10:22 – It was 57.2F (14C) when I took Colin out at 0645, with strong gusty winds and rain pouring down.
I took the last of the antibiotics 12 hours ago. No bouce-back so far, so they may have eliminated the infection. I’m still not eating much and, more worrisome, still not drinking much. Yesterday, I drank a total of about one liter. Normally, I drink three or four liters without even thinking about it. So today I’m forcing it. I’ve drunk half a liter of hot tea so far, and have a second half-liter sitting on my desk now. I’m going to try to drink at least two liters today, and three would be better.
Interesting email overnight from a long-time reader who’s a serious prepper. He and his wife are about the same stage Barbara and I are: steady-state prepping. Adding stuff to replace consumption, and perhaps a bit more to extend the amount of time they’re good for and to have extra stuff for friends and neighbors.
They made a big Costco run Saturday, and spent yesterday repackaging stuff in foil-laminate Mylar bags. They added 400 pounds of bulk staples, 24 liters of oil, a dozen or so cases of canned meats and vegetables, and various miscellany. Call it another full person-year of food.
As they sat there filling bags with oats or whatever, he found himself actually hoping that the shit WOULD hit the fan sometime soon, that the big cities would burn to the ground, incinerating the piles of bodies of progs and SJW’s and BLM’ers. And politicians.
Of course, he realized that those piles of bodies wouldn’t be made up exclusively of miserable excuses for human beings. There’d be a lot of collateral damage, including plenty of Normals and other innocents who just want to lead their lives.
He doesn’t want to see friends and allies die, or even neutrals. Just the scumbag lefties. But, as I pointed out, the only way to that end is for Normals to engage in retail destruction before TSHTF. Wholesale destruction isn’t selective.
There is a very strong sentiment that the only way back is ‘through the cleansing fire.’
Lot of “no more pussy-footing around just to have to deal with it again” type of feeling.
Once and done…
Of course, no one ever claims a past life experience as the second chamber maid at some roadside inn, or peasant farmer in a rice paddy, and none of the PA wish- fulfillment fiction has your wife and kids as slaves to the local warlord while your body lies cooling in a ditch, but that is the natural condition of mass man throughout history. Slave to the stronger, or scrape by in grinding poverty. Only under very rare conditions, and after severe depopulation (or by moving to a frontier) has there been the opportunity to live in the middle.
So I’ll prefer a slow decline to a fast one, thanks. And I won’t do anything to hasten the fire. But today, I see the fire on the horizon…
n
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-22/us-put-nuclear-bombers-24-hour-alert-first-time-26-years
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-22/trump-revises-sept-11-executive-order-recall-1000-retired-pilots
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/10/trump-right-seven-bombings-sweden-last-12-days/
“The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire… We don’t give a damn, let the mother f#cker burn!”
Meanwhile in France-
As they say on the interwebs, RTWT http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2017/10/europes-next-world-war-begins-in-france.html
n
Subbing again today. Damn asshole freshman. Disrespectful little assholes who apparently have not had any discipline in their younger years. It is frightful to think that these little scumbag cretins may someday be in positions of leadership. Ignorant, disrespectful, loud mouthed, un-motivated, jerks. A new welfare generation.
BTW, currently 72F with 46%RH and mostly sunny. Got a couple of inches of rain yesterday morning, and the front dropped temps dramatically.
Very nice out today.
n
Ray, next time you sub, bring in a roofing hammer and some big nails. The first time one of the little shits acts like a little shit, nail him by the wrists* to the upper part of the doorway. The rest will fall into line.
* Don’t put the nails through the palms. Ignore all the crucifixion fiction. If you support someone by nails through the palms, they’ll just rip through the flesh and the object lesson will fall on the floor and make a mess.
I dunno, Mr. Ray, but it sounds like your subbing days are causing some stress you may not need in your life. It sure would for me.
I’d also prefer a slow decline to Ragnarok but we may not get that choice. And I’d also advocate doing selective culling in the meantime, not necessarily lethal. Go after the enablers, but first be collecting the intel on them and your own particular AO. This could be crucial. There’s the point of the spear and then there are the bastards handing out the spears.
Beautiful day on the Bay again but very windy all night and currently.
Doing as much as I can downstairs today and then attempting to climb or rappel back up to do more stuff in here.
Princess took the dawg for the week, maybe two weeks, and that is a huge task I don’t need to hassle with now. The feeding, watering, getting down the back stairs and out to the yard and back up again? Very, very tricky, time-consuming, and potentially hazardous.
Wife just called from the road at noon; she’s in beeyooteeful Fairhaven, VT, and headed over to the Capital District in a black 2018 Camaro convertible. Had the top down this morning, but it’s up again now as it’s gotten overcast and cold down there, I guess. Going in late for her gig but the other instructor has it covered; they all do this for each other occasionally.
And now on to the day’s exciting activities. (slept in LATE).
….after first having a laff at the SteveF solution for Mr. Ray. Yeah, that would probably cause less hassle from the skool authorities than calling them names or dissing their cultural heritage.
