There's a whole lot of stupid out there these days. I'm not just talking about flat-top fades coming back in. Nor about some of the highly questionable decisions that the Supremes have come out with recently. (Did you notice the Voting Rights Act just got gutted?) Or the refusal of Congress to take any kind of action beyond pointless attempts to repeal "Obamacare" and human rights for women.
Yesterday opening arguments started in the George Zimmerman trial. Now if you don't recognize that name by now, put yourself on the list in the top paragraph. Or as an alternative, Google him.
I freely admit I'd be a terrible juror in that trial. I've long since decided on his guilt, and am working on a suggested sentence. Not that it matters. But his attorney is annoying me. Start with his need to tell a really bad knock-knock joke to inject some levity in a murder trial, like that's a good idea.
But he's trying to neutralize the difference between the two with the killer being armed with a gun and the victim being armed with... Skittles, ice tea, and a cell phone. Oooohhh, scary! He looked suspicious to Zimmerman, guilty of the terrible crime of WWB - Walking While Black. So the guy with the gun stalks him with his truck, and against police instructions, gets out and confronts Trayvon, with a result of a 17-year-old kid winding up dead. Supposedly the provocation by Zimmerman is irrelevant, because Trayvon finally exercises HIS rights to stand his ground, and defends himself with his hands against the guy with a gun. That is Zimmerman's supposed justification for calling on his idea of the Stand Your Ground law. The two are so absurdly inequal, it's amazing the case isn't a slam dunk.
But this plucky defense attorney has the gall - or the insanity - to argue that Trayvon was actually armed too: with a sidewalk! It's as if he used a brick, that's what this clown claims. In this, he actually does inject the humor he tried for at the beginning of his speech. For can't you just see this kid-turned-Incredible-Hulk ripping up a length of sidewalk and whipping it around Zimmerman in a preemptive strike?
What? You can't?
Funny, I can't either.
Just a whole lotta stupid goin on out there.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
You Want What? Really?
I can fib. Especially online. I guess I'm pretty typical that way.
A pop-up ad offered to tell my how I could refinance my home at a lower interest rate before rates went up. Now, nevermind that I have no mortgage. I was bit by the curiosity bug for several minutes, and thought I'd see what they had to say. Just how low were rates?
The wanted info. For a bit it seemed reasonable. How much did I want to refinance? I picked $45G. Add any cash? Let's say $20G. Once they got a bit more personal, I got less informative. Oh, and might I note they never did ask what my current rates were.
Name? Jane Doe seemed a bit obvious, so I modified it a bit: Janet Doark. Address and zip code? I made up something plausible in Forest Lake. Phone number? Another fake, though possible, and while the program balked at this at first, it accepted it the second time I submitted it. Email? My fake name at Gmail. Credit score? While I was debating how to answer that the screen rolled over to the next question. They were quite willing to figure it for me. What's my social security number?
Now, that got my dander up. Who needs that to tell me what kind of interest rates were available? Still not quite willing to quit playing, I invented a number, based on knowing my dad's really old number, assuming such an old number likely belonged to somebody already either dead or so old that a mortgage would be unlikely.
And what did I get for all this? A promise that someone would be in touch with an offer. Yeah, riiiiiiight. Uh huh. Sure.
Good luck with that. Oh, and my apologies to anybody at the other end of that phone number I invented. My guess is, however, anybody legitimate enough to actually check on that name and SS number will find out it's bogus and won't bother with a follow-up call.
A pop-up ad offered to tell my how I could refinance my home at a lower interest rate before rates went up. Now, nevermind that I have no mortgage. I was bit by the curiosity bug for several minutes, and thought I'd see what they had to say. Just how low were rates?
The wanted info. For a bit it seemed reasonable. How much did I want to refinance? I picked $45G. Add any cash? Let's say $20G. Once they got a bit more personal, I got less informative. Oh, and might I note they never did ask what my current rates were.
