Thursday, 10 March 2016

By on March 10th, 2016 in dogs, personal

11:53 – We had some excitement overnight. About 1:50 a.m., Colin started whining and pestering, so I got up to let him out the front door. Ordinarily, he’d just run out into the yard, do what he had to do, and coming running back to the door. This time, he went around the house, out of sight. After a couple minutes, I called him, but he didn’t respond. So I grabbed a flashlight and went looking for him. I walked around the perimeter of our 1.5 acre yard two or three times looking for him, but he was nowhere in sight. I finally went back in and woke Barbara, who was terrified that he was gone for good or had been hit by a car.

I drove around looking for him for about 15 minutes. Barbara called finally to say he was back home. She remonstrated with him and he promised never to do it again until next time. My attitude was that a dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do. I was worried, too, but as I told Barbara he’s a very smart adult, and he knows where he lives.

Incidentally, I was using one of the Feit Electric LED flashlights from Costco. They use three C-cells and are rated at 500 lumens. At their tightest focus, the beam goes from circular to the square shape of the actual LED, and reaches out a long way. I got a three-pack of them, and I’m thinking they’d be excellent for night-time use on a rifle or shotgun. They provide a useful amount of illumination out well past 100 yards.


62 Comments and discussion on "Thursday, 10 March 2016"

  1. MrAtoz says:

    Is Glenn Beck really fasting so God will make the GOP nominate Cruz? Sounds like he has gone off the deep end for good. Article is on Drudge along with Beck saying Drudge has gone off the deep end.

    Plus ObolaLynch is setting the ground work for suing the *fossil fuels* industry out of existence. What are we going to do without oil? Cut down every tree in site for energy? She can be shit-canned none to soon. Civil suits against *climate deniers*? WTF, over?

  2. SteveF says:

    Beck “fast” is probably a no solids diet. He’s restricting himself to bourbon.

  3. Lynn says:

    Barbara called finally to say he was back home. She remonstrated with him and he promised never to do it again until next time.

    Good boy!

    My father-in-law went to see his cardiologist two weeks ago. The cardiologist told him that he will live to be 100 unless he dies before that.

  4. nick says:

    My Dr once told me that I could eat any way I wanted, as long as it wasn’t like the 1950’s. Which is pretty much how I eat, with more variety.

    If I don’t have pork in some form, and butter, and whole cream, it’s not really normal day.

    nick

  5. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Physicians know no more about diet than so-called nutritionists. Eating like the 50’s is probably better than what a lot of people do now. My guess is that the ideal diet for most people has lots of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, particularly saturated animal fats. Whole milk and lots of eggs. Lots of salt. Plenty of coffee. And so on.

  6. SteveF says:

    And minimal “over-refined” ingredients – vegetable shortening and oils, bleached white flour, HFCS, or anything that does not have an obvious connection to the animal or plant it came from. There are probably exceptions, but “eat real foods” sums it up pretty well.

    RBT’s major point, that doctors telling you how to eat generally don’t know what they’re talking about, is correct by overwhelming anecdotal evidence.

    The extension of that point to doctor’s advice on anything is left as an exercise* for the reader.

    * DYSWIDT?

  7. Lynn says:

    Is Glenn Beck really fasting so God will make the GOP nominate Cruz? Sounds like he has gone off the deep end for good. Article is on Drudge along with Beck saying Drudge has gone off the deep end.

    Glenn Beck went off the deep end years ago. I used to listen to him on the radio, he turned certifiable right before he created his own network.

  8. Lynn says:

    My wife is fighting a nightmare today. Her father just disclosed to her that he has four (4) timeshares that are costing him $400 to $600 per year each in maintenance fees. I knew that he had these but she did not believe me that her father would do something crazy like that. He cannot use these anymore and we do not want them. Looks like getting out of them is almost impossible.

