Just stuff cluttering my odd little mind today

Isn't this eerie?  It's a picture from the NYT showing life today in the no-man's-land around the old Fukushima nuclear power plant after its triple-meltdown in 2011.  Doesn't it remind you of that National Geographic Channel show Aftermath: Population Zero about how nature will take back over after humans become extinct?

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Now this is just downright evil:  It seems there are pregnant women doing a booming business selling "positive" home pregnancy test kit results on Craig's List. *

The visual ones selling for $25....

The digital ones going for $50.

I can only think of 2 reasons women would want to buy these.  One, they want to trick their boyfriends into marrying them; or two, even more dastardly, they want him to cough up money for an abortion.

OK guys, two can play this game.  I'm announcing my new venture....home vasectomy test kits that show negative results. **

Here's how it works:  For $50 I'll send you my home vasectomy test kit with a negative readout proving you're shooting blanks.  You just stick it in your ear (which everyone knows is where sperm hang out when on they're on standby) and in seconds you can show her the results, "98.6" being the code for "all play, no work".  Even a couple of degrees higher should still give you time to make the airport.  ;)

   * This part is real.

  **This part isn't.

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Have you ordered yours yet....your "anti-surveillance" clothing?  A guy named Adam Harvey has introduced his line of clothing made with some sort of metallic-cloth blend material that supposedly hides your body heat signature from drones flying overhead.

"Top Gun 3 to base....ahh, yes, my screen is showing a couple of unattached arms walking down the sidewalk without a body....I think we've found our guy....over...."

He's also offering a cell phone case made from a similar material that prohibits your cell phone from emitting signals that can be tracked.  "No electronic signal can get out" (or in, I presume), Adam proudly announced at the unveiling of his "Stealth Wear" line. 

Umm....Adam....haven't you just turned your smart phone into a dumb rock?

I think Adam needs to keep his day job on the loading dock.

Hump Day.  Yea!

S  

Let the debate rage on

I see there is an effort underway to mandate the use of laser-engraved firing pins on all new guns.  The idea is that when fired, the firing pin would leave an individual microscopic mark on the shell casings, usually found all over the ground at a crime scene.  The police could then examine the marks on the casings and know which gun fired the shots and who owns it even if the gun itself was never found.  Cops 1; Bad Guys 0.  Sounds like a good idea...on paper.


But nothing in the real world is ever that easy.  First flaw in the plan:  Revolvers don't eject their shell casings.  Only semi-automatics do that.  Second, just as people buy and sell things like TVs and iPhones and computers (think Craig's List and eBay), they buy and sell guns, too.  Even if there was an ironclad way to document every free-market gun sale the problem of gun violence would still exist.  That's because bad guys steal guns or buy them from other bad guys (who probably stole them themselves). They're not too concerned with "paper trails". 


Knowing who owned a gun 5 years ago and who used it in a crime yesterday are two very different things.  I myself have sold several guns over the years.  I was very careful who I sold them to, of course.  Most recently when I moved into an apartment I sold several to a Plano police detective.  The thought of having to defend myself in court against a crime one of those guns was somehow later involved in sounds very unappealing.  And expensive and time consuming, too.


All such a law would do is drive up the price of pre-engraved-era guns on the black market.  Naturally the gun-control groups are all for this proposal, and the NRA-types are all against it.  While something needs to be done to get guns out of the hands of bad guys, I don't think this is the right plan.  Nice try.

Any suggestions on what would work?


S

The saga of my old desk

I've always liked roll top desks, so back in the late-'80's I splurged and bought a nice one, along with a matching 3-drawer oak file cabinet.  I had cubby holes and drawers and little compartments for everything.  I was a happy camper.  By the mid 90's, however, when PC's became popular, roll top desk's drawbacks became apparent.  I had a succession of laptops as they were the only ones I could use on my prized desk.  Problem is, I don't like laptops. My fingers and their keyboards don't get along.


Over the years I had to move it twice.  OMG, what a nightmare!  My philosophy of buying the best possible furniture and then taking good care of it forever was and still is good advice, but "the best" usually means solid and heavy.  That came back to bite me big time!  About three years ago I/we bought an iMac, and it was love. *sappy music*  The roll top had to go.  Sort of.  I took off the roll top part and had my cabinetmaker fashion a new flat top, and we were back in business.

