Normally, the best way to get me to ignore something...

...is to connect it with anything "Miss America"-related.

I believe the last time - possibly the only time - I watched a Miss America pageant was in 1972. I remember it because I'd recently been released from the hospital and couldn't get out of my chair to leave the room. It's not that I knock it, it's just that I don't care.

But it seems things have changed so much, that even the "aspirations" have. Remember "I want to work for world peace?"

Well...

The New Miss America's Cause: Children of the Incarcerated

Yes, it's come to this. Either we've turned into a nation of really vile people, or it's too damned easy to be declared a criminal and locked up in this country. So much so, that it's ceasing to be considered shameful.

Another example? Here's a lady facing twenty years for watching whales eat. Wow, keep your kids away from her.

H/T to Balko.

How to tell when somebody's not getting it. Or ever going to get it.

“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”
- Unnamed congressional staffer

As Claire said, "That should go down in history along with 'Let them eat cake.'”

Or as Mel Brooks said,



Yeah, Louis was that clueless, too. Poor fellow.

Funny sorta day...

The clouds blew out of here - temporarily, from the looks of things - around eleven. And I do mean blew.

I've often said that our little patch of paradise only has four kinds of weather:

*Too damn cold
*Too damn windy
*Too damn hot
*Too damn wet

Not that it has to be only one of those at any given time. This morning, as is often the case when it's cloudy overnight, the temperature was quite moderate. But when the wind started howling, the reading on a thermometer really stopped mattering. I went over to Landlady's this morning to wash some clothes, and by the time I finished a load the notion of hanging it on a line outside was ridiculous. I need those clothes, and don't want to donate them to Wyoming. I had trouble just getting it out of the washer intact.

I once saw wind so strong that it blew a car down the street, without benefit of driver. Of course that was at the height of a Florida hurricane. I'm assuming it was a manual and the poor schmuck forgot to set the brake. I was just a little kid, and at the time I was impressed. This morning, from a clear blue sky, the wind sent a gallon gasoline jug flying across my yard. While it was full of gas. What's the drag coefficient on a plastic gasoline jug? I'm guessing not that high. It knocked over a wheelbarrow of firewood - okay, they're pretty unstable anyway. It knocked over both burn barrels. My little cabin is smoky, because the smoke can't always make it up the pipe. The Secret Lair is framed with 2X6 lumber on concrete pilings - occasional gusts make it shake. And I'm down in a hollow. On top of Landlady's ridge, actual property damage is not unusual when the wind gets to acting up.

Not even Ghost wants to go outside today.

Post fast!

Cloudy morning. Inverter's crying like a little girl. Maybe later, but gotta go now.

Just a couple of quick things...

I was in a hurry yesterday, 'cause M and Landlady wanted to go to town and there was Mexican food involved, which meant I wanted to go to town. But I want to thank Donkey Buster and Claire for the great care packages. DB, the boys asked me to especially thank you.

Also, yesterday was a great (followed quickly by not so great, but never mind) day for M AKA Ian, because...

He finally got the letter from the principal permitting him to keep and bear this fine piece of WWI British engineering right here. Yup, his first gun with a giggle switch. He happy.

Unfortunately before LL and I got to play, he also suffered his first ever case mouth separation and we didn't have an extractor between us. So (sob) back to the city it goes. But it did go bang in a satisfyingly rapid manner, for a disappointingly short time.

Look what I got!

Claire just sent me this, courtesy of a reader who has her email addy and not mine.

Thanks, MJR! This is going on the sidebar somewhere, fer shur.

UPDATE: And another...

And look what the Landlady Express brought me today! (Thanks, Claire! I'm making a signpost for this.)

Did you ever notice...

...that when somebody describes himself as a "law-abiding citizen" there's always this tone of pride? I'd go so far as to call it smug. You can hear the "I don't have anything to hide, so I don't have anything to fear" subtext.

Yeah. How'd that work out for you, Mark?

On December 15, 2011 at approximately 5:15 a.m., I was at LaGuardia International airport preparing to check in for a flight out of the city. During a routine check-in, I requested a firearms declaration form from the ticket agent. It was my intent to declare and check my unloaded firearm.

I purchased this firearm legally, and I have a valid concealed carry permit for it issued in California. The unloaded gun was locked inside a TSA-approved travel case, and the case was locked inside my checked luggage. I carry the firearm for my personal safety, having received numerous threats due to my role in the Tea Party Patriots. I have checked this firearm at airports dozens of times before, all across the country.

As I traveled through LaGuardia that morning, I passed TSA signs telling me I had the right to check this unloaded firearm in my luggage, and that I am required by law to declare the firearm to the ticketing agent. This is exactly what I did.

Aaaand that's when he learned what handcuffs feel like.

And I know I should be more sympathetic. No, he didn't do anything wrong. Yes, he was abused. In addition to the time, expense, humiliation and fear, he probably lost a nice handgun. I don't know anything about him, but can't quite picture him tooling around the country with a Hi-Point. Don't write and tell me I should be more sympathetic, because I know that.

But at LaGuardia? in NYC? Seriously? You walked up to a counter and announced "I have a gun?"

Seriously?

Mark, welcome to America. Where've you been all this time?

Friday the Thirteenth gets off to a good start...

Got freakin' cold last night. For the first time since we moved into the Lair the temperature on the ground floor was in the thirties. High thirties, but still. Oddly, the Lair's water didn't freeze. Took forever for the fire to get the ground floor temp into a decent place, which is why I've developed the habit of reading in the loft in the morning.

LB went out on his cable and promptly got very excited about something desperately in need of chasing down the wash. Ghost went to look and clearly saw nothing. LB, per tradition, wrapped his cable around a tree. Later he settled down, or seemed to. I unclipped the cable from him, he headfaked toward the cabin door, then lit afterburners and disappeared down the wash, Ghost right behind. I got suckered.

Yeah, I went and looked for them but their tracks disappeared into the brush. It's been half an hour and I haven't seen or heard a sign of them. Hopefully they'll come back. Second prize, I get a call from D&L. Booby prize, my worst fears come true and I never see them again.

Sometimes I feel bad about keeping LB confined all the time. Then he takes the first momentary opportunity to remind me why I do. I do not beat that dog enough.

UPDATE: Well, that's an improvement. Got them back and it didn't even involve phone calls. Ghost came home alone, which isn't too unusual - he always remembers where he lives. He attacked the water bowl and then wanted right back out. Sometimes he narcs on Little Bear, so I paid attention to what he was paying attention to. He went haring off in what turned out to be a random direction, though, and after I followed him for ten or fifteen minutes LB came lumbering up from behind me. Figures.

From the looks of his hairy ass, which is now browner than black, LB had another of his, er, intestinal incidents so maybe I'm glad he took care of that out in the boonies. That dog can really mess up a yard.

Now I can get on with shit-shoveling and (hopefully, if the ground thaws just a little bit) clean up the awful mess LB made of Gitmo before Landlady comes this weekend.

Okay, now I'm scared.

I don't completely mind waking up with ridiculously dated songs in my head. The really bad ones are kind of entertaining. I wonder about the dreams I can't remember, though - something's putting these things in my head.

But, see, now I've got a problem. A couple of days ago I pissed off Catholic readers with one ill-chosen word. After this, what are the gays gonna want to do to me?

Mother and Son, a portrait.

I just need to put this tattoo on your arm. Don't worry, it's for your privacy.

Stop worrying, you stupid privacy freaks. The commerce department isn't even part of the government.

Seriously.