Name? Jane Doe seemed a bit obvious, so I modified it a bit: Janet Doark. Address and zip code? I made up something plausible in Forest Lake. Phone number? Another fake, though possible, and while the program balked at this at first, it accepted it the second time I submitted it. Email? My fake name at Gmail. Credit score? While I was debating how to answer that the screen rolled over to the next question. They were quite willing to figure it for me. What's my social security number?
Now, that got my dander up. Who needs that to tell me what kind of interest rates were available? Still not quite willing to quit playing, I invented a number, based on knowing my dad's really old number, assuming such an old number likely belonged to somebody already either dead or so old that a mortgage would be unlikely.
And what did I get for all this? A promise that someone would be in touch with an offer. Yeah, riiiiiiight. Uh huh. Sure.
Good luck with that. Oh, and my apologies to anybody at the other end of that phone number I invented. My guess is, however, anybody legitimate enough to actually check on that name and SS number will find out it's bogus and won't bother with a follow-up call.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Soggy
I think our drought is over, at least for this year.
Last year I'm not sure I even heard our sump pump go off. I won't swear to it, but memory can't provide such a recollection. This year it's my bedtime lullaby, provided, of course, there's at least some break between pumpings to reassure me that things are working properly. We did have to go out and reposition the pipe taking the water away from the house several times, finally using a drill and screw to keep the force of the water from pushing the pipe out of position. By "we" of course I mean Rich and Paul.
The yard, being clay, is doing an excellent job of keeping saturated. Any little hollow is a puddle. We're very lucky that the high winds which struck Minneapolis knocking trees over all over the place, taking out power to over half a million people, just missed us. Something about this area tends to part the storms. We've noticed it for years. Weather goes just south, nailing Hugo, or just north, nailing North Branch/Hinckley. Storms split east/west as well, heading up 35E or just over the Wisconsin border. Friday's storm crept up as a solid band and then just wimped out over us.
We still got plenty of rain, later, but when radar showed light rain over us for half an hour, we had dry back steps, the limit of view provided by our back light. Don't think we've been deprived. Plenty fell later.
Besides a higher electric bill from the sump working constantly, we also have the joy of a super bumper crop of mosquitoes. We don't go out if we can help it. Every time the dogs go out they last about two minutes and beg to come in, and with them a handful of mosquitoes come too. You need to remain hyper alert with free hands to slap for about half an hour after each of their potty breaks. Steve has gone fishing, which is a bold move, considering he's feeding both the little nibblers in the water and the little nibblers in the air.
We should be hitting a dry part of summer soon. I hope so. It's been hard for Paul to find good times to spray the apple trees, which by the way already have such big apples that the branches are hitting the ground. They haven't even had their first fruit drop. Apples are important this year because there will be no peaches (heavy pruning, no bloom), and very few blueberries or raspberries (drought and neglect last year). Robins are already raiding the very green cherries, so not sure what will be left to ripen there.
Even if we sprayed with Off!, and found a way to keep wood dry, we couldn't have a backyard bonfire because the fire pit is lower than the water table right now.
I could keep on whining, but it's past time to get ready for work. On the bright side, we had the roof replaced a couple years ago, so right now, only the outside is...
Soggy!
Last year I'm not sure I even heard our sump pump go off. I won't swear to it, but memory can't provide such a recollection. This year it's my bedtime lullaby, provided, of course, there's at least some break between pumpings to reassure me that things are working properly. We did have to go out and reposition the pipe taking the water away from the house several times, finally using a drill and screw to keep the force of the water from pushing the pipe out of position. By "we" of course I mean Rich and Paul.
The yard, being clay, is doing an excellent job of keeping saturated. Any little hollow is a puddle. We're very lucky that the high winds which struck Minneapolis knocking trees over all over the place, taking out power to over half a million people, just missed us. Something about this area tends to part the storms. We've noticed it for years. Weather goes just south, nailing Hugo, or just north, nailing North Branch/Hinckley. Storms split east/west as well, heading up 35E or just over the Wisconsin border. Friday's storm crept up as a solid band and then just wimped out over us.
