Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Has there ever been an open thread here?

I ask because it seems as though we all have run out of something to say at the same time.
Can we tawk?

21 comments:

The Dude said...

Based on tags it appears there have been open threads here before. Have at it people.

Rabel said...

Convenient. I'm trying to figure out if this thing I just did is the stupidest thing I have ever done or just a top 5 stupidest thing. It started with an interrupted nap.

edutcher said...

Well, just don't call it a cafe.

To get the ball rolling, and thanks to Sixty for the opening.

Surber did a piece this morning on an American Indian calling himself Jay Fivekiller on Twitter and the 30 tweet manifesto he laid out, giving his estimation of what Trump has in mind and how even Whigs like McConnell are getting on board.

It's pretty intriguing, but here's the money quote for me.

Part of Trump's strategy is to demoralize the Dem base early, with a series of giant defeats/humiliations of Dem leaders. He wants Dem voters to crash hard before the summer. He's got to make it clear that #RedTideRising is inevitable, so as to keep the Dem base at home.

There's an angle that never occurred to me. Frankly, I always thought the talk of a Blue Wave was more sound than fury, but, if that's what the God Emperor is thinking, he may make people even forget Reagan.

Other than that, what is it with people on these Carnival ships that kills so many of them? I know it's a booze cruise, but how stupid do you have to be?

Or is that why the Darwin Awards are still with us?

Trooper York said...

Sorry I was busy.

The Dude said...

Poca West-by-God, eh? Interesting stuff. Dr. President Trump. I might have gone with Herr Doktor Ing. h. c. Trump, what with him having German roots and all, but that's just me.

The picture I posted here is me riding into the unused train tunnel at Snoqualmie Pass in the Cascades. I was trying to get away from all those suggestive pictures that Troop likes to post.

That tunnel is three miles long or there abouts, I wanted to ride in until I saw light from the other end. The tracks had been torn out but the floor of the tunnel was littered with wreckage - it was a real dicey ride, but I made it about a mile in, saw the faintest glimmer of light at the other end, then I turned around and rode back into the sunshine.

Rabel, I hope that the thing you did is not the worst thing ever - heck I hope it's not even in the top five. Hang in there, dude.

I worked on building a new door for my living room today. Much sawing and gluing and nailing and it is starting to shape up. I have a goal of turning my living room into a showroom for my work. Something to maintain cash flow over the winter months.

I read today that Wendell Castle, a great furniture designer and builder, died. Very sad, kind of an end-of-an-era sort of thing, but he was 85, and for a woodworker that's a good run.

What else is going on?

Oh yeah, we got some torrential rain last night and today there are only traces of snow left. That pile that was 4 feet high - now a mere snowball's worth. I should have let nature run its course.

ricpic said...

Can We Tawk?

The question is...can we be still?
And the answer is...no.
Soft music starts...just so...
Overridden by yentas shrill.

windbag said...

I was at my janitorial supply warehouse the other day. The guy who was loading me up started telling me about how he worked at my restaurant the year it opened (long before I bought it). I looked at him closer, and then recognized him. He'd told me this story before. His daughter used to work for me, and we'd chatted before. His daughter was an honest to goodness "10". Her boyfriend used to come help her clean up the restaurant, so she could get off earlier, and he'd have more time with her. Young love...or teenage hormones, take your pick.

Anyhow, this guy worked for the power company, which in this rural area, is a job you hang on to. Now, he's wheeling toilet paper out to customers from a warehouse. As we chatted, he mentioned that his daughter worked for me, and I told him I remembered her and what a great worker she was. All the stuff a parent likes to hear. Nice thing was I didn't have to exaggerate. Top notch kid. Told me about her kids and the business she and his wife were trying to get started, selling baby clothes on-line. All the time we were talking, he was staring off into nowhere. No life in his words. Guy just looked defeated.

You see, he had another daughter. About a year ago, she turned up in a hotel down in Atlanta. Dead from a heroin overdose. She was about 20. I didn't bring it up, since it seemed a no-brainer why he was so down. I wonder if he lost his job after all that. He's a shell now.

It's easy to rail against all the crackheads and junkies you hear about on the news, but when it's a small town and you know the junkie and her family, it's different. I don't know what happened to her. She was my daughter's age. She went to the same gymnastics gym as my kid. It was hard talking to him, knowing the load he's carrying around with him. Life can really send you down some scary paths sometimes.

The Dude said...

Very sad story, windbag. I hope he is able to find some support or help, I can't even imagine how devastating a loss that is.

Rabel said...

We've had problem with a newish neighbor two doors down and across the street who lets one of his dogs run loose in the neighborhood. It's a cul-de-sac in a subdivision in a medium sized town. We have a leash law but I don't want to get the neighbor or the dog in trouble so the last time they got in my garbage I walked down and made a friendly request that he fix the problem. The problem abated far a few weeks but one of the dogs is back roaming.