STANFORD, Calif.--President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today.

It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said.

That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates, including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. The move also is likely to please privacy and civil-liberties groups that have raised concerns in the past over the dual roles of police and intelligence agencies.

Really? You think that's going to reassure anybody?

Oh, it gets better.

The Obama administration is currently drafting what it's calling the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which Locke said will be released by the president in the next few months. (An early version was publicly released last summer.)

"We are not talking about a national ID card," Locke said at the Stanford event. "We are not talking about a government-controlled system.

Mr. Locke, either you fell on your head as a child or you think everybody else did. The government is "centralizing efforts" to enhance our privacy by ending it, to create an ID system which is "not a national ID card" because cards won't be involved, and "we are not talking about a government-controlled system" because, um ...

And of course...

Schmidt stressed today that anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet. "I don't have to get a credential, if I don't want to," he said. There's no chance that "a centralized database will emerge," and "we need the private sector to lead the implementation of this," he said.

File that with all the promises our grandparents heard about the income tax.

"There's no chance that 'a centralized database will emerge,'..." Fixed it for you, there, Schmidt. You're right about one thing, though: "...anonymity and pseudonymity will remain possible on the Internet." You bet your ass it will. That ship has sailed. Nobody trusts you, or the horse you rode in on.

H/T to KurtP.

The kid is all right.

He's gonna flunk the fifth grade, but he's all right.

by Daphne

A question on my fifth grader’s math worksheet.

The Jones family ate dinner out last Sunday. The bill was $25.50. Mr. Jones left a 50% tip. Do you think this is too much? Explain your answer,

His complete answer.

I honestly don’t care how much he paid.

Precisely.

H/T to John Venlet

CSGV has hurt and offended me. I'm a VICTIM!!

Aww! Diddums get your candles laughed at?

It seems the Coalition to Promote Victim Disarmament doesn't like gunbloggers' reaction to their candlelight photo opportunities. Missing the point entirely, they named the names of those bad, bad people.

And missed mine, which pisses me off. Not that I did more than link the original work of others, but still - isn't it the thought that counts? Hey, CSGV! Where's the hate? I'm evil, too!

H/T to Sebastian.

Songs I kinda think I shouldn't like, but do...

Today over at WRSA I saw a clip of that scene in Casa Blanca where, to drown out a bunch of evil vicious singing Nazis, the band and all the patrons of Rick's Café Américain break out into La Marseillaise.

And that got me to thinking about the song, which is one of those things that always get me right in the liberté, égalité, fraternité muscle, even though I'm not remotely French.



Makes me want to rush right out with my musket, form regiments and slaughter me some Prussians sans culottes, y'know? And I don't even particularly dislike Prussians*. I've always felt kinda like I'm betraying some principle every time I get a tear in my eye over it, since somehow the poor thing managed to become a sort of commie anthem, and I'm pretty sure I'm not remotely commie, either - I even heard it in China once. But I still like it.

Another example of this is Ave Maria, which is just damned near the most beautiful song I ever heard and I'd be surprised to learn I've had any Catholic ancestors since my Irish ones swam across the pond. And even if I were Catholic I'd probably still feel a little squeamish about Mariolotry, which (sorry, my Catholic friends) makes no sense at all in the context of Christianity.

But still...wow...



Guess I just ain't got no philosophical purity. After I betray the revolution and set myself up as President-for-Life, I'll have myself shot.

---
*This could possibly have to do with my never having met one. Pre-1947 I'm sure they were properly despicable, one and all. Even the little baby ones.

Well, they are good questions...

I won't hold my breath for the answers, though...



H/T to Codrea.

And yet, they defend it...

Hey, remember the TSA cupcake kerfuffle from a few weeks ago? No, of course you don't - there've probably been a thousand real outrages since then.

Yeah, but you cynical TSA-bashers should all be ashamed of yourselves. Ashamed, I say! Now that they've explained it, it's all so simple!

Just shut up, remove your shoes, belt, clothing, cupcakes and integument, drop them in the bin, and step through the Magic Irradiation Device.

This is done purely for the safety of everyone traveling.

"Modicum," perhaps?

See, this is why I don't miss TV, right here...

Naturally they'll still be available to representatives and senators...

Schumer says answer to armed robberies in pharmacies is to ban new painkillers.

No, I didn't entirely make that up.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Following fatal shootings in two New York pharmacy robberies, a U.S. senator is warning that a new batch of "super painkillers" now under review could force repeats of recent violent robberies that left six people dead.

"It's tremendously concerning that at the same time policymakers and law enforcement professionals are waging a war on the growing prescription drug crisis, new super-drugs could well be on their way, flooding the market," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The FDA needs to grab the reins and slow down the stampede to introduce these powerful narcotics."

What can you even say? They keep re-electing the schmoe.

Makes perfect sense to me.

"Candles Don't Stop Violence."

Hee. "The Brady Campaign ... has created too many victims."

I don't happen to have a candle, but...

Here you go, Weer'd.

I can go with that...

Now that the activists have pretty much killed concealed carry bans (even in the current PC "law-abiding citizen" version requiring CCW licenses) and are doing so well that "constitutional carry" is not only not an absurd idea but actually a reality in a growing number of states, let's start agitating for a stake driven through the heart of NFA34!

I wanna shoot guns like Oleg Volk's when I grow up!



H/T to Linoge.

I'm a cedar rat and I'm okay...

Finally got around to completing the sink drain for the Secret Lair...

I've had the parts to do this for a couple of months, I think. But as soon as I got them I lost all my water, and for a while it made more sense to drain the sink into a big bucket so I'd have something to flush the toilet with. Then inertia set in, but I figured I'd better finish the damned thing because this gorgeous weather isn't going to last forever. So I spent considerable time under the cabin today, laying pipe. Then more time covering it up in the trench to the ditch I dug years ago, draining the gully behind the cabin when it rains. So far that ditch has worked pretty well keeping water from washing under the cabin.

Then it was time to do something about the stovewood supply, which has gotten kind of low...

It's not that I don't have wood, because I haul wood in once or twice a week. But it does have to be cut to size.

So to work we go.

And about an hour and a half later, there's a good week's worth. More, if it stays nice. Which can't be counted on.

There's a $1000 price on your head in Newark...

As Unc says, "What could possibly go wrong?" Wasn't planning to go there anyway...

The answer is Yes.

This is a question I wish people didn't think they have to ask. Unfortunately, under the circumstances it was a very important question.

"I've got two guns in my hand. Is it OK to shoot him if he comes in this door?" asked McKinley, 18.

Now, at this point I'm supposed to get all snarky and anti-sheeplike-behavior, because that's my gig. But let's face it, it's a very important question. The lady's on the phone with a police dispatcher. Having already taken that step, the answer to the question is equally important. It's life and death. The jackass who's trying to break in brought a knife to a gunfight: He's not that big a problem as long as she's got the cojones to pull the trigger. (Which, by the way, she did.) But the next visitors she gets might be wearing armor and carrying rifles, and have even less compunction about killing her. History is very clear on this point. So yeah, the question is important. And so is the answer.

The answer she got, frankly, shocked me.

"Well, you have to do whatever you can do to protect yourself," dispatcher Diane Graham responded. "I can't tell you that you can do that, but you do what you have to do to protect your baby."

Now, at this point I'm supposed to get all snarky and anti-cop, because that's my gig. And no doubt in some other jurisdiction she'd have received a completely different answer. Can you imagine those words coming from the mouth of a Chicago PD dispatcher? Because I can't.

