I got a breakfast recipe I'm going to try out soon.

Take 1 USGI mess kit and on the bottom put a layer of half home fries, half cubed toaster waffle. On top of that put 3-4 cut up sausage links. Cover with pork sausage gravy, add a handful of chopped onion (for heartburn purposes) on top of that add 3 strips of bacon and top off with a couple of either over easys or poached eggs.

Sounds worth a try.

I don't eat like that daily. It's a Sunday morning thing.

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Nextdoor: What was that large vehicle that came down Weston Boulevard ten minutes ago.

"It's probably the tank my grandson bought at an Army/Navy store last week. He was taking it to his friend's place for a play date," I replied.

We'll let that one soak a bit. It's a given some karen will take the bait.

I still think the best one I posted was at about 0100 on 5 July. 

"Would you please keep your kids and dogs quiet until about mid afternoon? I've been up all night shooting off fireworks and would like to sleep in." 

Most people picked up on it but about 30% answered with epic rants.

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One of the things I would like to see someplace do

is open a grades 1-12 school system and throw out all of the bullshit and feel good stuff and have a we're here to teach and if you don't want to learn then go someplace else attitude. If you act up you will be punished and it you continue to act up you will be sent somewhere else. This doesn't mean that kids can't be kids but it does mean that poor behavior won't be tolerated.

This would include a good course in civics.

Blow the current system out of the water by teaching the things that matter. We don't need the drag queens, gender benders or socialists. We need the 3 Rs, STEM, history, civics, a shop class or two, and in general useful skills to be taught.

It would not take too many places doing this before many of the current school systems would be forced to change from being a baby sitting service to a place to get an education.

When I think of what I read about the Baltimore school where nobody  passed the state math test it makes me wonder why even bother having the schools to begin with.

I read where someplace did something like this and it was actually business based. Business attire was required as was business grooming. They held fast on that. Visible ink got you sent back the the rank and file school. (WTF is a high school kid doing getting inked at that age to begin with?)

They also held fast on grades and conduct. You had to work and behave to stay there. The brightest kids were not held back.

The parents who sent their kids to it seemed to like it and as to be expected, the parents that thought their little snowflake should be exempt from the rules tried to tear it down which is typical. 

Personally as a kid I would not want to have been sent there because I'm not business oriented. I'm an outside worker in nature and can't stand being cooped up. A career in an office would have found me dead and buried in my 20s, likely by my own hand. 

Still, it seemed to be doing kids a good job at getting an education.

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It would be interesting to see a GoFundMe asking for money

to piss away in Las Vegas on hookers and blow.

It's be funny to read the comments.

Still, I bet you'd get a bunch of small donations from people that laughed their ass off and decided the laugh was worth $5.

Looking for $10K to party away in Las Vegas and spend on hookers and blow. I figure whoever is reading this is getting kind of bored reading the requests from the various scam artists here so I figured I'd be up front about it.  

It's interesting to note that every so often stuff like this goes viral and when that happens all bets are off.

What is it I hear often about the lottery? You have to play to win.

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I just told someone off that dared to call me a law abiding citizen...

which I am NOT.

I am a moral human being that calls them the way I see them.

I drive slowly through residential areas because it is the prudent thing to do. I never bother looking at speed limit signs, I just run at safe and reasonable speeds.

I don't do drugs because I don't want to. If I wanted to, I would.

I responded with, "Don't you dare call me a law abiding citizen because I'm not. If a law is just I follow it. If it isn't I ignore it. Remember this, Anne Frank was hidden out by outlaws and ratted out by a law abiding citizen. It was someone like YOU that had that poor family sent off to Bergen-Belsen, Mr. Law abiding citizen!"

For the record, I am NOT a criminal, I am an outlaw.

There's a BIG difference.

 

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There's one police department that I was not sad to see get abolished.

It was one in a nearby township and they got rid of it by merging it with the township next to them.

Since before I moved here I was onto their stupid little games and speed traps. I found out that there was some sort of deal where they were simply trying to generate revenue instead of enforce the law.