(well-known historical fact about nailing through the palms, for probably a couple of centuries at least, but movies and suchlike keep showing the palms being nailed…)
From Local Meatspace Department:
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/rutland-firster-shows-it-is-possible-to-defeat-mayors-who-secretively-work-with-federal-refugee-contractors/amp/
Yes, it can be done.
but it sounds like your subbing days are causing some stress you may not need in your life
Not much stress, just annoying. If an individual gets too bad I just send them to the office. Sending one generally calms the rest of the little faggots down. Actually the job is fairly easy and is a way to pass some time and earn a little extra money.
first time one of the little shits acts like a little shit, nail him by the wrists
Doorways are metal framed with many rooms having cinder block walls. That would make nailing difficult. I suppose I could just drive the stake through the wrists and then arc weld the spike to the door frame. However, I suspect that would be the end of my subbing career and would instead encase me in a small metal cage.
Problem with the freshmen is that they are still children. Once they get to be juniors they mostly settle down, well most of them. The girls are the worst. Seems that unless they talk every 5 minutes they will explode.
A few of freshman boys, rednecks, act like jerks, no desire to be in school. In my personal opinion once they reach 16 if they don’t want to be in school, throw them out. For the most part they are perfectly happy to be laborers all their life. And probably damn good at it too. Fancy English and math skills do them no good and they know it.
I have a real problem with the push to get everyone to graduate. It wastes a lot of school resources and really does the person who wants to be a laborer no good. It harms the rest who want to learn.
Even more disconcerting is the push to get 100% of the graduates into college. Some just want to be welders, electricians, plumbers, mechanics, anything to work with their hands. They would be valuable assets to society using their manual skill set. But no, let’s let them waste two years of their lives in community college. That makes the education departments happy, such departments staffed by idiots who have never taught a day in their life and don’t understand that physical skills are as important as mental skills. A college educated engineer who designs something useful is going to need someone with fabrication skills to make it work.
MrsAtoz and I are in Palm Springs for a gig. She’s also getting the National Dropout Prevention Network “Crystal” award for her work with schools. I had to get a new suit since she said my current ones are too old. $900 later Men’s Wearhouse got it tailored overnight. Back to vest, jeans, bolo tie to sell books tomorrow. I added some “collar tips” to look Gay-ER!
Oh, I just found out Saturday that I am going to be a grand pappy. Seems to have aged me 20 years. Package is due in April, gender unknown. Will do the typical grand parent thing by spoiling the child then returning it to the parents. At least I will now have an excuse to buy, and play with, some of the neat toys they have today.
I promised my son I would not tell anyone so you all need to keep your mouths shut.
It’s obvious to anyone who knows how the body works that going through the palms wouldn’t work (unless the body weight was supported in some other way) but I’m not confident that “well known” is accurate among the general population. The general population is mostly dumbasses.*
Note also that people (allegedly) psychosomatic themselves into having crucifixion stigmata on their palms. It’s rare, but apparently still happens. These people apparently meditated on their crosses, not on their anatomy textbooks.
Movies also show people getting knifed in the heart with the blade being vertical, not horizontal. It’s obvious to anyone who knows how the ribs work that the knife would get stuck on the bone. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that movie makers are required or encouraged to show it this way to avoid showing people how to stab someone in the heart. Don’t care. Breaks suspension of disbelief. (Just like people being in explosions and flying through the air amazingly in one piece, or cars launching into the air and landing on their front ends and being able to drive right off, or …)
* Yah, I’m having a “people suck” day. This is pretty standard for Monday. And any days that end in “y”.
“A college educated engineer who designs something useful is going to need someone with fabrication skills to make it work.”
There it is. And someone to counsel them when they or their kids get back from our endless wars. (not necessarily a pro, just someone who cares and will LISTEN).
“I am going to be a grand pappy.”
Congrats, Grandpa! First time? I’ve been one for eight years, with two more to boot. Never see them, as they’re out in Kalifornia. Maybe when they move back to Vermont.
“I had to get a new suit since she said my current ones are too old.”
I gotta do that soon, too; we have half a dozen funerals pending in the next few years, I’m thinking. I got nothing. I’ve been the Visigoth in the sport coat and tie while everyone else looks like banksters.
Not to worry. I don’t even talk to myself.
Agreed. Make it available if they want it but don’t force them to go. Especially not at taxpayer expense.* And increase the vocational programs or else open up some kind of apprenticeship program for 16-year-olds.
* I’m opposed to taxpayer-funded schools in principle, but that’s a separate argument.
Some people are skillful, graceful, in control, and aware of their surroundings. This guy ain’t one of them.
Grandpa! First time?
Yep, did not think it was going to happen. Wife is ecstatic talking about trips every three weeks to Nashville, 150 miles each way.
increase the vocational programs or else open up some kind of apprenticeship program for 16-year-olds
Indeed. I can tell from many of these kids they would rather spend their days in shop and forego the math and English classes. Most are quite good with their hands and dropping a smooth weld bead is a matter of pride. Would rather spend their days honing cylinder walls on a diesel CAT than sitting through a class they consider worthless. Having them sit in math and English classes does a disservice to those that truly want to learn.