The dispatcher told HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell on Wednesday she learned in training that she could not tell a caller to shoot someone, "(but) as a mother, I wanted her to protect her baby."

And I think that's very cool, and you're not going to hear that from me very much concerning somebody who works in a police station.

Then the story took a completely bizarre turn.

First Assistant District Attorney James Walters told CNN that McKinley will not be charged because she acted in self-defense.

"A person has the right to protect themselves, their family and their property," Walters said.

Wait. What? You're a DA! You're the guy I'm supposed to especially hate! You're supposed to make this poor, innocent woman's continued existence a living hell, for having the effrontery to defend herself with lethal force instead of being raped and murdered like a good little taxpayer! Tradition demands it! You're screwing with my understanding of the workings of the universe! What the **** is wrong with you?

Granted, again, this is Oklahoma City, a place I've lived near, and OKC has never been a good place to be a violent predator. But still - If I can't depend on cops and prosecutors to be despicable, what can I depend on?

This lady's encounter with the intruder, BTW, has a loverly happy ending...

Martin, 24, was found [dead as a doornail - J] between the door and a couch with a knife clutched in his gloved left hand, police said.

You go, girl. And kudos to the forces of law'n'order who decided not to be pricks that day.

Fixed it for you...

You wanna talk improvisation? I gotcher improvisation right here...

I've got lots of water and barely enough electrical power to run a laptop. Landlady's got lots of electrical power, and no water. Between us, we're a homestead.

My washing machine is still over at her place, there being no dreaming way it'd ever run at the Lair. And that was fine, until the last cold snap when her pressure pump puked a seal - again. So now, until we can get that fixed she's got no water. Since I installed that check valve last week I've got water out the whazoo but that doesn't help with this heap of dirty laundry, which I really must deal with while the weather's nice. Sure I could wash it by hand, but that's like Plan Z. Been there, done that, hate it.

So here's a lovely irony: I'm driving the Jeep back and forth, hauling water in bottles from the Lair to Landlady's place, where I don't even live anymore. Pour enough into the washing machine to get the cycle going, then load up the empties and go get more for the rinse. Did it yesterday for one load and I'll do it again this morning after the first load comes off the line.

Hey, it works. Whadaya want from me?

Uncle Murphy maketh his countenance to shine upon me...

Of all the days to have electrical problems. Sheesh, everything's been fine, at least during the day, and now every time I turn my laptop on the inverter squeals like a little girl...

Installer must have kicked something loose. In the morning when it warms up I'll go over the PV panel connections.

First the water, now this. I'm gonna track down that guy Murphy wherever he hides, and vomit right on his best shoes.

UPDATE: Wow. As somebody said, it looks like it was designed by Dr. Seuss. My wiring job, that is, which had pretty thoroughly fallen apart and I got too busy yesterday afternoon to even notice but it's no wonder I've been having power problems. The six little old panels are a temporary measure anyway, since I now have a single modern panel that's rated better than all of them combined, but I need a few other things before I can install it. Like a new charge controller, but never mind.

Anyway, I'm now getting power into the batteries again.

Back in the saddle!

This post is brought to you from The Secret Lair!

Oh, for Crying! Out! Loud!

Today they're supposed to move the satellite dish and modem again, and the drama has already begun. At least this time they didn't keep me waiting.

About half an hour ago I got a call from some guy who wanted to know "What's the problem you're having?" When I told him there was no problem, we needed it moved, he said, "Then why'd they write out a service ticket?" Like I'd know.

Five minutes later I got a call from some dispatcher, telling me the service guy would be late. I said don't send him on a service ticket, it's a waste of everybody's time. She said, not very convincingly, that she'd look into it.

Just now I got a call from the service guy, saying he'd be late. I said don't come at all if ... etc. He said he'd "see what he could do."

We've been trying to get this thing moved to the Lair for weeks. Maybe I should just forget the whole thing and get some semaphore flags.

The song in my head takes an educational turn...

I don't know why this happens. It's irritating.

I wake up with a song in my head, with no plausible clue how it got there. Often it's something I couldn't possibly have heard for years. Often - indeed, usually - I don't even know the lyrics. This one, for example: The best I could come up with was "Lead us not into temptation/Don't destroy our reputation/When we yield to carnal love." Pretty sure that wasn't right. On these occasions, YouTube is my friend.



Here, though, I learned that "The Browns," whom I don't recall ever having heard of, didn't write the song and it was by far not the only version recorded. In fact their version was a bit truncated. Here's the Andrews Sisters, who are just a bit before my time...



And the whole thing is based on some French song. Here's Edith Piaf, of whom I'd never have heard if it weren't for Saving Private Ryan, (hey, I'm an uneducated American mutt) with what may be the original, and most beautiful version. Damn, that woman had a voice. Can't understand a word she says, though...



I did not know that. Or care all that much, to be honest...

It's the end of the world as we know it...

Had a little treat last night...

Since it was Saturday and our weekender neighbors S&L were around, Ghost disappeared yesterday afternoon without notice. I figured he'd headed over there, and planned to call and verify that before dark. But when he vanishes without trace on a weekend, that's always where he goes.

Little Bear was on his cable outside enjoying the positively balmy afternoon, when around 4:30 he started barking like there was really something to get excited about. I came out of the Lair, and a minute or two later a pickup I didn't recognize came into the yard from the wash. This was unusual.

Unusual is often unwelcome, but in this case it turned out to be SurvivalDave, a rarely-seen neighbor who has a place between Landlady's and S&L's. He'd come up with a friend, and they'd decided to have a New Year's bonfire and wanted to know if I wanted to join them.

A bonfire? In December? I should point out that exactly one year ago last night, the temperature hit a 30-year low of 21 below zero.

What the hell: This time around the weather is almost preternaturally pleasant, and even with the clear sky it'd take a while to get too cold. I told them I'd be along, and even filled their pickup bed with a bunch of junk wood I'd hauled from J&H's place that was too twisted or fractured to make good stovewood, and not worth dulling a chain on. It's fine for a bonfire.

Normally, when it gets dark, the boys and I cocoon inside till morning. So LB was a bit unnerved to get a Jeep ride after dark, and to tell the truth he wasn't any too crazy about being close to the big fire or in the presence of masculine strangers. But he did enjoy the cheese and meatballs, and we sat around yarning and drinking wine until about nine when S&L showed up with their daughter and grandkids. I was getting tired and cold, and LB was getting antsy, so as soon as it was polite we said our goodbyes and headed back to the Lair. Poor LB racked right out, which indicated he'd found it a bit more stressful than he'd let on at the time, and he let on that it was kinda stressful. It's easy to be a hermit's dog, unless he has to go somewhere and not be a hermit for a while. Poor guy - but I had a good time.

LED bulb review

To show you how lame I am, I have no idea what the "wattage" rating is for this monstrous thing. Or the price. Or much of anything, except that this is the smaller of two sizes, it's not quite bright enough to read by, and it seems to require about as much juice as a CFL that is. At least that's what my inverter tells me.

The bigger size is physically much larger, making it impossible to fit in a standard light fixture. It needs to be bigger, since it just contains a whole bunch more LEDs. If this is the best the industry can do, CFLs are in no danger.

Ironically, this one gives off a blue-ish light that's a bit jarring to eyes grown accustomed to CFLs. And that's coming from a guy who spent some time bitching about the quality of CFL light.

Happy new year, California!