The word was that they were generating their own their own paychecks. They were also poorly paid so while I condemn what they were doing I do understand it. Cops have families and they gotta eat, too.

Later I heard that the force was a place where an aspiring officer would work until he found a decent department to work for.

The fact is they were a lot more of a nuisance than they were a serving the people police department.

I can't say I was sad to see them go.

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I sometimes think I could have been a chef with a specialty in creating drunk food.

Chop suey started off as a drunk food. San Francisco restaurants run by Chinese would have a drunk walk in late at night that was hungry so they'd chop up the leftovers, cook them up and serve it.

Seeing the cook chop everything up it got called chop suey. It was a mish mash and likely never prepared the same way twice.

Now, of course, there is a 'official' recipe for chop suey we get in Chinese restaurants. It's pretty much the same anywhere you go.

I have discovered a new recipe that is the epitome of drunk food, an incredible meal called a 'garbage plate' which is a regional thing of Rochester, New York.

It's basically a bunch of leftovers from  a barbecue dumped together and covered with a with a meat sauce of sorts. Leftover chili would probably do in a pinch.

There are times I really like slop like that.

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It's a day where I am drawing a blank

I have something to do.

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Another day and a breakfast visitor planned

Which happens fairly frequently on Sunday mornings. 

I think that I will serve chili with an egg on top because when you put an egg on top of anything it becomes breakfast.

I've got an old recipe in my head from my commercial fishing days consisting of salt cod, potatoes, onion, bacon and bacon grease I have not had in several years and maybe soon I'll try it again. 

He generally runs late so brunch is the more likely scenario.

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Trying to explain straight, level, flush, plumb and square to someone.

can be a chore in itself and a real pain in the ass especially if someone is book smart and doesn't understand reality. Reality is something for someone that can't handle hard drugs and/or alcohol but I digress....

Anyway, when an edifice is constructed (in this case a house) they dig a basement, pour a foundation and no matter how perfect it is, it begins to settle. I have seen only one perfect foundation in my life and that was in Kodiak. We measured it and it was perfectly square. Re remeasured it and it was perfectly square. To make sure the catenary of the long tape was even we weighed it down with a concrete block and used the weight to insure an even pull was on the tape. The whole crew was stunned.

Curiosity got the best of us and we got a clear piece of tubing and used it as a water level and it was perfectly level! 

All that being said, I would love to magically lift the building off of its foundation and measure it today because I just know it settled. Coupling it with the seismic activity on Kodiak Island I'm sure it at least a big skosh out of level. I digress again.

Anyway, no matter what, as a building grows it starts settling. Things work their way out of square, level and plumb. It's nature in action coupled with the Law of Gravity.

One time back in my framer days we decided to really insure things were truly square and we checked everything on the first floor we had finished using a sheet of plywood as a square. It was excellent.

We did this because we were tired of the sheetrockers griping that things were out of square.

Next we finished the top floor and the roof and that was pretty damned good, too.

The sheetrockers were a about a month or so behind and when they got there they said things were 'about average' meaning far from perfect. 

After work one evening the boss were curious and we grabbed a half sheet of plywood and we wandered in and sure enough. Things were not as square as they had been when we framed it. Settling had taken its toll mere weeks after things were framed in.

That's what make remodels so much of a pain in the ass. New construction is pretty straightforward. It's a basic science. Remodels are more of an art. Repairs are a challenge.

My house is 75 years old and has had 3/4s of a century to settle.

Update: I after I wrote this I grabbed a level and ran around the house checking the walls and was astonished at how plumb they still are. The floors are out of level but the walls are pretty plumb. I attribute this to sagging joists that have fought gravity for the past 75 years.

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Wow! I really got someone worked up.

they were screeching about the 15 mph school speed limit and that it ought to be dropped to 10.

I said it should stay at 15 for grades 1-6, raised to 25 for grades 7-8 and eliminated altogether for high school kids.

The looked at me horrified and I explained "Any kid that makes it to high school without having learned how to safely cross a street is going to grow up to cost us nothing but time, money, grief and resources. We're better off without them. Let Darwin settle things."