  9. OFD says:

    Just back a little while ago from the weekly “Vietnam Combat Veterans Group” at the VA site in Burlap; our ex-jarhead was upset again (he has a different pile of shit every week to deal with). One of his two imbecile sons who got outta the slam not so long ago evidently got hooked up with the AN krew in there, mainly outta self-defense, as the joint is 80% Afrikan-Murkan and ganged up like a mofo. So junior is now out and what does he go and do? Gets a jumbo AN tatt done across his back. Pretty bad, right? Then he posts it on FaceCrack. I told our guy “Be advised junior’s account is gonna get closed ricky-tick if it hasn’t been already.” But meanwhile it’s been out there on the wunnerful innernet. Like he told sonny “Why doncha just pin a giant bulls-eye on yourself?” Junior supposedly is not involved with them and doesn’t do anything with them, but then why the tatt? Dad isn’t betting on his lifespan much longer.

    Another guy was having trouble being credited for bills he’s been paying, so we had that for the last half-hour of the ninety-minute deal. Far be it from me to complain about being unemployed or being alone essentially six months of the year here or my aches and pains from laying flooring up in the attic the last couple of days (and splinters!) (and cracking my noggin a few times on the overhead beams!)

    Overcast here with dense fog and driving rain. Temps in the fotties and fifties. The crew is here doing our living room ceiling, finally, and what ought to be a full one-day gig is turning out to be three half-day gigs, maybe four. Whatevuh.

  10. OFD says:

    “Looks like getting out of them is almost impossible.”

    Contact the VA on this first and then lawyer up.

  11. RickH says:

    Big wind storm overnight. Woke up this morning at 73oam to the power blinking off.

    Partly cloudy day otherwise, and the living room has large windows, so plenty of light. I had ensured that cellphone/e-reader was fully charged, and cell towers were still working, so was able to monitor things.

    I monitored the chest freezer (I have an external thermometer for it), and used a simple dial-type thermometer for the fridge. Chest freezer stayed below 20F, and the fridge-freezer was also doing well, initially.

    Heard reports from others in the area that a tree had taken out a power line, so expected at least a 6 hour outage. I figured that the freezer and fridge would be OK for 4 hours, so just relaxed (reading a post-apolyptic book). Checked outside for any tree damage; there was none, but a half-dozen neighbors had their generators going.

    Temps have been mild lately; overnight mid-40F, daytime mid-50. Still windy, with gusts to 25-30mph (a bit more over the Puget Sound – the Hood Canal Bridge closed several times to do wind along with a higher tide than usual – but my house is in a slightly protected area, so slightly less wind).

    So indoor temps were acceptable. At about the 4-hour mark, I fired up my new generator, strung the outdoor heavy-duty power cords to the chest freezer (in the garage) and the fridge in the kitchen. No problems with the generator (after I remembered to open the fuel valve and choke it before using the battery-start), power load was about 2700W.

    Used a power strip to top off phone.

    All worked well. Power restored after about 7 hours, winds are dying down. Still some other areas (more rural) without power, but the local power guys are catching up.

    So, a good experience with a power outage. Was well-prepared with the generator and outdoor-type extension cords. Plenty of FLASHLIGHTS! were ready to go.

    Future plans include getting a bypass switch installed at the power box to make it a bit easier to power things. Was planning later (if the power was still out) to run a cord to the TV (flat panel) and DirecTV box; that load is minimal. Perhaps next time.

    I did find a potential problem in my supplies. Next supply run will include spare air fresheners – when the fan doesn’t work in the ‘small room’, an air freshener would be a good thing to have.

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    Looks like getting out of them is almost impossible.

    If they are in your father’s name just stop paying the maintenance fee. They will foreclose, send him to collections, etc. At his age does it really matter? Beyond that there is little the timeshare companies can do.

  13. nick says:

    @RickH,

    Depending on the quality of your geni, you may not want to power electronics directly. The cheap consumer boards don’t like dirty pseudo sine wave power, and you can damage them. Put a big UPS in there, and don’t forget your modern fridge has a motherboard, and your instant hot water heater might too.

