07:37 – We had a blizzard here last night: low in the lower 20’s, winds gusting to 35 MPH, and almost a trace of snow. Today and tonight are to be a bit warmer, but it’ll still be a good day to stay inside.
We plan to spend the day hauling stuff around and organizing it. The downstairs den now has most of the boxes and bins cleared out, leaving only furniture. We’ll get that placed as we wish, transfer books back to the bookshelves, and so on. One of the downstairs bedrooms is now set up and usable as the guest bedroom. The other is my office, which still has stuff stacked all over the place, but at least it’s now fairly well organized. We’ll probably make a quick run down to Winston tomorrow or Monday to haul up still more stuff.
Then we’ll tackle the unfinished area in the basement and get it set up for kit production.
OFD, I bet your cats won’t do this…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-19/dogs-look-out-for-their-canine-friends-study-finds/7043348
Cats aren’t stupid enough to be hooked up in cages to food tray experiments.
Snow whiteout here this morning and sort of a light snow winter landscape finally. Even though technically it’s still autumn for another day or two.
Mrs. OFD got back to Vermont late last night and arrived at her mom’s place down in beautiful Shelburne-on-the-bay and found two unidentified vehicles parked in the driveway, neighborhood dark, no one around. No room for her so she had to park in the street. She called me and I told her to notify the local huckleberries with the info and stay in the house with the doors locked. Probably just an ass-hat neighbor who knew great-grandma wasn’t home and let visitors park there, but could also be dirtbags with stolen cars now casing the ‘hood for B&E fun.
Wife should be back up here in Northwest Retroville sometime this afternoon and home for a couple of weeks before leaving again next month for one gig in Maffachufetts and two more out in Kalifornia. Assuming the country hasn’t blown up by then and gone total martial law.
Well, as Ferfal points out, even in an economic collapse, you still need to work. It’s just harder, more dangerous, and pays less.
nick
Cats in cage.
Not to worry; the one with the red laser eye is about to melt the front gate off. Meanwhile I’d like ten minutes in a room with whoever stuffed those kittens in there like that. Not much to ask, just ten minutes.
Yes, something to look forward to, as one hits one’s late 60s,70s, and maybe 80s; harder, more dangerous work that pays even less, probably working for assholes, too. I’ve noticed that already in IT; at my last actual full-time gig, they were getting ready to have me climb poles and the sides of buildings in a giant gravel pit to install WAPs, and I was already dodging live machinery and maniacs on forklifts down on the factory floor and in the warehouse.
Think voting our way out of this mess is still the answer?
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/cognitive-dissonance-for-the-votists/
Hey, dog lovers:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/80763/wtf-obama-immigration-queen-lets-focus-on-our-cute-dogs/
lol!
On Politico “GOP gobsmacked by Trump’s embrace of Putin.”
The GOP’s answer to Putin is to poke him in the eye with Obola’s rainbow colored phallus. That really helps us.
Anybody notice that Lyin’ Rino Ryan now looks like Evil Spock?
“Anybody notice that Lyin’ Rino Ryan now looks like Evil Spock?”
One of my brothers noted that he now has a musloid-style beard growing, too. Soon, Mrs. Ryan will be in a burkha and we can only hope Cankles follows suit ASAP, with the kind that covers everything but her lyin’ eyes and crows’ feet.
“I’ve got a little list”
lol good toon!
Hmm. This is the first year in a long, long time that UPS has not doubled up on the truck team members around me, nor are any of the trucks pulling those little brown trailers as in past Decembers. Does not look like there are any more trucks than normal, so I have to assume deliveries are way down this year. Stores around me are not excessively packed either, nor were there any Black Friday incidents here this year as in the past. More like my childhood, when the Xmas season was essentially only 2 weeks long, and kids only got 1 or 2 presents, instead of dozens like today.