Your faithful servants in Sacramento are hard at work, For Your Protection! Hope you've got your preteen-sized booster seat, 'cause as of today it's the law. And hundreds of other things, for which ignorance will, from today forward, be no excuse.

I suppose I should be honored...

...It's the first time anybody's paid attention to my ass in a long damn time. Unfortunately it's the wrong gender, not to mention the wrong species.

Comet the colt has a new trick - he likes to bite you on the ass. It's not just people, either. Visioness the big mare wants him dead. One of her favorite resting places involves pushing her rump against the fence between her enclosure and Comet's, and Comet thinks it's funny to sneak up and bite her. A few days ago, I'm told, she got through the gate in the fence and tried very sincerely to thank him for that good and hard. Fortunately H, who had very briefly left the gate unlatched, was there to rescue him.

So today I'm in his pasture shoveling shit, right? And Comet - who has become much less shy in the past couple of months, comes over to say hi. And we bump noses, and I stroke his neck, and then he sidles off to one side and reaches around behind me with his long neck, aiming his teeth for my ass. I was forewarned, though, and he didn't think it was right when I spun around and smacked his nose. He tried sneaking up on me a couple more time, but subtlety isn't his strong suit and he never came close.

Never turn your back on a horse, even a little one, unless you know it very well. Even then you're taking a chance. Their idea of fun can cost you skin, and that's the patch I sit on.

Just Because...

Acknowledgement of care packages

I got busy and forgot to mention it, but yesterday I got an email from the lady who handles my mail drop telling me that I have two care packages, one from Claire and one from Donkeybuster. I don't know what's in them because I won't see them for another two weeks or so, but just so you guys know - your packages did arrive safely and will get to me in the fullness of time.

Thanks!

It's too late to worry now!

The building has left Elvis!

And for the first time in - well, basically, ever - Landlady's property is trailer-free.

Every day in every way, I'm getting civilizeder and civilizeder.

A brace of red-letter days!

Yesterday I got back to the Lair late. After installing the new check valve in M's well pump outflow pipe and (hopefully) fixing the system, I met with the fellow who's helping me haul off the Interim Lair to parts unknown. The boys and I got back to the (permanent) Lair a bit later than usual, and while hanging up my coat I happened to notice that the level in the toilet's (did I mention I have a flush toilet? It hasn't flushed under its own power lately, but it's really there) bowl was up to regulation level, which it definitely hadn't been in the morning after I "flushed" it with dirty dishwater. As far as I know the only way to raise the level in a vessel of water without reducing the vessel's depth or diameter is to add water. If water had been added, this meant that ice plug I mentioned earlier had broken up.

Giddy with excitement - yes, I'm easily excited - I took the three steps to the sink, lifted the valve toggle, and ... AGUA! I mean it didn't even spurt, just flowed like nothing had ever been wrong. Wondrous! This morning on the way to Landlady's property I stopped at the cistern and measured the level. It's right at the level where I last measured it, a little before three in the afternoon. So it must have bled back a little overnight, but "normally" it would be just about dead empty. So my new check valve is working, and it looks like we have a fix.

This morning - any minute now, in fact - I expect a call from The-Guy-Who's-Taking-The-Interim-Lair-Away. Unless something goes horridly wrong thereafter, between us we will make one of Landlady's fondest dreams come true. No, not the one involving Daniel Day-Lewis. The one where her property contains not one single RV trailer.

Just barely making the deadline, too, I'll have you know.

Wow, design fail.

Yesterday I spent nearly four hours catching up on my shit-shoveling, after the snow/cold of the weekend. Four hours of wading through mud so I could pry horse shit out of ice, since the ground thawed everywhere except where there was horseshit. No doubt the real explanation is that where the ice had thawed, the horses pretty much trampled everything into the mud, which then had to be raked and forked into the wagon. Half a dozen trips to the manure pile - uphill, of course - with a wagon filled with mud and ice chunks. Fun times. But I kept at it and now that part of my life is done with.

I was rewarded, as I got ready to go, by an unexpected burst of good karma. J said, "Hey, tomorrow morning I'm going to (the town that has the plumbing supply shop I need). You still need to go?"

Why yes, I did. So this morning I met him, we drove out there, and when I told the guy at the counter what I needed he didn't even blink. The stuff I needed wasn't even out of stock! Incredible! Zip zam, I had the valve and all the needed fittings in my hand.

Got home, grabbed a screwdriver and a hacksaw and a teapot full of hot water, headed up to the pumphouse. When I cut through the flexible pipe I saw part of our problem right away: water came gushing out of the hose from the cistern. I expected some, but wow - I do believe the flow rate in the wrong direction exceeds the flow rate from the pump. There's got to be some serious back-pressure against that pump.

Be that as it may, the cistern is filling on this succession of sunny days we've been having. Not fast, but it's filling. And now there's a nice brass check valve in the line coming out of the well, so the water that gets to the tank will stay in the damned tank overnight.

I checked the flow at the spigot outside the Lair. It belched and gurgled and filled a bottle with water the color of coffee, which told me the ice plug at the base of the cistern has melted. After about ten gallons it started running clear and hard, but I've still got nothing inside the cabin. Opened the drain spigot under the cabin and got nothing, which tells me the line coming up from the ground is still frozen. I'll put a hose on that valve and set it to drip, and hopefully that'll break it up since the weather for the next couple of days is supposed to get quite warm. Today it's almost too warm for a light jacket, in the sun.

We're getting there. But I think in the spring we should look at relocating the supply line to the top of the cistern instead of the bottom, since at the bottom the damn thing still freezes.

Y'know, I was just wondering about these guys, ...

When Preparing Your Family gave me a link...

TSA screenings aren't just for airports anymore

Rick Vetter was rushing to board the Amtrak train in Charlotte, N.C., on a recent Sunday afternoon when a canine officer suddenly blocked the way.

Three federal air marshals in bulletproof vests and two officers trained to spot suspicious behavior watched closely as Seiko, a German shepherd, nosed Vetter's trousers for chemical traces of a bomb. Radiation detectors carried by the marshals scanned the 57-year-old lawyer for concealed nuclear materials.

When Seiko indicated a scent, his handler, Julian Swaringen, asked Vetter whether he had pets at home in Garner, N.C. Two mutts, Vetter replied. "You can go ahead," Swaringen said.

This is the LA Times, which isn't exactly the Daily Freedomista, and even they can't take VIPR seriously. But DHS has political turf to protect: Those budgets don't increase themselves, you know! At least, not enough to suit a bureaucrat.

"We are not the Airport Security Administration," said Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte. "We take that transportation part seriously."

The TSA's 25 "viper" teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year.

And even the TSA admits this isn't doing a damn bit of good...

TSA officials say they have no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety. But they argue that the random nature of the searches and the presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent and bolster public confidence.

Serve as a deterrent to what, exactly? Terrorists? The only people at Amtrak stations who seem to hate America are the Amtrak execs. If they ever go to train stations. And bolstering public confidence there would be better served by getting a few of the trains to run on time, clearly an impossible task.

TSA jumps the shark!

Now confiscating cupcakes?

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas took her cupcake Wednesday. According to Hains, he told her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.

"I just thought this was terrible logic," Hains said Friday.

Ya think?

Hey, republicans! Democrats! You out there listening? Because I'm about to break what amounts to a lifetime vow, right here on TUAK, right now, but I need your help. Ready?

I, Joel, the management and staff of TUAK, do hereby promise to register to vote and then vote for the presidential candidate, regardless of party, who first makes a campaign issue of TSA and promises to abolish the agency as his/her first presidential act. Yes, I know he'll be lying. I don't even care. I just want to see somebody do that much, once before I die.

