or missed any time other than an injury.
This has been an excellent career for me.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%
A couple of years down the road I had a quiet talk with one of my supervisors. Back then records were all paper. Nothing was stored on computer. He pulled my jacket and we went over it.
The three things that had concerned me disappeared, the reference to the Legion and my so-called fluency in French and Mandrain Chinese. Those three and a few other things mysteriously disppeared.
%%%%
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
Thursday, March 18, 2021
I am not going to name names here partially because some of the guilty are readers
Every so often you have a sour grapes person.
There was for sale a rather large piece of land out in the middle of nowhere. The person that the land bordered on gambled when it came up for sale. He figured that he'd get the land for a song because nobody wanted it, partially because he controlled the right of way for electricity.
He gambled and lost. Someone wanted it for a hunting camp. He got pouty and walked up to the new owner and the first words out of his mouth were that he was going to charge him $20,000 for an electricity right of way.
Of course the new kid on the block wasn't going to cough up $20K for that. He just put a rather loud generator on the lot line.
Needless to say this caused screeching and heartburn.
That's when the new kid on the block said, "Hold my beer."
Now this was a fairly large piece of raw land we're talking about and there was sort of a 1000 yard alleyway, half of a ravine so to speak along the lot line.
There was the lot line, a 100x1000 yard flat space with hills at the side and far end. It was a naturally made rifle range.
Of course, it would echo into the man's yard.
Enter Plan A.
The new landowner cleared the area and promptly went to the federal, state, county and local police agencies and told them they could use the new shooting range whenever they wanted. He also made the offer to any letter agency within about 100 miles, and the National Guard.
He stated clearly that they could train with any legal firearm.
Now on top of this he started hosting a number of shoots open to anyone with any legal firearm.
Civil war reenactors now had a place to fire cannons, a museum now had a place to test fire machine guns and a number of Class 3 guys had a place to shoot machine guns.
Needless to say, there were complaints to the various agencies but because the land was not inside of any city limits the complaints were ignored.
So were complaints to the state police who really didn't want to lose a possible place to train.
In short the man's property was blighted and there was nothing he could do about it.
On top of that when he hosted a shoot one of the people that was an ordained Universal Life minister would hold a service on Sunday mornings. Some of the guys brought up a massive PA system and all sorts of loud music from revival camp and Black Baptist churches boomed out along with a pretty good loud, emotional, passionate service by the chaplain.
When he complained about the revival service the State Police showed up, took one look at the service and laughed outright. They went back to the complainer and told him it was a religious service and protected by the First Amendment.
Nobody in local or state government really cared for the man because he had been a pain in the neck with his complaints.
Finally the man stormed into a match one day and said he's give the new landowner electricity right of way for free but by then it was too late. The generator was serving them well and the costs of fuel were minimal.
Now the new owner had pulled a steel shipping container onto the land for use as a cabin of sorts. The stove in it was cast iron and the furniture was pretty much all steel.
Burning the cabin when the new owner was absent was not possible. There was nothing to burn. He also took the generator home when he left so vandalizing that wasn't going to happen.
There was simply nothing old Sour Notes could do.
He tried a lawsuit but no laws were being violated. It was instantly thrown out when he filed it. He still had to pay his attorney.
The new guy's legal fees were nothing. One of the regular shooter was an attorney and took the defense pro bono.
In short, Old Sour Notes was stuck.
What's funny about it is that Old Sour Notes had brought every bit of grief onto himself by being a poor neighbor. Had he gracefully accepted the fact that his little plan to get the land cheap had failed and been a good neighbor and given the new kid free or even an inexpensive power right of way the whole thing would never have happened. No, Sour Notes had to take his anger out on the new neighbor and get greedy. He lost.
Of course I'm kind of happy it worked out that way because I have shot there a few times and had a pretty good time. The guys there are great. It's a pretty good time even if it is rather LOUD.
Now that I write this I am going to have to find out when the next shoot is.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Covid. Get off my back. I'm too damned tired to carry this anymore.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Did you get the vaccine yet? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. When are you going to get the vaccine? Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You can get the vaccine at such and such a place! Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. You really ought to get the Moderna vaccine. Covid. Covid Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid. Covid.
It's worse than a broken record.
I am SICK an TIRED of everyone nagging at me about Covid.
I am now giving it very serious thought to finding someone that has it and just getting the damned virus JUST TO SHUT EVERYBODY UP!
I have just gotten six emails this morning regarding Covid and gotten off the phone after listening to 40 minutes of Covid.