But the state and federal education departments have built themselves an empire on college admissions. They consider that a success metric. Most, if not all, of the honchos in these departments have never turned a wrench in their life and cannot understand why anyone would want to do so as a career. Most I would venture cannot even type with more than two fingers. Here is a clue; a good craftsman can make much more money than any person with a liberal arts degree.
A success metric should be helping students get into the career path they student desires. If that career path requires college, help them achieve that goal. If that career path involves a trade, help them get into trade school and OJT.
I am in English class today. The assignment is to create a wanted poster of a character in a novel. In other words drawing with crayons. How that is related to English is beyond me. This is not an art class as there is a specific class for art.
” How that is related to English is beyond me.”
I’m quite sure the regular teach or the skool admins can splain it to you. Or maybe they were trying to give you an easy, mindless day.
In any case, it’s yet another travesty when the kids probably can’t even read a novel, at least not one that was written before, say, their birthdays.
A college educated engineer who designs something useful is going to need someone with fabrication skills to make it work.
Fewer than you might think in the future. I was at the Maker Faire this weekend in Houston. There was a company there with a 3D printer that had a work area that was easily 3 foot on each size. There were small 3D printers that were $175. CnC routers and millers that were affordable. Add robots to the mix and you have automated assembly lines. But we’ll still need carpenters, mechanics, electricians and the like for quite a while.
You are not qualified to judge the didactic benefits of this activity because you do not have an advanced degree in Education. And you’re probably a Nazi.
My first wife had a job for a couple years as a middle school music teacher. Many of the day’s activities consisted of the students doing word searches while music played, or taking votes on whether they liked a particular piece of pop music. That latter might have been worthwhile if it segued into a discussion of composition techniques or marketing or anything, but that was never done. So far as I know, music theory was never taught in music class. Tax-funded babysitting at its finest.
Bought my first suit in 1979, my second (and last) in 1995. I like them in principle but can’t be bothered in practice.
Conga-rats Ray.
Our school district has 2-4-T as their goal. Every student gets into a 2 or 4 year college, or tradeschool or military program. Don’t think they’re tracking success in that, but just getting in is a start.
Course, our district is about 90% hispanic, 66% of our kids are non-english speakers, and 66% are below poverty level. Everyone gets free meals this year. Wonder what the venn diagram for hispanic, non-fluent, and poor looks like? O would be my guess.
At least they acknowledge that trades and AA degrees (medical schlub work) have value.
Not sure what percentage of those 90%’rs end up pregnant, but I’m betting it’s non-zero and not trivial.
n
Don’t worry about the numbers, Nick. Just relish the diversity and vibrancy.
Amusingly enough, in the past week I’ve heard two podcasts on diverse workforces, one business oriented and one math/stats/empirical data oriented. Both raised the question of the business benefit of pushing for a diverse workforce. Both failed to seriously address it — the business one almost immediately fell into a muddle of assertions with no case studies or other evidence and the math one did an impressive job of trotting out numbers without actually proving anything. Both podcasts came from the BBC, for what it’s worth. Probably a lot.
Diversity is our Weakness
One of the major problems that the USA is having is that we are a trust based society. To the vast majority of people, locks indicate where the boundaries are. To a minority, locks indicate that there are interesting things beyond the lock.
“Trust is essential for society to function — our civilization would collapse completely without it — and the fact that we don’t think about it is a measure of how well that trust works.”
https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2013/02/trust_and_society.html
Most of the immigrants until the 1960s respected that trust but since then we have welfare cheats, thieves, and violence in ever increasing amounts from the new immigrants in the last 50 years. We have “warehoused” many of them in prisons but we are running out of space now and few funds to increase the warehousing. And many of the easily impressed (weak minded) citizens have joined them in becoming trouble makers now.
The conversion from a trust based society to ??? is going to be tough. I really don’t want us to look like a third world country but I see no way to stop it. At least we will be the biggest and best armed third world country in the world, both individually and collectively.
??? = what do you call a third world country ?
We just need to export all of those third-world people back to where they come from.
And if their countries won’t take them back, then we declare war.
And drop the unwanted aliens on them from 15,000 feet.
See my previous comments about high trust and low trust societies, and the online research about the differences.
Hint, they can’t get along after the high trust society runs out of patience with their thieving neighbors.
n
See my previous comments about high trust and low trust societies, and the online research about the differences.
Hint, they can’t get along after the high trust society runs out of patience with their thieving neighbors.
Huh, maybe I stole that from you. Oh well.
One of the things being thieved right now is medical care. When one comes across the border, a pregnant mother gets a twofer; free medical care and USA citizenship for her baby. And if the baby has any problems, a payout from the hospital’s and doctor’s malpractice insurance.
This needs to stop. And right now as it is bankrupting us.
Ya gotta wonder what the percentage is, what with all our problems like the health care mess, immigration, wars, financial speculation, crime, etc., etc., how much of it is due to the incompetence and mistakes of a blundering failing empire allegedly too big to fail, and outright malice and plans underway for decades, with as yet undetermined goals. Global socialist utopia? Several billion mass die-off? Gigantic imperial banana republic?