When you think about it, it makes sense.

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Our McDonalds can beat your McDonalds.

Sounds about right to me.

I'm somewhat sick and tired of the upcoming football season and Steelers mania here in the Pittsburgh area.

This town has a serious football problem and a few years back when the Penn State scandal happened I suppose they grudgingly threw Jerry Sandusky to the wolves but a lot of people stuck by 'Papa Joe" Paterno who was as guilty as Sandusky.

When you cover for a pedophile you are almost as guilty as he is.

I remember the guy with his wife and son that called me on my 'Pedo State' T-shirt. 

I shot back that maybe if it's so important to him he could give his son to the sick bastard and when the boy cries out in the night he could comfort him by telling him how important it was to win the big GAME.

The wife had the decency to be embarrassed. He didn't and doubled down. He kept supporting him.

I hope she tore him a new one that night.

As for tons that don't have professional football teams they could have their downtown McDonalds compete against another city's McDonalds.

Everyone that supports their city's McDonalds could pork out breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonalds and show their support by turning into beach balls.

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Thieves. Something we seem to tolerate.

Someone on another website is (rightfully so) complaining that someone stole an $800 generator off of his porch.

I don't know a damned thing about this guy but for sake of argument let's say he's a skilled tradesman of some sort and makes $35/hour. After combined taxes he's lucky to see about $20 an hour. 

(Before some tax accountant comes in and points out the IRS doesn't take that much, please note I said combined taxes and it's higher than the IRS number. Besides, this is just a ball park estimate)

He had to bust his ass for 40 hours to be able to buy that generator. For those of you that want to see the math, here it is.

40 hours x $35= $1400. Less taxes of $600= $800.

So it took him 40 hours to earn that generator. When it disappeared so did 40 long hours of the man's life that he spent busting his tail. A week's work.

Needless to say, some people want to shine it on by saying it's only property and can be replaced which in one sense is true but the 40 hours of his life that was stolen with the generator can't be replaced.

The thief that stole the generator took not only a piece of inanimate machinery but 40 hour of the man's life.

Suppose the man walked in on the thieve(s?) and busted a head or two? The usual gang of excuse makers would throw the person that stopped a crime being committed to the wolves and carry on that people should not be beat up over property.

OK, fair enough. Property isn't worth beating someone up for. But what is worth beating someone up for is the part of their life they were trying to steal.

Almost everything we own has been paid for with a part of our lives and when we get ripped off we lose the time we spent earning the money to pay for the property.

People seem to shine on shoplifting with the lame excuse that the company is a large corporation and can afford it are generally too stupid to understand that the corporation doesn't pay for the loss. The consumer (that's YOU) does in the form of higher prices to offset the loss entailed by shoplifting.

Some rough Google figures tell me that shoplifting cost each man, woman and child about $286/year according to a couple quick Google searches. A family of four ponies up about $1145 annually.

I don't know about you but $286 stolen from me means a pretty good weekend that I can't have because it was stolen from me by shoplifters.

Of course, enter the excuse makers that go on and on about how someone had a rough childhood and how it's not fair the corporations  do this and that and so on ad nauseum.

If I had my way the poor underprivileged guy's sad life would get a lot sadder. Too damned bad. If your life sucks then change it. 

I suppose the best way to show someone is to make them fork over $286 per person in their family in green, cold, hard cash.

"Hey, Mom/Dad of the family of four, give me $1144. See how you like it." That would change a few attitudes and fast.

The moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth would be epic. "But I need that money for..." Followed by explanations of Junior's tuition or daughter's braces or whatever. In many families it would be the difference between pork chops and Tuna Helper for dinner and in some, simply no dinner whatsoever.

Yet we tolerate this kind of behavior and many make excuses for it when we should be demanding that we do something about it.

As for the guy that stole the $800 generator? 

The way I figure it, the thief owes his victim 400 hours of his life, to be paid in the form of hard labor. The original 40 hours it cost the victim to buy the generator and another 360 tacked on to remind him that it really isn't a good idea to steal things. 