Then I had my "downsizing" epiphany and my desk's days were numbered....again.  Few people wanted a desk that large, and those that did wanted a roll top.  Go figure!  (The old roll top part was long-gone, somebody's garage sale trophy.)  Finally, at the 11th hour before....actually during....our recent move, a guy answered my Craig's List ad.  On Saturday morning he came out to see it, we haggled a bit, and money changed hands.  Whew!  Now it was his problem.


I loaned him and the young guy he brought with him two furniture dollies to get it out to the parking garage.  I walked with them so I could retrieve my dollies, but instead of stopping at a pickup truck, they stopped beside a ragged-out old Lincoln Town Car.  What the....?  


If I hadn't seen it with my own four eyes I wouldn't have believed it;  the two of them picked it up and put it on top of that car, then secured it with a couple of ratcheting straps.  K met him in passing while we were moving and sized him up as being "not right".  What an understatement!  I later checked the news expecting to hear of a massive traffic jam on the highway caused by a desk that fell off the top of a car. 


I guess he got it home in one piece.  I can only imagine the home he took my prized desk back to.   Of course I'm glad it's gone, but at the same time I kinda miss it.


S

Plan for the worst, hope for the best

We have a truck, several dollies of various sizes, and lots of muscle-pain-numbing aspirin to see us through our move.  I have help coming on Sunday if needed, but I'm hoping we can get it done ourselves before then.  I'm looking forward to moving but dreading the move itself.

We've already discarded lots of stuff we don't use, and I'm hoping we can cull even more as we unpack.  Call me weird, but I love small, organized spaces.  K says I over-think things, but it's what I do.  My mind can see things 3-D ( no doubt from decades of reading blueprints) so I know where most everything will fit before we even get there.  It drives her nuts, but I see it as an advantage.

Best news of all....late last night after we had gone to bed I had a call regarding purchasing my desk.  Yes, the monster desk from hell!  I'll plan to move it last and hope the guy shows up with cash in the meantime.

I hope this doesn't turn into a near-death experience.  *deep breath*  Cover me....I'm goin' in.


See ya in a few days.  Y'all behave yourselves.  :)

S

Details....details....

We're still doing all those little detail things moving demands, like dealing with the change of address notices. Yesterday K was online filling out the form with the Post Office and she came in and asked to use my debt card.  I asked why and she said the USPS charged a $1 fee for online address changes.  Do you believe that?  Mark my words, one of these days the Post Office is just going to wither and die.  They are darn near worthless now....all I ever get in the mail are two magazines and junk mail, and I'd be happy to pay a little more to the publishers to send the magazines UPS.  I don't want the junk mail at all.  That's why it's called JUNK.  At least the magazines would arrive in one piece as opposed to the covers being ripped off like I get now.


Meanwhile I set up our new electric service.  In Texas we have a choice of providers which sounds good but is in reality a royal rip-off.  When we "de-regulated" years ago it was rigged so that we Texas homeowners pay among the highest rates in the nation.  The deciding factor is the length of rate lock-in you want;  month-to-month, 3 months at a time, 6 months, or a year.  I chose the 12 month term and am paying $.086 per kilowatt hour (1,000 KW = $86).  If you don't mind telling, what do you pay per KWH where you live?  I'm curious to see how badly I'm being screwed.


A bit of good news....I have someone interested in buying my huge desk.  I hope he can come by this week and we can make a deal.  My back hurts just thinking about having to move that monstrosity.


We start a new remodel job today so I've gotta get a move-on.  Hope y'all have a good week.


S

It's raining cats and dogs....and sunspots

A cold front pushed through north Texas around noon today dropping temps over 20 degrees.  Combined with the winds and rain leading the front, it's darn cool outside.  I had to go back into my winter jackets I had so meticulously packed away in sealed plastic boxes and pull one out.  Mother Nature is jerking my chain!  We're expecting 2-5" of rain by the end of the weekend.  Maybe that will be enough to top off our lakes and enable us to survive the summer without water rationing.  *fingers crossed*


Is anyone besides me having electronic issues with all the sunspot death rays bombarding earth today?  My computer shut itself off, logged us out and everything.  Then when I tried to restart it, it wouldn't accept our ID info.  After a number of attempts it finally smiled and let me back in.  Go figure.