I am pretty sure by now that we can forget about voting, elections and the Party system, despite the so-called national election of last year. Those days are coming to an end faster than we might suppose. Maybe it will continue for a while at local levels, in smaller cities and towns, but that whole national hot mess a year ago, twisted and manipulated ad infinitum by the MSM, ain’t gonna fly much longer. They’ve lied to us so much about everything under the sun that no one believes them anymore, other than the easily duped and the retarded.
Where will we all be by Xmas this year?
Xmas next year?
Five years from now?
It doesn’t look good.
I reckon we have at best that five-year window to get our ducks lined up, on many levels. It’s great to have mass stores of everything, but hooking up with neighbors and fellow Normals is gonna be CRUCIAL. None of us can go it alone.
Your humble northern correspondent has been picked up off the ground half a dozen times in the past month by strangers, mostly women. (couple of hotties, too). I read this as standing for the larger consideration we’re all gonna have to get busy on; not only picking up others, but willing to be picked up by them.
Among the considerations are showing the younger generation/s how to do stuff and how to think. They’re not getting it in the skool systems. RBT and Mrs. RBT are doing, and I hope they forgive me for saying so, God’s work down there. Blessings be upon them.
Meanwhile take a kid to the range and get him or her up to speed.
You are not qualified to judge the didactic benefits of this activity because you do not have an advanced degree in Education.
That be true for certain. I also don’t have a degree in advanced coloring book so I guess that also disqualifies me.
And you’re probably a Nazi.
I am a white male, close enough I guess.
But we’ll still need carpenters, mechanics, electricians and the like for quite a while.
I doubt they will have a robot that can crawl under my son’s house and redo the drain and water lines for quite some time. Remote control robot perhaps, but still needs a human operator.
When one comes across the border, a pregnant mother gets a twofer; free medical care
I know several mothers here who rape the system. Get pregnant by their boyfriend, don’t get married, have no job. Thus they get pre-natal, delivery, and pediatrician visits for free. Even though they are living with their boyfriend who has a good job, not getting married allows them to claim poverty and get all sorts of stuff at no cost to them. Welfare, rent assistance, food stamps (debit card), utility assistance, no cost medical, etc. Getting married would stop that cash cow. The female simply moves to her parents home for a month during the qualification period and can state she does not live with the father of the child.
Among the considerations are showing the younger generation/s how to do stuff and how to think. They’re not getting it in the skool systems.
That is so much the truth. Very few of the kids I have seen can think for themselves. Simple stuff like “I don’t have any paper, can you give me some?” even though the paper is sitting on shelf in front of their face.
Simple questions, where they have not been taught the answer, baffle the students.
Just today the person who is the counselor for the students made an announcement of “Will those seniors whose last names are A through M please come to the office”. I had no idea anyone had a last name of “AthroughM”. She is supposed to be the smart person but has no basic English skills.
English is the Master Language of the Universe. God speaks English. Don’t believe me? See the KJV Authorised Version, 1611.
If a person of whatever age anywhere in the world wishes to better himself or herself or zirshelf, they’d better tool up pretty well in it. Correctly. An accent is OK. I have an accent. But they better dahn well learn it good. I mean “well.” Haha.
Don’t gotta be some hyper-literate wiseass, just learn the grammar and spelling and read a lotta books by English people. Mainly. Some Irish and Murkan OK. From before you were born, preferably WELL before you were born.
When one comes across the border, a pregnant mother gets a twofer; free medical care
I know several mothers here who rape the system. Get pregnant by their boyfriend, don’t get married, have no job. Thus they get pre-natal, delivery, and pediatrician visits for free. Even though they are living with their boyfriend who has a good job, not getting married allows them to claim poverty and get all sorts of stuff at no cost to them. Welfare, rent assistance, food stamps (debit card), utility assistance, no cost medical, etc. Getting married would stop that cash cow. The female simply moves to her parents home for a month during the qualification period and can state she does not live with the father of the child.
I have no idea what the numbers are for legals / illegals having babies through welfare but I would not be surprised if the numbers are fairly equal. If we could get rid of the illegals then our expenses would drop significantly.
Of course, you know my opinion about Medicare. I think that we ought to extend Medicare to all citizens in the USA. And all citizens and their employers would pay 6% each of their gross pay for Medicare. At least I am hoping 6% each. It could be more like 8% each. Please not 10% each. And then OFD could go see a real doctor instead of the occasional doc-in-a-box at the VA.
I was eating lunch with one of my employees last week and we were talking about this. He is very much in favor of Medicare For All ™. He thinks that it would be cheaper for him with the stay at home wife and two kids as I do not help with the cost of dependent health insurance.
Sounds an awful lot like the people who were in favor of Obamacare, because they personally would benefit from it. Funny thing about socialism, though: eventually you run out of other people’s money.