Hand the thief a sledge hammer and make him break a ten foot piece of granite into driveway gravel for the victim's new driveway.

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An Indian convenience store owner

mentioned to me in conversation that our Native Americans are called 'Indians' because Columbus thought he had found India.

"Columbus was lost. ," I replied. "Just think. If he had thought that the had found Manila they would have been called Filipinos.'

He thought about that for a second or two and said, "You're probably right." 

Filipinos! Draw the wagons up into a circle!

Has a nice ring to it.

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Someone asked me why there don't seem to be school shootings in Catholic schools and I told him that it's probably a nun with a steel edged ruler trumps a Smith and Wesson.

Actually there may very well be a kernel of truth to this at one time. Back in the days of the penguins the nuns were pretty bad assed and I guess the reputation still hangs in there.

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I love what has happened in New Mexico

with the governor trying to become a dictator.

She is a gun control advocate and tried to use health as a way to suspend legal carry in ABQ. Practically everyone pushed back.

She has a DA that won't prosecute, a state police that refuses to arrest and a huge part of her constituency that wants her gone because she overstepped her authority.

I don't know if the NM constitution has an impeachment process but if she keeps doubling down the process may very well be a rope and a tree. Update: They do have an impeachment process that a NM lawmaker described as 'wonky' and articles are being drawn up.

My guess on this is she wanted to get in with the federal powers that be and the gun control set so she decided to show them how it's done and endear herself to the powers that be. She charged right in and abused emergency powers and declared guns to be a health hazard and it backfired. She took a huge step where a small one would have been gotten away with. 

The left has used salami tactics (taking small bites) for decades and she decided to take a wolfish bite. People pushed back and had she backed off she might have gotten away with it. Instead she doubled down.

One of the other things she did was sign a bill removing qualified immunity for the police in civil rights violations. That makes the police loathe to arrest anyone for exercising a Constitutional right lest they be sued for about $2 million bucks.  Ain't no cop wants to be the test case on THAT one!

The beauty of it is she has set gun control back a few squares AND has a lot of people buying guns for protection because people are realizing the police are not required to protect them.

Actually the thing I have said all along about a future AWB is that they'll have one hell of a time enforcing it. Last I heard (some time ago) was that the number of rifles turned in is in the single digits. Residents have simply said they have taken them out of the state and it's up to NJ to prove they didn't.

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It's gonna be a work day which is OK.

But it's drywall work which is NOT OK by me.

I do not like it very much. If it was a bigger job I'd have my wife sub it out.

Taping and mudding are one thing I have a hard time doing and have to muddle my way through it. I always make at a colossal mess.

The only way I can get it done is by putting on several light coats and building it up and sanding it into shape.

This job is going to have a texture on it, also which scares the hell out of me as I have to duplicate the existing texture.

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I have far more in common with and old black guy than with most younger whites.

The other day I was sanding sheetrock and as to be expected I looked like a ghost. At noon I ran up to a small supermarket for a quick sandwich.

An older black man looked at me and chuckled and said, "I'll bet you're sanding drywall."

I to this day do not know where I got the ability to keep a straight face while I say something outrageous but I do and actually I love it. God was good to me.

"This is whiteface. Hell, I'm darker'n you are! Don't say anything to those women over there or they'll get pissed off at me for stealing their heritage."

He stood there for a couple seconds trying to figure out is my comment was malicious or not and figured it out. He shook his head and laughed.

I said to him, "Us old guys hafta stick together."

"You got that right," he replied.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I have far more in common with an old guy of any color that's worked for a living than I do with an awful lot of the younger people.

Most older blacks seem to have seen through the professional race baiters and see life for what it is. Ya gotta work to make a buck. 

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I just got lucky at a party.

I mentioned hydroxyl generators to a retired HVAC contractor and he seemed interested in it.

I've know him for years and  hope he'll look into it.

We didn't have any of those real hot, humid dog days this summer and I'm wondering if I have managed to chase all the smoke smell out after the fire and I'm looking at the possibility of installing a hydroxyl generator in the ductwork.