More leisurely packing is in progress.  An hour or so every evening and we should be prepared for an organized move.  The 23rd will be here before you know it.  Here's what our spare bedroom looks like now:

Note the vicious Mr. Luke in the lower right standing guard over our stuff.  OK, sitting guard.  Oooo....I just spotted something else I can sell on Craig's List.  That blue leather chair in the corner has been collecting dust for several years.  It needs to find somewhere else to live.  No luck on the monster desk yet, though.  Don't people use desks anymore?

S

More Microsoft pollution

I read today that Ford, which was flying high after saying NO to government bail-out money during the financial crisis, is now in a tailspin.  According to Consumer Report, based on reliability they've dropped from 5th to 10th place, while JD Powers has dropped them from 5th to 23rd place based on customer satisfaction.  And it has nothing to do with the engineering or styling of their cars.  No, by those criteria they're quite good, actually.  They're being panned because of their "MyTouch" system, a dash mounted touch-screen used in place of traditional knobs and switches.  It was developed by Microsoft, and it's crap!


I'm Microsoft-phobic. I loathe Microsoft.  Every PC I've ever owned proved to be more trouble than it was worth, all thanks to Microsoft.  They froze up regularly, need "patches" daily, and were a virus nightmare.  I finally tried a Mac a couple of years ago and have nothing but good to report.  I know Windows runs most businesses, but I also know it's a huge source of irritation for them.  I don't think I'm alone feeling the way I do about this:  Microsoft has been losing market share and their stock price hasn't done squat in 5 years.  Apple on the other hand is on a roll, and is now the most valuable company in the world, worth over $500B.  Which begs the question....What was Ford thinking?

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Our downsizing continues.  Last night a guy came by and bought my file cabinet.  It would have made my day if he'd taken the desk, too, but no such luck.  Fortunately I still have over two weeks to unload more stuff find new homes for my family heirlooms.  *sniff*  Today I'm back to The Container Store for more plastic see-thru storage boxes. Those things are great!  

They ought to put me on TV...."Anti-Hoarders".  All the slobs would watch and think, "Ewwww!  How could those people live like that?"  Haha!

Ciao, y'all.

S

The Dynamic Duo, house cleaning, and found treasure

Yesterday while going through all our earthly possessions in the process of packing K ran across some old photos, one of which was taken at her parent's house on Christmas Day 2006.  It shows both of my dogs together, the dearly departed Tara Belle (the Westie) and Emma Belle (the Mini Schnauzer):

Luke....you've got some large shoes....er....paws to fill, my boy.

She also found my old name patch from my Confederate Air Force days, and a campaign button from my unsuccessful run for General Staff (Board of Directors):

As it turns out I lost by 3 votes, from an organization which at the time had around 8,000 (?) members.  The guy I lost to was a retired USAF Colonel, his last assignment that of being responsible for maintaining the Air Force's Special Air Mission (SAM) fleet of aircraft.  You might be more familiar with it (them) as Air Force One.  Oh well....

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Every time we wash clothes we struggle to find enough clothes hangers for everything as they come out of the dryer.  They can't just disappear into thin air, so where do they go? (Hanging out with those socks that disappear one at a time?)  K and I have both been cleaning out our closets, ridding ourselves of clothes we say we're gonna wear again some day but of course never do.   I took a huge carload of stuff to Goodwill, which means I freed up a few extra hangers:

Now we have 78 to spare.  :)

I've had good luck the past few weeks selling stuff on Craig's List.  I made a bundle selling four framed, signed & numbered aviation art prints, and yesterday K's old stationary bike.  Good riddance!  Now I really need to sell my big 'ol oak desk and file cabinet.  They're way too heavy to move.  I also need to sell the monster pre-lit artificial Christmas tree K just had to have a few years ago.  It's in the storage room downstairs in a box that I do not want to store in our new, more compact place. I'm trying to make room in there for a bicycle.  (K, if you read this, I'm buying a bicycle.)  It looks like we're paring down nicely and should be able to fit in our new 100+ sq ft smaller place with ease.

All in all it was a productive weekend.  How was yours?