Well this should thrill you.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453003/jane-doe-abortion-case-court-compel-hhs
Rand Paul tweeted
Well I survived the weekend (and the two months before). Just about every thing went off as planned. Honeymooners have arrived in Hawaii this afternoon. Mom and dad need the vacation.
daughter and new son looked pretty awesome
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxLWd_RKNPevVWFZX2kwQ0FGMDQ
and even some old man
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxLWd_RKNPevNDBDZEp1SHR0NWM
There was some talked here from a couple of days ago about boots. I made mention that my black ropers were about done after 10+ years. Knew I wanted new ones before the wedding. Daughter had given me a $50 gift card for Father’s day at Boot Barn. Now all my other pairs I’ve bought from local merchants like I usually do. In a rush on Friday I went by BB and picked up a new pair of black Jensen ropers. Get dressed Sat for the wedding and that left boots is sort of tight. Oh well needs to stretch. After about for hours felling pretty uncomfortable so I decide to change into another pair I had on that morning. Had to get my nephew to help pull it off and he says ‘Look at how narrow the top on the left is’. SOB I had only tried the right one which is 10EE. Left is 10D. Moral, stay way from the chain stores. No time today, take them back tomorrow.
Speaking of fucking chain stores, tux shop had to have them back yesterday so of course they close by six and I managed to get there by five with four to turn in. Lots of others there too. Slow computers, lack of help and one of the guys couldn’t find his hangers so he put the suit in the bag. They insisted I rehang it. At least the girl was pleasant so I manged to be also. Once again I wish they had gone local instead of that MW chain.
Congrats @dkreck ! The young man is lucky and he knows it !
I understand the boot issue all too well. I wear 11EE in Justin Ropers and 12D in running shoes. Some are loose, some are tight. The manufacturing quality is just not there any more (was it ever ?). I always check the size of shoes that I buy now, even the ones that I get from Amazon. You can’t trust anyone !
@dkreck. Yeah, people swap out boots between boxes to fit their differently sized feet, this happened once to me years ago at a Big 5. They were nice about it and let me exchange for a matched set.
The clerk is supposed to make sure you have a matched set at checkout…usually they don’t bother.
This guy thinks we’re headed for a shooting war with NK this winter:
http://www.snafu-solomon.com/2017/10/warhammer-news-trump-signs-executive.html
It *could* be a bluff by Trump – the essence of a good bluff is, after all, that it be indistinguishable from the real thing…
With a foot of A or B, I can neither buy boots at Boot Barn nor any other walk in retail store. Consequently, all my boots have been custom made. Arriving six or eight weeks after ordering, they have all fit perfectly.
I had no idea anyone had a last name of “AthroughM”.
Yo, dat was a hoot, Mr. medium. Fo real.
Boot Barn has hundreds of pairs of boots on long racks. You don’t get a box. I had the one boot and asked the girls for the other. Different clerk at checkout so two failures besides my own. Call me old fashion be I like to be waited on by smart competent people that know what to do. I guess it’s because that how I’ve always treated clients. Hey the customer is the one with the money!
Slim, I’m sure you get a great fit. At how many magnitudes of the $140 I paid? To my limited knowledge custom boots come at a premium.
Good point about shoes, though; I’m not a boot person, other than ski and snowshoeing boots and maybe some hiking boots, but they’re all lace-ups. I don’t wear pennyloafers, either.
But our feet change as we age, and mine sure have; the right one is effed up with a hammer toe and bunion and the big toe has slewed off to the right up against the hammer toe, which can’t be helping my balance on that leg. And from narrow feet as a kid, they’re now WIDE. So I’ll have to get mine custom-made from now on, just like the Jordan Trooper grips on revolvers. They want tracings of your hand and the EXACT model revolver.
And from the Continuing Insanity Department:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv_eOMyhtms
While they call US insane.
Classic projection.
More fun facts about the Clinton-Obummer Crime Families:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/10/23/7-uranium-one-facts-every-american-should-know/amp/
And None Dare Call It Treason.
Hmmm, got an email from an ebay buyer seeking a return. Says he only got one of 3 items purchased. All items were packed in the same box as the one he received. He doesn’t have a pic of the outer box, but does have a pic of some random box.
Seems REALLY unlikely to me that my box was opened and 2 of three items removed, then the remaining packed in a new box. From the pic he sent, he has a large and busy mail receiving area. Maybe it’s a scam, maybe he just misplaced half the shipment.
I guess we’ll see what his response to my questions about received packaging is. The total for the sale was $850 so I don’t want to just refund him. Particularly since the story is peculiar, and he has a funny name. (like he’s from a low trust society originally)
n
@Nick: That does seem…unlikely. Someone taking stuff out of your package wouldn’t have bothered sending anything on…
What does ebay do, if there’s a “he says, she says” between seller and buyer?
“Slim, I’m sure you get a great fit. At how many magnitudes of the $140 I paid? To my limited knowledge custom boots come at a premium.”
Roughly, two or three I estimate although it was about 15 years ago. However, one could check prices at White’s Boots or Drew’s Boots.
I was left with the decision to pay three times BB price or not have boots to wear at Buck Owen’s Crystal Palace. (Or, as they say on TV’s COPS: “I ain’t got no cowboy boots.”)