Ozone is used as a smoke smell remover and it works well. Hydroxyl doesn't work nearly as well but ozone isn't good for people and animals but hydroxyl is harmless.

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There are no stupid questions.

There are only stupid inquisitors.

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One of the things I learned about playing by the rules

is that BOTH SIDES have to play by them.

I learned this in high school. It started during the dress code days that they tried to enforce. One rule read, "No leather or Beatle boots." 

No lie. That's what it read. 

I generally padded around in basic penny loafers anyway but the rule both sounded stupid and in fact was. They enforced the Beatle boot part but let work shoes and things of that nature slide. 

I looked at it and decided that commercial fishing boots were not made of leather and were legal. I wore them and instantly got hauled into the office and told I couldn't wear them anymore.

Needless to say, I told him to show me the rule and he did. I shot back that these were neither Beatle nor leather and got the old "You know what it means!"

"No. I don't," I shot back. "It says specifically in the English language that leather and Beatle boots are prohibited. Let's get the Head of the English department, Mrs. Brown up here to interpret it. I think you are trying to apply a 'say so' law here."

"What's a say so law?" he asked.

"Because I say so." I answered. "You can't make the rules up as you go along."

'Yeah, well, yada yada yada."

"Look, I don't make the rules. I just have to obey them and that's what the rules say." I replied.

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The following year I got caught up in one of those 'blanket punishment' deals where everybody pays unless they rat the guilty party out. I was supposed to spend a week in detention over that because someone threw a penny and the game was we all suffer unless we rat out the guilty.

Anne Frank is safe with me and I thought the blanket punishment business was bull$hit so I didn't show up and the next day was promptly hauled down to the office.

I got the usual threats and I stood my ground and stated that the only sins I would pay for were my own. Then I pointed out that they had no evidence whatsoever I had anything to do with throwing the penny.

When he threatened me with a week's detention for everyone I missed and eventual suspension I said, "I want to speak to my attorney. Looks like Paul Jenkins ot himself a client. I have a right to use the phone during study hall and I've got a dime in my pocket."

Jenkins had made the school board back down on something a while earlier and it was common knowledge he had an in for them.

He caved and told me he's let ME off but I had to keep my mouth shut. I walked out and while I never went and told anyone, I was questioned  by a couple of classmates and I answered their questions honestly.

Word went through the class like $hit through a goose. Some parents got the word and as a result this blanket punishment crap came to a screeching halt.

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The first time I questioned the system was over gum in Jr High. (How cliche!) When I got the usual "Did you bring enough gum for everybody?" line I shot back.

"Whaddya you some kind of communist off-brand type that doesn't believe in free enterprise? I bought this gum with my own money and I can share it with whoever I please."

"See me after class," he said.

After class he spoke. 'Here's a late slip for your next class," he said, handing it to me. "YOU are absolutely right. That line of thinking IS communist and I am not one. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I will never say that again." And he sent me on my way.

He never did, either. He reprimanded several students for chewing gum but never did play the 'Did you bring enough gum for everyone?' game again.

Note here. The previous year I got that did you bring enough gum for everyone line and started handing out gum as my stash was big enough to share with everybody.

I got an hour for that one.

===========================

In my senior year another student tried to argue the Constitutionality of a school rule with a teacher and she was stunned and said, "You don't really believe that, do you?"

I interrupted, "You're damned right I do. Some time in the next couple of years I very well may be drafted and sent to Vietnam to defend that Constitution that you so easily set aside over a petty argument. I very well may get killed defending it so show a little respect for it."

You could have heard a pin drop.

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For some reason the best way to get to the system is to make THEM play by their own rules. It's in 'Rules for Radicals' and it's time we make them play their game by the rules that apply to us.

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The subject of the existing social contract came up the other night

regarding the treatment of women and children.

As is often the case I drew a few wide eyes when I simply said it was a social contract between men, women and children and as such all three parties were required to keep up their end of the bargain.