I was shocked to learn that over half the Hallmark stores in the state have closed this year. I had to drive way out of my way to get to one, and the knick-knack section was far, FAR larger than the card selections, which have—literally—nothing new from last year. Guess greeting cards are going the way of Germany, where there were NO stores selling them, except in the American sector of Zehlendorf, Berlin. My wife instantly wanted to open a card shop to fill the void. I was very apprehensive, and with good reason. We eventually found out that the German psyche is opposed to ‘disposable’. A good native friend said their attitude is that the idea of the greeting card is not environmentally sound: one sends a card, and the recipient immediately throws it away after getting it. So the whole idea is ridiculous to them and there is no greeting card industry (except for American ex-pats) as a result.
Lost Internet from my fiber provider on Thursday night—right in the middle of some work with a deadline. That’s a first for them. It was their DNS servers. Disgusting that they had two totally different IP addresses specified, but neither was working. AT&T DSL was far, far worse, losing DNS totally for hours, a couple times a month.
Since this was the first time it has happened since I went totally Linux, it took a good hour of experimenting with the new fiber company-provided router (which accomplished nothing) before finally finding where in Linux Mint 17 the DNS servers are specified. I could not change the ISP DHCP server-assigned DNS settings (at least in that location—probably could in some config file somewhere), but there was a buried option to add an “additional” DNS address and I popped in Google’s 8.8.8.8. Within a minute I was back in business. One thing I really like about Linux, is that it is very rarely necessary to reboot. Give it a few minutes, and it propagates most changes to the necessary places, and one is back in business. Meanwhile, I was holding for a “team member” at the fiber company’s support line for 40 minutes before finally using their callback feature which is supposed to call you back without losing your place in the call queue. Obviously, they were not answering the phones at all that night, because I never got called back. At all, ever.
Speaking of the fiber provider, I found out recently, that some people who moved in last month across the street, are paying about half my price for Internet-only service. It’s a single mom with 3 teen daughters and she says she can’t afford cable when the house has an antenna on the roof. When I signed up, the agent told me there was one price, one service level (except for business) and “everybody pays the same for Internet-only”. Obviously not (or no longer) true. I hate with a purple passion having to deal with this kind of crap. AT&T was the worst and I thought I was escaping all that free-wheeling pricing discrimination by moving to the fiber company (which has a monopoly here), but obviously not so. Since quitting AT&T, I have repeatedly gotten their offers in the mail for DSL—one for $8/mo locked for 2 years. I left them when they refused to budge on $50/mo. Currently, the fiber is $60/mo and they just sent a notice saying that will increase by $2.50 month (note they quoted the increase, not telling me what my total would be—another confirmation that everybody is NOT paying the same), except apparently for single moms raising 3 daughters.
I had imagined that things would slow down for me approaching Xmas, but no. I’m taking the time between Xmas Eve and 4 Jan off regardless, and retracting to hermit mode. Gotta get some personal stuff done before year’s end.
Only one ground covering of snow so far, which is normal around here. We usually do not get snow until January, and then it really dumps on us in February. At least I have all-wheel drive to get through it this year. Last year, I had difficulty with the Roadmaster just pulling away from the curb into the unplowed tracks left by neighbors. Rear-wheel drive really is the pits in snow country.
More like my childhood, when the Xmas season was essentially only 2 weeks long, and kids only got 1 or 2 presents, instead of dozens like today.
Mine too. The current situation is fairly well overblown. And then the credit card bills come in.
That is the big difference from my childhood. Credit cards. When I was a kid and a young man (married), no one had credit cards except the wealthy. Now, everyone has them and abuses them. Especially the feddies.
Yeah! How do we get theirs cancelled?
Because I Don’t Need to draw a Picture.
I have mentioned before that, living in the former East Germany I became friends with many Russians—both recent and longstanding immigrants. Of all my travels through Europe, no group of people that I have met are closer in make-up to Americans than are Russians. That crap we were fed in grade school was American military-industrial complex lies. Russians I knew laughed at what we had been told about bread lines and goods shortages. There were none, they told me. True, they did not have some things at all (like Polaroid instant picture cameras and Western rock and roll records), but if it was made, there was plenty of it, and the price was affordable. Even cars were not out of reach—you just could not buy them on time while you drove them, and had to save in advance for years to pay cash when you wanted one. Every Russian I met (and there were many) were easy to befriend, good-natured, had a terrific sense of humor (and not the dry kind like the British), and would do anything for you if you asked—just exactly like most Americans. And like Sting’s song, all of them wanted the best for their children, just like we do. We ought to be the greatest of friends with Russians. But our leaders spit in their eyes, instead.