    @lynn,

    There are companies that specialize in buying time shares. They are a bit predatory, but everything is negotiable. And take a good look at the properties. Many actually have points plans that let you use the time at other resorts, and some are quite good. If they are decent properties in good locations, most management companies will help you rent the time to vacationers. That might be $ neutral when all is said and done, esp if you can’t sell or cancel the contract. It may not be as dire as it looks.

    nick

    (I’ve spent many hours sitting thru the spiels to get free lodging, I’ve watched my parents experience with different properties, and also my uncle. Most timeshares are sleazy bad deals, but some are ok)

  14. OFD says:

    Power could be out here for a couple of weeks and we wouldn’t bother turning on a generator; woodstove for heat, batteries for FLASHLIGHTS and radios, and we’d finish off the stuff in the fridge and freezer first. Don’t care about the tee-vee, cable, or phones, and we’d have enough stored water if we couldn’t turn the well pump on right away. We DO have outdoor-type extension cords and I’m looking at dual-fuel generators that we could use on either the well pump or oil furnace (temporarily). And a manual alternative for the well, too.

    We’d be doing whatever work needed to be done from cain’t see to cain’t see, read a bit in the early morning and at night and otherwise during hours of darkness be asleep anyway. Not a whole lot different from our grandparents and great-grandparents, etc., here in New England.

  15. Lynn says:

    Looks like getting out of them is almost impossible.

    If they are in your father’s name just stop paying the maintenance fee. They will foreclose, send him to collections, etc. At his age does it really matter? Beyond that there is little the timeshare companies can do.

    Can’t they seize money out of his checking accounts (he has 4). He has two rent houses, can they seize those?

  16. nick says:

    Unless the contract allows for that, they’d have to get some kind of judgement against him, and even then, they aren’t usually enforceable.

    If you think something like that is possible, you need to talk to a lawyer. Unfortunately, you’ll have to deal with it at some point (hopefully not soon), so better to be proactive, and before it ends up in your name…

    nick

  17. Ray Thompson says:

    Can’t they seize money out of his checking accounts (he has 4)

    Basically, no. Only government debts, such as taxes, can seize money from checking accounts (ask OFD). Retirement accounts cannot be touched by anyone. Even if they get a court judgement the court cannot seize assets, only place a lien on property. Most timeshare companies will not go to the expense and will just sell the timeshare to someone else.

  18. RickH says:

    @Nick – All electronics protected by quality power conditioning devices (or will be, when I get to that point), UL1449 certified.

    Currently, the generator (Champion 40023 7000/6000W unit) will only power the fridge and chest freezer (current fridge is about 10-12 years old). When I get the bypass switch installed, all electronics on those circuits will have power conditioning devices (they do now).

    Also thinking about a whole-house surge protector installation when that bypass switch is installed.

  19. OFD says:

    “… you need to talk to a lawyer.”

    Wot OFD said earlier.

    “Only government debts, such as taxes, can seize money from checking accounts (ask OFD).”

    Yeah, ask OFD. OFD knows. He’s awesome that way. (couldn’t resist)

    Oh, and not only will they seize the account, any checks you used to pay bills that subsequently bounced? Tough chit, hombre. The IRS won’t even apologize for their own fuckup and the bank almost laughed in my face when I bitched about the OD fees and harm to our credit.

  20. SteveF says:

    re the timeshares, why not torch them? Surely if the property is uninhabitable your F-I-L won’t have to continue to pay. Or if you don’t like fire, how about conducting a voodoo ritual in the living room, with plenty of chicken blood sprayed all over everything? Oh, I got it: film a porn video there, with enough outside shots to make the location obvious. A really nasty porn video, with fluids all over everything and not cleaned up. No judge would ever find the place still habitable. Er, unless the judge was into that sort of thing, not a bet I’d risk much on. You know, fire might be your best bet after all.

  21. nick says:

    @RickH

    Good thoughts. Whole house surge protection is cheap insurance, esp if you have them there doing work anyway.

    Make sure you have maintenance supplies for your gennie too. Most people are shocked to read the recommended service intervals- 40 hrs… New oil, filters and spark plugs add up. That said, mine (generac 4800xl) has run well for a long time with no service at all. I bought it in ’99, and didn’t need it until 2003 or 04. Only ran for a while then. Got good long use during Ike a few years ago, at least 14 days of outage. I did service it after that 🙂 but not at 40 hrs. Typical disaster use is about 8 hrs a day or a bit more. You DON’T run at night. Too noisy, and too much of a beacon for thieves.

