I saw some kid get roughed up after taking a swing at a cop.

The parents are mad at the cop. They say "He's a good kid."

Bull$hit! Good kids don't punch police officers. The kid got off light in my book. 

What should have happened is the kid should have been beaten totally senseless and come to in in a daze in the hospital.

Not so much as settling the score but as an example to others. 

We seem to have let so much slide that returning to base values is going to require some serious horsepower to get there.

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I just had a pile of work done to my pickup for fairly short money.

The thing that made me need work done was the parking brake would not go free after it was set. I had to pump the brakes and sometimes have to rock the truck to get it to free up.

Estimates from a couple of shops ran upwards of and possibly over $3000. I figured the truck was worth a little more than that but not much. It's a 17 year old truck. I started looking for a brand new second hand low milage replacement. Prices were insane. 

So I went to a guy that I know that did some damned good reasonably prices body work for me several years ago to ask him if he knew a reasonable mechanic. 

When I explained the job he said he could tackle it. Seeing how fairly he had treated me years ago I simply gave him an open checkbook with orders to fix it.

I would up with a LOT more than I bargained for. 

When he was goiing through everything he called me and reported that the truck itself was in damned good shape with a few pre-rust spots that should be taken care of quickly. I told him to go ahead. He cleaned everything up and sprayed it with rust preventative.

He also said the rear bumper brackets were in terrible shape and that the easy and inexpensive route to go was an entire aftermarket bumper kit and told me where to get one. The inside of the bumper was heavily rusted. A check with eBay got me a damned good one, a complete kit for $165 delivered. 

As for the brake, all three cables, brackets and various smalls were replaced, the drums given a 'cleanup' turning. He went whole hog.

I'm back in business. The bill was $1535 plus my bumper purchase. I was floored. I handed him $1600 and told him to keep it. He was grateful.

Personally I consider the $65 I gave him to be an investment into the future. I often do things like this because practically every time I cast my bread on the water I get back poached eggs on toast.

I asked him about the other shop's estimate. He explained that a lot of places will just cut out a good part and replace it rather than reuse it because it's faster. In the shop world it's all a money grab and if it saves them time at customer's expense than so be it. Couple that with the current long waiting lists to get into the shop and that means many shops will take shortcuts.

Long waiting lists mean that there is no shortage of customers so enter the laws of supply and demand. When that happens shops go straight to 'The Gouger's Handbook'. 

 

 

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Come on, Seattle! You can do it!

Double down! 

With businesses leaving in droves double the taxes on the businesses that have not left!

When half of them leave, double down again and watch them leave!

Then double down on property taxes. 

With the jobs gone people will lose their homes to bank foreclosures and the banks will fail and there will be million dollar homes left vacant.

What a paradise on earth that will create! 

The now homeless can now live for free in abandoned water and electric free million dollar homes!

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Unbelieveable! TDS at its best.

Trump is scheduled to leave office in about 2.5 years.

This idiot is stuck for life with him. Imagine being 80 years old and STILL having the president back from when you were a 20 year old stuck in your head?

You can't make this stuff up!

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One of the things I hate is people that demand answers to questions I can't possibly answer.

and of course, a fair and honest "I don't know." is unacceptable.

Usually it's when something beyond my control is happening and when I say I don't know.

"How long is it going to take to fix the whatever?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what's wrong with it yet."

"When can I use it again?"

"After it gets fixed."

"And when will that be?"

"Sometime after I figure out what's wrong with it."

"After you figure it out how long will it take to fix it?"

"As long as it takes."

"How long will it take?"

"I'll know as soon as I figure it out."

"When will you have it figured out?"

Ad nauseum until I say that I can''t get to it until I stop answering questions, although sometimes that doesn't work.

They probably grew up saying "When are we going to beeee there?" on family road trips.

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I have a guy fixing my truck now

and he gave me a call asking me what to do with the stuff he pulled out from behind the seat. The truck us a single cab two door and behind the seat I have stuff stashed.

He said the stuff is currently in the bed which is fine by me.

He said he asked because some people want everything put back.

I told him to leave everything in the bed and not ruin my golden opportunity to go through it and probably get rid of much of it.

You should always take advantage of the small opportunities as they come along.

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I think today I will plant my annuals.

which will make the yard a little nicer.

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We as a people are losing our ability to think.