We still got plenty of rain, later, but when radar showed light rain over us for half an hour, we had dry back steps, the limit of view provided by our back light. Don't think we've been deprived. Plenty fell later.
Besides a higher electric bill from the sump working constantly, we also have the joy of a super bumper crop of mosquitoes. We don't go out if we can help it. Every time the dogs go out they last about two minutes and beg to come in, and with them a handful of mosquitoes come too. You need to remain hyper alert with free hands to slap for about half an hour after each of their potty breaks. Steve has gone fishing, which is a bold move, considering he's feeding both the little nibblers in the water and the little nibblers in the air.
We should be hitting a dry part of summer soon. I hope so. It's been hard for Paul to find good times to spray the apple trees, which by the way already have such big apples that the branches are hitting the ground. They haven't even had their first fruit drop. Apples are important this year because there will be no peaches (heavy pruning, no bloom), and very few blueberries or raspberries (drought and neglect last year). Robins are already raiding the very green cherries, so not sure what will be left to ripen there.
Even if we sprayed with Off!, and found a way to keep wood dry, we couldn't have a backyard bonfire because the fire pit is lower than the water table right now.
I could keep on whining, but it's past time to get ready for work. On the bright side, we had the roof replaced a couple years ago, so right now, only the outside is...
Soggy!
Monday, June 17, 2013
What's Worse
It's summer and the mosquitoes have hatched. Boy, have they!
You know that moment, when you're just about to drift off to sleep, whether you're inside the house or outside, perhaps in a tent, and you hear that high pitched whine of a hungry mosquito? You just can't quite get to sleep once you hear that, can you?
But you know what's worse? It's those few seconds when it stops whining. You know it's landed on you, you can't tell where, and you just wait, completely on edge, waiting to find out where it's going to bite you!
You know that moment, when you're just about to drift off to sleep, whether you're inside the house or outside, perhaps in a tent, and you hear that high pitched whine of a hungry mosquito? You just can't quite get to sleep once you hear that, can you?
But you know what's worse? It's those few seconds when it stops whining. You know it's landed on you, you can't tell where, and you just wait, completely on edge, waiting to find out where it's going to bite you!
Inconvenient
My morning pre-work habits are pretty fixed, starting with turning the alarm clock off, bathroom stop, letting dogs out, and so on. A major fixture through it is having my favorite local morning news station on via the TV and DVR.
I admit it: I'm spoiled. The ability to pause, rewind for something I missed or want to hear/watch again, skip through commercials, all make it my morning news, my convenience. After all, I'm the only one watching 95% of the time. The rest of the household is either asleep or working. Occasionally Steve's irregular sleep schedule brings him out to join me for a bit. But rarely does that change things, except occasionally pausing and rewinding for something of his interest. When I leave the room for my morning shower, off the TV goes. He's on line.
So this morning I had to find a work-around when the TV announced it was getting no signal. Now generally with satellite that means bad weather. Nope, sky clear as a bell, birds singing like crazy. It was because of yesterday. Steve and I watched several DVDs.
OK, with a "normal" set-up, this is no problem. Switch everything over to DVD player input, switch back. Only our current input is an old slightly malfunctioning Play Station 2, with the DVD player currently set up in Arizona. We didn't buy another one, and Paul donated his old machine to the living room system when he upgraded. It has consequences. It's noisy. It overheats, sitting in the entertainment center, so the fan comes on with increasing loudness until the thing finally gives up the ghost for an hour or so. As this usually happens well before a single movie is finished (I still haven't seen the rest of "Argo"), we decided to come up with Plan B.