Yeah, not holding my breath.

Cupcakes.

Merry Christmas, to the extent that you're into that sort of thing...

"Can you spare some water?"

Seems like a silly question, right? I mean, how hard is that? On the grid, you think of water as this unlimited commodity, like air. My house might have plumbing problems that limit me temporarily, but the guy next door will always have plenty. When I lived in the city, if I needed some water and my neighbor wasn't home I probably wouldn't think much about using his garden hose without permission.

Here, not so much. We just came off four solid days in which solar panels weren't much good. That has implications for more than lights and computers, because all water pumps are electric. So when you don't have electricity, the water you've got in your cistern is what you've got. Sure, most people have back-up generators. But they cost, too. Water isn't free.

This was much on my mind this morning, as I looked at my empty emergency bottles and wondered the best way to fill them. Nobody around is gonna have full cisterns except - ironically - Landlady, and her water system is turned right off to keep the freeze damage down. I'm down to two bottles, six gallons. Yesterday I melted snow in the sink so I'd have something to wash dishes with, then used the drained-off dishwater to flush my toilet. If I hadn't had the snow, I'd be almost OUT of water. You don't want to be out of water.

So I visited my neighbors J&H, with some trepidation because they've got a bunch of horses and go through a LOT of water. Granted they also have three cisterns for that reason, their electrical system isn't all that great either. I would never have dreamed of impolitely filling my bottles without permission. But J's kept on top of his situation and has lots. They had all sorts of problems with their water system last winter, and he spent the intervening months being very industrious about improvements as money permitted. So he greeted my request with cheerful generosity, and now at least all the bottles are full.

If we could get several sunny days to put water back in M's cistern, I'd be all right. It seems to fill faster than the bad check valve is bleeding back, but only when it's sunny. The weather report calls for a whole week of sun, but that's a big change from what it said last time I looked. We'll see.

Sigh. Christmas carols, too, must change with the times...

Saw it over at Claire's. Merry Christmas, y'all.

The funniest thing I'll read for the rest of the year...

It triggers, even after a decade, the same reflexive spinal-level twitch you'd get from the sound of a running Husqvarna being lobbed into a playpen.

The topic isn't even that interesting ... maybe it's because right now my Husky is my most-used tool, but it made me laugh till I choked.

Gotta give the weather points for irony. Or perversity. Or something.

After snowing most of the day, right around 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday the clouds parted like somebody opened a curtain. It was uncanny. Right before sundown, of course: Not enough to do the solar panels any good but enough to slightly melt the snow so that this morning it was frozen to them like concrete. Had to wait till it softened before I could clean them off. But after that, power! Beautiful power.

The removal of the clouds also caused the temperature to fall like somebody hit it with an ax. It was 14 degrees by 7:30, and twelve hours later it was 1 degree. The Lair handled this well ... if you consider that I built it. Absolutely certain I've got to insulate under the floor, which got kind of cold. But still, on the ground floor it was 38 degrees when I crawled out from under the blankets, considerably warmer in the loft. Took a LONG time to get it up to 60, but again the loft was much warmer much quicker. I've already gotten into the habit of reading up there most mornings.

Four days of overcast, two days of snow...

Maybe a good thing the internet guy didn't move the dish, since I have no electricity at all now. Haven't seen the sun for more than a couple of minutes in days. This is as gray and snowy as I ever remember it getting, and it really settled in. Snowed all day yesterday, and shows to do the same today. Had to fight my way through the wash to get here, couldn't get the Jeep up the hill at all.

No 'tricity, no water, and I'm still far better off than I was this time last winter. 'Cause I've got HEAT!! Also the Lair is pretty much designed to treat electricity as a dispensable luxury.

And now, I'm going to put my gloves back on before my fingers freeze and head the Jeep right back to it.

Almost makes you feel better about Obama, doesn't it?

Kim Jong-Un Privately Doubting He's Crazy Enough To Run North Korea

Although Kim's birthday is already recognized as a national holiday and any criticism of him is punishable by indefinite sentences in re-education camps, Kim suggested that the stress of living up to his father's insanity has already taken a toll.

"For years, I haven't even enjoyed the things I used to love, like forcing starving people to perform a five-hour dance routine in my honor, because I spend the whole time obsessing over whether I'm being wacko enough," Kim admitted. "That's what was so special about Dad, you know: He never worried about all that stuff, he just acted like himself. What can I say? The old man set the loony bar pretty high."

Added Kim, "God, I'm really going to miss him, you know?

H/T to Carl.

Pretty sure I've got a diagnosis on the water thing...

Okay. I measured and recorded the water level in the cistern yesterday morning: Almost but not quite empty. Did it again yesterday at sundown. In between we had fitful sunshine, but enough direct sun that the pump should have pumped measurable water into the tank. And it did - the level was up a good few inches, anyway.

Then first thing this morning I went out and checked it again. Empty.

Okay! Since I'm as sure as I can be that there's no leak, that means a check valve has failed and the water is draining back into the well overnight. No surprise, in my admittedly limited experience out here it seems to me there's only two kinds of check valves: Those that have failed and those that will sooner or later.

Now, I'm pretty sure the valve for this system is at the pump, which is 150 feet below the ground and which I plan to leave there. The flexible pipe is accessible, and I can rig a check valve in that pipe one way or another. Unfortunately, the parts I need are many miles away and I still can't legally drive. Putting out a beg to the neighbors, but if I can't resolve it over the remainder of the week I'll probably sneak out of town over the weekend. In the meantime, if the weather report is even moderately accurate it doesn't matter anyway, since the sun appears to be vacationing in Panama. No sun, no water pump.

Dear Leader Kim Jong Il sets a wonderful example for other national leaders to follow...

Sigh. The other thing that happens...

...is that the service guy does show up - even on time - and then comes up with a very creative reason why the work you need done can't be done that day. Or at all.

So the guy actually does show up, calls me, I drive out to the cattle gate and guide him in. He looks at the dish, like he's not quite sure what it's for. He logs onto my computer, goes on line, turns to me, and says, "It's connecting."

I say, "Yeah, it's always worked fine."

He says, "So what's the problem?"

Alarm bells go off. I've been here before.

"It doesn't need to be fixed. She wants it moved to a different location."

"I can't do that on a service ticket. That needs a moving ticket."

"Well," I say, not reaching for a firearm, "You drove like fifty miles to get here. Can't you get on the phone you have in your hand right there and generate a new work order? One that permits you to move the system, as I'm quite certain [Landlady] asked for in the first place, since she's perfectly aware that the system isn't broken and doesn't need to be fixed?"

"No, I can't do that." Then he went off on an exceedingly unconvincing riff about how my dish has a right-dingus, and when we get it to the new location it might need a left-dingus because they've been transitioning to left-dinguses instead of right-dinguses, but he didn't bring any left-dinguses with him because he didn't know he was supposed to move the dish to a different location, and that's why he can't move the dish to a different location.

Or something. I confess I stopped listening, because I've heard better excuses.

Anyway, we're still in the old, cold scriptorium and may be for some time.

"There's a lot more arresting going on now."

Have you noticed that people are more tolerant of the concept of police arrest? Less put off when it turns out a friend has been arrested? Less frightened of the idea of being arrested? Maybe it's just me.

Or maybe not. Maybe familiarity really does breed contempt. Or tolerance, in this case.

H/T to Unc.

You know what I hate?