S

No more "all-nighters" for me

When you were in school did you ever put off reading those last few chapters until an hour before class, or start writing that essay due the next day at the 11th hour, or maybe procrastinate cracking the books in preparation for a big exam until the day before?   No?  Me either.  I was always prepared long before  *HUGE LIGHTNING BOLT...DEAFENING CLAP OF THUNDER*  OK....OK....maybe once or twice I was caught off guard.  Sheesh!


K and I have one month before we move to cull through our stuff, decide which of our "family heirlooms" we'll keep, which we'll continue to store, and which we'll toss.  Come moving day I'm gonna have my shit together!  No more "all-nighters" for me. 


I've decided my big oak desk and 3-drawer oak file cabinet will go on Craig's List today.  Right now they're fulfilling the Murphy's Law that says "the amount of junk you have is directly proportional to the amount of storage space you have."  The exercise bike goes on there, too (once I dust the cob webs off it), and some nice art prints I've had stored for years.  Good riddance.  I'm really into this minimalist thing.  "Travel light and freeze at night" as they say.


Today's rant:  Afghani-f>>king-stan.  What a hell-hole.  Even after a sincere apology the natives are attacking our people there in protest for destroying some Korans or something like that.  Here's what I say....pack up all our stuff, load up the planes, what you can't load, pile up and throw a match on it, and get the hell out.  There isn't one thing, NOT ONE THING there that interests me.  


As it is foreign aid by us (and our allies) make up 97% of their gross national income.  They'll have to find 'em another national pastime besides shaking down gringo's.   El Presidente Humid Carbide and his graft-grabbing buddies can kiss my a$$.  Let 'em go back to doing what they do best....breaking big rocks into little bitty rocks.  It's what made them the great progressive country they are today.


Ahhh....better. :)


S

Bazinga!

Craig's List came through for me again.  Yesterday evening I delivered to the new owner a beautiful framed signed/numbered print that used to hang over our fireplace, but for the past 2+ years has been leaning against the wall in our spare bedroom collecting dust.  We're slowly-but-surely disposing of stuff that we don't use so that when the day comes that we can move, hopefully to Colorado, moving will be a breeze and we can comfortably fit into a smaller, less expensive abode.  Read:  more money for fun activities/travels.  Fortunately I/we don't have much sentimental attachment to our "stuff", so letting it go isn't that difficult.


Speaking of Colorado, I see the first snow of the season has arrived in Denver.  That same storm will be arriving here in north Texas today, except in the form of 50 degree temps and rain.  I'm ready....let 'er rip.  Things here will be back to 70 and sunny by the weekend.  :)


In the news I see the too-big-to-fail European banks got a rude awakening.  They're being forced to write off half the value of the loans they made to Greece.  Looks like their greed bit 'em in the butt.  Whatever happened to prudent lending?  They should have known better.


Did you see where two members of the Italian Parliament got into a fistfight while "debating" the necessity of raising the retirement age to 67?  One accused the other's wife of retiring with a full pension at the ripe old age of 39, saying that's what's wrong with the system now.  Thirty nine?   Mama Mia!


S

We're scaling back

My brother/business partner and I have said for quite a while that we needed to scale back on the amount of "stuff" we keep at our warehouse.  You know how it goes....you have some stuff left over after building a house such a bag of grout, a few pieces of baseboard trim, maybe a couple of closet rods, so you just dump it in the warehouse and tell yourself you'll use it on the next house.  But of course you don't.  Then before you know it you've got so much stuff crammed in there you can't walk.  That's where we are now.


One morning earlier this week we cleaned out a bunch of worthless things like some signs with bent legs painted in our old color scheme.  Why in the world were we keeping those?  We filled up half a dumpster!  Now we're into old files.  We have about 15 boxes of old files, check stubs, bank statements, etc that go back before 2000.  I found a shredding company that will be at a local high school Saturday morning with their big truck shredding stuff in exchange for a donation to the school's band program.  Deal!


Next we're going to move to a closer warehouse space (now that we're building further north as our city grows that direction) and get one a bit smaller, too.  I like being organized and uncluttered.  Next I need to work on some personal stuff I've been dragging around that needs a new home.  I'm thinking Craig's List.


Have a great weekend, everyone.  ;)


S