CowboySlim, who does buy shirts and jeans at his local BB.
The closest story I have is that I’ve refused to do business with people named LaShawn and equivalent except on a cash right now basis. No, I won’t do the job and then find you. No, I’m not interested in “trade”. No, I won’t take your girlfriend as payment.
I’ve mentioned that I hate people, right?
Sympathies for your LaShawn’s bullshit, Nick, and best wishes on an acceptable outcome.
I had to relight the pilot on my hot water heater this morning. Second time in a week after zero times in the 6 years since I bought the house. OK, probably just needs to be cleaned, might need to be replaced. That’s the easy part, my real dilemma is the water heater itself. It is a 6 year water heater and it was installed 12 years ago. Should I replace it prophylactically due to its age? Is the 6 year thing like the “best buy” date on my canned foods? I have don’t have any problems like drips at the heater or rusty water. I’m on town water and it seems to reasonably soft, i.e. low mineral content.
“What does ebay do, if there’s a “he says, she says” between seller and buyer?”
ebay almost always sides with the buyer. In theory, I have “sellers protection” but I’ve never tried to use it before.
Basically this guy is saying that somewhere in the UPS chain, someone opened a box, took out 2 of the 3 items, and then REPACKED the remaining item and sent it on. Which UPS would find comical at worst and VERY interesting at best. It’s possible he has simply made a mistake.
USUALLY, when I suspect fraud I very clearly and firmly detail what I did on my end. The specific details combined with my firm pushback generally results in either never hearing from the scammer again, or them “discovering” their mistake.
On a $40 item it’s not worth the time to hassle over it. For an $850 item, well, I’ll def spend the time on this one, esp since the guy beat me up on my asking price and I gave him a break to make a quick sale.
n
@JPL,
Two thoughts. If it’s actually failing it’s better to replace at a time of YOUR choosing, than Sunday afternoon, Thanksgiving weekend.
However, most of the time, it’s something very simple, like the thermocouple has failed. This is a DIY fix that costs <$20 and <10 minutes. If the thermocouple is in the pilot flame, and the flame won't stay lit, it's probably worth just changing the thermocouple to see if that's the problem.
If you've had high winds, it could be a backdraft blowing out your pilot light. Check that the cover is on your exhaust stack and not cockeyed or missing. High winds are of course temporary, and there might not be a problem at all.
My water heater was due for replacement 10 years ago, and is still working fine.
n
ADDED- might be prudent to start setting money aside specifically for a replacement, that way, if it does need replacing you are ‘prepared.’
ebay almost always sides with the buyer. In theory, I have “sellers protection” but I’ve never tried to use it before.
I once had EBay/PayPal reach into my bank account and refund a buyer, a pushy minority woman who was unhappy with my shipping turnaround (I clearly state three business days, but she b*tched 24 hours after paying). The transaction was small, less than $20, but, ever since, I keep EBay transactions on a skinny checking account without overdraft protection.
I end up in a Paypal dispute on about one out of every 750 or so kits we ship. To date, it’s always been because of non-delivery, and the destination has always been an apartment building in a large city. I send Paypal a copy of the tracking information showing that the package was delivered, and they settle the claim in my favor.
12-year old water heater – replace it now!
The heating cycles work-harden the tank and it will fail a little or a lot soon. Sure you can replace all the “hangy-on” stuff, but the limiting factor is tank age.
Water heater tanks used to be built like “tanks” but no more. Just another casualty of today’s mentality to build things just good enough to get through the warranty.
My plumber only installs heavy duty commercial grade items; from faucets/valves, sinks/tubs, to water heaters and more (if water or compressed air runs through it, they do it). The cost may be about double, but the lifetime and hassle-free-time is well worth it.
My electric hot water heater in Canberra failed after 25 years, my current gas system is 18 years old and going fine.
Water heater maintenance and troubleshooting:
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Troubleshooting/quick-fixes-to-water-heater-problems.html
Besides gunk in the tank, they tout regular anode replacement.
Flush the heater:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/05/05/how-to-flush-your-hot-water-heater/
General home maintenance checklist:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/10/08/keep-your-house-in-tip-top-shape-an-incredibly-handy-home-maintenance-checklist/
Replacement water heater costs skyrocketed in this upper Midwest and nearby states when new regs required licensed plumbers and permits were enforced. Price tripled from DIY…
EDIT: Seems pertinent:
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Longevity/inspecting-a-water-heater.html
Water heater as emergency drinking water:
http://www.waterheaterrescue.com/Longevity/emergency-preparedness-and-water-heaters.html
Sludge and aluminum heavy water in the tank are not thought about when advocating emergency drinking water from the hot water tank.
It is a 6 year water heater and it was installed 12 years ago. Should I replace it prophylactically due to its age?
Yes. This is the first of many problems.
When I bought the current house five years ago, I replaced both water heaters since they were not producing much hot water. Both water heaters had over 100 lbs of silt in them and were 10 years old. The plumber brought a 6’6″ weight lifter with him to get them down the attic stairs.