This afternoon I decided to take a short nap and was awakened around twilight by the loud sound of barking dogs. Odd thing was that the barking seemed to be right outside my window which faces the side yard. That's never happened before and I got up to take a look. Didn't see anything, but my wooden fence meets the side of the house between the massa bedroom and the former kid's bedroom so I went into the kid's room to see what was happening on the street side of the fence.

There was the roamer, trash destroyer with his nose down at the next-door neighbor's fence barking at whatever was behind their fence. There was also a larger dog trailing a leash. I opened the window and the larger dog looked at me and started growling. He was about 3 feet away.

Well, no. Not on my own property. I've got just the thing for you big boy. I went over to the hall closet and got the BB gun I bought for the kid when he was little. It's not a pellet gun or some sort of airsoft hi-power, just a toy, but it ought to do the job with a BB in the ass at 3 feet.

I hadn't touched the toy gun in 12 or more years so I wanted to try it out first. It's got a lever action that you pump up to 6 or 7 times and a bolt action that you use to load individual BB's for single shots.

Here I ran into a problem. I wasn't wearing my reading glasses and couldn't see what was happening with the loading action. I stepped into the kitchen where the light was better but still couldn't see so I cocked and loaded it blind with 3 pumps and for a test I fired it into the toe of a moccasin style house shoe. It clicked but didn't fire as far as I could tell. I tried again and nothing seemed to happen, and when I shook out the shoe there was no BB in inside. I'm doing it wrong, I thought.

Confident that it wasn't going to shoot, I pumped 3 times and loaded again, and so that I could be sure it wasn't working I pointed it toward a row of bug spray cans and my kitchen fire extinguisher which were setting on the floor against a wall. I think you can see where this is going now.

I pulled the trigger and PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTT. I hit the can of wasp spray, penetrated it, and it splooged it's entire contents out across the kitchen floor while I stood and watched. It got all over three pair of shoes, including the house shoes, and my bare feet.

A roll of paper towels and latex gloves got it cleaned up with no long term damage except to my sense of self esteem.

The dogs were gone by the time I finished. The whole house smells like Raid.

When I was cleaning the shoes I found the test BB's embedded in the rubber sole of the moccasin.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Windbag, I have nothing for sympathy for families like that. But drugs is definitely not a victimless crime.

The Dude said...

Oh, Rabel, I thought maybe you had done something silly! That sounds like just another day here at Rancho Deluxe - bug spray, random dogs, misfired weapons. Heck, around here ATF is just another convenience store.

But seriously, I had dozens of run-ins with loose dogs here and I called Animal Control every time. I figured that was the path that led to the least trouble for me. Now I don't even take my dogs for a walk around here. Still too many loose dogs. Some people are just assholes and innocent animals have to pick up the tab for badly behaved humans.

windbag said...

EBL, yeah, I don't know what the answer is the whole drug problem. What we're doing certainly isn't working. Being a small community, I not only know the family, but I know his brother and that family, and the grandparents.

Sixty, his family are all educated, professional people, who are can get him in contact with the right resources to help. I hope he's not alone.

Being a small town (about 3,500 people and less than 35,000 in the county), you like to think crap like this won't happen. Another tragedy about a year and a half ago was a guy who had to shoot and kill his son, who was attacking the family in a drunken, drug-fogged stupor. We know these people well. I don't know how they get up in the morning. No charges against the dad, which gets the ignorant tongues wagging. They own a business in town, and keep going. Strong people.

ampersand said...

I thought the KLEM and WKRLEM posts were open threads.

Trump should strut into the SOTU wearing this.

Rabel said...

I was really surprised by the fact that little low-power BB penetrated the can. It was a big unused can of wasp spray. The kind that shoots out a 10 or more foot stream (and are great fun to put into action). By chance it hit it nearly dead center, so no deflection.

The memorable thing was the instantaneous eruption of the spray. It was fairly violent and completely unexpected. Ping/Spray at the same instant, all the way across the room. I may suffer some post-stress trauma. I'd better look in my medicine cabinet, the one with the big bottles, and find something head that off.

ndspinelli said...

That shot reminds me of Pequabuck Mile Long Tunnel in CT. It wasn't a mile but maybe .7? It was a short hike from my house. An old RR tunnel that still got used some. We would go there to smoke cigs, scare girls, and cop a feel when a bat would fly by and they would hug you. Hey, they all knew the drill, don't #MeToo me. Went there many times but never got the rush of being in there when a train came through. There were cut outs where you could take shelter but it had to be a close shave. When you got to the middle of the tunnel it was TOTAL darkness.

ndspinelli said...

windbag, There is nothing worse than having to bury a child. People who have appreciate the opportunity to talk. I can listen but it's tough. I understand those who can't. I feel like it's my duty as a Christian.

windbag said...

