Unfortunately

A couple of days ago I called it.

We're headed on a downward spiral fast.

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election day.

unless you are Asian. Then it is erection day.

I voted and now I am going to stay the hell away from the media until tomorrow morning.

I am too damned old to stay up all night and fret.

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I'm calling it now.

Dems get both houses.

Filibuster gets nuked

SCOTUS gets packed

Gun control up the wazoo

Borders reopened.

Trump impeached weekly. eventually Republicans may/may not get paid off to vote him out.

Muslim invasion increases

'Rich' get taxed to death, some leave the country taking their wealth with them.

God only knows what happens to the economy.

Troops get pulled from Iran who continues with their nuclear program eventually getting the bomb. Israel gets nuked, later on when they get cocky the US gets nuked.

Trump gets blamed because he stirred up Iran when the truth is he would have kept Iran from obtaining nukes in the first place.

Election safeties to insure fairness vanish.

The hits just keep on coming.

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Now the left is screaming about Pete Hegseth opening a chaplain program.

It used to be that if a soldier had a calling to be a chaplain he had to get out of the service, go to the proper divinity school and fight like a tomcat to get back in the service again.

Pete just made it so if someone had a calling they could go through divinity school while in uniform. This is nothing new in one respect. it's similar to the green/blue to gold programs where an enlisted man can get a degree and be commissioned on the service's nickel.

The left is screeching about it like chaplains are something new that Pete's trying to introduce and some try and scream that it is unconstitional.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. The army has had chaplains since we even became a country. At Valley Forge there were at least 8 chaplains ministering to the troops. 

Although the Colonies (later the states) were predominately Christian, in 1862 Rabbi Jacob Frankel became the first Jewish chaplain. Other religions over the years have supplied the services with chaplains. 

While we're at it, nine chaplains have been awarded the Medal of Honor. 

Another thing about chaplains. Back in the day I was a smart ass and told a chaplain's assistant that he was supposed to use holy water in the chaplain's jeep battery. He quietly left.

Five minutes later I found myself pinned to the wall and receiving a lecture from an angry officer that had a cross on his collar. None of the onlookers looked too impressed until someone noticed my feet were about a foot or so off the ground. Later the chaplain and I became friends. He was a damned good rifle shot, too!

None of this is really new. 

The usual deadbeat atheists chimed in condemning religion  and stating the usual that the Constitution prohibits it. It doesn't. The Constitution grants people freedom OF religion and not freedom FROM religion.

Army MOS 56M is religious Affairs Specialist, an enlisted MOS. For this in that MOS that are so inclined some of these people could put in for the program and become commissioned chaplains. Not a bad deal for someone inclined to go that route. Pete just made it easier.

I suppose that sometime sooner or later Pete is going to be accused of giving young people guns and endangering them. Stay tuned for that one.

   

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Halloween was no big thing.

Maybe 40 kids and I gave away about a liter's worth of hot buttered rum. 

Some of the costumes were pretty good as usual. The little girl across the street showed up as a traffic cone.

Sort of a meh halloween.

Now I have a half-liter of rum sitting on the shelf.

Oh, well.

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It's Halloween.

AAR tomorrow.

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Before the fire I had a wall covered with WW2 propaganda posters.

Most of which were maritime related. 

In the middle of them I had slipped a National Lampoon poster to see who was paying attention.

While a lot of people caught it quickly there were about an equal number that didn't catch it at first and the WTF look on their face when they did was fun to watch.

A handful of people let it got right over their head.

                   

                            

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I'm looking at people bellyaching about college loans

and although I am pretty unforgiving about paying it back. You borrowed the money you should return it. 

If you got a degree and are using any of it whatsoever at work then the whole thing, principal and interest should be able to be written off for tax purposes. That's fair. It should all be a write-off.

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Back to the Sillcock key post.

One time I made the mistake of helping myself to water in a park of some sort. I was besieged by a small group of hippies that I gladly refilled canteens and bottles for. 

Enter the Head Hippie that said I should leave the key there to be used as 'The People's Key' so that everyone could get water on demand.

Of course he demanded it and made an effort to take it out of my hand. I stuffed a quick knee onto his groin that really didn't connect very well. I think it caused him some pain but was not a square crippling nut shot. He got wide-eyed and I walked off.

People's key. In a pig's a$$ it was going to be a people's key. He just wanted it so he could charge two bits a canteen fill to everyone else's.

Looking back on it I think that he suffered enough pain so that I got his attention and realize that I was willing to fight to keep my personal property. That was enough.

I often wonder how leftists are going to react when the system starts taking their personal property.

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Things that used to be luxuries are now (supposedly) needs.

and much of this makes no sense.

I hear people complaining about being unable to afford things yet many of those same people spend $8 daily on their way to work for their special latte whatever. That's $40/work week. 

I pay well under a buck a pot for coffee.