I hate uncertainty. I don't mean minor uncertainties, like what book I'll read next or whether I should have rice or macaroni for supper. I mean major uncertainties, where I don't know if something is going to be screwed up or not, and it really matters, and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it.

Case in point: This morning. The installer guy is supposed to come and move the satellite dish and modem from Landlady's barn to the Secret Lair. It's one of those deals where you just have to leave open a slot between eight and twelve. He may be late, but most likely if twelve o'clock rolls around and he hasn't shown, he isn't going to. In fact, most likely he won't show up anyway, no matter what time it is, because that's the way things work around here with tradesmen. And while it'd be cool to have internet access at the Lair the truth is I don't want some stranger nosing around it, so part of me won't mind when he doesn't show up. Not showing up is pretty much par, so that won't upset me. It's the uncertainty: Will he or won't he? Only he knows for certain, if he does, which isn't certain.

Then there's the water thing. It's going from huge irritation to actual problem. This morning, after a night that should not under the most unlikely scenario have frozen anything, I woke to zero water pressure. Again.

Last time I lost pressure, the cistern was empty. There's no reason the cistern should ever be empty: I'm the only one using the water and I just don't use that much. It's a 2600 gallon tank: It would take months for me to use it up. It happened last time right after a couple of cloudy days, which meant the well pump wasn't working or at least not very much. This morning was also the first sunny morning in a couple of days, and when I checked the cistern it was virtually empty: An inch or two, just enough to keep the sediment out of the pipes. It wasn't full before the last cloudy spell, but I don't use that much water.

Therefore, beyond reasonable doubt, one of two things is happening. The system is leaking somewhere, or the water is draining back into the well when the pump isn't running. A one-way valve is supposed to prevent that last thing, but they fail. I've been over every inch of the system where there's any plumbing at all, indoors and out, and can find no hint of a leak. A thousand gallons of water usually leaves a sign of its passage, you know? It's not that hard.

Sometimes living off-grid is a pain in the ass. You either accept that going in or you shouldn't do it. I accepted it years ago. But sometimes the pain is worse than other times. Running water is such a delightful luxury: Even though I went without it for more than a year, just the past few weeks have spoiled me completely. This is not something I'm prepared to just live with, like I usually do. I've got to find and fix the problem.

Well, maybe tomorrow...

Since moving to the Lair, this "using the internet" thing has gotten to be kind of a hassle. I've got a (second) appointment with the installer who's supposed to move all the gadgetry to the Lair tomorrow, but he cancelled last time due to weather less unpleasant than tomorrow's is likely to be so I'm not holding my breath.

Sorry for the light posting, but it's just kind of a drag right now.

I'm on the way to solving the Lair's electricity woes, though. Had breakfast with my weekender neighbors S&L yesterday morning, and in return for past and future services rendered they turned over a spare 225-watt solar panel that all by itself outclasses the six old salvaged panels I've been using. I'm going to use the racking M scrounged for me and mount it on the roof so it gets more winter sun (it turns out that ground level isn't a good location when you built at the foot of a couple of converging ridges: This close to the solstice they're only getting a few hours' direct sun on sunny days, which is not every day. Live and learn.) Also before I can use the new panel at all I need a new charge controller, also before there's any point I need some new batteries, also before I get new batteries I need to build them a shelter. So there's work to do on that front. But it's nice to have the panel even if I can't use it right now. I'm kind of a magpie that way.

Anyway, I'll get all this straightened out as quickly as I can. For the past few weeks I've just been hanging around and enjoying the comfort of living in a cabin, not really doing any work at all that didn't involve firewood. But now I'm getting more interested in getting it back in gear.

Even when they do something right not wrong, they do something wrong!

Hey, remember the incandescent lightbulb ban? Set to kick in on Jan 1? Oh, sure you do: We've been bitching and laughing about it for years.

Well, it's still in effect. Only not really.

A last-minute rider attached to the omnibus government spending bill defanged the 2007 energy standards for light bulbs that would have rendered the good ol’ incandescent all but obsolete, starting Jan. 1, by stripping funding for enforcing the ban.

Yeah, great. Except the law was passed something like five years ago, which means manufacturers are all geared up for the fluorescents and - considering that the law is still on the books but has only been "defunded," sure as hell aren't going to change now, two frickin' weeks before the ban goes into effect.

WTF, congress? If you're gonna do the right thing, (HAH!) then do it. If you're gonna continue to be the stupid parasitic asswipes you are, then do that. But you can't say, "vote for me, I'm a stupid parasitic asswipe but not as well funded." Because that's even stupider.

Well, I suppose you can say it. But it's still really stupid.

Just saying.

LB gets a little fresh air...

Uncle Ghost went off to spend the weekend with S&L, leaving Little Bear a bit lonely. Poor li'l guy...

Sorry about that,...

Wednesday was just a miserable winter day all around. Yesterday I started having trouble with water pressure which put me in a bad mood. I don't know what the problem is: The pump was running but the cistern was dry. It's got me concerned - granted that for the previous couple of days the pump probably didn't run, the tank shouldn't have gone dry in that much time. I looked all over the property and could find no signs of leaking. I'll know later today if the thing is even pumping water, since yesterday and today are sunny. Right now I'm back to using my emergency bottles, and since the Lair site is where I've gotten my water for the past year or two that's kind of an ironic problem. Also, if water's really going to be that much of a problem I've painted myself into a technological corner because a flush toilet is superior to any other kind ... unless you don't have running water, which at the moment I don't. Bother.

This morning it's bright but cold and very windy. But I've huddled for a couple of days and now have things that need doing. Cut wood yesterday for a while and I'm going back and getting more right after shit-shoveling, and that will at least take that off my mind. This heating with wood thing is turning out to be as pleasant as I hoped and simpler than I feared, at least for now, but I really want more of a surplus than I've got. You do need to stay on top of the wood thing, and I tend to be even lazier than usual in the winter.

Tuesday when I was in here surfing and blogging I stayed so long all my finger went numb and it was an hour in the cabin before they stopped hurting. I can already feel them freezing as I type this, which probably had something to do with my reluctance to come back yesterday and the day before. That's very unpleasant. Now I got an email from Landlady that the installation at the Lair has been rescheduled, and I hope this time the guy can make it. Things would be simpler if I could use the 'net any time I wanted to.

Finally read a Larry Correia book...

...and it still wasn't Monster Hunter International. Not sure what I was thinking, but when I did my Amazon shopping spree I went looking for MHI and got hooked by the reviews of a newer book instead, something called Dead Six.

Dead Six is, frankly, not the sort of book I normally pick up. Say "military fiction" or "techno-thriller" to me, and I think Tom Clancy or WEB Griffin. Clancy's charm burned out for me somewhere around Debt of Honor, and I just can't get that other guy at all.

But I'd been wanting to read something by Correia, and this came up, and...

Well, it's frickin' awesome. It's actually a collaboration, with Correia and some other guy writing the two viewpoint characters separately, and if ever there were a recipe for plot continuity disaster that would have to be it but here it's done nearly seamlessly and what it gets you is two completely different and (mostly) believable characters, either of whom could be the hero of the tale - or either the villain. The characters are marvelously well done. The plot hums right along, the dialogue is sharp and clean and entertaining, I just can't think of anything to criticize, and it's pissing me off.

It's not freedom fic by any means and I'm not going to bother reviewing it because it's really not my genre and there's a good review here. Like that guy says, this is the return of guy fiction.

Now I've really got to find a copy of MHI.

Well, nothing went according to plan. Surprise.

