My birthday’s coming up. Just throwing this out to the universe.
And now the big hoorah on Nextdoor is someone reporting a sidewinder at the post office next town over.
There are no sidewinders in the high desert. Even if there were, it wouldn’t be hanging out in a post office, it would be somewhere with food. I highly suspect a small insect eating snik was hanging around for the bugs that are attracted to light but now we will spend at least a month telling folks to leave the danged sniks alone because we need them to keep the fucking kangaroo rats down.
I question that. Barstow and Daggett are in the high Mojave Desert, and I know from personal observation that there are sidewinders in the Mojave Desert.
Holy Jesus FUCK one of the local high schools had their graduation tonight (couple of guys showed up in their gowns & square hats!) and we were SUH-LAMMED had to call in reinforcements for a couple of hours.
I’ll scroll back up and re-read at some point. I may hafta crash soon, though.
Remind me to tell y’all about the silly idjit who didn’t like her pizza, and didn’t get her money back & also went home with an empty tummy. Later. For now: kitty snuggles, a smoke, and sleep.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. I had a piece of cheese for a pre work snack, and Spot wanted some. He ate it Tootsie Pop style
< lick >
< lick >
< lick >
< CHOMP >
Nextdoor here is danger noodles, coyotes and sketchy looking foxes
Flyboy, how about a 38mm socket for your birthday?
Happy birthday, Herald!
Be back later…got to irk!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 58 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 80 and N.O.S. for the day. I shall take care of a few errands this mornin’. After that high sloth and general overall uselessness shall rule the day. I shall throw a small beast roast into the slow cooker along with some peppers, onion, and 'shrooms. This will get turned into my version of Philly cheesesteaks, which along with oven fries shall be sup. This will be the heighth of productivity for me today.
And now this…
< AHEM > CLEARIN’ THROAT < AHEM >
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRR HHHEEERRRAAALLLDDD!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAYYY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Thursday Y’all!
I got close to 8 hours of slumber - woohoo!! It’s a windy, cool, overcast morning and not supposed to get much warmer thru the day. I may wuss out and just take the kids straight home after I get Roxy. Besides, their neighborhood is right across the street from Aldi and I need my 12-grain bread!
Laundry will definitely get laundered today. Tobias can have the run of the basement and maybe I can put things in some semblance of order down there.
MIL has been going on about getting a love seat/small sofa. This is her apartment layout. Right now, there’s a desk and chair, 2 recliners, 3 end tables, a small dining table with 2 chairs, a tea cart, and a half-round table that FIL built, not to mention 2 floor lamps. I have no idea where she’d put said sofa, let alone why. She’s not up to entertaining, even if she had the space and the furniture.
BUT, as it happens, we have a loveseat recliner that we were going to move to the basement, so I suggested to FCD that we offer it to her before she goes out and spends $2K or more (apparently nothing less than LaZBoy will do.) Tho what he should do is cut out a cardboard footprint of a loveseat to show her how much space it will take. Or better yet, stack together enough boxes to give a sense of the volume it would occupy.
OK, gonna spoiler this because I’ll just be whining and I want you to feel free to skip it.
Not looking for hugs here (absolutely not - truly) - FCD’s brother in Texas is not doing well at all. He’s the one who ignored his diabetes and ended up on dialysis, developed heart issues, then got Parkinson’s, and now has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He’s been in the hospital for a week with hallucinations to the extent that he often doesn’t know his wife. I never particularly liked this brother (I know I’ve bitched about him before) and frankly, the best thing for all concerned would be if he’d quietly pass. He’ll never get better and he’s been on dialysis so long, I understand it’s about to the point where it could stop being effective, considering all his other issues. And his wife is older than I am - I think she’s 75. Poor woman has been supporting his lazy ass for at least a decade, and now she’s been his full-time nurse for the last 3 or 4 years. I know she’s pissed at him, too, for not listening to his doctors years ago.
Anyway, just needed to vent that mess. Plus FCD is dealing with enough crap without this on top of it. His mom is, naturally, still grieving for her husband and she’s about to lose a son. At least she was able to go to Texas and see him a couple of months back when he was still occasionally lucid. Nope, getting old ain’t for sissies.
On the plus side, tomorrow we’ll be taking our boat back to its slip. I can finally get started on my various scrubbing/waxing/painting chores, not to mention some more teak stripping. I figure that should occupy the better park of June weekends. Then on Tuesday, it goes to get its fuel tanks flushed and cleaned - with luck, it’ll just be a 2-day evolution. So lots of fun ahead! No, that wasn’t tooooooo sarcastic. 
For now, tho, I need to empty the dishwasher of the dishes I washed yesterday, then start refilling it before the kidlet arrives.
Happy Herald Day!!
Happy Thursday!!