Then the average one person DoorDash order runs about $30 for one order for person and that's $210/week. Four days worth is $120. It adds up fast.

On top of that how much does your lunch at work cost? Ten or fifteen bucks a day sounds about right. That's another $50-75 weeekly.

This adds up and adds up fast. we're looking at some fairly serious cash outlays here if you bother to add it all up.

Then for many nothing will do but you get the latest and greatest iPhone runs about $1142 or more. a Walmart Samsung runs about $125 and it lasts years pretty much as long iPhones and does everything most people need to do. 

Impulse buys for a lot of people are another waste of money. A lot of the things people purchase is for a pipe dream of sorts. For example a guy might purchase a fly rod with the intention of going fishing but never gets around to it. Had he thought it out ahead of time or actually had a solid plan that fly rod might have made sense but now is sits in a closet somewhere gathering dust.

One thing I have noticed about younger homeowners is that they tend to take care of their vehicles and keep them longer and think purchases through. They appear to be more frugal and goal oriented and usually cook for themselves instead of eat out or DoorDash.

They also don't take lavish vacations. The travel industry has managed to create the 'need' of a lavish vacation for people. Staying at home and doing repairs or a simple road trip gets a person away from work and can provide a satisfying break.   

I will be the first to admit that houses are more expensive even after adjusting for inflation over time but if a couple is willing to work at it it's still fairly doable.

One thing that new homeowners usually forget to think about is that over time they will get pay raises and with a fixed mortgage the home will get easier to pay off as time goes on. as time passes and inflation increases money can be put to the principal and get the home paid off faster.

Once house payments are out of the way money will be available for other things. Take a vacation. You'll appreciate it more because you earned it.

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More memories. keeping clean on the road.

One of the things about life traveling is that it wasn't all that hard to keep fairly clean but you did have to work on it.

Over the years I have washed a lot of clothes in creeks, rivers, ponds, waterfalls, streams and even janitor room sinks although laundromats worked well if I could afford them. (I generally could.)

Water was generally easy to come by even in cities or towns because I always carried a Sillcock key. I just had to look up what they are officially called because I always called mine a water key. They operated operated hose bibs on commercial buildings and enabled me to fill canteens, fill leaky radiators and wash up if I needed to.

The difference between being a bum and a gentleman of the road is being able to keep reasonably clean and presentable.

I just noticed the old Sillcock key on a shelf and it triggered memories of my wandering years.  

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Please do not put ow ls on the toilets.

This goes way back to the Mobil refinery on the Delaware River. I don't know what's there today. Wait a minute. I Googled it. It's now the Paulsboro refinery.

Anyway in the employees men's room management forgot to make sure the toilet paper was replaced regularly and when it ran out the guys did what they had to do and used paper towels. This caused blocked toilets.

Instead of making sure there was ample TP they hung up a sign that said "Please do not put towels in the toilet". That was a bigger insult so when they ran out of TP they did what they had to do.

One wag picked off some of the letters so the sign read 'please do not put ow ls in the toilet."

The sign was replaced, vandalized again, replaced and vandalized.

When we went in there to load the dockman noticed a plastic owl with glow in the dark eyes and asked if he could borrow it. We had put it there to reduce the number of bird droppings on the fuel tank. it worked pretty good at reducing it.

We did him one better. We loaned him a new one we kept as a spare and told him to return it because they were hard to come by.

A couple months later he returned it and told us what had happened.

Someone stuffed the owl into a toilet and then unscrewed several light bulbs and left the restroom dark and dingy. Some supervisor walked in and saw the glowing eyes of the owl looking at him and (this being the 27th telling of the tale which grows with each retelling) $hit himself. Most likely he panicked, left and went elsewhere.

Anyway management finally asked what was going on and immediately fixed the problem.

What makes me wonder is why the problem existed in the first place. Those plant employees are not animals. They are human beings and as such deserve to be treated like human beings. 

When someone casually mentioned that they were running low on TP someone should have fixed things instantly.

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Obama screwed up with his library.

It's an eyesore and there are reportedly unpaid contractors. 

He should have hired Donald Trump to build it. 

Trump would have built it on time and on budget.

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There are about 154 female Rangers as of about a year ago.

which is 100% legitimate because while the DoD relaxed the standards for women to be in Combat Arms, Ranger school didn't relax a damned thing.

Somewhere out there are 154+ badass women the met the standards, passed the course and were awarded the tab. For the record one of them is an ICU pediatric nurse which I find to be too cool.

I was listening to someone gripe because Pete now requires EVERYONE in combat arms to meet the same requirements that her male counterparts do.

No combat arms unit needs anyone of either sex that can't pitch in and carry their own weight.

Grunts already have too much crap to lug around as it is much less have to carry some of someone else's.

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One time I heard a TV reporter claim that blacks were getting a raw deal because they were not getting 'prestigious' combat arms assignments and the promotions that went along with it.

