Monday's Missives

I like shovels and as both a liker of shovels and super home handyman in previous lives I must have owned dozens of them. Sometimes to be able to buy a newer, cooler shovel I would give shovelless friends and neighbors one of mine to justify buying a new one. Now that you know where I'm coming from- behold, the Super Penetration shovel from Garret Wade Tools. Ha, super penetration...

• There is a book out now supposedly written by a Marine who was a guard at Gitmo. A component to the story is the supposed cover up of 3 murders. The lengthy excerpt I read was absolute garbage from the first paragraph. It would not be hard to convince me the guy was never a Marine and heck, he may not even be real. It read like a laundry list of things people who hate the military and the US would want to believe. This would have to be done while also knowing little about how the military operates. A small (to some) detail that was an absolute deal breaker? He referred to other Marines and himself as soldiers- wouldn't happen in any context in a million years. 
• If the guy is real and was a Marine- he is a sociopath.



This chisel knife looks practical. You could dig, chop, cut and hammer with it. How have I made it, lo these many decades without this essential item? I mean I've been doing it all wrong. Where is my credit card...?



Japanese hatchets and saws also intrigue me.  I have heard that carpenters in California sometimes use Japanese hand saws. When I was a framer a sure way to be ridiculed was to have a hand saw- of any description in your trailer. It would surely get you laughed at by the other construction boys.  You might have a kitchen hammer somewhere to tap joists and wall studs into place but if  you didn't have electricity to power your saw and drive your nail gun? Time to roll up and go home. 

• My 7 year old has started a bucket list and this morning (01/18/2015) is taking suggestions.
• Among other things he intends to skydive and go to Disneyland. Interestingly, 4 suggestions from his audience were shot down by him- as he has already done them. He has flown in a private plane, petted a dolphin, swam in the ocean and driven a powerboat. He rolled his eyes because we were of such little help.
• First world kid problems.
• He has also ridden a train- for fun without sharing space with hundreds of other people- on top of the car and as a bonus he had a practically nil chance of getting tuberculosis, hepatitis or malaria during those rides and even less of a chance of getting decapitated or electrocuted.



Good grief. Yes, a laser guided pair of scissors is amazeballs awesome- it is also ridiculous.

• FG's cat is sunning herself behind the sliding glass blinds. She must be chilly from the fur loss after her 70 dollar grooming episode yesterday.
• First world cat problems.



A caliper/pen: buy me this for my birthday. What would I measure with it you ask? I don't know- probably lots of things. Then I could write and tell you about them.

Monday's Missives

• If you wonder why Rush Limbaugh is such a big deal it would help to understand the context in which he got big in the first place. For 30-50 years broadcast news readers could and would say whatever they wanted to disparage a conservative and/or promote a more liberal agenda regardless of what they were discussing. We just didn't hear anything from a conservative standpoint without really digging and looking. President Reagan could be at a Girl Scouts meeting and say to the crowd, I am an animal lover who believes in  helping poor people but the best way to help is to have a good economy so those who want to work can do so as a rising tide raises all the ships.  I also believe in a strong military to protect us and our interests. Dan Rather or Peter Jennings would come out and say, President Reagan while raping a goat at a Ku Klux Klan gathering said if it was up to him any poor people who don't want to work would be forced into the ocean by the US Army. Honestly, you would not believe how bad it was if you didn't live then or dig for the truth a little yourself..
• The Marines have been ordered to change their cover (uniform hat) for the dress uniform. Some people have attempted to be pejorative and start a false argument over the proposed replacement by saying they look too, "girly". I don't know about that but they do look literally ridiculous.

• I may be be the only person in some of my patients lives who has ever asked them about their future and really encouraged them to attend college.
• For a while SYFY has been promising a lot of good, original CGI movies. There are a lot I suppose and they may be original and yes, they have CGI effects...

  

  FG: This was my granddads.
  Me: Cool.
  FG: I bet it was expensive.
  Me: Yeah, well its priceless to you. It reminds you of him and it was his- that is cool.
  FG: I bet it cost at least 500 bucks. I mean look at all its got going on- a compass, fishing gear and sharpening stone!.
  Me Yeah.
  FG: What do you mean- yeah? OK. But it was at least 100 bucks right?
  Me: No, probably about ten dollars.
  FG: You don't know anything.

  
  
  
  

  

  Blackcomb Mongoose. Bombproof (but heavy) frame and excellent components. They didn't catch on with serious mountain bikers so you can find them like new on CL often for about 150 bucks.
  
  
  

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Friday's Dispatch

• While I'll admit I can get as cranky as anyone else, overall I'm pretty calm- often too much so for my own good I'm sometimes reminded but, few thing in this world could make me ##^&&%%$#! madder than the above. Crazy, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.


• Baby played with the water hose and a spray nozzle by himself for the first time today and watered the yard real well while getting himself wet. I sat on the porch in my rocker and watched.


• Contentment:" 1.the state of being contented; satisfaction; ease of mind.
  2.Archaic. the act of making contentedly satisfied."


• Not working as much as I'd like- will have to find something else if it doesn't pick back up.


• Great thing about my profession.


• I don't know what they think of it now but, there are a few nurses who went into nursing largely due to my influence although of course they had thought about it before on their own. I might have given that final push. There are few things that made me feel as good as seeing them out in their practice making a good living.


• Going to buy new tools for a brake job on the turd bomb. Tired of trudging back and forth digging through stuff for tools I then don't find because they were lost long ago. This time I'm going to take care of them and keep them in one accessible spot.


• Whatever.
• My oldest patient now was 4 weeks short of 101 years old.
• My youngest: 4 weeks short of 6 months.