I was washing dishes in the Lair (Yes, I do that now) when I got a text saying that due to bad weather the installer guy wasn't coming to move my internet connection. So I'm still in the cold, dark room in the barn. Grumble.

I looked outside: Literally not a cloud in the sky at sunup. Now some clouds are mosying past, and the wind has come up. But it's still beautiful. in the forties before ten in the AM, ...

Aw, who knows? The weather can vary a lot in a ten-mile space, and it can change mighty fast. Today was supposed to be at least as unpleasant as yesterday, and still might fulfill the prophecy.

A very practical gift...

I don't do Christmas much. And so I'm always a bit embarrassed when people give me gifts. Oh, I take them ... but it embarrasses me.

This morning I rushed to get the shit-shoveling done. I had to move it up a day because the service guy is supposed to come tomorrow morning and move my satellite dish and I have to leave that time slot open, and I had to rush because rain and snow were due any second. In fact the rain started in earnest just as I started typing this, which means I need to run and rescue the boys.

Anyway, J came out and said he'd left my Christmas gift on the seat of the Jeep, and he hoped I didn't mind if it was unwrapped and that it was a rather practical gift. I said that since I wasn't expecting anything at all, both were fine and much appreciated. And it was a very practical gift indeed, since I'd been planning to get one for myself...

I told them I'd be putting it up this very day.

Saturday morning I got a gift from my weekender neighbors S&L. And while not exactly practical, it's certainly apropo...

BTW, the internet guy is supposed to come move the system to the Lair tomorrow, but ... well, this is a place where you believe that when you see it and we're due for a few days of crappy weather so I'll believe it when I see it. But if things go real quiet around here, it's because he got it apart but failed to get it back together. If everything goes EXACTLY according to plan (HAH!) the next post you see here tomorrow will be tapped out at my very own desk in my very own lair.

Ian, Ian, Ian...

Only he could find a way to make a revolver with a bayonet look cool. Because it's not mall ninja gear when it's a 100-year-old Webley...

It IS a rather frightening thought...

Is that alligator smoking a cigar?

I've had about three disjointed lines from this dumb song stuck in my head for days. Guess my subconscious is trying to get with the season.



Yeah, I grew up with a better class of comics than you young fellers did...

Argh. They say a dog...

...knows the difference between being kicked and being tripped over. I'm not so sure.

I came out of the scriptoreum to, um, chase some mutant zombie bikers. Yeah, that's it. And on my way to the tree Little Bear came running over to say hey, like we hadn't seen each other five minutes before when he got tired of hanging around in the cold dark room with Daddy and wanted out in the sun, right? And he INSERTED HIS PAW DIRECTLY UNDER MY DESCENDING PLASTIC FOOT, over which I have little control, and I swiveled to keep from crushing it, and he darted forward no doubt with the same objective, and he caught my right foot in the ribs, and he let out a yelp like I'd shot him in the pancreas, and then I fell right over him, and I think he maybe got a knee in the ribs 'cause he gave me another agonized yelp like this was his last moment on earth, and I skinned my other knee and about impaled my right palm on a rock trying to keep from just landing on him with all my weight, and I roll over on my back and I'm moaning and yelling, and he comes over and sticks his muzzle in my face and knocks my hat off and I think he's trying to tell that he doesn't know if I was beating on him or playing with him but just for the record if he gets a choice he prefers the latter, okay?

I gotta get a better class of dog. And some iodine.

The 1911 Gets Godwined!

From Random Acts of Patriotism, courtesy of The Travis McGee Reader.

Where else but Chicago?

Seen at Days of our Trailers...

Panel backs new fine for guns near schools, parks

People toting guns within 500 feet of Chicago schools and parks would get hit with an additional $3,000 fine under a measure endorsed Thursday by the City Council Public Safety Committee.

The additional fines also would apply to those loitering near schools as part of gang or drug activities under the proposal, set for a full council vote Wednesday. Current fines for the offenses range from $100 to $500, and the new fines would be added to those, said Ald. Ariel Reboyras, 30th, who proposed the measure.

"It just sends a clear message that we're not going to tolerate it," Reboyras said. "If you're going to do it, you're going to pay."

Reboyras conceded the fines are unlikely to deter wrongdoing.

"The bad guy's going to do what the bad guy does — fines mean nothing to them," he said. "But if nothing else, it steps up the fines, and if we should happen to catch someone, they'll pay another fee. That's all. It just adds more money to the revenue."

What can you even say to that?

"I appreciate your honesty. Not, you know, a lot, but..."

Your garbage is my gold.

When a plot of ground gets graded for a house, a fair number of junipers are usually bulldozed to their deaths. And since cedar is often reluctant to rot, there they sit: shoved off to one side, a haven for rats and rattlesnakes.

I've got a couple of neighbors who, hearing I've switched to a wood-based economy for my heating, have invited me onto their places to haul the crap off. One of them has gotten kind of insistent about it. Guess I can't blame him: The 'dozer guy must have wiped out a brazillian trees, and they're stacked up like a hedgerow darn near a hundred yards long. Been there for years.

A lot of this isn't of much use to me. The dozer half-buries them in dirt, and cedar does rot sometimes. But it also often doesn't, and so I've been driving around with the trailer behind the Jeep, collecting trailer-loads. Once they're back on my place, an hour on the sawbuck with the chainsaw gives me a couple of days' firewood without even raising a sweat.

It beats hauling the stuff out of the boonies, and this time of year I don't have to worry about snakes.

What was it worth?

This is a subject I avoid, mostly. There are strong feelings on either side. But I've got a son-in-law in the military, husband of my only daughter, father of my only grandchild, and this picture got to me. If I ever see a picture of Grandatter posed like this, there had better be a good reason. I care a hell of a lot more about them than I do about who rules Kabul this week.

And that's all I've got to say.

H/T to Robb Allen.

When Seniors Explode?

Okay, nothings going on in my life worth talking about (I cut some wood! I flushed my toilet! Yeah, you've got all that) and nothing seems to be going on in the world worth linking to. I'm going back to my (cooler than yours) cabin.

But check this out, courtesy of Claire. It's short and funny and should make TSA people want to hang themselves in embarrassment. But they won't. Because they hate us and think we suck.

Okay, I'm gonna stop talking about the weather now. Till next time.

Except to say we finally got our first single-digit night, and the cabin came through pretty well. Unfortunately the fire I set to smolder decided it would rather go out entirely, fairly early, so things did get a bit shivery. But it was a sunny afternoon in the Caribbean compared to what the RV put me through night after night for five winters, and I am completely not complaining. This was the first morning when I felt the lack of floor insulation, but still - a wool sock under a sandal, and my toes were a little chilly but nowhere near frostbit. I'll take it.

Now we're due, if the weatherman continues his surprising run of accuracy, for several sunny days with increasingly warm afternoons. Now that I have my chains back the wood rack is filling back up nicely, the Jeep starts and runs better (The power had gotten so low it didn't even like to idle - I'm guessing it was messing with the injector pulsewidths, but it's the first time I've seen a bad battery cause an engine not to want to run right) and all is right with my world. Looks like the satellite dish will get moved early next week - if all goes well, which around here is by no means guaranteed.

Speaking of the RV, it took roughly a week for the vermin to decide the coast was clear. And they must have been impressive: I left maybe an inch of food in the dog's dish, figuring I might want to shelter LB in there during the transition. That never happened, but that food is completely gone.

Back in the saddle again!