    If I had an expensive whole house gennie, I’d do more service, but I’m shockingly cavalier about it with the cheap one, knowing the S hasnt HTF nationally. Only got so much fuel in that case anyway. I like big industrial UPSs for quiet power, and have some ready to go. Solar and wind are the only long term solution.

    nick

  22. Ray Thompson says:

    Surely if the property is uninhabitable your F-I-L won’t have to continue to pay.

    Not true. What happens is that the property owner will make all necessary (and some unnecessary) repairs. What insurance does not cover will be divided among all the time share owners based on the weeks owned and a special assessment for all to pay. And most properties are under insured.

  23. H. Combs says:

    Very heavy rain all last night and today in Memphis area. Seven to eight inches. Flash flood watches and warnings all over. Many intersections and some major roads flooded today. Lot’s of fun keeping the drains clear of debris so the water stayed outside. Many local rivers over flood stage and the Mississippi is still rising.

  24. SteveF says:

    Well, nuts.

    In that case, there’s only one thing to do: start a porn production company and make as many movies as you can in two weeks per year.

  25. nick says:

    So 6 per day, 14 days, 84 per year. Give them away free on the internet, ’cause no one pays for porn, and you’ve made ——- nada!

    I guess someone must be paying for it, since they keep making more, but I’m dammed if I can figure out who.

    nick

    (it did drive the adoption of a whole bunch of new tech, VHS, DVD, broadband internet, video compression codecs, just to name a few….)

  26. OFD says:

    “In that case, there’s only one thing to do: start a porn production company and make as many movies as you can in two weeks per year.”

    Not to worry; I’m all over it. Got video training, buying the gear, and I just need somebody to line up some beaudacious sweetie-pies, fur pies, that is, and I will do the script-writing and editing if someone else volunteers to direct. Is there a kickstarter site we can use to gin up the investment cash? What about that gofundme site? Will they cough up the dough for us? Oh, wait–better idea! The Clinton Foundation! They have zillions! They can’t be using it ALL for their luxury travel slush funds and selling arms and explosives to hadji musloid animals who maim and kill not only civilians but our own troops…

  27. Ray Thompson says:

    Not to worry; I’m all over it.

    Oooohhhh, can I be the lighting director? I can bring my FLASHLIGHTS.

  28. nick says:

    “James Deen’s porn company is hit with $78,000 bill for failing to use condoms on set ”

    Sh!t gets expensive…..

    n

  29. SteveF says:

    ’cause no one pays for porn

    I’ve never met anyone who’s admitted to paying for porn, but as you say, someone has to be. Unless the videos are all financed by not for profits, which seems unlikely, or government grants, which is depressingly likely. Either people lie when it comes up in conversation or I just never meet the people who do pay for porn and admit it.

    I do know for sure that I’ve never paid for porn. That’s not from moral considerations as much as very discriminating tastes. Do you know how difficult it is to find lesbian amputee midget porn? (If you happen to have some, I do *not* want a copy. And in fact, I probably would prefer that you never contacted me in any way for any purpose. Unless you have an extensive library of lesbian amputee midget porn and gay animal porn specifically for the purpose of grossing people out and pissing them off, in which case I fully approve.)

  30. nick says:

    I’m not gonna try it, ’cause I’m currently getting ads served from simply looking at some belts, but I bet if you just put the phrase “lesbian amputee midget porn” in google, you’ll get a bucket full….

    something for everyone out there…..

    n

  31. nick says:

    does the classic goatsee count as porn?

    n

  32. OFD says:

    “…Unless you have an extensive library of lesbian amputee midget porn and gay animal porn…”

    Gee whiz, that’s very DIVERSITY-sensitive of you; I’ve recommended you for an award from the William Jefferson Clinton Jizz Institute. He must have spread his all over the world by now, from his, from all accounts, tiny crooked digit. No wonder Field Marshal Rodham went after other womyn. And still does.

    Word also has it that he’s getting senile nowadays and she’s in none too good a shape, either. Both of them may not be very long for this world, and the one that awaits them is a lot warmer.

  33. OFD says:

    “A diligent legislature of a democratic republic would have long since dragged America’s deep state out into the sunlight.”

    Good one, Pat! LOL. Esp. the word “diligent.” The only thing they’re diligent about is lining their own nests at our expense and putting us in mortal danger of our bodies and souls.

    http://buchanan.org/blog/sea-island-conspiracy-124936

  34. dkreck says:

    Going lower than a GOP debate here.