I only heard that once because I'm sure it was pointed out .to her that people get to choose their jobs before they enlist and can also reenlist to change their career field. That's what probably shut her up.

Everyone gets the same opportunity. Nobody's special.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I was wondering about what ever became of the nurse that graduated from Ranger School.

Captain Molly Murphy is now an ICU pediatric nurse at Walter Reed. 

When the fist women Rangers were going through the pipeline I asked a (then) recently retired Ranger School instructor if they had dumbed down the course to let women graduate. He told me he had wondered the same thing and made a couple of calls to his friends that were still in.

Nope. She passed the course fair and square. She passed every single training day.

It's a 62 day course on paper but the last day is administrative. They give orders and other administrative things. A lot of graduates spend that day in the hospital getting medical treatment. A lot of candidates that have pushed on through injuries and illness turn themselves in that day.  It is not considered a training day and doesn't effect graduation.

Molly checked herself in along with others to get patched up and the naysayers tried to say she didn't finish the course. She had and had done well in it.

A while ago Pete Hegseth raised the standards for Combat Arms MOS category. What he did was ordered gender neutral PT tests, using the male standard. That means if a woman wants to become a grunt she has to pass the new PT tests. 

I like the idea because it raises the standard. I'm sick and tired of double standards, period. It's unfair to those that make it to the top and sounds like a participation trophy.

Anyway some chickee-poo decided that the woman that graduated Ranger School was proof that women belong in Combat Arms.

Apples and oranges. SOME women belong in Combat Arms. Namely the women that qualify and pass the same test required by men.

Grunts pack enough $hit as it is. They don't need to be forced to carry someone else's that doesn't belong there in the first place.

I'm with Pete on this one. 

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It would be interesting to find out how much money it takes to put $10 worth of chow into a poor person's belly.

From 5 different levels.

Federal

State

County

City/town

Neighborhood

It would probably look something like this:

Federal: $1,000,000

State:     $100,000

County  $10,000

City       $1000

Local*    $15

*Local means disbursing funds to churches and local not for profit and volunteer organizations, that sort of thing. 

Of course my figures were pulled out of a hat but you get the general idea.

Trump had mentioned throwing some sort of welfare thing back to the states and the fact is that I agree with throwing a lot of shit back to the states. In fact the state ought to push it down even further.

Currently the tax structure is an inverted pyramid . The taxes take the bulk of the tax money. The pyramid should be turned over and the bulk of tax money should be spent further down the line.

From a federal level you have to put a guy in charge and he has to hire a few assistants who have to hire their assistants who have to hire someone from all 50 of the states who have to hire their assistants who have to hire someone from every county in the state and you have now spent millions and the people you are trying to feed haven't gotten a single bite of food yet.

On the other hand if you just give a few bucks to a non-profit or  church volunteers they can generally get $10 worth of chow in somebody's belly for about $15 because they will probably need about $5 for gas to pick the food up and deliver it..

About 30 years ago I was part of a church that had volunteered to supply 2 meals a month to a homeless shelter and a woman that did a lot of the cooking said they could put out a pretty good meal for about a buck a plate. Depending on donations it was often less.

If one bothers to look around there are probably a lot of federal programs that should be pushed back to the states and pushed downhill.

One other thing. Locals have local knowledge and they can often spot a faker. If some guy is collecting disability and is seen roofing his house that's prima facia evidence that he can work. Locals can recognize a faker. Outsiders would not know the faker from Adam.

Of course this post isn't very accurate but you get the general idea.

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I wonder how much weight I would have to lose to get into the Space Force?

It seems that a lot of people just like to jump to conclusions.

I asked someone this a while ago and they told me I was too old to join the Space Force. When they answered by asking me why I want to join the Space Force I simply said "Never mind" because I knew exactly where the conversation was headed. I would get a long winded explanation about how I was too old and yada yada yada. I just wanted to know the answer to a simple question. When I came home I Googled it. (The answer is a bunch.)

Fact is it was simple curiosity. I was looking some sort of a benchmark. It would be interesting to know I met the height/weight requirements at the ripe old age of 75.

I think the worst one was the time someone close to me was going shopping and I asked her to pick up a can of Gold Bond Medicated foot powder.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR FEET?" she cried out.

"Nothing," I replied. "I use Gold Bond Medicated foot powder to take care of them and keep them in perfect condition."

I headed that one off fast.

Sometimes I'm just better off doing things myself.

As I was typing the above someone called and asked to use my compressor to check their tire pressures. I like to help so I laid out the hose and turned on the compressor. 

I left explicit instructions. When you are through with it just leave it in the driveway. Do NOT try to put it away. I will.

Usually I expect things returned the way they were when they borrowed it but there are exceptions. Coiling the air hose is one of them because most people don't know how and leave it tangled up try as they may. 

It's far easier for me to coil the hose because I know how I like it so it is set up easy to uncoil.

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A couple of 54 second eggs this morning.