The other day I got SEVEN calls about how I ought to get vaccinated. SEVEN!
WTF is going on? Did someone out there offer a million bucks to the person that gets me vaccinated?
I'll get the vaccine when I get the vaccine and not a minute before and not a minute after. I'll get it when I damned well feel like it.
Check your calendars. This is NOT 1350. It is 2021. We are not talking about the Bubonic plague here. This isn't Black Death and there ain't no fleas in my living quarters.
We are talking about a virus with a 99%+ chance of recovery.
Nobody is pushing a cart down the street shouting "Bring out your dead!"
Now everybody please shut up about it. I'm tired of it. I am just worn out about it. I just want to grab the cat and move into a cave somewhere in the middle of nowhere and hide from the damned Covid paranoids.
PUH-LEESE get off my back about it. I'm getting too damned tired to carry this anymore.
How my file got to read I was fluent in Mandarain Chinese.
This goes back to over 30 years ago. The company I was working for at the time no longer exists.
I had been in the business a couple of years and had started meeting people. The waterfront seem to draw a number of characters and one of the was a petroleum inspector. These people are generally referred to as 'gaugers' because they gauge the various tanks, both vessel and shore to ascertain the amount of cargo being moved.
Sometimes, but not often a dock supervisor would follow us around and sometimes become a nuisance by following us around and trying to spot mistakes. There were none and the over supervision only wound up aggravating us or slowing us down.
Now a lot of gaugers are legal immigrants. Most of the immigrants do speak good English and virtually all of them speak passable Engilsh. However occasionally you will hear two of them speaking to each other in their native tongue.
One day we had just finished loading a load of #6 heating oil. we had disconnected the hose and were getting ready to gauge the boat. As we were getting the measuring tape we saw one of the supervisors headed our way and sensed aggravation in the making.
The Gauger turned to me and started babbling in some incoherent tongue. I looked at him curiously for a second and he looked back at me with a smirk. I picked up on it and babbled something incoherent back at him.
The plot was hatched.
We got to the first tank and I stuck the tape into it and reeled it in. I babbled at the gauger and pointed to the number on the tape. He wrote it into his book and babbled something back at me. I nodded.
The supervisor kept his mouth shut and we went on to the next tank where the process repeated itself. When we had the second tank's number in the gauger's field notebook the supervisor announced he's meet us in the galley.
We'd done it. We'd made him uncomfortable enough to get out of our hair and let us do our job.
Over the next couple of months we did this to that particular supervisor a few more times until when he saw us he's just go below and wait for us. One time when he was below he asked my shipmate what language we were speaking and he shrugged and said, "Probably Mandrain Chinese."
Some time later we loaded a load that was of questionable quality. The specifications were supposedly off and the office called two of us in to deliver the sample we had taken of the cargo. They were to be tested by the petroleum inspection company.
We walked into the office and there was the gauger who greeted me in gibberish. I answered him in gibberish.
We conducted all of the important business in plain English in front of the office people yet carried on sort of a side conversation in gibberish.
I did get along with everyone in the office except for one person. The people I got along with paid our gibberish conversation no mind. The guy I detested quietly pulled my shipmate aside and in a belligerent tone demanded to know what language we were speaking. He replied, "I think it's Mandrain."
This particular supervisor went straight to my employee file and added "Fluent in Mandrin Chinese" right next to where it said I was fluent in French. In fact I spoke neither.
A couple of months later I quietly sat down with one of my supervisors and we went through my file and cleaned a few things up. I was lucky to have this guy as a 'Father confessor' that was willing to take the time to set the record straight.
I always thought that it was important to keep things like that accurate. It can save future embarrassment.
There in nothing harder to squirm out of than explaining you are now useless when someone from the top office calls and says, "Send Piccolo up here. Cash My Check is arriving from Shanghai and we need someone to interpret because he doesn't speak English."
When something like that happens everyone runs for cover and more often than not you are left holding the bag. It's best to keep the record honest.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
One of the things about a free and open forum is that
sometimes an awful lot of distasteful things come out on it and things get pretty heated.
All sorts of things and ideas come through, some good and some not so good. The First Amendment can turn a lot of things into a real pressure cooker at times.
At times the ONLY thing worse than the First Amendment is not having one.
Then again, over time the truth generally rears its head with an open forum, as pretty or ugly as it may be. But it's still the truth and that is a beautiful thing because its the truth.
A lot of thoughts, ideas and things get thrown around and censorship generally stifles things.