Outside of Bryson City, NC, there's The Road to Nowhere. It includes a tunnel that's maybe a quarter mile long. We walked through it one time. Didn't bring a flashlight, which was unfortunate, as people love to ride horses on the road. Stepping in horse shit is bad enough, but when you've got to get back into your car and drive home, it's even worse.

When NC elected Heath Shuler to its 11th Congressional District, one of the very first things he did was to try to resolve the Road to Nowhere issue, which dates back to the Depression era. Shuler was from Bryson, so it was a tender issue for him, and one that he campaigned on. Despite being a Democrat, he did all right by Western Carolinians.

A three-mile long tunnel? That sounds fun.

chickelit said...

Now you've done it, Sixty. You when full portal in an open thread.

Also, dog pictures.

@AllenS: How's the weather there in Wisco?

Chip Ahoy said...

TOP would analyze the photograph as vaginal.

Oh man, I just now remembered something. It was like being taken there again. Wow. I just now transported. Awesome.

I went with Toni to an art opening. A local woman artist I hadn't heard of. I met the artist at the opening. We had a very long conversation about her turning over her originals to master colorists for printing. They actually earn college masters in color. They match the artist to produce prints.

The home was three railroad cars connected as an H. A large space divided into sections as you can imagine. With the woman's art all over the place. We went room to room and examined everything. The paintings are all landscapes. Entirely landscapes. In the first room I noticed a trend. All the painting followed a formula. The landscapes are actually nudes. I concluded the artist is lesbian and she has a singular obsession. She sees naked women in everything. Everything. Ev. re. thing.

I told this to Toni, my date. It was her idea to go there. She's very artsy-fartsy type. But cannot draw a stick figure herself. So, she's amazed at any artistic thing that anyone does.

Tony said, "Oh Chip, you're SO FULL OF SHIT!"

The middle area same thing. See it now?

"No. You idiot."

Third room same thing. "See it now?"

"Fine."

The mountains in the background are breasts.

The running stream in the middle is vaginal

The two areas on both sides are the legs.

Sometimes the body is formed by midground landscape

We are looking straight into a woman's vagina as she lays spreadeagle before our eyes.

Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and so forth forever.

With no variation on compositional theme and bare variety in detail.

Except one.

An adobe pueblo at sunset. Long and thin. A silhouette of the town at night with a moon in the sky.

Toni goes, "Aha! Here's one that's different." Because it's buildings and not landscape.

I go, "No. It's exactly the same theme all over again. The woman cannot escape her obsession. There's something powerful going on psychologically."

Toni says, "How? You're wrong. They're buildings!"

The buildings are larger at both ends than they are at the center. Although linear, they suggest a woman's two legs. We're looking into them again. The only window that's lit, and painted a yellow glow, is dead center. That is the woman's vagina. The two largest mountains are paired humps on either side of the window. It is the exact same composition as the landscapes except this one is architectural.

Toni said, "No way."

I said, "Squint your eyes."

Toni said, "Shit."

Yep.

Toni goes, a bit disgusted with me being right, not at the paintings being euphemistically vaginal, "Jesus Chist."

Then we had to talk to the artist without letting on any of that. As if we're having a perfectly normal conversation with a non-sexually-obsessed person who makes herself obvious through her undisguised art.

And Toni, brilliant as she is in so many things, has to have this explained to her. She has to have it argued to her. She fought comprehension for two full rooms.

And i'm all, "Let's have a discussion about Georgia O'Keeffe.

Toni actually goes, "What?"

AllenS said...

windbag, so sorry to hear that, but ever since I can remember, I've heard that same story. Over and over.

chick, lots of snow and with the high winds big drifts. All plowed out by 10 am. Then I went to Menards (hardware store). I wanted to go to the recycling place first, which is across the highway from Menards, but forgot the crap that I wanted to recycle. Turned out to be a sunny nice day. Not very warm, but the sun was putting out some heat.

I have jury duty for the month of January, and since my # is 18, and the 1st trial was cancelled and the 2nd trial jurors #s 28-66 were called, I don't think I will be called. No trial yesterday, and another one is slatted for today. We'll see.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Rabel.....hope you see this answer to your dog problem

We had/have roaming dogs and this is how we solved it.

1. Chum your garbage cans: Put some really stinky smelly meat right on top that has been LIBERALLY laced with Cayenne pepper. Lay back and wait for the sound of can being knocked over and dog(s) yelping in pain from the burning pepper. Won't hurt them and they will remember it.

2. Get a paint ball gun. (This may hurt if the dog is too close or is a small dog.... so try to make it a distance shot). Purple or bright orange are nice colors. Shoot the dog and then find out which of your neighbors are sporting a purple or orange dog. You can also make a booby trap with non toxic paint. I think you can find directions on YouTube.

3. Get a live trap. Last resort. However, you will also be trapping all sorts of other critters besides the intended dog. Raccoons, cats, skunks, foxes, coyotes!!!! Last resort and not really recommended.