Of course someone didn't get it and I simply pointed out that it's always been that way. For example, back in the 60s during the Vietnam protests the protesters gave the war cry, "Chicks up front!" figuring the LEOs wouldn't rough them up. 

IIRC the first time they sort of got away with it, at least to a point. The next time they found out it didn't work very well. The women violated the contract and lost the protection of it because by their behavior they had rendered the contract null and void. The LEOs subsequently retaliated as needed.

I have a friend that had a very short lived relationship with a crazy chick that pulled a knife on him one night because another women left a message on his phone butler. It was actually a coworker but crazy is crazy and she grabbed a knife and went after him. Somehow without getting cut he managed to shove her and she fell over something and hit her head on a coffee table and promptly called the police. Of course, under the rules that be, he was carted off and spent the night in jail until things got sorted out. Charges were dropped.

The instant that women pulled out the knife the social contract became null and void. Actually before she grabbed the knife she had hit him a couple of times so by the time the knife came out the contract was already null and void. (Still, he held off defending himself until the knife came out.)

I also pointed out that an eleven year old boy had gotten his hands on a pistol somewhere and tried to rob a store of some sort only to get two rounds in the X-ring. 

The usual suspects were horrified and wanted the storekeeper charged. 

My take on it was 'Charged? For what? He did nothing wrong.  He didn't lose his right to legitimate self-defense." When a child picks up a weapon they lose their protection under the contract. They then become a legitimate target. 

Actually the same thing happens when a child picks up a microphone and enters the arena. I laughed at Greta Thunberg and someone said, "But she's only a child!" Guess what? She lost her protection under the contract when she entered the fray. I pointed that out and said that when she makes and attack on people they have a right to verbal and written self-defense. 

I've said this all along. Things only go so far.

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As General Custer said, "More Indians."

Now as I have just gotten my place up and running smoothly the wife's place needs some help recovering from water damage and it is a nuisance as she worries too damned much about nothing.

MORE sheet rock work to do.

When it rains it pours.

ETA I used the 'More Indians' line on Nextdoor and some Karen said something. Yada yada yada racist and so on.

Then I pointed out where I got the term. It was when I hitchedhiked through Crow Agency, Montana and got picked up by a local. I looked a bit rough and the guy that picked me up, a Crow, commented on my appearance. He said "You look like Custer when he saw more Indians coming."

Sometime I'll post the death ride I got through Montana from a Blackfoot in an old Old's 98.

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The subject of the 15 mph school zone came up.

which is something I follow religiously. It the lights are blinking I drop to 15.

It SHOULD be there for elementary and pre school.

It should be raised to 25 for middle school and raised to the basic whatever it normally is speed limit for high schools because it a high schooler is too lazy or stupid to look both ways before crossing a street we're likely better off without them because they'll just cost us time, money and grief when they get older.

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A little girl grew up

and she is now fifteen and as sharp as a tack and what I would have referred to back in the day as a 'cool chick'. She's not caught up in the teenage girlie crap and is a competent, confident young woman.

We go back to when she was three and she stole my heart. I posted that here beaucoup years ago. She's been my sweetie ever since.

What a joy it is to have watched her grow up!

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Ahh, yes. The Ringdoorbellcamera set.

I am growing rather tired of the 'Ringdoorbell camera' people babbling incoherently about how it makes them safe.

So I picked up the wrench, looked at all those well oiled gears...

"Five bucks worth of Goodwill long coat and ski mask beats a doorbell camera every time." I posted and let that one soak a while.

I bet when I get back to it the screeching will be epic.

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So I missed a coupla days.

Sorry about that. Get over it.

I even may miss tomorrow.

I post here STRICTLY for my personal entertainment.

I do what I do.

Yes. I have had a couple of pretty rough days.

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I have a few things to do tomorrow

because someone had some plumbing done and I have to repair the sheetrock.

The pinhole leak game started in their house and as usual they decided to repair it which is not a permanent solution. This game will be played again in a year or two.

What should be done is the entire plumbing system should be torn out and replaced with Pex.

Never take a baby step when a leap is required.