To those who censor, I ask this: Why are you afraid for the truth to shine through?
Monday, March 15, 2021
The older I get the more I believe that an awful lot of people are incapable of self-government.
And that is all I have to say about that right now.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Vaccine, Covid, Karens and the homeless.
I'll probably get the J&J vaccine when I can but that's MY choice. I have my reasons. So much for that.
I'm going to spell out a few things here.
1. Covid is real. It is a communicable virus and you don't want to get it. It CAN kill you.
2. We, the People, have a right to decide if we want to wear mask or get vaccinated or not. Then again, business owners have a right to have their own policies and both of these should be clear of government interference. I'm sure that for the most part, We, the People are capable of figuring it our by ourselves. If we don't like someone's mask policy we can simply go somewhere else.
3. Covid has been politicized and is being used to divide is among ourselves and play to our fears. Both sides are guilty of this.
That being said, there ARE choices besides the mandated official vaccinations that are in the process of being forced on people.
I won't get into all the choices here save to cover a couple of them. One can simply hole up and become a hermit of sorts. This is legitimate for a lot of people that can work from home. They can get food and things delivered.
My attack on it is that I have started to watch my chow intake and have added vitimans C and D to my diet along with elderberry and zinc. I am considering adding the anti malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to the mix but am still in the research stage on that.
Coupled with habits that keep my antibodies up and running I do have a damned good chance of not contracting the disease. Throw in an O+ blood type and a history of not contracting flu-like illnesses in decades and things do look good.
Then again it's no guarantee but neither is the vaccine.
Let's look at the vaccine for what it is. It is new. It has NOT been approved and is still considered experimental. Most people know you never buy cars or anything big on the first model year. This is a biggie.
The vaccine has not been tested yet and the long term effects have not been discovered. It's still in the experimental stage.The makers of it have been granted immunity from future lawsuits in the event something goes wrong in the future.The long term effects are not known at this time.
It actually doesn't prevent Covid. You can still contract it and you can still spread it and therefore still have to wear a mask according to Top Men.
A number of doctors and scientists recommend not getting the vaccine. the vaccine has caused deaths and injuries. In fact at the last minute I found a Gallup poll said 34% of front line health care professionals would refuse the vaccine and another 18% are unsure if they'd agree to take it.
Personally I tend to take the word of medical people over the word of the government.
There is a risk of autoimmune diseases, strokes, seizures and convulsions associated with the vaccine.
Of course a lot of people have not bothered to research it and are in a total panic to get it. The Karens are in a dither because they have not stopped for a few minutes and researched things. More on the scared Karens later.
The title of this post includes the homeless.
Ahh, yes. The poor old homeless that San Francisco wanted to round up and put in a camp until the disease has played itself out.
There was a hue and cry that doing this was an attempt to kill off those homeless people and maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.
Still, I doubt that if it really was an attempt at homeless genocide. If it was it was probably going to fail.
Any competent health professional will tell you (other problems notwithstanding) that the homeless generally develop some pretty damned strong immune systems, reasonably assuming that they have not worn themselves down with drug/alcohol abuse.
After a few months of living rough in a homeless camp one out of two things happen. Either the person dies or they start to develop a pretty strong antibody system.
Anyone that lives under a bridge, uses an old bucket for a toilet and never washes after he uses his toilet and then goes over and proceeds to cook a stew in an old can he found in someone's trash using ingredients he fished out of a dumpster somewhere is probably either going to get very sick or develop pretty bulletproof antibodies.
I heard a doctor comment once about some homeless patient that he thought would have been dead had he not been homeless. I found that to be an interesting comment. The homeless guy had an open sore on his leg the doctor said should have turned to gangrene but didn't.
As far as the idea of homeless genocide by Covid in a camp goes, I'm putting my money on the bums. It may chew up the hard line druggies and alcoholics but I'm sure the rest will waltz through it OK.
I wouldn't be surprised to find out that half of them have gotten it and suffered a couple of sniffles and a brief tummyache.
All of this brings us back to Karen, the college educated woman who was a brilliant student and holds a degree in Fine Arts, Gender Studies or something else equally useless.
In her panic-stricken fear and ignorance she makes sure she will sterilize every thing she sees and several times a day will immerse her children in a 55 gallon drum of sanitizer and insure that not one single germ enters her home. She will make damned good and sure her kids are not allowed off the pavement and definitely away from anything resembling dirt.
Of course because the kids never get to fire their antibody systems up they are constantly suffering from coughs, colds and everything else that comes down the pike and Karen immediately has them treated with huge doses of antibiotics. Followed by yet more cleaning.