Re: UPS truck deliveries; they’ve doubled up around here but no trailers seen yet. Also FedEx trucks plus Brown every day so far.
Re: Xmas presents; ditto my own childhood years in the 1950s and early 1960s; a handful of presents, tops, for the whole family, but the stockings were always crammed. Quiet family times with nice dinners. We replicate that up here now but siblings down in MA have gone crazy with their kids for birthdays and Xmas and ditto our kids and grandkids out in Kalifornia, who literally have had WHOLE roomfuls of toyz. While the kids get crankier and squawk louder as the endless day wears on, with zero mention of that Babe in the manger from 2,000 years ago.
We had us snow squalls and whiteouts all over the area today; yours truly had to drive an hour NORTHwest of here to fiddle with meeting Princess at the NY border, etc., etc., long story, and then have her follow me back here, in blinding sideways snow and icy roads. LOTSA FUN!
“We ought to be the greatest of friends with Russians. But our leaders spit in their eyes, instead.”
+1,000
And ditto with the Persians.
Princess speaks fluent Russian and can analyze their poetry and music at the grad school level.
I tell any family and friends who’ll listen that the Iranians are our friends and natural allies and the Saudis are our sworn enemies. I think I’m regarded as a bit of a crank.
We don’t need their oil. Fook ’em.
+100
It’s common effin’ sense for anyone who bothers to investigate a bit of history and geography and the crap our political leaders have been engaged in for ages now.
This is the first year that I’m sending e-cards for Christmas. If they don’t have email, they get nothing. Call me MrGrinch! MrsAtoz gets a card, but that’s it. I know you can get cheap cards (one’s in the rack are running $4-5 per, woof). Then fill it out and mail it. Gotta get stamps etc.
USPS, Fedex and UPS all have multiple vehicles going for Xmas in Lost Wages. Fedex and UPS use those 4-wheel all terrain vehicles with mini-trailers and are going all day. USPS delivers tons of Amazon boxes by 8am.
Speaking of USPS, we seem to get a new delivery person every two weeks. I noticed a new guy last week of Asian descent. I went out to meet him at the community box. It went something like this:
MrAtoz: Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself.
Mman: chin chung err Carr Po Occife
MrAtoz: Uh, just wanted to ask, if I leave a note in the box for Priority pickup…
Mman: chin chung err Carr Po Occife
MrAtoz: Uh, well can I…
Mman: chin chung err Carr Po Occife
MrAtoz: walks away
I guess since he works for the gummint, English not required.
English has not been required for gummint drones since lawyers took over the country.
I haven’t sent Christmas cards for 10 years, it’s just petered out. And domestic postage within Australia is now $1, because of the reduction in volume due to e-mail.
On Sunday for lunch went to a family BBQ at my younger nephew’s and wife’s place. They have a 2yo brown and white Border Collie (“Barkley”). His parents in law have an older black and white BC who came to visit.
Two years Barkley was the new kid on the block and the older BC dominated him, but nicely. Today I noticed that the older dog had some fresh wounds on his face, inflicted apparently by Barkley, who has made his move. They’re both smaller than Colin, I think, and are not aggressive towards their human family, but Barkley now puts the older BC in his place. I was throwing a soft ball for them to chase and both dogs would set off after it but Barkley invariably got it, even when I deliberately threw it to the older dog’s advantage. Poor thing is thoroughly intimidated. There were a few snarls and bites while I was there. They’re about the same size.
here’s a link to an editorial on Bloomberg:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-17/why-this-year-s-christmas-season-is-so-angry
Lots of stuff in there. Worth a quick read thru to see the truth peeking through, the continued misrepresentation, and editorial bias.
Opens with a Democrat, unionist, who now is a Trump supporter. “Trump’s glowing fireplace of fury ” “surprisingly wide swath” and the amazement that T’s support grew after calling for a ban on muzzie immigration.