Nope, clear skies. But right after the generator kicked in there were a lot of sirens heading down our street. Maybe someone piled into a power pole.
Morning all. When I woke up I thought I had slept in until 8-9am; nope, it was 6:15, but it still was nearly 8 hours so I am up and (mostly) alert, another day with nothing much on the agenda, will go and sweat at the gym (and Ye Gods I sweat A LOT pedaling that bike to nowhere) and see what else there is to be done. At least I can haz cheeseburger today. Weather is supposed to be nice and 84F.
Happy Birthday Herald!!
JtC, I guess I need to look if we have a Nextdoor in the neighborhood (think so). Looks like it could be free entertainment…
shoe, you really should put some of your work stories in the Not Always Right (https://notalwaysright.com) archive… Looking forward to your tale.
FCM, vent away. I worry about my brother sometimes, he’s very smart but grossly overweight and has had a couple health problem already; one reason I’m trying to watch my weight is not to end up with his issues. But any suggestions are met with stubborn anger, so I’ve pretty much quit trying. And the footprint idea is a good one, hope it convinces her.
doggio, so the Hurricanes were blown away??
His name isn’t Peter but any chance, is it??
Cookie, hope the power is back.
Pilot, that wedge salad sounds intriguing. But ranch dressing for me.
OK, need to break my fast and do the rest of the morning internettin’, so all y’all have a good Thorsday.
Mornin’, kids! I am… Very tired and don’t particularly want to be at work today. I miss my old library, where there were other librarians that I loved and who loved me, and lovely picture books to read, and lots of people with questions mundane or occasionally interesting. Here it’s all… Procedural, I guess, just maintenance kind of work. And I don’t even have money to buy books yet, which is the part I really love.
I feel really shitty about wanting to jump ship after only having been here six months, especially since they’re all so over-the-moon to have me here, but… I’m really unhappy. I haven’t heard back from that one job, which is a little unexpected - I didn’t expect to get the job, but I at least expected an interview. I put a couple more applications out. At least makes me feel like I’m doing something.
Happy birthday, Herald!
Metal Mouse, I’m bewildered that you think 84 degrees is “nice weather!” Anything over 75 is too warm in my book, and I’m cheesed that things flipped from cold to hot so quickly up here.
Shoe, I very much do want that story. Customer-service-karma is always a vicarious delight.
Moooom, that’s a lovely boat, but I’d much rather have a sailer.
I agree!
If for some bizarre reason I were to want a beer, I’d buy one at the packy and drink it at home. Much cheaper that way.
I have long believed that sunrise is something that should only be seen on TV or the movies, or read about in books – not experienced in person. I can’t sleep past 0900, though, because Angel comes and stands on me to ask for demand her morning glop.
You get 'em anyway. {{{{FCM}}}} Redistribute as appropriate.
That sounds like permission to build another one, for indoor use. 
Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone!
Breakfast will be pork chops (Lady SCAdian prefers to have her big meal for the day before going to work). I’ll have my leftovers from last night somewhere around midafternoon, and then a snack before bed.
No real plans for the day other than a walk and watering the gardens. Should try to get the lawn mower out of the shed and do something about the yard without disturbing Fluff and the kittens too much. (Two of the kittens – the black-and-white and one of the four black ones – left for new homes yesterday.)
That would be nice, but we don’t have anywhere to put it. If I ever do build a coffee table (50 inches, not 60, and 12-inch legs instead of 26-inch legs), I’ll have to find the right wood. The hemlock I used for the crosspieces is nice, but I think all-oak would be good. The trouble is the dimensions. The hardware store only had pine slats and some nicer slats, but both were about a quarter of an inch wider than original. The oak face boards were about a quarter of an inch wider than original too, but that’s OK. It’s the slats that would have to be the right width. I wonder if an actual lumber yard could provide 1.25-inch wide oak slats instead of 1.5-inch ones, and how much they would cost?
In other news, and I’m pretty sure this is a thing that’s been around a while but it’s fun to share it again…
- Type ‘cat’ (or ‘dog’) into google.
- Click on the paw print on the right, by the images.
- Click around the page.
Happy Thorsday all! Got some catchin’ up to do here.
Happy Herald Day!!!
Hope these are more reliable than the official USAF Timex they issued me back in the day. Of which this is a knock-off.
I’m not hard on watches. In my 1 year at pilot training I went through 5 of them. As plain and basic of a mechanical watch as can possibly be. They all just quit working. I’ve worn a basic black plastic $20 Casio digital ever since. I’m wearing it now. Those at least last 2-3 years for the band and 8-10 years for the watch.
Sounds yum! I make something similar I call a “pot roast sandwich”. Serve open face over a thick slice of grilled French bread. Akin to garlic bread but without the garlic spread. Just don’t try to pick it up; it’s definitely a knife & fork sandwich, not a hand sandwich.