When you ask someone who is buried in Grant's tomb and they instantly reach for their phone it really makes me wonder.

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

In other news someone was asing me why my cat jumps up on me when I flop out on the couch.

The answer is quite simple but almost nobody understands it. 

Because he is an orange cat and that's what orange cats do.

Yes, it really IS that simple.

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The morning after a teenage kegger.

I believe I was out of high school when this happened. I went to a kegger and got careless and got plastered. The kegger was in the middle of nowhere and calling home was not an option.

It was not a good idea to drive. I could have easily had an accident and even if I didn't I knew I'd get caught by Dad who would go through the roof. It took me a few seconds to come to the conclusion I was already screwed. I wasn't going to get out of this unscathed. Better to face the wrath for not coming home that night than compound it by drunk driving.

I opened the trunk and grabbed the sleeping bag and crashed out in the back seat. If I recall I woke before dawn and felt kind of cruddy so I figured in for a penny, in for a pound and rolled over and grabbed some extra shuteye. Then I got into the front seat and drove home.

Dad and Mom were in the kitchen. I walked in to an angry "Where the hell have you been?"

"If you let me explain the whole thing I'll tell you," I said.

"Pray tell,"Dad said. "Please do."

"I was at this kegger last night..." I started.

"But you're under age," Mom interrupted.

"Quiet!" Dad snapped. "Just listen. I've got this!"

"Anyway I was at a kegger last night and lost track of my drinking and got plastered. There was no phone around for at least a couple of miles so I couldn't call. I wasn't going to drive home drunk so I sacked out in the back seat. I'll take my lumps for being out all night. I can live with that but it's a lot better than drunk driving."

Dad held his hand up to silence Mom and thought a moment.

He turned to Mom and said, "We raised a dumbbell but we didn't raise an idiot. I think I'm going to sleep a little better now because he at least recognized he shouldn't be driving."

"But...he's underage."

"But nothing. You and I will talk about that later." He turned to me. Tell Mom about the Conway kid."

"Bill Conway was driving a little fast. I heard not even ten over. He probably wasn't even going to get a real ticket, Probably just a warning. When the cop tried to pull him over he panicked and punched it and tried to outrun a cruiser. He rolled it on a turn at 80 and spent so much time in the hospital he had to take his senior year over again. On the day he got out of the hospital he was handed a summons for speeding, attempting to elude, reckless driving and a few add ons. All that for simply for trying to avoid what probably would have been a crummy warning ticket."

Dad looked at me and said, "You owe us for worrying the hell out of the both of us." His voice changed into an evil tone. "I've got a little job for you when you wake up. Now get some more sleep."

When I woke up and ran into dad he simply said, "Go hoe out the crap can." It was a two minute job. I was expecting something like digging a 10 foot deep hole and filling it in.

Dad didn't litter. In the clunker he drove back and forth to work he'd toss things onto the passengers side floor. All I had to do was take the kitchen wastebasket out to the car and pick up whatever was on the floor. One time it got pretty full and he commented that it was time to hoe it out. I laughed and the term stuck. To hoe something out meant give something a quick cleanup.

When I was done he said he needed a hand with something. We hopped into the car and headed to the hardware store. I knew he just wanted to talk.

"You dealt yourself a pretty dumb hand, Kid, I'll tell you that. You should have cut way back on the beer but I guess you had to learn. Fact is you played that hand well. You wisely cut your losses instead of of just going for broke. Don't make a habit out of this." 

I think about a year later I was at a house party that was getting interesting. There was a phone so I called home. Mom answered so I told her to put Dad on. Dad answered.

"Hey I got a little problem. What if I came home in the morning?"

Dad asked me yes and no questions in case someone was listening to our conversation.

"Are you plastered?"

"Not really." 

"Close?"

"Yes."

"You probably shoulden't be driving. Sack out there...Son, thanks for calling. Better safe than sorry."

As I write this I remember that once I called home and simply said, "Pick me up at the Scituate town pier. I got a bad feeling. Don't ask."

"I'm on my way," he said. 

Fifteen minutes later we were headed home. When I got in he said, "I won't ask.  I trust your judgement."

About halfway home I simply stated that I didn't want to have to deal with acid heads and thanked him.

He said he figured it was something like that.

The Old man was a GENIUS. 

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