Author Archives: Joel

Yesterday and half of today I’ve watched the voltage readouts with increasing concern – I know the voltage on the batteries running the 12-volt system is low and I think I know why, but the overall voltage wasn’t setting the … Continue reading →

Yesterday the blog saw just shy of 6500 visits, which slightly more than doubles the previous best day ever and proves as if we needed proof that Ian McCollum is a bigger star than Milo Yiannopoulos. And a couple of … Continue reading →

When I got home yesterday, three things about the cabin’s water were clear: It worked, the pressure was high normal, and the toilet valve had been leaking for quite some time. Normally that last thing would have had me worried … Continue reading →

Watching it now more than a month after the shooting, I’m amused by how completely befuddled I appear throughout. I wore the Official TUAK Sunglasses so I couldn’t see to read and also couldn’t remember the names of any of … Continue reading →

This guy showed up the very day after I left… …and I don’t begin to know who he is, or whether he thought twice about proceeding before or after he saw the camera, which he surely did. As to the … Continue reading →

We raced rain for the last 50 miles or so getting me home this morning. Things settled down for a while but boomer cells started moving around in the afternoon. Right now I’m out on the porch with a cup … Continue reading →

We were chased by rain for the last fifty-odd miles so my friend dropped me off with all my stuff and skeedaddled back to pavement. With big fat drops falling around me I got TB in the cabin, disconnected the … Continue reading →

My friends have returned, safe and sound though very tired from their unfortunately extended journey. All continuing well I’ll be home by this time tomorrow. In the meantime I was able to touch a couple of acquisitive bases… …a case … Continue reading →

Offered without comment, except to request that if anybody knows if there’s a why to these things, please offer old Uncle Joel a clue…

Wow, I just spent four hours unconscious and it literally couldn’t have come at a better time. I’m happy to be of service to my friends but I won’t deny I’d like to go home now, and having that event … Continue reading →

Woke this morning to learn my friends’ return has been delayed. Only slightly, won’t really change anything, but still. “Delay” is not, at this point, good news. My cerebral function having come almost entirely to a halt, I’ve been sitting … Continue reading →

I’m so bored. Going on three weeks here at my friends’ house, and (if I correctly recall) only a few days before I can go home. It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m drinking wine and burning up their wifi watching Youtube … Continue reading →

This news story suggests the chain of custody is circular. The government steals’em from criminals or “criminals.” Then somebody steals’em from the government and sells’em to genuine criminals, since the rest of us wouldn’t dare touch’em. Then the government ends … Continue reading →

…because I need this sign in my kitchen… I overslept for an hour and would still be in bed if Torso Boy hadn’t reached Peak Bladder and started licking my nose to move things along. It’s after six and I’m … Continue reading →

I’m just an old one-legged guy trying to get to the market before it gets hot. Thought about that as I was laboriously pedaling the mile and a half to the Trader Joe’s this morning, heard “on your left” behind … Continue reading →

Regular readers know I normally carry a bunch of stuff on my belt and so don’t normally have a lot of use for a penlight. But for the past few weeks I’ve gone with virtually nothing on my belt and … Continue reading →

…for decades, really. It seems, in the glorious clarity of my uneducated hindsight, to have been the most avoidable of wars. And it does seem that one of the causal factors was how few influential people really wanted to avoid … Continue reading →

This Russian guy is cool. He’s a St. Petersburg lawyer who spent a few years of summer vacations building a log cabin. Here he shows how he built surprisingly long-lived temp structures with saplings and stretch film, a material I … Continue reading →

Indoor temperature is beginning to climb. Those linemen I mentioned the other day, who have been laying new cable every day this week, shut off the power without notice this morning. It’s only been an hour or two so far … Continue reading →