Needless to say, Karen is the biggest critic of Peggy who lets her kids run all over creation and play in the pond and chase bullfrogs, soaking themselves in the process. Next it's off to the mud flats!
Peggy just takes one look at her returning brood and hoses them off and makes them stay out until they dry off a bit before evening chow. Her kids don't need a fresh glass every time they want a drink of water because they just drink from the hose.
When her youngest got a minor ear infection she held off on the antibiotics and let nature run its course. The kid was fine.
Worse yet, Peggy doesn't get upset when the dog licks the kid's faces!
Karen condemns Peggy. She always points out that Peggy never finished her degree in biology. But always forgets to realize that Peggy's kids never seem to get sick and even if they do it's not for very long.
Karen is now in a dither over getting the vaccine. She's tried three times to sneak into the over 65 line and has pleaded and burst into tears and hyperventilated every time she's been denied.
All this over a vaccine of questionable quality for a virus that can be avoided in the first place with a little plain thinking about it.
It makes no sense to me.
As for my plans?
I'm pushing 70 and have a few health issues that go along with age. I'm going to probably get the damned shot because it seems to be recommended for older people with issues.
I'll probably go the J&J route though because I read where it is the least effective at first but after about 50 days it becomes the most effective. I tend to look at long term results as opposed to the here and now.
Still, either way my decision has been made on the basis of me getting off my ass and doing my own research. It's getting harder and harder to find good, solid, objective information out there because both sides lie through their teeth.
Anti-vaxers will twist facts and omit things to suit their own agenda as fast as vaxers and the government will so there's a LOT to sift through, and much of it contradictory.
We're responsible for ourselves. Anyone that trusts either side is making a mistake. You have to dig it out for yourself.
Update: Now I am reading where the vaccine inactivates tumor suppressing proteins which means it can promote cancers.
Saturday, March 13, 2021
Makes sense to me.
Why not just have a transgender sports league and see how these guys do against their own kind?
HEY....just a thought.
Simple
HEY....just a thought.
Simple
Makes sense to me.
Friday, March 12, 2021
Most men probably don't know what they are looking for in a woman.
Most men can't explain it but they know it when they see it.
That's why women that ask men what they look for in a women never seem to get a straight answer.
I have been asked this over the year and the conversation generally sounds like something along these lines:
"Piccolo, what do you look for in a woman?"
"I don't know."
"Come on, what do you look for?"
"Big tits."
"No, really."
"Really big tits."
With any luck they get frustrated then and either change the subject or leave. Of course, many take a stupid pill and try and pursue the issue. It's a losing situation for them.
I went through that very conversation with a woman and much to my surprise and amusement one time a rather busty woman with a pretty good sense of humor stuck her boobs in my face and asked me if they were big enough. It immediately turned into a game of 'You laugh, you lose'.
"They look pretty good," I said. "I'll have to check them out a little more carefully."
She peeled her top off and told me to feel free to examine them which, if course I did, examining them like I was a farmer examining a prospective milking cow coming up on the auction block. She blushed slightly as I examined them mainly because of the calloused attitude I gave the aura of as I checked them out.
After I had examined them carefully I looked at her and said, "Those are magnificent and you should be rightly proud of them but you have something even far more attractive to me."
"What would that be?" she asked.
"A pretty good sense of humor," I answered.
We went out a couple of times but I discovered she had an appetite for cocaine so I threw her back into the pond. It was a shame but I knew where things were headed when you have someone in your life on the cocaine train.
From time to time I wonder whatever happened to her because other than the cocaine dealbreaker she appeared to have pretty much what I was looking for even though like most men, I can't describe it.
I will say that one thing that goes quite a ways is a woman that has enough sense to accept "I really don't know." as an answer because it is quite often the truth.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I saw a meme once of a couple in bed facing away from each other. The woman was thinking, "He's thinking about other women."
The man was really thinking "If plastic dinosaurs are made out of plastic that is made out of oil that is made out of dead dinosaurs then plastic dinosaurs are made out of real dinosaurs."
Of course that's a fight in the making. She will ask him what's he's thinking and if he tells the truth she will call him a liar, accuse him of thinking about other women and the fight is on. She isn't going to believe the dinosaur business for an instant even though it's the God's honest truth.
If he tries to second guess her and try let her thing she's right and says he IS thinking about other women then the fight is still on.
