The Ultimate Answer to Kings

…and then today, having dressed warmer, I’m gonna have to lose layers halfway through the morning.

It’s just that time of year. Shivery cold in the morning, wish-you-hadn’t-put-on-long-undies in the afternoon.

Sorry about the lack of content, it’s the result of a lack of activity. TB continues to improve; he was all whiny this morning and I was afraid he was getting uncomfortable again but it turns out he was just hungry. So that’s good.

As to the rest, firewood is cut and stacked and it’s not my day to tend chickens. So I guess maybe I’ll shift back to summer pants and go for a walky.

Mexican government hires Beto to confiscate all the drug cartel guns

In a statement, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced that the Mexican government has hired Robert “Beto” O’Rourke to confiscate all the cartels’ guns.

“We are pleased to announce that our good gringo friend Robert ‘Beto’ O’Rourke will be single-handedly confiscating all the firearms possessed by the cartels,” Obrador said.

Mexico already has the some of the strictest gun laws on the planet. Unless the bearer has explicit authorization from the Secretariat of National Defense, it is illegal and punishable by law to enter Mexican territory with any firearm as well as to keep and carry any firearm on your person or vehicle at any time, anywhere.

They were just waiting for that miracle man Beto to take all the guns away for good and make the people obey the laws.

What could possibly go wrong? 😉

It’s been going on all weekend but is much more noticeable this afternoon…

It’s from a controlled burn many miles from here and it happens quite often in summer – though considering how windy it’s been today I’m kind of wondering how “controlled” this one still is. Whatever, it’s got Kleenex and antihistamine vendors doing great business all through the area.

A Torso Boy report: He seems to be doing great. Almost back to his old self, his appetite has returned, he wants to go in the Jeep again, and his byproducts are beginning to look more like turds and less like Flint tapwater. To be completely honest he was showing some signs of recovery before we ever went to the vet; I suspect a 30-hour fast was the first remedy. But the bland diet and pills will continue for a while. And no Spam.

And what with everything else I completely spaced on acknowledging a care package that arrived just before the weekend…

Somebody hit my Amazon wishlist to the tune of a Leatherman holster, which I was really starting to need. Thank you! Also a couple of people hit the tip jar since yesterday afternoon, and that is also much appreciated. The sudden trip to the vet was expensive and quite in excess of the care fund remaining from bringing him here last year, so it pretty much came out of my propane budget. I do appreciate the support!

I’m impressed. “Blood work” used to mean “We’ll draw blood and send it off for analysis, and should get the results no more than 3 weeks after the dog dies.” Instead the vet was able to analyze the blood right there, and came back right away with a report that had circles and arrows and little sliding bars. And Captain Liquid Shit actually got a diagnosis! Which the vet didn’t think was all that serious but I came home with a substantially lighter wallet and a big bag’o’pills. Plus TB is going on a rice-and-boiled-chicken diet for a while.

Er…it was also suggested that I lay off giving him Spam for, like, the entire duration of his remaining life.

Turns out there was a shot at getting him to town today if we hurried, and since Neighbor L was willing we jumped in her truck and did it.

There’s nothing obviously wrong with him, of course, so he’s getting the usual whole workup and hopefully that won’t turn out to be as useless as it usually does.

…and if his squirts keep up over the weekend, I’m plotting a way to get him to a vet.

I wasn’t particularly worried at first – dogs get the squirts and then they get over it and life goes on. You ought to see the appalling messes LB could make. But TB doesn’t actually seem to be getting over it, and he doesn’t have the opportunities to eat unhealthy things LB did, and yesterday he passed a hairball. He didn’t vomit it, he shat it. Which leads me to wonder what’s going on inside his colon, y’know?

He doesn’t particularly act sick, short of maybe sleeping a little more than usual. He doesn’t have a fever and he’s drinking a lot. But he has lost what little appetite he ever had, and I’m getting worried about him. Unfortunately the closest veterinarian is more than 50 miles away, I (officially) don’t drive, and getting him to a vet will not be trivial. Still, I never stopped kicking myself for not going to more effort to get LB to a vet and I don’t want to be the guy who negligently killed Mama Liberty’s Corgi. So I may lean on a neighbor to take us to a vet.

Temp got down to the high twenties overnight, not as cold as forecast but cold enough.

First fire of the season. Grumble.

Correct me if I’m wrong but Mark Zuckerberg is on the “progressive” side. Isn’t he?

Yet here some congressvermin I’d have thought would be interested in protecting him, decide to see what he tastes like with ketchup.

If he was a real person, I’d imagine this to be a ‘red pill’ moment for him. As it is he’s probably just rejiggering some specific political contributions at the moment. Say whatever bad thing you want about Zuckerberg, I doubt he enjoyed being called a racist for the cameras. Or for that matter being cut off every second syllable by a politician he (probably) literally has bought and sold.

Torso Boy and I scratched an itch this morning and took a long Jeep ride to some places I haven’t wasted gasoline on in years, including up to the top of the West Mesa. Not far from the Lair, but a long winding drive on some rocky roads.

I love this thing, though I feel a bit of a guilty pang burning propane so early in the season…

Seven degrees warmer in the bedroom than this time yesterday. It’ll warm right up once the sun gets a little higher, but still. A little chilly on the old men first thing in the morning.

I changed the batteries in the thermostat, opened all the propane valves…

…and very reluctantly lit the bedroom heater for the first time since April. It was kinda cold inside this morning and it’s supposed to do that all this week.