Steve has a little stand-alone 19" TV in his room. It's one of the original flat screen hi def ones, back when something that little cost $400. Its saving grace is a DVD player built as a slot in the side. We can switch input from cable (satellite) to DVD by remote. Yesterday we had Paul hook it up for us in the living room, sitting on a small table in front of our regular TV close enough to us that it filled our field of view at approximately the same size. He even hooked it up to go through the better sound system for us.
Sweet, huh? And when we finished, he disconnected everything and put it back where it had been. Well, mostly. As it was then my bedtime, and Steve was busy on line again, seeing how hits many his latest blog posting had gotten since putting up a link on Facebook, the TV stayed off in the living room.
This morning I tried to watch my morning news. "No Signal". I can see by the lights that the DVR is working, recording the news for me. But whatever gets that signal to the TV isn't hooked back up. Paul, of course, is at work.
I, of course, am hopeless when it comes to knowing what goes where, much less being able to kneel in front of everything to physically put plugs into holes, or whatever the proper terminology is for making the connections.
I mentioned a work-around. On line, of course. I Googled the TV station and hit the link for live feed. Worked perfectly, as expected. However, no pausing, no skipping, no control over what is aired when. No avoiding commercials, no pausing to study the weather forecast. TV just like it used to be, not so many years ago.
In other words, inconvenient.
I admit it: I'm spoiled. The ability to pause, rewind for something I missed or want to hear/watch again, skip through commercials, all make it my morning news, my convenience. After all, I'm the only one watching 95% of the time. The rest of the household is either asleep or working. Occasionally Steve's irregular sleep schedule brings him out to join me for a bit. But rarely does that change things, except occasionally pausing and rewinding for something of his interest. When I leave the room for my morning shower, off the TV goes. He's on line.
So this morning I had to find a work-around when the TV announced it was getting no signal. Now generally with satellite that means bad weather. Nope, sky clear as a bell, birds singing like crazy. It was because of yesterday. Steve and I watched several DVDs.
OK, with a "normal" set-up, this is no problem. Switch everything over to DVD player input, switch back. Only our current input is an old slightly malfunctioning Play Station 2, with the DVD player currently set up in Arizona. We didn't buy another one, and Paul donated his old machine to the living room system when he upgraded. It has consequences. It's noisy. It overheats, sitting in the entertainment center, so the fan comes on with increasing loudness until the thing finally gives up the ghost for an hour or so. As this usually happens well before a single movie is finished (I still haven't seen the rest of "Argo"), we decided to come up with Plan B.
Steve has a little stand-alone 19" TV in his room. It's one of the original flat screen hi def ones, back when something that little cost $400. Its saving grace is a DVD player built as a slot in the side. We can switch input from cable (satellite) to DVD by remote. Yesterday we had Paul hook it up for us in the living room, sitting on a small table in front of our regular TV close enough to us that it filled our field of view at approximately the same size. He even hooked it up to go through the better sound system for us.
Sweet, huh? And when we finished, he disconnected everything and put it back where it had been. Well, mostly. As it was then my bedtime, and Steve was busy on line again, seeing how hits many his latest blog posting had gotten since putting up a link on Facebook, the TV stayed off in the living room.
This morning I tried to watch my morning news. "No Signal". I can see by the lights that the DVR is working, recording the news for me. But whatever gets that signal to the TV isn't hooked back up. Paul, of course, is at work.
I, of course, am hopeless when it comes to knowing what goes where, much less being able to kneel in front of everything to physically put plugs into holes, or whatever the proper terminology is for making the connections.
I mentioned a work-around. On line, of course. I Googled the TV station and hit the link for live feed. Worked perfectly, as expected. However, no pausing, no skipping, no control over what is aired when. No avoiding commercials, no pausing to study the weather forecast. TV just like it used to be, not so many years ago.
In other words, inconvenient.
Friday, June 14, 2013
And News So Bad You Should Call and Yell At Somebody
Boring! (Imagine that sung out Jo Anne Worley style, as in "Laugh In".) But "boring" is when they go and try to sneak something awful past you, knowing you won't be paying attention.