Fifty four second eggs?!

Over the years I have heard of microwaving eggs (with differing results) but never really looked into it.

One day I dug into it and found a couple of interesting reports. Off to Amazon for a set of egg cups and followed the recipe for one minute eggs. I toyed with it for a while and found that 54 seconds is just about right. 

Not bad, just about as good as my poached eggs and a lot easier to clean up after.

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I just told the guy across the street to move the kid's toys and stuff onto the concrete walkway so I can mow the front part of his lawn.

It doesn't look too bad but it could use it and I can use the exercise.

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There is a package due in today and I have no idea what it is. I checked everything I have ordered over the past couple of months and everything has been delivered.

We shall see what we shall see.

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I am now ready for Halloween.

I have a good supply of candy and, hot buttered rum mix and rum.

A few years back I read here some people in the inner city were taking their kids to more affluent neighborhoods and trick or treat.

There were the gripers and at first I agreed. Their argument held a lot of water but I did something unusual. I figured give the kids a break and be kind. I couldn't blame the kids.

I simply bought an extra bag of candy and called it good.

I figured they'd probably hit the higher end neighborhoods but wanted to be prepared. Then I thought again. I DO live in a 'rich' neighborhood...relatively speaking. My house is made of brick.

If you are living in a tent and someone else is living in a plywood shack is one of them rich guys. 

I did get hit by maybe fifteen or so kids that were obviously from the city and instead of just giving them the bum's rush I chatted with them. A couple of them commented that I had a big, nice house and said they'd like to live in one. (My place is somewhat middle middle for the neighborhood at best). 

The adults politely refused my hot buttered rum which makes sense. They were driving and also had to set an example. I would have refused if I were in their shoes.

I was good to them and encouraged them to get ahead and make something of themselves and think for themselves. If they did and worked hard they could have a nice place someday.

Anyway it's been a few years and I hope that at least one of them got a look at the burbs and is working at trying to get out of the city. It would be cool to find out that at least one of them went on for further education or some kind of apprentice program and eventually gets out of the city. 

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It is getting colder which means I have a uniform change coming up.

This time of years my safari jackets get parked in the closet unless I have to travel by air.

They get replaced by hoodies and when it gets even colder the hoodie gets covered with a leather flight jacket.

I just pulled a couple of safari jackets out of the dryer and they will be ironed and hung up until spring unless we have an unseasonable cold snap or I have to fly somewhere.

I'm lucky that I got to stay in safari jackets this long because sometimes by October things get pretty cold.

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"Yes you can AND DON'T RETURN IT.

When I need it back I will shout out for it."

When I was a carpenter and someone asked to borrow a tool I would say that because everyone would put it back by quietly laying it behind me and then I would have to go looking for it.

If they had it I knew where it was.

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Some whack jobs are mad at the LAPD

because a little kid got gassed at a 'protest'.

What a crock! The parents should face reckless endangerment charges for bringing a lid to a protest that they knew could easily go south.

Maybe if the police start charging these idiots and punishing them this kind of behavior would come to a halt.

I suppose some liberal judge would let them off the hook but it would be in the parent's arrest record and if it happens again CPS would have a leg to stand on and take action and possibly remove them from their idiot parents.

When that happens a LOT of people will stand up and take notice and the stupidity would cease instantly. 

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Don't come to this country unless you want to become an American.

And don't move to North Carolina unless you want to become a North Carolinian or move to Texas unless you want to become a Texan.

I am getting tired of getting reports that transplants move into an area and try to turn it into the sewer they left.

If everything was so good back where you came from then why did you leave? If you don't like your new home then by all means, leave.

This holds doubly true for Islamic activists. If you come here and even think that Sharia law has a place here then leave.

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One thing Trump has done is return the word 'retard' to its proper home.

when he called Tim Walz one.

At one point the term was used to describe a special needs person but like a lot of things in the English Language that seems to have changed over time.it warm and allow him to cook.

I remember an incident from back in the day when an engineer from some lofty place dropped out to become a fisherman in Alaska. He bought a boat and went to work on it to suit his needs.

He was installing an oil stove of sorts in it to keep warm and enable him to cook. He arrived at the boat one day with a bunch of hardware including a small pump, check valves, fittings, piping and other hardware to get the now installed stove up and running.

At the time practically every town had one or two harmless special needs people that had been mainstreamed and were just part of the woodwork. They were pretty much accepted,  looked after and protected by the townspeople.

As the engineer turned fisherman started sorting out his parts our special needs guy was wandering by and asked the fisherman what he was doing. He went into an explanation on how he planned to pump fuel to his new stove.

Our special needs citizen looked at him and said, "Gee, you must be awful smart to know how to do all of that. I would have put the tank on the roof and let the oil run down into the stove."

The engineer turned fisherman looked completely stunned like he'd been hit by lightning. He mumbled something about having to go to the store and left.

