Thursday, September 30, 2021
Only You
I was wrong to think the western wildfires were caused by bad forest management.
It's because of arson. By Greenies.
And that lady isn't the only one, lately. A whole plethora of people have been picked up for being firebugs. It's shocking they CAN catch these folks. How hard is it to NOT get away with lighting a fire. Go to a remote area with no one around, light and get away. And keep your mouth shut about it.
"Less than 10 per cent of wildland fires are caused by arson – the criminal act of deliberately setting a fire. The other 90 per cent are due to lightning strikes and other human activity such as equipment failures, vehicles or reckless behavior."
Keep this up and it will be 20%.
But Smokey Bear would be SO disappointed.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Haven't heard about...
So, it's in the news. YOU have heard about it. New York state fired medical workers that didn't get vaxxed. I'm not surprising you with anything.
Which is odd if you ask me.
They are being replace by National Guard workers. Not all the military has been vaxxed yet, so futher oddness.
Anyway. Nurses. Physician Assistants. Even Switchboard Operators. But what I haven't heard about is doctors. Did they not fire unvaxxed doctors? Kinda curious. Maybe they don't want doctors to get upset for some reason. They'll report 'medical workers' and doctors are covered in that, but no one interviews a Doc, asking him about why they aren't vaxxed.
Curious.
And is it spelled vaxed or vaxxed?
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Ah, wait, I see:
A federal judge last week gave a reprieve to 17 health care workers, including doctors, nurses, therapists and medical residents who sued the state, extending a temporary restraining order for enforcing the mandate against them until Oct. 12.The reprieve only applies to them 17, not the rest of the healthcare workers in the state. But it looks like doctors are impacted, they are just shy of reporters, I guess.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
You know why I left the Navy?
This was in the way-back before times. I was a PT slug. My physical fitness was less than the standard. And the military was drawing down after the cold war so a retread from Pensacola Florida didn't automatically go to Newport Rhode Island. They just got gone.
This guy.
That guy didn't meet and exceed the physical standards enough. The guy could do 60 pushups on demand and over 100 situps in less than 2 minutes. Not nearly good enough. Oh it was passing, it just wasn't passing. And I was not a fast runner. Slug.
There were a LOTTA Ensigns, even before the drawdown. Enough that standards could be high. A little slack was cut for the enlisted ranks, especially for 4.0 sailors that were good at their job. But officers had to be better than the men the men they lead to set the example. If they wanted to or not. There was another Ensign coming up that could do it if you could not.
Marines had to run three miles in 18 minutes or damn close to 18 minutes, do 80 situps in 2 minutes, and 18 pullups. That wasn't passing. That was setting the standard for the men.
The Air Force had even faster standards on the run. I swear all the Air Force guys I knew back then looked like skinny marathon runners.
Monday, September 27, 2021
How old are you, lil' Pinko?
Oh yeah, if communism is so bad, well let's calculate how many capitalism killed.
And since Communism is a response to the evils of Capitalism, it is really Capitalism’s responsibility for the 100,000,000 Communist deaths. Checkmate. Game Set Match. Yahtzee. Quid pro quo.
Look here little feller. So called Capitalism (Marx's term) relieves suffering. By a lot. Marx's ideas always increase suffering. By a lot. And don't go laying the sins of slavery at Capitalism's feet. The slave states would have had a lot more successful locomotive factories if slavery was part of the free exchange of value for value.
I'm not saying your youth implies a lack of wisdom, little buddy. I'm saying your lack of wisdom implies a lack of wisdom. Now go fetch Grampa's house slippers for him.
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Eat Better
So, I am a little less worried about what steak and bacon is doing to me. More greens? I need more lima beans? Nawwww.
I don't know what kind of treatment I will eventually get. Well, I have an idea on the plethora of choices that might be deployed on me. Side effects on all of them are pretty mild. So I doubt they will peel off extra pounds. Or take my eyelashes.
This time last year when we were trying to treat my back I cut out ALL booze and was going to physical therapy. August to November I lost 30 pounds. I dunno if it was the mild exercise and lack of beer, or the cancer, or both. But the 30 pounds have stayed off. I wouldn't mind 20 more, tho. I'd still be fat, but much less so. And my clothes would be loose but still fit. Less than an eighth of a ton.
It would be annoying to shop for a new wardrobe.
Hey, all this baggy clothing, I could CCW a Deagle comfortably! Always a bright side.