It's called a Farm Bill. Lotsa stuff about crop insurance, sugar subsidies, etc. Mostly boring, never affects us non-farmers, pretty straightforward every year. Right?
Not this time.
Remember the Tea Party? You know, those take-no-prisoners folks who believe government is bad so less government is better, taxes are bad so we should get rid of them, regulations are terrible because we should all be free to do whatever we want. Remember those guys? They've been having fun with the Farm Bill.
You like food that's safe to eat, right? Lots of the laws that help ensure that are eliminated. You know, those big corporate farmers need to keep more of their own earnings, and costly regulations are burdensome.
But they're just getting started. Food stamps are in there. Or rather, many fewer are in there. And the cuts aren't just general, where everybody gets ____% fewer. That's bad enough. Some are targeted. Take felons, for example. Know any? Well, nevermind. Eventually they serve their time, pay their debt to society, and get out of prison. We all know that it's even harder for them than the rest of us to get a job at that point. If they're gong to succeed as functioning members of society, they likely need some help at first. Like, say, food stamps. Nope, not any more. Not only do they no longer qualify to get food stamps, neither do their families!
Tell me, just what did those families do to deserve to starve? And how much punishment do we demand of our criminal offenders? So do they have options other than returning to crime and having the prison system feed and house them again?
How about animal cruelty? We can start with living conditions, say where chickens are required to have enough room in their cages they can at least move. We can go on to humane slaughtering, where a cow has to be unconscious before we slit its throat. Or even non-agricultural animals, where we outlaw dog and cock fighting. There's an amendment being proposed before the House on Tuesday by Iowa Rep. Steve King (not to be confused with the author, who actually shows some humanity) which proposes to eliminate hundreds of hard-fought state laws protecting animals. It's wording suggests that all these laws need to be replaced with a single system of federal laws. Of course, it doesn't provide any federal laws of the sort. In that vacuum, only the least restrictive law in any state becomes the law to be followed by all 50 states. Nobody can be better than the worst, demand higher standards.
Still bored?
How about a call to your representative by Tuesday letting him/her know you're paying attention and think this is outrageous? Or the only things/people having any protections at all will be the big corporations.
It's called a Farm Bill. Lotsa stuff about crop insurance, sugar subsidies, etc. Mostly boring, never affects us non-farmers, pretty straightforward every year. Right?
Not this time.
Remember the Tea Party? You know, those take-no-prisoners folks who believe government is bad so less government is better, taxes are bad so we should get rid of them, regulations are terrible because we should all be free to do whatever we want. Remember those guys? They've been having fun with the Farm Bill.
You like food that's safe to eat, right? Lots of the laws that help ensure that are eliminated. You know, those big corporate farmers need to keep more of their own earnings, and costly regulations are burdensome.
But they're just getting started. Food stamps are in there. Or rather, many fewer are in there. And the cuts aren't just general, where everybody gets ____% fewer. That's bad enough. Some are targeted. Take felons, for example. Know any? Well, nevermind. Eventually they serve their time, pay their debt to society, and get out of prison. We all know that it's even harder for them than the rest of us to get a job at that point. If they're gong to succeed as functioning members of society, they likely need some help at first. Like, say, food stamps. Nope, not any more. Not only do they no longer qualify to get food stamps, neither do their families!
Tell me, just what did those families do to deserve to starve? And how much punishment do we demand of our criminal offenders? So do they have options other than returning to crime and having the prison system feed and house them again?
How about animal cruelty? We can start with living conditions, say where chickens are required to have enough room in their cages they can at least move. We can go on to humane slaughtering, where a cow has to be unconscious before we slit its throat. Or even non-agricultural animals, where we outlaw dog and cock fighting. There's an amendment being proposed before the House on Tuesday by Iowa Rep. Steve King (not to be confused with the author, who actually shows some humanity) which proposes to eliminate hundreds of hard-fought state laws protecting animals. It's wording suggests that all these laws need to be replaced with a single system of federal laws. Of course, it doesn't provide any federal laws of the sort. In that vacuum, only the least restrictive law in any state becomes the law to be followed by all 50 states. Nobody can be better than the worst, demand higher standards.