Woke this morning to a couple of problems that were going to have me illegally driving right through town in broad daylight, something I avoid, because I had two physical needs that could no longer be put off. I needed my chainsaw chains in the worst way, and the battery in the Jeep is dying so fast that every time I start the engine might be the last.

It dawned very cold this morning, as predicted, and so I hung around the cabin until late before going shit-shoveling. Intended to head to town right after that. Mentioned my situation to J, who told me H was going in and I should tag along with her.

Now, I don't normally ask to bum rides from H, because she really doesn't enjoy that and I don't go where I'm not welcome. But she cheerfully agreed to help me out, even to the extent of hanging around when it turned out Mike at the saw shop didn't have my chains done as promised. While we were waiting I went to the auto parts store and bought a heart-breakingly expensive battery, which hopefully will last longer than the second-hand battery I got last time. Now the battery's charged, I'm ready to cut the firewood I've got stacked at the lair tomorrow, and I've gone from being a mildly worried man to one without a problem in the world.

Always wise to keep good relations with the neighbors.

"Critical thinking is unpatriotic."

This piece from Popehat is worth your time. In fact, quite aside from what it has to say on the WoD, it addresses a major way I've always found so many conservatives annoying.

But patriotism, as defined by modern law enforcement — as defined by the sort of people who seek power in government — isn’t about exercising faculties like critical thinking or independent moral judgment. It’s about saluting, in the way we salute flags and fallen soldiers and parades, core ideas that have been transformed from policy arguments into quasi-religious dogma. The War on Drugs is merely one of many — along with “War on Terror” and “Government Regulators Know What They Are Doing” and “The Political Process In America Works.” Few of us salute them all, but most of us salute at least a few.

I don't. And I am frequently called unpatriotic by people I don't have a lot of fundamental disagreements with.

Seen at Tam's and Unc's, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it elsewhere.

Contact has been made...

Got a call from a person. In a place. Soon the satellite dish and modem will be professionally moved out to the Secret Lair, which means I don't have to confine the dogs, drive a mile, and sit in a shivery room watching my fingers freeze solid every time I want to use my computer for anything more than a word processor or a DVD player.

Rejoicing will be heard in the land. I still don't know when, though.

Sometimes good things come in gurgling packages.

Hey, kids! Do you know what happened on this date in 1933?

Here's a hint...

That's right! Everybody wore hats!

Cold, with a side order of colder.

The nasty weather hasn't really been all that nasty so far, but the weather forecast remains adamant that it's gonna go out with a memorable bang. So far nighttime temps are mid-twenties, but Monday night it's still supposed to head for single digits. Two new days of cloudy skies have been added by the gloomy forecasters, and it just generally looks like the weather will suck massively until around Thursday. Which is okay with me, because I'm very much enjoying the still-new sensation of sitting in a comfy chair and wearing sandals and a single sweatshirt in front of a cheerily-popping fire while wintergeddon is going on two glass-thicknesses away. The past five winters, by now I'm wearing five layers and desperately trying to get feeling into my fingers before they fall right the hell off. This is a big improvement.

In fact the only problem I've got, and it's not a huge one, is the matter of firewood. There's lots of wood hauled to the Lair but it's not cut to length. I've got three ways to do it, because redundancy is good, but two of them suck and the third is not currently available. I've got to sneak into town during the day to pick up my chainsaw chains, which are currently in the shop, and then I'll be golden. Mustn't put it off till I'm out of firewood.

SayUncle has "Gun Pr0n." TUAK has M.

From M's Forgotten Weapons:

If that's all it takes, I could get a job writing sales labels for European battle rifles - since I know next to nothing about them, and that seems to be a qualification.

M's at the SAR show in Phoenix this weekend, and probably having more fun than I am. I wanted to go this year, but the logistics were prohibitive. Sometimes I do wish I could legally drive myself around.

"Uncle Joel, ..."

"It's snowing. Make it stop."

LB loves the snow - in a perfect world he'd have been born to a sled team. Ghost isn't nearly as enthusiastic, and holds me responsible.

Hasn't actually snowed much here so far, I woke up to an inch or two. Heard on the radio last night, though, that the big town about fifty miles away got like two feet. They're at a higher elevation and always get way more than we do, but that's a bit extreme.

Weather being nasty last night, it was a perfect time to sneak into town and get some goodies to ride out the storms. Mostly just munchies and booze, but also some stuff for the Lair. Doing it the way I do it's pretty much risk-free - I think - but I always get back feeling like I've been shot at and missed. And when I'm shot at and missed I like to celebrate, which means I was up a bit later than usual. Then the boys woke me up around 10:30, just being restless. And then again around two, and this time LB sounded like he was in some distress. I've learned not to ignore that, so I put on my leg and came down to let them out. That was what he needed, and after that he settled right down. Should have gone back up to the loft, but decided to sleep in the big chair. That was a mistake; couldn't get warm enough. Now I know what I'm going to do with my other good wool blanket, which is still at the interim lair. I'll bring it back with me today.

Had hopes of a get-together this evening, but with the weather I'd already been warned it would probably be called off and sure enough it was. So I've got the day to myself again, which is nice too.

Power's not coming back up to snuff during the day, because of all the overcast. I still have a little 'tricity, but mostly the kerosene lamps are making themselves useful. Plenty of wood, plenty of propane for the stove. Today I'm cooking chicken! I'll be a hero with the boys.

You know that vile weather I said was inevitable?

It's rolling in. Supposed to be single-digit temps in a couple of days, preceded by snow and rain.

Of course it was supposed to rain today, with 15 mph wind. Instead it was clear all morning with wind scouring the ground down to bedrock. Clouds are rolling in now, so I suppose rain is still possible but I doubt before dark.

We've only had one night in the teens since the kids and I moved, and the Lair held up to that quite nicely. It's not a fair test, though, till we've got single-digit temps with trailer-tipping wind. That's looking more and more possible before Monday.

And with four days of rain and snow forecasted, in all likelihood I'll find just how low the batteries can go before the inverter quits for good and all. Fortunately I've got lots of kerosene and propane, and plenty enough wood to sit out a week's worth of weather if needed. I hauled in a trailerload of logs on Tuesday.

I don't spend a lot of time admiring McDonalds' lawyers, ...

But when you got it, you got it.

San Francisco's ban on giving away a free toy with a child's meal containing a certain number of calories, salt, and other particulars is set to kick in [today]. McDonald's, the clear target of the ban, had a year to figure out a way to change its business practices. Seems like they used the time wisely, reports the SF Examiner.

Heh. It seems that while it's now illegal to give a kid a toy in San Francisco if it comes with burger and fries, it's still okay to sell it for ten cents and donate the money to charity. It further seems that McD's waited until the last possible moment to announce the policy. Who'd a thunk that SF city politicians wouldn't see that coming?

Though the SF Examiner's article/editorial is strongly in favor of nuking McDonald's from orbit just to be sure and letting it burn in its own trans-fats, it does contain one of the best lines I think I've ever seen in newsprint:

Count this city's lawmakers as the latest among the billions and billions served.

H/T to Balko.

Somebody on this side of the pond should try this!

Heathrow has never been more efficient! Passengers' glee as border agency strike SPEEDS UP passport control

Passengers who had been warned of lengthy delays at Heathrow due to striking workers today said border controls were 'better than usual'.

As Border Agency bosses were forced to take on regular airport workers to man passport control, delighted passengers said queues had been shorter than normal.

The situation was echoed at Dover too as passengers faced apparently normal travel conditions with ferry services 'running well and to time' this morning.