  35. ech says:

    Even if they get a court judgement the court cannot seize assets, only place a lien on property.

    In Texas they can seize assets. Real estate can’t be seized by individuals, but they can hire a constable or sheriff’s deputy to come in with a judgement and start taking property for sale. They can’t take the stuff covered by a bankruptcy exemption, but if you have art, multiple TVs, jewelry, etc. it can go out the door. What is most likely is a lien on real estate. They can then sell that to a local.

  36. brad says:

    @Lynn: Four timeshares? Give your share, free of charge, to whatever resort or company owns the damned thing, and let them deal with it. Should cost more than $100 bucks to get a lawyer to draw up a general letter you can use, that officially transfers the ownership. Change the names in the letter to suit each property, and done. One or the other may refuse the gift, but I’ll bet you’ll get rid of half of them that way.

    Or do it Mr. Ray’s way, just stop paying and let them foreclose. The only argument against that: Someone is going to have to put up with years’ worth of calls from collection agencies. IANAL, and all that…

    Of course, SteveF’s solution has the benefit of being more dramatic. You can roast marshmallows, too…

    I remember some of those timeshare sales pitches – I even got roped into going to one of those “seminars” about something-or-other that turn out to be nothing but an all day, high pressure sales event. Horrible stuff. The silver-tongues snakes selling it deserve a fate even worse than telemarketers.

  37. Ray Thompson says:

    In Texas they can seize assets. Real estate can’t be seized by individuals

    Varies by state obviously. But the amount for maintenance fees is low enough that I doubt the timeshare company would spend the money necessary to get the fees. After all, they are not out any real money as they still hold the asset in question for which the fees apply. They could sell the asset and recoup their costs. A foreclosure is the most likely route they would take. And that gets the timeshare gone. Seems like a reasonable way to go in my thinking.

    I remember some of those timeshare sales pitches

    My wife and I have been to dozens of them. Only bought once and that was for resort that was close and we used. It was cheap as there was no golf course. Used that Timeshare for 25 years, exchanged several times, a few in foreign countries. Sold it for nothing. But based on what I paid, factoring in the low maintenance costs, I got my monies worth.

    We still go to the dog and pony shows and get the free stuff. Although it is not as good as it used to be. Two nights lodging for $0.00 if you go to the presentation. The free rooms are not nearly as nice as the stuff they are selling but it is a bed and a shower.

  38. brad says:

    “We still go to the dog and pony shows and get the free stuff.”

    You are a patient man. I hated stand the high-pressure selling, and certainly wouldn’t subject myself to it voluntarily.

  39. SteveF says:

    You can roast marshmallows, too…

    No, no, porn stars are a different kind of hot.

  40. DadCooks says:

    Looks like the Cruzers are really off the deep end, the whole top of Drudge (http://www.drudgereport.com/) this morning is about how Cruz is the anointed one, people laying hands on Cruz, holy visions, and speaking in tongues. I have said before and will continue to say, Cruz and his Cruzers are as bad a the moooslems just without the beheadings. Be afraid, be very afraid.

  41. Ray Thompson says:

    You are a patient man.

    No, I am a cheap assed SOB.

  42. OFD says:

    “I have said before and will continue to say, Cruz and his Cruzers are as bad a the moooslems just without the beheadings. Be afraid, be very afraid.”

    +100

    Of course. However a Cruz campaign will lose against Cankles, barring her death or genuine indictment.

    For y’all’s reading enjoyment this morning, I approve the following message:

    http://zerogov.com/?p=4699

    Can’t afford the gold, and in any case, the silver and gold are not gonna be likely common media of exchange after SHTF for a good long while. Cash will still be around in the near term. After that, yeah, guns and groceries.

    And to my way of thinking, there’s our public personae, filling out gummint paperwork, having multiple ID and licenses and certifications, being good little do-bee “citizens,” etc., and there’s the stuff we should be doing on the “dark side.”

  43. MrAtoz says:

    In the “can’t make this shit up” department: Obama blames David Cameron for the Libya mess. I guess we know who he will vote for in the upcoming Presidential election. I guess Cankles was just dabbling in Libya.