A couple of days later I saw the engineer working on the deck of his boat and asked how his stove install went and he replied it works like a charm and invited me aboard to check it out. It ran perfectly.

When I disembarked I turned and took a look. I was not surprised to see the stove fuel tank affixed to the top of the coach roof. I said nothing but thought to myself "Who's the retard?"

Some of the most intelligent people on the planet can be retards.

I saw this picture answering a post on social media and decided that it fit Tim Walz nicely. (Occasionally it fits me.)

 

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I see where Ilhan Omar is having a few problems.

with her citizenship and maybe a few other minor things like fraud and/or theft.

One thing about this is the entire thing could have been avoided if she'd have simply represented her constituency without all the bull$hit, fanfare, drama and false outrage. 

She had to know that her paperwork had been fudged a little and that it would not take a whole lot to go through it with a fine screen and discover where something had been glossed over but she grew too overconfident and started getting herself into the limelight and pissing people off.

What's interesting to note is that if she continued to represent her constituency and quietly contribute she likely could have had a lifetime spot and a Congresswoman because her constituency of Somalia born people in MN would have continued sending her to Congress for the next umpteen decades.  

She also could have continued with whatever (alleged) fraud she was into and kept milking the system dry. 

Instead she chose to make a nuisance of herself and finally someone got tired of it and decided to do a little digging.

Most of the usual scam stories I have heard over the years are stories where the scam artists are doing something that is and likely will fly under the radar forever and a day if they hold course and speed and keep quiet about it. They always end with either 'Then they started getting greedy' or 'Then they started bragging about it'.

Getting greedy or telling anybody about a scam is a sure fire way of getting caught. When you start increasing your criminal activity where it becomes noticeable people start looking around trying to find out what's going on. 

When you tell someone what you are up to you run a very good chance that they will say something to someone else and then it becomes common knowledge fast. When that happens it's all over.

While I am no fan of Ilhan Omar whatsoever, I bet if she's followed the simple rules of crookedness and simply decided to fly under the radar she'd be sitting in Congress instead of waiting for whatever comes next.  

 

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Chain drive garage door openers.

tend to be noisy but they are solid. They are also the most reliable.

The quietest openers are screw driven and probably a little more expensive. They make sense for a family where the comings and goings spread over 24/7.

Still, I met a guy that bought one so it would not wake him up when the garage door opened and closed.

He lives alone.

What kind of badness is he talking about? If he is inside his home and he heard it it is an alarm because someone else has opened it and is either planning on entering or leaving his house.

I seriously doubt he is going to walk in his sleep into the garage and open the door and when he returns he's not going to be asleep either.

Go figure.

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There are times I piss myself off

like I just did a few minutes ago when I looked into my refrigerator to see what I am going to have for breakfast. 

Nothing outright jumped out at me and I got mildly annoyed becaause of that.

Then I got pissed off at myself because the whole refrigerator is full of edible food and I'm annoyed because I wasn't instantly inspired.

Then I opened my eyes and saw some leftover ham and some cheese and started to make an omelet which collapsed when I went to flip the empty side over the onions, ham and cheese side so I said the hell with it and scrambled the whole mess up and had a pretty good breakfast.

I have a refrigerator that people would kill me for a quarter of its contents and I'm complaining? That's just plain wrong.

It's an old saw but once in a while at times like this I ought to stop and think about the hungry kids overseas.

I'm ashamed of myself...or at least was. Now I'm grateful I have more than enough to eat.

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If it only saves one child...

is a common gun control plea.

Good point. While we're at it lets outlaw swimming pools, 5 gallon buckets and other sources of childhood drowning. 

Cars kill children, too so let's outlaw automobiles and we can all walk because if we ride horses children can fall off of them, hit their heads and die.

In short how much are we willing to give up to save one child?

 

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It is Sunday and there is no mail

I think one of the things I can do is pass on some dopey little stuff that will make people's life a little easier.

On the USPS website look up 'Informed Delivery' and check it out. I have it and I check it every morning shortly after I turn on the coffee maker.

It lets me know what I am going to find in my mailbox that day. It's pretty good knowing what to expect that day.

They show pictures of the actual mail piece so you know what it is.

Check it out.

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The Waffle House weather index.

The National Weather Service (NWS) does not officially use the Waffle House Index to forecast weather, but the federal emergency officials certainly do.

One of the things the feds do which actually makes sense is they pay attention to experienced local knowledge. Most likely because they have been embarrassed too many times over the years.

"Our scientists say..." announced the feds only to be made fools of by Farmer Joe's bunions or the local water witcher's trick knee. 

Actually regarding the North River the local (now gone) Coast Guard station used to tell people that local knowledge was the best source of information for people navigating the river. 

The Waffle House index seems to be a pretty good source of local weather information. They have a well earned reputation of toughing out bad weather and staying open. They also have a company index. 

Green, full operations. Yellow means limited operations and red means closed. Closed generally means the place has pretty much been destroyed and can't even provide shelter.

