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.