 

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I'm slowly returning to the human race

Which is a good thing. It's been slow and I have started to ever so slowly lose a little weight.

I think the biggest morale booster was when I lost my temper and finished the bathroom. I posted it yesterday but it had been done a day or two earlier.

Getting used to it is interesting because last night woke up to pee and walked past the bathroom and then remembered it's up and running and made a 180. It's probably going to take a few weeks to get over a year+ worth of old habits. You fight like you train.

The medicine cabinet is next and I am not even going to consult the wife about that one. I'm just going to build one, a simple Old School New England thing with a little gingerbread, assuming the local glass place doesn't want thousands to cut a simple piece of mirror.

Even if it does, I have a glass cutter somewhere and a Goodwill mirror can be repurposed. To prevent an upset I will make it easily removable in the event she decides what she wants somewhere down the road.

I have made a lot of the furniture in the house. Simple Old School Shaker/New England stuff isn't hard to make. In fact I made every single piece of furniture in my bedroom.

Yesterday I started doing some cleaning and if I have nothing to do today I'll keep at it. I have a runner for the entryway due in today along with a 3.5 gallon container of Zep degreaser which is some damned good stuff. I use the orange for household use.

Hell, the toilet and sink were downright nasty so I pulled them out onto the porch and sprayed them down with Zep and let it dry. Then a quick pressure washing and they looked better than brand new.

While I was at it the tub/shower was getting kind of soap scummy so I sprayed that down and maybe an hour or so later I wandered in with a pail of clean water and wiped it down and it looks better than brand new. It sparkles.

Some time years ago the spouse suggested an interior designer but I put the kibosh on that. I said an interior designer would destroy the very soul of an Old School New England cape and I still believe it.

One other thing that has improved morale is that I picked up a couple of inexpensive faux Oriental rugs which I specifically chose because in addition to design they had a lot of nylon in them. The design was a natural for this place and the nylon insured that it would generate a little static electricity and probably turn into a cat hair magnet.

Two or three days ago I vacuumed the living room and dining room rugs and picked up a LOT of cat hair and found very, very little elsewhere. The plan worked better than I had hoped for and Kitty uses them to sharpen his claws on which means he'll leave everything else alone. They'll last a while in spite of Kitty and they're inexpensive to replace so it's win/win.

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$hitter's up and running and looks pretty civilized.

Keeping my family out of it,

Someone has a hard time making decisions and I have been sick and tired of being sick and tired of having to go upstairs to negotiate an obstacle course to use a jury rigged toilet waiting for the decision on which whatever tile to use. 

After dark in clement weather the back door got used a sometimes for 0300 whiz calls.

As of now most tile setters are booked up solid for months.

Enough is enough. The fire was 13 months ago and the whole thing should have been wrapped up by last Thanksgiving under ideal circumstances, or maybe even Christmas. Still, with subs being snowed under Tax Day would have been reasonably acceptable.

The last hurdle was the downstairs bathroom and that's where everything seemed to stall. It took months to get the tub enclosed and the instant it was completed I installed the shower head, grabbed a curtain bar and started using it because I was sick and tired of showering in the basement with a lawn sprinkler over the floor drain hooked to the laundry tub.

The job stalled yet again and it was for flooring tile. The year marker past and I finally snapped.

In one single 6 or 7 hour day I threw down the underlayment, floated a piece of sheet vinyl  on top of it, and threw in the toilet and the sink. The next day I hooked up the sink.

I'm waiting for the inevitable conniption fit to be thrown as I type. I have not shown it off yet. I will use both ears for that one. I will let it go in one and out the other.

It looks finished and civilized and works. 

For the past year it's been primitive and not it's civilized.

When the tile decision is made I can easily undo everything in less time than it took to install it and with any luck the tile floor will get back burnered into the next decade for all I care. 

I'll let you in an a little secret. When the choice for the tub surround was made I commented that the tile looked familiar and forgot about it. After it was installed I started using the shower and had a weird feeling when I did and after about a week I was thunderstruck. The tile was an exact duplicate of the tile used in the barracks latrine at Camp Perry.