I remember when I got down to 175 in my 20s. I am 6 foot 1 inch. I still looked fat.
Here is me as Goose. My legs were at their strongest here. It would take working in a brewery to get my arms to their strongest.
“Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”
— Bernie's Hat Not For Commies (@Bernieshat) September 26, 2021
This is basically Honeybun's strategy......
Saturday, September 25, 2021
The past week was a partial one
But I am wore out.
Sleeping decent. Just not enough red blood cells to carry enough oxygen around when I am doing intense physical activity. Like walk around an office.
I love watching competence porn on youtube. My woodworking and furniture repair and refinishing skill would have been SO much better if youtube was up to 2009 youtube content quality by 1989.
Gunsmithing doesn't transfer as well to video. I'd still need a bunch of in-person training to be any good at it, even with a plethora of gunsmithing videos. But the plethora of woodworking video, coupled with how well I picked up on things wood related in the 90s, the video here get absorbed like a sponge. I just wish I still had the stamina. Isn't that always the way?
Friday, September 24, 2021
More nuffin, so sorry bout the whinging.
Feeling really tired lately. You know why.
I don't talk about my illness with other folks. Two people at work that guessed, one a nurse that heard about a detail in a lab last May. Another person that had back problems we detailed to each other, but then mine turned up to probably be this.
And I over-share here. As a place top over share.
A few of you I have met in meatspace. A few of you that occasionally read here, I have met in meatspace. But a lot of them folks I don't see every day or see on Facebook or whatever. Borepatch and Proud Hillbilly. For example. Regular readers AND know what I look like on the maybe handful of occasions we hung out.
But lots of folks that used to be regular readers just aren't. Any more. Like quite a few people I work with every day. Heh. So I keep a bit of privacy that way.
But one checked in to the blog to see what I was up to and... uh oh. Hi, you goof!
I dunno why I wanna keep it private. In some treatment scenarios it will become quite obvious I am on chemo soon enough. But other treatments... I won't even lose my eyebrows. People I work with know something ain't right. I've slowed way down. But none pry. None ask what political party I favor or my religious denomination, either.
If I didn't turn up to work for a coupla days in a row they'd figure I'd have fallen in the basement and send someone to check on me, so I got that going for me. More motivation to keep turning up to work. Another motivation? Money to buy food. I like to eat something now and again.
"What do you do for fun, now, T-bolt, now that you don't have the energy to work in the shop or go camping or plink at the range?"
I dunno. I like reading. Reading some takes on the Cthulhu mythos. For example. I bought a buncha DVD to just have. And watch. Rewatch the Thin Man series and catch some other movies I haven't seen. My bucket list is to try a buncha different cocktails. Sazerac is on the list next, but I did a fancy tequila tasting not that long ago. I haven't had tequila since a fateful night 35 years ago. Low impact activities I enjoy.
I went up a ladder 4 times to clear my gutters. Good thing, too, as two days later we got another gully washer. But doing that wasted me for the rest of the day. It does mean I don't yet need a helper monkey.
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Staycation and nuffin
Just ended a staycation. It was nice. Went out for steamed crabs at Cantlers, had some chili with JayG. Some Pit Beef. Saw the Emerald City.
No health news. Meh, the Lyrica is cutting back the back pain, so, yay.
---
I think the county's slight rise in Covid cases is wholly attributable to schools opening up? Naw, it was heading up before school started. But lots of extra testing and the 1,000 kids on quarantine. Less spikes in the hospitalization numbers and it is already dropping there. That also makes sense. Schoolkids are prolly shaking it off. Except the super-fat ones. Positive tests... the graph is long enough now that the arc looks more like heading Y-0 instead of Y-Infinity. So that is good. Here. I have no idea what it's like at your house.
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Should I Clean My Guns?
I don't normally rush to clean my guns. But I have been shooting less and less.
The guns don't mind being dirty. That dirt is just burn propellant. Carbon. If it was grit from sand? Clean! If it was moisture from outside exposure? Clean! And way back then when I brought them home.
What do you think?
One of the advantages of a clean is a gun I hadn't shot in a while would get lubed, too. Not that I need 'em ready for action, but they'd, you know, be more ready for action.
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Monday, September 20, 2021
Name and Shame
Look at these commenters!