It posed a small logistical problem because the top of the heater makes a great place to stash all my belt stuff but it’s probably not a good idea to leave live ammo on a working heater. Had the same problem last winter and never really found a good solution. It’s a small cabin with not a lot of spare horizontal space. But this time I got a little more proactive. There’s a cabinet beside the front door that always collects stuff I mean to take back to the powershed. Normally the stuff piles up and collects dust. This evening I cleaned it all off: there was literally nothing on the cabinet that actually belonged there. Then I moved all the stuff that had been on the heater…

… and hopefully that will solve two problems with one swing. We’ll see how long they stay solved.

And tomorrow I guess I’ll probably go ahead and set up the goddam woodbox…

So you want to know what two desert hermits do when they get together for an afternoon? Really? Well, I’ll tell you…

They compare pistols.

I’ve been carrying my Taurus Tracker for four years less one month. And by carrying, I mean it really honestly is my one true EDC gun*.

And I’m going to open the ball by saying right up front that from almost the very beginning, this particular pistol has had major issues. Light strikes in double action showed up right away, but after a few hundred rounds of mostly mild ammo it developed serious timing problems – to the point where for most of its life with me I’ve treated it as essentially a single action pistol. Continue reading →

Stolen from Codrea, concerning that ABC fake video…

Beto can rest easy in the knowledge that he’s not planning to personally come get your guns. I suppose.

Got a text from D&L first thing this morning asking if I could hold myself ready to help with hay if the local feed store had any. I said sure, even if I’d had other plans I’d have changed them for that.

Just got back and I have to say D is doing great for a guy who got out of the hospital from a stroke a month ago. I had to take over stacking duty which is normally his station and he didn’t like it; he worked the hand truck but kept insisting on helping me with the high bales and only admitted he was out of steam on the very last one. Complained as we were cleaning up that his abilities were coming back well enough but he got frustrated by how quickly he tired. I told him the usual (true) platitudes about how well he was doing for so recent a stroke, and that he was just going to have to get used to being told to be patient. He really is doing remarkably well.

I spend more evening time with Youtube videos than is probably good for me, ever since I acquired this Magic Elf Box two years ago. And in that time I have developed an internal list of favorite channels, not-so-favorite channels, and channels I wouldn’t click on if it were the only way to put out my flaming pants.

This guy nestles pretty firmly in that second category; When he’s not being overly silly he’s just wrongheaded. But I can be roped in by a title about .44 Magnums as EDC guns. I don’t recommend carrying .44 Magnums as EDC guns – even though I carry a .44 Magnum every day. Exceptional circumstances.

But in this case, the Yankee Marshall raises a valid point: What about the coming Bearocalypse? What then, you wimpy 9mm-huggers?

Full disclosure: I don’t believe anybody has ever really asked this guy’s opinion about – pretty much anything. 🙂

But inevitable, at least eventually. You know I had to see if I could really ride the bike the full round-trip to town, right?

I’ve said it’s a 20-mile round trip from the Lair’s driveway to the county road, and that’s true … with an asterisk. There’s a shorter route. But to use it, you need to a) know where it is, and b) not mind some steep/bumpy bits. Not Bumpy Road bumpy, but kinda bumpy. And also remote, so have your tools, spares and water in hand before the attempt. Seriously, this road doesn’t get much use. But using it, the round-trip to the county road is a little less than 12 miles. Which, since the round trip from the county road to the other side of town where all the stores are is a hair over 9 miles, puts the whole thing easily within the battery’s range even with all the uphill. You want to go easy on the motorcycle throttle, but seriously for most of the trip the pedaling is symbolic, just to keep the motor running. The worst part of the trip is the bumpiness and the tedium – because what with the terrain and the poor road it’s something like 2 hours of symbolic pedaling.

But it is proven not only possible but really no big deal…

I was driven by a need to go to the dollar store for dog food and the nighttime antihistamine that’s been letting me sleep through the night lately – plus the fact that it’s a gloriously beautiful day and I didn’t want to spend it doing useful and necessary things like cutting firewood.

That, friends and neighbors, is two pallet-loads of cement blocks. Which will serve merely as the framework for the paving-stone walkway/stairway to Landlady’s new deck.

It’s Thursday, and my back still hurts from all the deck and porch flooring I did Saturday through Tuesday. Call me unneighborly but I did not volunteer to help unload that trailer.

…and my back hasn’t forgiven me for the way I spent the weekend, and it’s really singing to me now…

But the porch floor is done! It’s been half-done and not-quite-right since May.

Lots of cleanup to do, when all I wanted was to collapse. But I got it all done. The very last screw is screwed, everything’s put away, nothing’s going to haunt my conscience…

When me and a glass of bourbon go spend the afternoon out on the porch. 🙂

Got a heads-up on this from Big Brother. Followed up, and…

Republican wishes ‘Happy Birthday to the US Navy’ — with a picture of a Russian battlecruiser

Sunday morning, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) tweeted a celebratory message to the U.S. Navy, which was officially established in 1775. Instead of showing photos of historic Navy ships or courageous sailors or decorated admiral, he posted a battleship, that isn’t even an American ship.

Via Alert Reader Kentucky, I got this link…

ABC News Busted for Using Knob Creek Footage in Report on Turkey’s Military Attacking Kurd Civilians
…which includes some fairly horrific footage of the Turkish invasion of Syria (CliffsNotes version: Trump did it) but as ABC apparently didn’t think it horrific enough, they added some additional footage from…Kentucky.

The good news: no men, women, children or pets were injured or killed in that ABC News fake news clip. Because, of course, the Knob Creek Range has great people running it safely for everyone involved. Hundreds of thousands of rounds (if not millions) are fired each year and nobody gets hurt. Unless they trip and fall walking around behind the firing line, or get a blister from stuffing magazines.