My late aged MIL had the same issue. She subconsciously wanted to own the same piece count of furniture in her 1 bedroom Independent Living apartment as she had had in a 3 bedroom house with two dining rooms. She’d gotten rid of 90% of the old furniture, so it wasn’t a matter of keeping her heirloom treasures. It was just that she could imagine an entertaining scenario where she’d need a sideboard or whatever. So she had to have one, whether it fit or not.
She was using a power chair by then and after getting stuck between couch and second couch and table a few times too many she began to admit that less was more when it came to furniture. I think your MIL will learn the same lesson the same way. But not before.
As to idiot BIL, your attitude is exactly right. Idjits gonna idjit; shame what that does to the folks who love them. {{hugs}} to you and whoever else anyhow.
Said another way, the boat wIll be ready for use about 2 weeks before first frost. Then you can start the prep work for hauling it out for the season. 
Me too. I’ve never worked a true direct customer service job, but I love watching a good Chad or Karen being served a heaping helping of karmic payback. Beeyotches.
As to me.
Twas semi-late on Wed eve when I started for bed because it had been an early getup that morning. Tomorrow = Thu was an off day, but with no realistic expectation of overtime. Aaah, to enjoy a long slumber followed by a lazy getup and some extended balconating.
I’d barely gotten horizontal and lights out when my phone delivered news of overtime kinda-early Thu morning. Hooray for money, sorry about any hope of extra sleep or a lazy day.
The problem with volunteering for overtime is once they give it to you, you’re stuck with it. No take-backs or do-overs. You can manage which times of day you’re willing to volunteer for, but the fussier you are the less you’ll get. I find being a total 'ho pays better and rarely backfires badly.
So I sleep quick, arise as late as possible, shevel fast, & grab snax to eat while rocketing down the freeway to irk well before rush hour clots. Get there just in time.
The 7pm flight to Austin last night had not happened for some reason unknown to me, and now we 6 replacement crewfolk where going to make it happen at 7am. Many empty seats and those with people in them were none too happy. If they were awake, which most weren’t really. Sleeping customers are by far the FA’s favorite kinda; extremely low maintenance.
I’d worked with the FO and one of the FAs before; good folks. Off we pushed and of course had a minor malfunction right after engine start. Not a problem we needed to quit for, but we do need to go through a process with HQ to document the problem & get approval to continue in degraded mode. That’s 15 minutes well-spent sitting out on a taxiway burning fuel. Not.
Anyhow, we get these poor long-suffering folks into the air & drone over to Austin under sunny if occasionally bumpy skies.
After landing a couple of our important computers quit and did not self-reboot per normal. Which had no consequence for taxiing, but meant the outbound crew & flight was screwed until whatever was wrong was fixed. Some days I just leave a trail of busted airplanes behind me wherever I go.
We then had about 2 hours in the AUS airport before we’d all ride home together. These sorts of screwed-up trips where we’re picking up part of the wreckage of somebody else’s messed-up work involve a lot of riding in the back. I’d told the crew I’d buy lunch wherever they wanted. AUS has a couple of very tasty BBQ joints and some gourmet sandwich places too. Decent craft tacos as well.
Of course, we’d all been up since 4am-ish and had long ago eaten whatever passed for our ideas of breakfast. So when we got to AUS we were more than ready for lunch. But was only 9:15am their time. All the good BBQ joints were selling bulk scrambled eggs, bacon, & frozen homefries. Uggh.
After patrolling the whole damn airport, all 35-ish gates, we settled on a hamburger joint. Akin to Johnny Rocket’s but not them. They were the only place not selling breakfast as it approached 10am. Oh well. A bit to my surprise that turned out to be a good choice. I had one with cheese, grilled onions, bacon, jalapenos, and avocado. This bein’ Texas 'n all, they ain’t small neither. With steak fries. Big 'uns. Of course.
We’d been walking quickly while hungrily eying all the eateries on the way to lunch. Now with 6 folks well-fed we lumbered lazily towards our gate, mentally prepping to nap in a French-fry-fueled carb crash.
Of course the plane was late arriving. At least that meant we hadn’t had to rush our burger chomping. Awfully thoughtful of the inbound crew to think of us like that.
We’re now winging our way across Texas heading back to FL.
I have a USGI Stocker & Yale ‘Sandy’ watch that I bought about three decades ago.
I like having a watch with a nuclear trefoil on the face, and DISPOSE OF RAD WASTE on the back. 
The watch still works, though I rarely wear it. The only thing is the tritium on the hands and numbers seems to have become depleted. Mine seems to have the painted-on tritium markings of the 184 watches, rather than the tritium capsules of the 490 series. (I have the box… somewhere.)