  44. OFD says:

    Yep, just dabbling, as in “We came, we saw, he died, haw, haw, haw…” so now we have something even better than Qaddafi there and what does it matter that her and her regime deliberately left their own people to be massacred by musloids at Benghazi.

    Sorta related:

    “Why, in the darkest days of the US military, say, as the British assault crested the earthwork at Bunker Hill, no doubt the defenders’ last thoughts as they were bayoneted were: if only we had some women here! As the Texans’ very bones were chilled by the deguello sounding across the San Antonio scrubland, they realized that they were doomed because they didn’t have a couple of female narcissistic careerist West Pointers (but we threepeat ourselves) to stack up against the thousands of Mexican regulars. And in the arduous retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in 1950, the lack of womens’ collaborative touch really made it hell. (Collaborative touch? You know, the one seen in every all-female workplace, and the kind you hear about when your lady friends and relatives tell you about their women bosses).”

    http://weaponsman.com/?p=29688

  45. Lynn says:

    You are a patient man. I hated stand the high-pressure selling, and certainly wouldn’t subject myself to it voluntarily.

    I did the seminar once and walked out when the high pressure selling started. I can’t take high pressure selling either, makes me want to kill someone.

    Looks like the Cruzers are really off the deep end, the whole top of Drudge this morning is about how Cruz is the anointed one, people laying hands on Cruz, holy visions, and speaking in tongues. I have said before and will continue to say, Cruz and his Cruzers are as bad a the moooslems just without the beheadings. Be afraid, be very afraid.

    The Holy Rollers (speaking in tongues) people annoy me. It is very clear in the NT that time has passed. To me, there is no difference between the snake handlers and the speaking in tongues.

  46. Lynn says:

    @Lynn: Four timeshares?

    Near as I can figure, he took on additional timeshares to upgrade his primary timeshare rather than pay the upgrade fee. He is a notorious skinflint after all and not as smart as he used to be.

    He tried to give one of them to his oldest daughter yesterday, the one with the outstanding $625 yearly fee. My wife asked her and she said “heck no”. So my wife grabbed his Discover card and paid the bill.

    My wife is going to try to sell all four timeshares on the various systems for $10 each. Maybe she will get a buyer. Or four.

    And, there are two one acre lots in Branson, Missouri that are costing him about $2,000 per year in property taxes and HOA fees. The wife is going to try to sell those also.

    Old people are complicated. Don’t do this to your kids, it is not fair.

  47. OFD says:

    Our best living historian on the political parties here; maybe this will illustrate a couple of things for our international readers, and some here, too:

    http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2016/April/40/4/magazine/article/10831205/

    Can you say “bag job?”

  48. brad says:

    “Old people are complicated. Don’t do this to your kids, it is not fair.”

    Pretty hard to avoid, I expect. As you say, mental faculties may not be working so well anymore. Add on to that simple pride, where you try to deny that there is a problem.

    Here, at least, there is a classic scam built on exactly this: Some young guy calls up an elderly person: “Hi, guess who this is?”. The goal is to get the name of a grandson out of the person, embarrass them for not recognizing your voice, and then claim to be in some sort of financial emergency where they need to loan you money. Maybe by wire transfer, maybe you have a friend you can send by to pick up the cash.

    It’s a one-in-a-thousand shot, of course. Like most scams, it works just often enough that they keep trying. It depends entirely on tricking older people with fading faculties, who won’t admit they have a problem. Pretty damned evil. I dunno how such slimeballs sleep at night.

  49. Ray Thompson says:

    Some young guy calls up an elderly person

    My mother in-law fell victim to the scam. Except the person that called knew the grandson’s name and a few personal details. Enough to convince my MIL that he was in jail in Mexico and needed money for bail to get back home. She lives in Texas as does her grandson so being in Mexico was not out of the question. She immediately went to Walmart, got one of the cash cards, and gave the person the the number when they called back. She lost $1,500.

    After she did that she called my wife and told her that her grandson was in Mexico and needed money so she helped out. Was proud of herself. My wife immediately told her it was a scam. She denied it and said it was real. So my wife had her call her son. Sure enough, the grandson was at home. My MIL was significantly embarrassed.