“The plumber brought a 6’6″ weight lifter with him to get them down the attic stairs.”
That used to be me. OK, 6’5.” But I once carried a washing machine on my shoulders up a narrow three flights of stairs in an apartment building (no elevator). I’ve also lifted up car rear-ends when someone was changing a tire. But all that was a million years ago.
O how the mighty have fallen!
Repeatedly.
I’ve also lifted up car rear-ends
Now you can’t lift your own rear-end.
O how the mighty have fallen!
Getting old is not for wimps.
I can lift my own rear-end off a chair but not off the ground, not without help. Usually from strangers so fah, too. Women. I love women! They of course didn’t realize how big I was and I almost pulled them down on top of me. That would have been….interesting….
Yes, getting old is not for wimps. And I’m learning stuff I otherwise would not have, I guess.
Spending this lovely overcast and very windy afternoon talking with VA medical people on the phone. Looks like yet another MRI for me and probably subsequent surgical consults with neuro and ortho people down in Hartford or Boston. Wife will be in NZ and Kalifornia for a week to ten days, however, so I will have to see how I will manage the transportation. I can drive OK and the walker helps, but getting it in and outta the car and through non-automatic doors (at medical centers!!!) is an adventure. As is simply walking now.
Skipping the Planning Commission meeting tonight; it’s windy as hell outside and I’m too liable to tip over and not get up again. Pathetic.
“The plumber brought a 6’6″ weight lifter with him to get them down the attic stairs.”
That used to be me. OK, 6’5.” But I once carried a washing machine on my shoulders up a narrow three flights of stairs in an apartment building (no elevator). I’ve also lifted up car rear-ends when someone was changing a tire. But all that was a million years ago.
Life sucks. Then you die.
BTW, the plumber had a neat trick for carrying the silted water heaters out of the attic. He put three nipples and two 90 degree elbows into the hot and cold water ports in the water heater. That formed a really neat handle for mr. weight lifter to walk the old heaters down the attic stairs.
BTW2, I repalced the water heaters “early” since they were totally silted up and in my attic. I just don’t want to have a water heater totally fail in the attic like my parents did and lose a lot of insulation and sheetrock.
I can drive OK and the walker helps, but getting it in and outta the car and through non-automatic doors (at medical centers!!!) is an adventure.
One hopes that you have one of the handicapped placards that allow you to park in the extra wide spaces close to the entrance of the building. At least if you fall there, you might not hit the car next to you. And more people to rush to help you.
Dadgum, it is tough to maintain a positive outlook on your condition. I’ve been dealing with people close to me falling for the last 7 or 8 years. It is always a dicey situation, especially when they are large people. And, when yours truly falls also (I took a dive earlier this year when I missed stepping up on a street curb, very embarrassing).
Yep, falling in public, esp. on cement and asphalt, is always interesting. I’m pretty good-sized, larger than average, actually, and I have long legs, which are great when you’re upright but not so much fun when they don’t work trying to get back up.
The placard thing is on hold right now, because my brilliant PCD figures that due to my numbing right leg, I shouldn’t be driving. As I have explained to her and others countless times by now, I’m OK sitting down and driving in a car; the leg works fine then. It’s when I try to put weight on it standing or walking and it only works intermittently. NOT pain, damn it, paralysis! So they’re supposed to call me back in the AM with the info on the MRI and the placard.
I will even drive myself to it if the MRI is at my first choice, the UVM Med Center just 30 miles down the road in Burlap. If they schedule it at the White River Junction VA Med Center, that’s 130 miles each way, and if wife is gone and can’t do it, I’ll do it and use the walker and hang around until the sedatives wear off. Or get the VA shuttle down to it and back, maybe. Meet and greet new peeps in meatspace.
Positive outlook is difficult some days here; easy to get depressed and wicked frustrated. But that passes and I get busy with something or other. Like exciting Salesforce.com classes online; I moved from walking perimeters and street beats to being inside big-ass data centers and now I’ll be an inside clerk/drone for a while with this stuff, Winblows dropdown boxes and check marks in the Cloud. I’ll work from home remotely or at most, within ten miles of the house, otherwise forget it. And I hope I’m gonna be OK to go back to school in January, or the summer sessions, or at worst, next fall.
Let’s hope I don’t fall on my ass tomorrow getting to the VA appointment with the PT guy, who is leaving next month for a new gig out in Tuscon, AZ and he will be badly missed. Then I hope to be able to hit the store briefly and check the mail. A huge day for me, might not make any of it.
Wife will be home Friday night and then leave again next Wednesday for the first two weeks of November, home for a week, and then gone for another week. Nothing scheduled for December yet other than coaching calls for other national trainers over the phone and/or Skype at $150 per call, even if the call is only fifteen minutes, and she’s probably gonna end up doing anywhere from 40 or 50 to almost all of them, around 80 altogether.