Closed ahead of time means that the storm is pretty much going to render the place heavily damaged. While like anything else that's not a guarantee that a storm is going to tear the place up it's a pretty good indicator of truly nasty weather.

Waffle House also has a pretty good humanitarian record of providing food and shelter during bad weather.

For all of the jokes, laughter, brawl videos etc. and the reputation of being a circus the place quietly shares a reputation for humanitarian service.

It's about as legitimate of a weather indicator as anything else the government provides.

I'd eat there if there was one nearer to home.

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One rant Almost Joined coming right up.

I have seen an increase in "almost joineds'. as in ''I almost joined the (enter service here)"

Either you did or you didn't. 

If you signed enlistment papers and bilged out of MEPS you joined. You are NOT an almost joined. You enlisted. You stood up to the plate and signed the check payable for up to and including your life to the government. You joined. While you are certainly not a veteran, but you are NOT an almost joined because you joined. The government just chose not to cash your check.

Over the years I have seen any number of 'almost joineds' and they are a pain in the a$$. Almost joined in a pig's eye. Half of the AJs my age were in college protesting the Vietnam war and dodging the draft while in liberal colleges. Here so many years later they want to tell people they 'almost joined'.

I have no problem whatsoever with someone that says they opted for college or took advantage of another opportunity or something along these lines. That's all well and good. I can't say as I blame you. I very well might have gone down this route. 

If you considered the military but decided to do something else that's fine and dandy. 

Just spare us the 'Almost Joined' crap. Whatever you do don't say you almost joined to a service member to try and win approval. They may be polite about it but they will think you're a jerk that just outed himself. 

I've noticed that a lot of the AJs from the Vietnam era have started to disappear only to be replaced by AJs from out Middle East adventures. Life goes on.

Fact is I have a lot more respect for someone that was a draft dodger  and admits it than I do for any AJ.

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The other day I overheard an 'almost joined' which is a peeve of mine.

I'm prett lax about what constitutes a veteran. For practical purposes simply signing on the dotted line gets a certain amount of credit. If someone says the flunked out at MEPS I give credit for joining. 

They don't get vets status but they get credit for joining because they committed themselves and that says a lot in my book.

On the other hand when someone says they 'almost joined' they go straight to the bottom of the pile with me. It's 100% total bull$hit.

I overheard someone saying that they 'almost joined' the Marines but it wasn't my conversation so I stayed quite. 

Still, it reminded me of a classmate that was an 'almost joined' when in fact he was at a liberal college protesting the Vietnam war. I tore him a new one for that crock.

Almost joined my a$$!

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An ATNO.

I just worked the Democratic Republic of Congo which is an All Time New One in my log.

I was confused when I looked it up I already had Congo and realized there are 2 Congos, Republic of the Congo and Peoples Republic of Congo.

Anyway there's an new one in my logbook.

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Cats are pests. It's just who they are.

Of course I would not have it any other way.

Someone or something has to keep me going.

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Internet advertising is a nuisance.

When i was looking for a radiator for the Miata I had to be careful to get what I wanted. 

Getting a radiator for an NA Miata is simple. Getting one specifically for a manual transmission is a little more difficult because the bulk of NA Miata radiators are dual purpose. They contain a cooler for an automatic transmission. To use said dual purpose radiators one simply plugs the transmission cooler inlet and outlet. It's a simple task.

Still, I hold with something that says that things that are designed to do two things don't do either thing as well as something designed to do one thing. I wanted a manual only radiator which I did find. It wasn't too hard.

Of course the minute you go looking for something ads for it pop up everywhere. Unfortunately they don't stop when you get what purchase were looking for. I'm still getting ads for Miata radiators (most of which are dual purpose but at least they are usable.)

Still, what makes no sense at all in advertising is when the ads start trying to peddle me things like a radiator for a Honda Accord or an F-150 pickup or other cars I don't own.

I'm not too upset over the advertising because that's what makes the internet free. Still it is somewhat mildly annoying to get advertising for things you have no earthly need for.

One time I snooped into a Turbo conversion for a Miata out of sheer simple curiosity and wound up getting ads for turbo kits for several weeks.

I would imagine that if some guy orders a sexy outfit for his SO he's going to start getting flooded with ads for sexy outfits. In fact if he chose one of certain outfits he's probably get bombarded with ads for whips and chains.

Try explaining that one to her if she looks over your shoulder when you're on line. (Maybe she'd be interested. Who knows?)

Oh well. 

Still, I think that over time advertisers will figure it out. 

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The last of the parts arrived for my radiator replacement

so it looks like that this weekend I'll get it completed.

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My friend swung by today.

We grabbed lunch and we spent much of the time playing what happened to who and I really didn't have a whole lot of answers because I left the area in 1973 and rarely returned to visit.