No picture. You don't have to put a pic of your ugly mug up there. I know that's how The Man gets ya! But you see Proud Hillbilly's? Doesn't give her away yet still has SOMETHING up there. You Don't have to put up a Daguerreotype, Mike V and Jonathan H, but something. (And I only pick on YOU because you were the top of the comments list, no offence). Put a photo of your best dog or that pistol you sold 5 years back on GunBroker or a blurry photo of LilNasX or sumthin'. Doesn't matter.
Oh, how? Try this:
Go to your Account info by clicking the upper right of this page, maybe, even, but certainly whatever gmail acct you are using. Then Personal Info. This cover 70+% of cases.
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Never Go Back
So, for giggles, I saw the second Jack Reacher movie. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.
Spoiler for this 5 year old movie: A buig plot point is evil military sub contractors are selling US military equipment to the Taliban! Must have sold them a few thousand rifles, and a lot of rockets. They were using the proceeds to get opium to ship back to the States for sale as heroine here.
Ha! Jokes on the Taliban. Joe Biden was gonna give you all that .mil equipment, and then some, for free!
Also, the sub contractors were gonna get hosed when the Chinese undersold them on the dope with higher quality fentanyl-laced product.
Suckers.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
It's a film about the Clap
And it took almost 13 minutes to get to the nookie part. Gah! No wonder we never won a war after this one.
You'll never learn how to STOP the clap if you concentrate on the poor wooing efforts of this dogface, Joe.
At 15:50 you see his yarbles are as swollen as Nikki Minaj's cousin after a 'vaccination'. Great acting. Look at that face! And you Lady-People! All you do is spread around a Dose like it is your job. "It's no worse than a bad cold." So the Syph in 1940 is WuFlu today? Oh noes!
Friday, September 17, 2021
Doc Rodeo
Ok, got the Oncologist leaning on the new Gastroenterologist to get a quicker date than mid October.
Appointment with same Oncologist on Monday for blood work. Be sure my Red Blood Cell count isn't plummeting too fast
Appointment with GP on Tuesday to see how the Lyrica is doing for neuropathy and back pain (no impact on former, surprisingly decent on the later.) See what she says.
Blood blisters on feet are healing.
Got the ball rolling. Not much else I can do.
Thursday, September 16, 2021
That's better for the Zombacalypse
Gun cat. 12 gauge. pic.twitter.com/1IdQRfwL1H
— Dan (@DanLtcR) September 16, 2021
"Yeah? The biopsy didn't work"
Lessons learned so far. Doctors are really smart. But they don't know a tiny fraction about how things work. Dr. House is fiction, and he won't sweep in and go "It's not lupus." Because he doesn't know.
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Choo Choo Too
How did we get this way? With freight trains?
Gah, it's been forever since I did any research on this. Let me wing it.
- As a commenter noticed, passenger fares NEVER made any money. From 1825 to now. You never wanted them, gov't interference forces it on the Railways.
- A mixed system steps on each other's toes. Always.
- Both freight and passenger service was failing by the 60s. See A Prayer for Owen Meany about this late stage failure.
- All this led to company failures, to company consolidation, to RR assets getting bought up cheap by the few survivors. With fewer players there was less competition and less overlap and it was cheap enough to CLOSE some lines. Make the track mileage more efficient. Less track meant less money spent on track maintenance. But many areas were still being serviced. By one or two companies instead of six.
- Failure and consolidation meant the powerful RR unions had less clout, and their antiquate featherbedding work rules meant that you no longer were required to have a caboose with expensive signalman doing the work a single electronic signal box on the last car could do.
- That leads to other technological advances. Containerized sea freight meant more efficient loading and less spillage to stevedores and freightmen. New cars that could haul 2 containers stacked and still make it under existing tunnels. The retirement of high maintenance steam and replacing with low maintenance diesel locomotives... All increased efficiencies and cut costs.
- The gov't no longer requiring lines to have passenger service but took over that role themselves. And the private sector lines had a bit more priority over public sector people movers. A mile long freight train is most efficient by accelerating to 30 miles per hour and with good scheduling NEVER altering speed until approaching a destination. It takes priority over a 70 mph Amtrak. With double track, passenger and freight still can't really co-exist, still. You'd need at least triple, and probably quadruple to make it work together.
Another big plus? You can't export internal supply delivery to the far east like you can electronics and steel and auto production. So an industry can become a shambles and yet rise from the ashes, here, when you find it impossible to offshore it.