    We told her that if she ever gets such a call again to immediately call my wife or her son. MIL has trust issues so I was surprised she fell for the scam. But apparently the person was very convincing. Not her trust of people has fallen even further.

    I saw her tax returns for the last couple of years. She did them herself. She counted her entire social security as income and paid taxes on that amount. Of course the IRS never caught the mistake (they never catch mistakes in their favor). I offered to redo her taxes for the last three years and get some of her money back as to do this years taxes. She declined as she does not trust me, or anyone else, with doing her taxes. So she is now being victimized by the IRS.

  50. OFD says:

    “She declined as she does not trust me, or anyone else, with doing her taxes. So she is now being victimized by the IRS.”

    Sounds like it came from the Throw Up My Hands and Give Up Department.

  51. SteveF says:

    Unless I’m mixing up people and anecdotes (which has a high probability, I must admit), I wouldn’t have bothered making the offer in the first place. Hmm. Unless I could use the seemingly nice offer to make her descend even further into paranoia and overall misery.

  52. SteveF says:

    (But then, I’m a jerk and do things like that. It’s highly likely that Ray is less of a jerk than I am. I mean, what are the odds he’s worse, right?)

  53. OFD says:

    Ray’s a nice guy. You’re not. I’m not. There it is. What can ya do?

  54. SteveF says:

    We can help Ray see the world the way it really is. Shine a light on its flaws, as it were. Shine a FLASHLIGHT on the world’s flaws.

    Speaking of, we need to build a time machine. Diogenes walked around with a lit lantern in daylight, looking for an honest man. But lanterns are lame-ass. I’ll bet that if we send Ray back with a couple of FLASHLIGHTS, Diogenes will find his honest man in no time, and be able to sit down and take a load off.

  55. OFD says:

    Oh boy. Run that line about some character named Diogenes around pretty much anywhere in CONUS these days and see how many derps know who the eff he was.

    And lanterns won’t be lame-ass much longer.

    Speaking of daylight, y’all don’t forget to put yer clocks and suchlike ahead an hour tonight so we can lose an hour of sleep, which here is just dandy, as I gotta get wife to the airport in the AM for her gig in Denver. Guaranteed she’ll be rushing around in a panic at the last minute tomorrow and still forget stuff.

    After that, off to mass and the monthly potluck lunch; OFD is bringing a winter vegetable casserole, cold cuts, and rolls. And plans to load up like a big dawg. Then back here to prep for Tuesday’s interview for a state IT drone job again. Just doing it for due diligence and the wildly improbable chance that they’d hire me back.

  56. Ray Thompson says:

    It’s highly likely that Ray is less of a jerk than I am

    There are some days I could give you some stiff competition.

    Actually, it was my wife that offered to have me redo her taxes. I have learned that the old bag is a stubborn individual, was wrong once in her life but may have been mistaken about that. Thus having me redo them would prove she was wrong and that she could not tolerate. It is also in her daughters genes and demeanor from childhood training.

    we send Ray back with a couple of FLASHLIGHTS

    I’m in. Tell me where to install my flux capacitor, you find the DeLorean. OFD can come up with the plutonium.

    Ray’s a nice guy.

    Good grief, you are insane.

  57. OFD says:

    “OFD can come up with the plutonium.”

    OFD is WAY ahead of ya there; knew where it was, how to get it, and I’ve got it stored in some nice cardboard boxes in the attic. Say, what does that triangle symbol mean anyway? And I’m beginning to suspect a connection with the blue three-headed frogs showing up in the back yard.

  58. SteveF says:

    Compare

    I’ve got it stored in some nice cardboard boxes in the attic

    and

    Good grief, you are insane.

    Causation or mere correlation?

  59. OFD says:

    Both.

    But it’s great being able to see through walls.

    And really cool that I can see my own skeleton and remaining shrapnel.

  60. brad says:

    “Speaking of daylight, y’all don’t forget to put yer clocks and suchlike ahead an hour tonight so we can lose an hour of sleep”

    Ha. Proof that Europe has the more advanced civilization. We don’t have to shift our clocks for another two weeks…

    Seriously, you’d think they could synchronize this.

  61. OFD says:

    The bureaucratic bonzes in Brussels should form a committee and look into it.

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