Author Archives: Joel

From here on to rain the afternoon temperatures are supposed to moderate somewhat; this is the first forecast in four where the temperature maxes out in mere double digits. Nights cool off but they don’t promise when – this is … Continue reading →

I haven’t said anything about the Philando Castile murder verdict, even though it’s been on my mind and it should be on the mind of every potentially shady-looking gun carrier in the country, because I just didn’t know what to … Continue reading →

Still works fine! 🙂 Runs just a little hotter than I’m used to. Did the same thing last year, should have remembered to adjust the baking time.

Case in point: Fifty-three percent of respondents to the CBS News poll said they approve of Congress’s response to last week’s shooting, which left five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), injured. Twenty-nine percent said they disapproved of … Continue reading →

Seven thirty in the blessed AM and it’s already over 85 indoors. I’m out of bread, so baking must ensue. But I do not want to light the Lair’s oven. After I covered the dough for its first rise I … Continue reading →

We have at least one good heat wave per summer, usually before Monsoon, and this one is no surprise. It’s unusually hot by a couple of degrees, though. The outdoor sensor on my cool digital indoor/outdoor thermometer has gone to … Continue reading →

I never understood why summer officially begins on a date when “summer” has clearly been underway for over a month. Ditto winter, of course: If you haven’t already frozen solid by the official start of winter, you’re not trying hard … Continue reading →

Way back when it was only “the press,” I’m told, objectivity was neither claimed nor sought. Newspapers tended to be reliably in the tank for one party or another and said so. That’s an old tradition in this country. But … Continue reading →

Build it and they will … stay away, I hope.

Sometimes the loudest sound a machine can make is “click.” Like, when you turn the key to crank the starter, and there ain’t no starter. Check on the gear selector, maybe the problem is the neutral switch. Nope. I hate … Continue reading →

Hot. I found a box fan I’d scavenged from J&H’s cast-offs and stashed in Landlady’s barn 2 years ago. Ran it last night after sundown, as much to note its effect on the batteries as anything else. It didn’t have … Continue reading →

That’s not the outside temperature. That’s the inside temperature. I’m hot, and sweaty, and tired, and sore, and (LB will attest to this) grouchy. Spent a couple of hours fixing some dumb mistakes on my foundation job this morning, then … Continue reading →

I only vaguely know where Syria is, and somebody apparently just declared war in my name over there. I don’t know where Eritrea is, or South Sudan or Djibouti, though the Jeep radio tells me “we’ll” probably be killing people … Continue reading →

Beer!

is 45! I think that’s a record! As longtime readers know, the official coffee of TUAK is… Trader Joe’s House Blend. Whole bean, of course, because come on. If I were a real coffee snob I’d insist on roasting my … Continue reading →

Just before Monsoon. We really need that Monsoon breeze… Because until we get it the only good thing about the afternoon indoor temperature is that it’s a helluva lot cooler than the afternoon outdoor temperature. This is the high desert … Continue reading →

Okay: I got everything set up before the 8 o’clock Ghost walkie. Then we ran home and tackled the two projects that needed to be done this morning before it gets hot: Bread and stucco. Yes, I know those things … Continue reading →

Little Bear will quietly let me sleep as long as I like in the morning, but as soon as I come down the ladder he has certain expectations involving fulsome praise and epic belly rubs. Lately, not entirely to his … Continue reading →

I’ve been looking at this picture off and on all day. Now: Part of me says somebody took an unusually complaisant chicken and set her on a couple of drowsy puppies, then snapped the pic before something went wrong. Actually … Continue reading →

…the United States had officially spent exactly as long heroically liberating Afghanistan from itself as the Soviets had spent barbarously enslaving it. And with roughly the same effect, though in the Soviets’ defense they finally mustered the sense to give … Continue reading →