Just watched “The Wrecking Crew” on Netflix, per recommendation of Mr. ech, and it was great. The soundtrack of our lives, or at least my early life up through my twenties. There’s another great documentary out there on Motown:
http://www.standingintheshadowsofmotown.com/
Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBzuNZ9DlnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyLHePYlEik
Re: water heaters
Have you not heard of an appliance dolly?
http://www.washingtonequipment.com/site2/shop/appliance-dollies/yeats-appliance-dolly/
I have my dad’s. 70 years old, rugged as hell, has stair treads. ratchet web straps and aluminum frame.
Lynn why didn’t that plumber add a pan and drain? I think nowadays that’s required by code. It can just drain out the wall like the safety valve.
Lynn why didn’t that plumber add a pan and drain? I think nowadays that’s required by code. It can just drain out the wall like the safety valve.
My water heaters did already have pans and drains. My parents had a pan on theirs also. But the tank split on their water heater and overflowed the pan. So, the pans are only good for small leaks.
Okay I guess the damn things belong in a garage or outward facing closet.
Okay I guess the damn things belong in a garage or outward facing closet.
Except in the special circumstance where your house is being flooded by rising water. My brother had a friend along Brays Bayou get flooded in TS Allison. His friend stored gasoline in the garage which the rising water hit first. Gasoline is lighter than water and then the rising water hit the water heater pilot light. Whoosh ! First the house flooded and then it burned down. The wrong order of things for insurance purposes unless one has flood insurance …
All our heating/water infrastructure is in the 185-year-old cellar, most of which has the concrete floor but half of the walls are stone. Low ceiling for hobbits; I have to mostly duck a lot down there and still manage to whack my noggin regularly. We need to assess all our chit down there according to the building inspector’s report from five years ago and make some changes/improvements, most likely.
Gonna abandon the whole-house generator idea, though. If the power goes out for a week or two, we could still manage OK. If it’s out longer than that or permanently, we’d run outta fuel for it anyway at some point; no space here for storing drums of gas or tanks of propane. Get used to life again as it was here around 1900. And maybe work with somebody locally to bring back steam and water power.
That money will be better spent on upgrading the porch to a three-season deal with new back steps/landing and railing; the windows and shutters that haven’t been replaced yet; and really securing about half a dozen doors with hardware and locks.
Speaking of security, wife planted four more rose bushes against the front of the house under the windows. And it rained hard a few times today so good timing on her part.
I’d eventually wanna put ballistic coatings/sheets on the ground-floor windows and have sturdy plywood cut and standing by in the cellar for them if things get too sporty around here.
We also need to get a manual pump installed on the well, alongside the current one, and I’d like to find some way to protect the whole deal out there, alongside the house by the driveway in plain sight.
Many, many things to do here and I’m not gonna get to them this week. I’ll do what I can when I can and meanwhile during the colder weather, work on the cellar and attic spaces again. Sitting down mostly, I guess.
SteveF writes: “I’ve mentioned that I hate people, right?”
I’m getting there, definitely getting there. I was wondering earlier whether I could stop assuming “incompetence” and go directly to “malice”. Yep, it sure looks like it. Unfortunately, not being the type to take direct action like SteveF, this now means attorneys. Hopefully only writing letters and not going to court, but time will tell.
Re waterheaters: Our unit is ancient – must be nearly 40 years old. We have the gunk cleaned out of it every five years or so (really hard water), but it keeps chugging along. Of course, it’s in the basement, so any failure won’t be more than a mess. The only thing I don’t understand: two of the rooms in the basement have drains. The water heater is not in one of those rooms. Huh?
Thanks for the water heater advice, guys. I’ve decide to be safe rather than sorry; I’ll be replacing the water heater. I think the only reason it has lasted 2X the rated lifetime is that the water quality is good and low usage (just me and my girlfriend, no kids. Before I bought the house just a little old lady living alone).
Since this is a non-emergency situation so I can take my time and do some good research.
Unless they die of their own stupidity, people eventually embrace the Tao of SteveF.
@OFD – the “handicapped/disabled” placard does not require you to be the driver, you just have to be in the car, a passenger. So tell your PCD the he/she/it is full of it and fill out the form.
Be sure to get 2 or more placards, just in case one gets lost. In WA State 2 hanging placards and 1 set of license plates are “free”, you can get extra placards for a small fee.
the “handicapped/disabled” placard does not require you to be the driver, you just have to be in the car, a passenger.
I used my Mom’s placard all the time when I took her to appointments and shopping. It is explicitly allowed. Sometimes if the handicapped spot wasn’t convenient to the store (a real problem in strip centers), I would drop Mom off and wouldn’t park in a handicapped spot – even though Mom suggested it. I’d leave those to the handicapped.
Thanks for the water heater advice, guys. I’ve decide to be safe rather than sorry; I’ll be replacing the water heater. I think the only reason it has lasted 2X the rated lifetime is that the water quality is good and low usage (just me and my girlfriend, no kids. Before I bought the house just a little old lady living alone).
Since this is a non-emergency situation so I can take my time and do some good research.
Be sure to get the old analog controlled water heater(s). They are more attic temperature insensitive.
The two water heaters that I bought in 2013 are digitally controlled using a thermoelectric power source. One has failed and been replaced with a analog controller. The other is still rocking along. Go figure.