The way out of that one is probably to tell her you you were making a mental inventory of what is in the refrigerator to make a sandwich with and then invite her to join you.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Getting a zero on a test.
Yes, a ZERO.
Do you know how hard that is?
You have to be pretty damned sharp to get a zero on a test. Get one right and you blew it.
Years ago I had a teacher that used to give tests with 33 multiple stab questions. He said if you could get every single one of them wrong you got an A. Get one right and you failed.
I only had the balls to try it once and made it a point to spell my name wrong on the top of the test. I failed it at first but challenged it because he always said you got a free point for putting your name on it right.
I did get all 33 questions wrong but still got an F and challenged him, pointing out that I had spelled my name incorrectly.
Much to his credit, he looked my name up on the roster he had and found out I HAD spelled my name wrong and he changed my grade to an A.
I will admit that this was a Hail Mary play as I was not doing well in that course. The A I got by doing that lifted me into the gentlemen's C category.
You are a worthless Irish bum.
Which is one hell of a compliment if you ask me.
I just heard that the racist Lucky Charms Lerprechaun is not being changed.
This is because the Irish are not a bunch of sniveling whiners.
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
The FBI is so hard up for special agents they are
actually advertising for special agents.
I just saw a BILLBOARD saying they were looking for special agents. No $hit. A billboard.
Interesting times we live in when the FBI is that hard up.
It also likely means the quality of the agency is going down the tubes.
Monday, March 8, 2021
Ahh, yes. The lawn.... Or why I am good to the neighborhood kids.
The person this happened to I believe is in an old folks home but his kids are still alive. Let's give them their privacy.
Anyway this guy was a grandfather to our present generation of Karens. He was constantly calling the cops on kids for doing nothing. If he heard a firecracker it was off to the phone. Kids walking up the street playing catch? Off to the phone to report kids playing in the street. He wanted everything HIS special little way.
Now the soil in our area was so fertile you could grow just about anything but a decent lawn and this guy decided he wanted a nice lawn. Nothing would do but having a nice lawn. He wanted the front of his home to look like a cover photo for House Beautiful.
He had about six or seven weeks off in the summer and decided to redo his lawn. He worked like a coolie, sunrise to sunset seven days a week on it. He dug up the old lawn, had truckloads of topsoil delivered, spread it and added the nutrients needed for a nice lawn. Then he seeded it.
For the next several nights the neighborhood kids seeded it. They seeded it with dandilions, crabgrass and just about every single invasive species known on the planet earth. On top of that, they planted corn in his carefully maincured garden along with poison ivy.
Needless to say, all of his work, time and expense netted him a total jungle that Tarzan would have thrived in. He had to spend years fighting against terribly invasive plants, including a grapevine.
That is why I am generally pretty good to the neighborhood kids. I know what they are capable of.
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Look, I gotta take a dump.
Whisch is a pretty disgusting title for a post but whatever.
I spent last evening at what is called a 'night shoot' meaning much of the activity took place after dark.
After dark? You ask. Yes. After dark. It was a technology thing. The shooters had night vision devices and they are simply amazing. Maybe more on that later.
Anyway there was a Barrett there chambered in .50 BMG which is a real cannon. For those that are not shooters, .50 BMG means .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun which is what Ma Duece is chambered in. Ma Duece was used in B-17s and all sorts of other aircraft. It's also used by the infantry today and is mounted of various vehicles.
It is extremely LOUD and if you are in the immediate area you can feel the concussion. It's noy your daddy's deer rifle. They're generally used for very long range shooting matches. They're also expensive as hell to shoot, in the $4/round area.
It's considered good juju to warn people around you before you crank one off so thay cam make sure their ear protection is fitted a little more snugly than usual and often get some distance from the shooter.
Generally the guys are pretty good about that but at a shoot like this one has to be prepared. Occasionally a .50 shooter gets wrapped up in what he's doing and lets fly with no warning. It's not too bad if you're maybe 20 or more feet away but it's kind of a shock when you're really close.
Now as an older guy I tend to try and outthink people a bit as somewhat of a form of self-protection. I approached the owner of the Barrett.
"Hey, listen to me for a second," I said. "I'm an old man and I feel a wicked dump coming on that I'd like to hold until I get home. Would you give me the courtesy of warning me before you let fly with that thing? You don't wanna see an old man $hit himself, do you?"
He laughed and promised to give me fair warning and he did.
He laughed and promised to warn me before he fired and he did, too.
Sometimes you gotta think a little outside the box to make sure things get done. I know he probably would have warned people but I just took out a little insurance.
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