Still blames “Fear of Islamic terrorism”. NO ONE I talk to fears gays (homophobia) or islam (islamophobia). They’re mostly indifferent to gays, and HATE islamic terrorism. HATE is different from FEAR, but the media keeps telling us how afraid we are…
“As everyone knows by now, a winner-take-all economy” — WTF? It’s not a zero sum game. Never was. That is the beauty of the American system. No royal patents. No approval from party apparatchiks results in ONE winner. (They might try, but it never works out.)
“The inflation-adjusted income of the median American household is lower now than in 2000.” — and that is with the totally BS low official inflation numbers. Author fails to point out or doesn’t understand THIS IS BY DESIGN AS THE FED HAS A 2% INFLATION GOAL.
“Even though [EVEN THO!!!] the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent and the last recession ended in 2009, 72 percent of Americans think the country is still in a recession, “– perhaps that’s because 72% of Americans aren’t f-ing STUPID and choose to believe their own eyes.
Then there is a bunch of talk about trust, and particularly the effects of a high trust society vs a low trust society. This idea is becoming more widespread since I first saw it discussed on one of the blogs I read many months ago.
Of course, the j school toady can’t just make sense, he has to inject more editorial bias.
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed with the votes of 73 percent of Democrats in the Senate and 94 percent of Republicans, a fairly narrow partisan gap. [25% is FAIRLY NARROW??? and where’s the shout out to the Repubs for almost unanimous support of civil rights legislation vs Democrat 3/4???] In contrast, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 passed with the support of 100 percent of Senate Democrats and zero percent of Republicans,” [no mention of the real differences or the unconstitutionality, but puts it all down to partisanship]
Anyway, worth reading as a capsule summary of what’s wrong with even well meaning media whores, and a glimpse of the (completely misinterpreted) truth starting to shine through.
nick
WRT drywall screws, I found this link on Instapundit:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/reviews/a10417/these-are-the-screws-you-should-be-using-16729784/
Thanks much for that link on the screws; those look more like what I would wanna be messing around with up on the attic flooring.
Re: the Bloomberg article; MSM nooz pieces, articles, editorials = mostly worthless; this one, as Mr. nick says, gives us brief glimpses of light but that’s it. And Mr. nick is also correct; no one I talk to, either, FEARS gays or musloids in general; they ARE in fact indifferent to peoples’ sexual proclivities and perversions, if a little tired and annoyed periodically by the constant barrage of gay this and gay that in the MSM and on a lot of the tee-vee shows they’re glued to anyway.
And while they may HATE musloid terrorism, they’re also a bit naive concerning the larger musloid populations and still view the hadji atrocities as aberrations and anomalies among a tiny minority of what is really the “religion of peace.” When, in fact, it is a violent criminal political organization that makes the Mafia, Yakuza and suchlike entities look like fairy godmothers. I view them as various levels of satanic-inspired demons, quite frankly, and to be defended against and attacked accordingly. Along with their current international socialist allies.
I’ve been unable to get any of this across to the fems in my family so far and only one brother knows it like I do, out of three. Ditto the other vets in my group down at the VA.
I guess peeps will wake up when the shit really hits the fan good and hard, fomented and instigated by our own rulers, and we start getting slammed with multiple attacks from those sources. Then we’ll see if ol’ OFD really is some kind of loon and demented right-wing wack job.
Dry wall screws are fine for a lot of things but I too have bought those quality screws for things that count. I really like the uni-drive, combo phillips and square drive heads.
Alright, if y’all want links to screws,
http://www.mcfeelys.com/
n
My comment on drywall screws: After the discussion got started awhile back I went out to the shed and looked at the what I incorrectly called drywall screws that the contractor who built my shed left for me (he doesn’t like open boxes). They are that same style Spax and GRK construction screws. I then check the boxes I had in the garage and they are the same, so I must have bought that specific type on someone’s advice some time ago.
So now I have on my “minimalist to-do list” to get all the fasteners that I now have in 3 places organized in one place.