There’s a picture of my dad’s squadron in one of his cruise books, I think for USS Philippine Sea during the Korean war when he was still enlisted, and he’s wearing his leather G-1 flight jacket. He said he’d worn out three of those. He’d wear one out, then get issued a new one. That made me envious, since as a civilian, my G-1s were expensive.
Niner, you’re newer here, so you probably don’t know that I lived in Abu Dhabi, UAE from 1999-2003, where 84F is considered 'a nice cool day". Summer temps there usually got to 115F-120F and seldom cooled down below 85F at night. And N. Ali-bama is usually in the 90’s from June until September. So 84F really isn’t too bad…
And as for your job, be happy others think you are doing well and keep your eyes and ears (and resumes) out.
Pilot, love your stories of the road/sky. Glad you got them to Texas finally.
Well, I was going to make two quick stops and head to the gym. Ended up making 6 stops and need a bit of rest before heading back out. Did make it worth my while, picked up a pair of gym shoes at Wal-Mart, they were marked at $29.88 each, which seemed fair, but when I scanned them in, the system came back with a $7 price! Had the guy at the self-checkout double check it then went back and got a second pair, at that price they can sit in my closet for awhile. Also had two double-cheese Krystals (like White Castles) and a coke for my mid-day meal, so now I have a reason to burn calories. Probably head off to the gym here in the next 1/2hour.
Because SSLAW #2 was down, and half the people didn’t show up today.
HAPPY TOWEL DAY!!!
Google photos showed me 20 shots of Gordie with his towels, since he was the hoopy-est of Froods.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERALD!!!
Swept away, in fact.
After 25 years in retail,
Goes to Flight Aware, adds Pilot’s tail numbers to my “no fly” list >
Back when my prior employer was first getting a new type of jets I was one of the very first pilots on the nascent fleet.
In the beginning we only had 4 of them. One day I hard-broke two of them. Nothing I did wrong; I just touched them last when they went kaput.
Which meant for the next 3+ days one half of the airline’s entire fleet of that type was in the hangar solely due to me. I got a (mostly) joking call from the Boss asking me to take it easy on the other two.
OTOH, like I told the folks on Sunday: This is by far the most screwed up workday I’ve had since a snowy day in NYC back in January. Like everything else, it runs in spurts.
I mean, I spent right about 32 years in SoCal, 110-115 in the summer wasn’t at all uncommon… And I never ever liked it. XD
I was woken up shortly after dawn by someone repeatedly calling my cell. It was a friend who works with the local Food Bank (one of the few paid employees) He was in a panic because their refrigerated semi had broken down on the I17 this side of Black Canyon and he needed people to go get food before it went bad. (the trailer was on a frontage road, he didn’t want us all stopping on the interstate for some free bread.)
I called everyone I knew who was home and then got dressed and went myself because he had promised me that I didn’t have to take anything but the goat milk he had put aside for me.
Annnnddd…he lied. I keep thinking that because he’s part of a church group that I should be able to trust him but he does this all the time and I never learn. While he was distracting me with five gallons of fresh goat milk, his cohorts filled my trunk and back seat with boxes of produce, bread and frozen chicken.
I’ve blanched 4 heads of cauliflower and it’s spread out on cookie sheets in the freezer now. I’ll vacuum seal dinner sized servings tomorrow.
I’ve got onions drying in the oven and more tomato paste on the stove. I was able to give away most of the carrots, potatoes and bananas but nobody wanted the flat of bell peppers because we had all gotten so many yesterday.
I think I’ll break out the dehydrator for them, dried bell peppers keep well and can be used for cooking.
You are right, I was unclear. There are no sidewinders this high desert, which is very different than the Mojave.
There is no home mail delivery in Mayer, folks have to go to the post office to get their mail. A lady and her son, who had recently moved to the country from Phx went to get their mail around 1930. There are no street lights in Mayer, so the post office was really the only lighted place in the area. Bugs are attracted to light. Snakes are attracted to bugs. The snake got inside the post office and was doing its thing when the lady and son walked in. Snake said “Oh, noes! Run and hide” so slithered under a door. The lady panicked and called 911. The fire department came out and looked around but didn’t find anything. Snake has probably learned its lesson about being in buildings and is back out in the wild where it belongs.
Vent away, it is indeed a mess for everyone involved.
Awwwww!!!
Once, many years ago, my commute to work took me by the local college (not sure if that has anything to do with this story but there it is). One day, which just happened to be 5/25, I’m driving to work and traffic suddenly backed up and I started hearing horns and shouting.
Half a block up the road was a very nice looking young man standing on the side of the road with his thumb out. He was wearing sneakers, a towel and a big smile.
T’was grand!
Oops, buzzer went off, time to stir the maters.