I've lost touch with all but a few. The whole thing was rather bittersweet. He's a couple of years older than I am and not in the best of health. His son was doing the driving.

I didn't ask him much about how he managed to disappear and he didn't say much.  

Of course we said we'd meet again but I seriously doubt it will happen. 

We parted as old friends, shook hands and he was off to Ohio to visit his brother.

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Regarding yesterday's post. It's always something simple.

Last night I got a call from my childhood friend telling me he'll drop by tomorrow on his way to visit his brother in Ohio. The call turned into an hour and a half long chat partly about how he had managed to vanish back in the early 70s.

What is amazing was how simple it was. He simply changed his name a bit and moved to Oklahoma. Thomas Louis Martin, or Thomas L. Martin simply became T. Lewis Martin and went by Lou.

He simply filled out forms with T. Lewis Martin and it was unquestioned. 

He said it really was pretty much that easy. His wife reported him as a missing person a few days later and his name was added to the list of missing persons. Thousands of people every year turn up missing and unless foul play is suspected the LE community doesn't do a lot about. They have better things to do than spend resources looking for someone that skipped town to avoid non criminal things.

He also told me he had an attorney on a small retainer that he quietly called annually to see what his legal status was. 

Five years later his wife had him declared legally dead in Massachusetts and remarried. When he told me that he laughed like hell.

He said that when that happened the last person that wanted to meet him was his now ex because that would make her a bigamist. 

While I suppose that could eventually get cleared up it certainly would have opened a real can of worms legally.

Anyway, he reunited with his family but never went back to MA while she was alive. She has passed a couple of years ago so everything is pretty much moot. 

Shortly after she remarried he moved in with a woman and lived common -law and they raised a couple of kids.

This whole thing sounds pretty whacked out but that's what he told me. 

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I have no idea what is going to happen next.

I just got word out of nowhere that a childhood friend is going to drop by on me in a week or so. He's on his way to Ohio to visit his sister.

In itself this is no big deal until you add to the fact that he vanished for about 50 years and this is the first time since he left he's emerging.

When I say vanish I mean he outright disappeared off the face of the earth. Last heard from getting on a plane headed for London. I suppose he took a ferry over to the mainland and disappeared.

The first thing I thought about was the French Foreign Legion but in real life things generally happen without as much drama as people think of.

This was in the 70s. Pre computer. He had married a woman that after two years of marriage blindsided him with a divorce suit. Normally this would not have been too bad but her entire family was a ringtailed passel of lawyers and judges. He figured he would likely wind up living under a bridge. This was Massachusetts and it was as corrupt as it is now. Think Lindsay Clancy corrupt.

Anyway a few days after he got hit with the divorce he asked me for a ride to Logan which I cheerfully did. He said work was sending him to London for a few days. I dropped him off and forgot about it.

A few months later someone told me he was missing. I mulled over saying anything but figured it wasn't my place. I said nothing and nobody ever asked me anything. A few months later his absence seemed to be forgotten. I just wanted to give the man his privacy. He was committing no crime.

Vanishing back in those days was a LOT easier than it is today. This was long before airport security, picture IDs and that sort of thing. The easiest way to vanish was to become someone else which was not hard to do. 

Move a couple of states over and establish an existence. Find a grave of a child that died in infancy that's about your age and write in for a copy of a birth certificate. If the grave was in a churchyard you could sometimes come up with a baptismal certificate that was almost as good and back them was generally proof of ID.

On the power of the birth/sometimes baptismal certificate get one's self a driver's license. This was before picture IDs. A driver's license and birth certificate could get you a passport. 

It's entirely possible he took a round trip to London and back and returned and disappeared. No telling.

Anyway net week I should know and when I find out I'll post it. It might prove to be interesting or it may be a total bust.

 

 

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Someone asked me why I think that in many instances the threat of violence is a good thing.

Simply because it works.

If someone pushing a basket full of unpaid for merchandise out the door of some store catches a baseball bat across the face on the way out they will likely rethink there misdeeds when they come around.

Once that happens a few times word will get out. Once word gets out that that is the new policy then people will stop stealing from that store because nobody likes eating hickory.

A shoplifting conviction usually brings a small fine, often less than the value of the stolen goods.

What's interesting is that we can practically eliminate ICE agents with the expedient of enacting a law that says 90 days after enactment the federal government will pay a bounty on $50,000 on illegals turned in, dead or alive.

Contrary to what people will tell you it will not lead to a blood bath. People are not 100% stupid. This won't lead to a blood bath. What will happen is we will see the biggest mass exodus in human history.

You will see people that are covering for illegals looking at them in a different light. They will see the illegal family of five not as a family of five but as a new home and a new car they will change their attitude. 

Unfortunately they won't be able to cash in because the family down the hall will be long gone. They will be gone like a shot the minute they find out that the law has been enacted. 

I would imagine that there would be gang types that would think they could ignore the law (sold out by other gang types) and maybe a couple Darwin candidates but it certainly no blood bath. It would solve the problem with little grief.