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Choo Choo
People giving us the bidness because we don't have enough trolleys and high speed rail.
okay Australia has a train system, so you guys can to, you also have way more money than us so it would be easier for you to get it down in a timely manner
— I can't leave this hell 🇦🇶 🇦🇺 (@Gangstamonkey21) September 12, 2021
We literally have the BEST rail system in the world. Bar none. Built up from a bit of a shambles in the late 60s, early 70s. We just use it to move stuff around instead of people. Our dispersed population moves people around in gas powered cars and cheap cattle car airplanes. Some people like that, some people hate that. But that is no reason to go all Manhattan project on a separate trillions dollar high speed rail that some people will like and some people will hate. The whole idea is nonsense on stilts. A product that has no demand so the only way it gets built is tax money? Pfui.
Monday, September 13, 2021
Christ on a Cracker
Thought this was a Happy Madison movie at first 😂 pic.twitter.com/OnUn9dA6iX
— Steve Inman (@SteveInmanUIC) September 5, 2021
Sunday, September 12, 2021
See?
This is what I was talking about. I got nothing.
I've been doing some cleanup around the house. Had a lotta days off where I had no energy to drive to work, but just enough to, say, mop the kitchen. Throwing crap out.
I might get some help from My Buddy the Gun Enthusiast and his Old Lady on cleaning more and organzing more and More-Trips-To-The-Dump. Both because fighting entropy makes one feel better and not wanting to leave a mess for those that come after.
I don't know how realistic my dreams of retiring to Cleveland are at this point. Those dreams relied on me having the energy to drive a snow blower.
It will be ironic to have a proper lumber rack when I no longer have the ability to work the wood on it into a barrister bookcase.
But entropy will be sccessfully battled. A worthy effort in its own right. But if I could eke out a bookcase or two, that would help with the entropy as well. AND make me feel good. Everything in its place....
Saturday, September 11, 2021
20 years in
Friday, September 10, 2021
Things are going swimmingly
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Chits, Man!
What caliber for...
Wednesday, September 8, 2021
Oh Noes
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Wow
Monday, September 6, 2021
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Clyburn
Friday, September 3, 2021
The Card Reads
Have Gun - Will Travel. Starred Richard Boone. It spawned a hit radio show, voiced by John Dehner,
I couldn't tell the difference. If you told me Boone recorded the radio program, I'd believe it. It's a very good match. Bosso profundo.
It was rare a TV show spawned the radio version, it was usually the other way round. See: Gunsmoke.
Gun content. Please. It's a 50s western, it was a single action army.
That makes me think. A studio could have a buncha western programs going on, but really only one or a couple prop pistols. Four max. And get away with it. The pistol you saw on one show would be used again in an entirely separate series. And another series 15 years later. Or in a Star Trek episode where Kirk has to go against Doc Holliday for some reason. The four studio guns would get more airtime than any one actor.
Frum
"Altogether, about 500 Americans a year die from unintended shootings. That’s four times the rate of deaths from unintended shootings in peer nations. "
"The gun buyers of 2020–21 are different from those of years past: They are more likely to be people of color and more likely to be women. They are not buying guns to join a race war, or to overthrow the government, or to wait for Armageddon in a bunker stocked with canned beans. They just want to deter a burglar or an assailant, should one come.Those dangers are real, and it’s understandable that people would fear them and seek to avert them. But like the people who refuse lifesaving vaccines for fear of minutely rare side effects, American gun buyers are falling victim to bad risk analysis."
Translation: "You black people and women that bought guns recently aren't responsible enough to realize what an awful thing you've done getting a firearm. Now let me explain your mistake to you further."
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Oh, and my term 'metrocon'? It seems to be overcome by events. There are no metrocons left. If they were a metrocon they are just liberal democrats now, caucusing with Pelosi.
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Energy
Amazing timeline of energy production by source. pic.twitter.com/nw9h38pSiT
— Kevin Stevens 🔋⚡️ (@kevindstevens) August 31, 2021
Imagine a world where the nuke line didn't stall, but sort of carried on with a modest upward velocity. Maybe another 4,000 Terra-watt hours?
That would cover ALL the popular faddish unreliable subsidized renewables. We really only built nuclear powerplants for about 10 years, then stopped for 40. Because of a Jane Fonda film and our subsequent inability to improve the design.
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Nam Flashbacks
Agent Orange. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs lists CLL as a disease associated with exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical used during the Vietnam War.