Still bored?
How about a call to your representative by Tuesday letting him/her know you're paying attention and think this is outrageous? Or the only things/people having any protections at all will be the big corporations.
Good News, Bad News, Not SO Bad News...
First, the good news. My car smells great, and has all day.
Now the bad news. The reason it smells so good is the floor is drenched in coffee. I got a tall cup, this being Friday and me with a long drive ahead of me. I needed extra help keeping alert. I set it down in the hollow between the cup holder and the transmission. It's almost as good, normally, and all the other spots were filled. Then I started driving, and had to brake somewhat suddenly.
I bet you know what happened next. It, being a taller than usual cup, went forward, then ass over teakettle into the passenger footwell. My hand reached after it almost as quickly. I went for the bottom, thinking that I could rescue what hadn't poured out the slot in the lid and save at least a little bit of it. After all, I had snapped that lid on securely before paying for it.
All I can say is that the lid was found in the vicinity of the lip of the upside down cup. Not attached.
The next cup of coffee I bought this morning was normal size. And it went into a cup holder, while something else went into the hollow space.
Now the not so bad news. Steve called me, informing me a letter had arrived from Arizona. Who from? The return address had a bunch of initials that belong to the Homeowner's Association. He hadn't opened it, even though anything from them is for both of us. They just are too lazy or something to put his name on it too. Well, he wasn't in the same room with it, so he'd have to call me back.
This is the part where I start worrying. These guys don't send out letters with good news. They send letters telling you to do a better job cleaning up your back yard behind your dog, or weeds have sprung up while you were several states away, or something else requiring your attention whether you are there or not.
Or else!
So while I was picking up my next box to deliver, he was reading the letter and I was wondering how bad it was this time, and what might we have to do? With my hands full, the call back went to voicemail. I waited until the package was loaded, paperwork filled in, and I was sitting comfortably before listening.
It's time to pay the $20 annual dues.
Oh.
OK.
Now the bad news. The reason it smells so good is the floor is drenched in coffee. I got a tall cup, this being Friday and me with a long drive ahead of me. I needed extra help keeping alert. I set it down in the hollow between the cup holder and the transmission. It's almost as good, normally, and all the other spots were filled. Then I started driving, and had to brake somewhat suddenly.
I bet you know what happened next. It, being a taller than usual cup, went forward, then ass over teakettle into the passenger footwell. My hand reached after it almost as quickly. I went for the bottom, thinking that I could rescue what hadn't poured out the slot in the lid and save at least a little bit of it. After all, I had snapped that lid on securely before paying for it.
All I can say is that the lid was found in the vicinity of the lip of the upside down cup. Not attached.
The next cup of coffee I bought this morning was normal size. And it went into a cup holder, while something else went into the hollow space.
Now the not so bad news. Steve called me, informing me a letter had arrived from Arizona. Who from? The return address had a bunch of initials that belong to the Homeowner's Association. He hadn't opened it, even though anything from them is for both of us. They just are too lazy or something to put his name on it too. Well, he wasn't in the same room with it, so he'd have to call me back.
This is the part where I start worrying. These guys don't send out letters with good news. They send letters telling you to do a better job cleaning up your back yard behind your dog, or weeds have sprung up while you were several states away, or something else requiring your attention whether you are there or not.
Or else!
So while I was picking up my next box to deliver, he was reading the letter and I was wondering how bad it was this time, and what might we have to do? With my hands full, the call back went to voicemail. I waited until the package was loaded, paperwork filled in, and I was sitting comfortably before listening.
It's time to pay the $20 annual dues.
Oh.
OK.
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