The point being that until there are real consequences things are not really going to change. The way the system is running now nothing is getting done to protect society.

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I am gathering parts to put a new radiator in the Miata.

The current radiator has a plastic upper that was originally black and is turning close to yellow which means it's likely to spring a leak at any time.

It's a process and I have to do the best I can to make sure I have everything I need to hand over to me mechanic.

I think I'm squared away but time will tell. 

Normally a lot of fasteners can be reused but on a 35 year old car it generally pays to spend some chump change and use new bolts as the old bolts are either rusty or in some cases rounded off. It also saves a little money in labor which compensates for the added expense. 

Someone asked my why do it now and I explained that it is a lot cheaper than having to be towed from Erie or having it fixed someplace else.

You fix something before it breaks so you don't have to fix it when it breaks.

All in the part of maintaining a 35 year old sports car.

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I'm getting sick and tired of the USS Abraham Lincoln suicide attempt publicity

Most of which is fake news or damned close. The Lincoln task force has 8 attempted suicides and no deaths. Say again. No-zero- deaths. Those figures sound a little below average to me for a group of that size yet the media is making a big fuss over it.

Back in the day my battery had one attempt. The soldier in question was a dud to begin with and was trying to get out of the Army. He cut his wrists the wrong way and although he bled like a stuck pig he was discovered and carted off to the hospital and then the booby hatch for a while. 

When he returned to the unit to go through the separation process the supply sergeant made him sign a statement of charges for the bedding he had ruined by bleeding on. What a delightfully cold hearted thing that was to do! I admit it. I laughed when I heard that.

It should also be noted that we were in garrison in peacetime and the worst thing we might have to face was being told to pick up cigarette butts.  The attempt, like most attempts was simply a cry for help.

The military suicide rate is comparable or even slightly lower than their civilian counterparts. 

Looking at the 8 attempted suicides I am surprised the numbers are that low. Generally the attempts are made by sailors that have not been in the service very long and are having a hard time adjusting to military life.

When you consider that the task force has been to sea in combat operations for as long as it had, the low rate speaks highly for the serving sailors. They've worked their asses off day and night when they were in combat and stayed fairly busy afterwards because their mothers are not there to pick up after them.  

You also have to remember that some of these sailors are newbies that came aboard straight out of Great Lakes. They haven't adapted to military life yet. While many of them (Like I did) take to it like a duck to water for some it is a major shock and hard to adjust to. For the latter some of them don't know where to turn. 

I am not taking suicide lightly. I am pointing out that the military seems to have the same rate as the civilian populace. It's a problem and the military does what it can to prevent it.

This whole thing is just another case of the media creating a major problem out of thin air. One can't possibly hate the media enough.

If I were the judge on a case where someone bombed a television network and admitted it in open court i would probably punish him with a $25 fine and 15 minutes of community service.

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IMO the greatest ad campaign I have ever seen

was by the Dos Equis beer people when they came out with 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' ads.

It hit a spot in my mind because I have always kept my eyes open for interesting people. Not cool, not rich, not famous or sexy, just plain interesting.

It's kind of an intangible. Interesting. 

What makes a person interesting? 

Who knows? For different people I guess it's things.

One young man I found interesting was a village idiot type that one could describe as being mildly retarded which I suppose was an accurate description. However he was not a retard. An actual retard is different from a special needs person who is generally far more intelligent so I guess I can describe the man as being a little slow. He was clearly NOT a retard.

What I found interesting about him was that every so often he would belt one out of the park. One time an engineer turned fisherman was setting up a small pump to feed a stove on his boat. Tommy was watching him and asked him, "Gee. You must be pretty smart. I would have put the tank on the roof and let the oil run down to the  stove."

Duh.

The poor man's jaw dropped, he tossed his wrench into the tool box. I bailed out MOST Riki-tik. I didn't want to see the aftermath.

Call him slow, call him whatever you want. He didn't bore me. That says a LOT. 

Two days later I saw stove smoke coming out of the stove's chimney and a 15 gallon tank mounted to the roof of his cabin.

Another time one of the Filipinos I knew had me over his place and I met his aunt, an older woman and we discussed living on a trade/barter economy. She pointed out that not only could one often get a better deal, but it was tax free. She was pretty sharp and knew all the angles. The woman was interesting. I figure that if the woman had gotten a better formal education she could have gone to New York and gotten rich in real estate or something like that.

On the other hand, maybe she was smart enough not to want getting involved with that type of people. Still, although I was also heavily into trade/bartering I learned a few things. I actually still am. 

One deal I made is the time I helped a guy sheetrock a bathroom in exchange for a sail he had in his garage. It was practically brand new and was worth about $900 from a sailmaker. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and when you figure it out the deal net me a $900 sail. The pay rate would up being between $225-300 per hour.

Still, I do admit I like interesting stories and interesting people.

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