The color chosen for the downstairs walls is pretty close to the color they use in the barracks.

It kind of frosted my ass because I realized that instead of having to go to fancy tile places and listen to decorators (to be fair that wasn't my department but I did make a few trips to those places) and spent a lot of money I could have simply gone to Uncle Larry's Army/Navy store and bought enough tile to tile the entire bathroom and enough paint to paint the entire interior for about $75.

It was embarrassing having to steer my guests to the upstairs water closet and jury rigged toilet and one time I apologized to one of my distinguished guests and he played it down.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I've used a lot worse. It's a damned sight better than the broad's can at Zucker's Shell station in Snakebite, New Mexico!"

When you think about it, some of my guests have been downright gracious. What a kind thing to say!

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"I find that offensive." he said.

Outstanding!" I replied. "It gladdens my heart to see a fellow citizen exercising his God given right to be offended."

That got me a dirty look. 

Apparently he failed to notice the piece of mistletoe clipped to my shirt tail.

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I see where PA is talking about eliminating state car insepections.

which in principle I am all for. I generally check my vehicle every so often and pay attention to brakes, tires and that sort of thing simply because an ounce of maintenance is worth a pound of shop time.

Besides it's a pain in the a$$ having to go in and play the game. There's always something that the inspection station finds wrong with it like the windshield wipers you replaced about 2 months ago because the old ones wore out.

A couple of weeks ago I went in for new tires and a sticker and they found nothing but then again, they did replace my tires which were at the end of their useful life.

I suppose that I would have gone in for new rubber anyways even if it wasn't sticker time or maybe put it off for a month but I like keeping on top of things.

In principle inspections take the responsibility away from the individual and give it to the state. 

PA used to require inspections every 6 months as did MA. Both states changed the requirement to annually which was a step in the right direction.

Admittedly in my ute we'd do things like swap out tires and that sort of thing to get the damned sticker and I imagine some kids still do things like that but it is what it is.

Cars have gotten a LOT better and we no longer drive around in total junk like we used to back in the 60s.

I hope the requirement goes away as in this day and age as it is not really needed anymore. Besides, it will mean the police will glance at people's tires a little more often and remind responsible motorists and ticket those that need it. We'll likely see more 'fix it' tickets awarded. (Get it fixed in a specified amount of time and the charge goes away. Don't fix it and there's a fine of some sort.)

 

. 

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Save the skeets.

My 'save the skeets' sign was on the pickup last night. 

Actually it looks like a bumper sticker but is really a magnetic sign because removing a sticker is a pain in the a$$.

I had a sportsman club meeting last night and it was on the tailgate and I figured there would be at least one Fudd with no sense of humor that would say something.

Instead a couple of guys asked me where they could get one. Actually it was a pleasant surprise.

As I sometimes do I voted 'no' on accepting the secretary's minutes. 

Actually he's a damned good officer and does an excellent job. Sometimes I vote no because I'm an American and it's an American club.

The reason I do this to the secretary is because his job involves no real money. I won't do that to the treasurer because the treasurer's job entails real money and voting no on that is something that could start something bad. It could me misinterpreted and start something and hurt an honest person or even tear up the club. 

As to be expected, things move along well during meetings and the votes to accept the minutes are always unanimous and that kinda sounds pretty unAmerican to me. 

You can take 10 Americans at random, starve them for 5 days and then serve them a big steak dinner and 7 or 8 will chow down and lick the plates clean as a hound's tooth. One will find something stupid to gripe about like the sour cream not being served in a separate bowl and one will be a vegetarian. 

Everything being unanimous just doesn't sound right.

I'm an American and the last words of my National Anthem are 'Play ball!'. 

SOMEONE has to keep things on an even keel.

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I gave Charlie Chan the day off

and solved the neighborhood mystery of the missing yard waste receptacle.

After a particularly windy night I found one on my lawn and just checked the spots where the neighbors store theirs. One of the neighbors was missing theirs so I left it in their driveway.

When they got home they put it back where they store it.

Nothing like solving a good mystery.

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