Author Archives: Joel

Landlady lent me a hard drive with a bunch of entertainment on it, including two seasons of a TV show I never heard of called Portlandia. I watched – or tried to watch – a couple of episodes at random, … Continue reading →

This is so cool. Six months ago the world wet its collective pants over this. Six months. But that’s so 21st century. Forward to 1911! Can the Weapon Shops of Isher be far behind? H/T to Unc.

So every morning I drive over to Landlady’s place to check on the chickens, right? And every morning for the past three or four Ouch! Six! I’ve looked in on Agnes the Red, Psycho-Bitch from the Fortress of Attitude. And … Continue reading →

Day Two of moving D&L’s stuff is in the can, and the storage unit is empty. Uncle Joel is very tired and sore, and not as young as he used to be. Indeed, he feels substantially older than he did … Continue reading →

Weird is running a slice’o’life blog when you’re a privacy-obsessed misfit. It can make for some uncomfortable moments. See, all my friends are either freedomistas or desert hermits. Or both. You know. Weirdos. On the blog, when I talk about … Continue reading →

And that’s all I have to say about that today. Except that I have to go back again tomorrow.

This morning I’m off to help my excellent neighbors D&L move their stuff out of the storage unit they rented six years ago when they moved away from California, and into the absurdly marvelous strawbale/earthbag/adobe showpiece house they’ve been working … Continue reading →

It can go with the garden gnome I’m probably never going to buy…

“Police officers don’t have ‘victims.’ They have perps, scumbags, and suspects. Sometimes they have subjects. But they don’t have ‘victims.’” Or so it seems. As usually happens in these types of cases, the pot was stirred — perhaps by agenda-based … Continue reading →

Just made it, too. The cool indoor-outdoor digital thermometer Landlady gave me four or five winters ago said 20o when I came down the ladder, but clicked to 19 a few minutes later. Heavy frost on the ground. The clouds … Continue reading →

Winter overcast rolled in last night, a day later than predicted, and I’m nursing the batteries today. Which means no ‘pooter for me, and no blog for you. Go, and do thou likewise.

Helping D&L load boxes into their pickup from the storage unit where they’ve been for several years, I managed to break another finger. The middle knuckle of one, anyway. Hurt like blazes at the time, then nothing, then some swelling, … Continue reading →

I visited the big henhouse early today, to see if Agnes the Red would be staying there or visiting the stewpot. I found her perched on the upper rank of nesting boxes where she had very recently deposited an egg … Continue reading →

Sometimes I wonder – I really do! – what’s going on inside their heads. I understand the need to spin fanciful lies. I’ve been a manager in an epically dysfunctional company department. I have (often!) been tasked with the need … Continue reading →

I waited for a return email from Landlady before releasing Agnes the Red to the tender clutches of the Brahmas. The reply said it would be okay as long as she didn’t pick on the Brahmas, which made me smile … Continue reading →

The Bald Ladies didn’t get their name from Hen Pattern Baldness, of course. It’s almost certainly my fault. They started pecking each other bald last winter, and never got over it even after they got better and more spacious accommodations. … Continue reading →

The engineer who inadvertently caused one of the most all-time popular Youtube videos decades before there was a Youtube has died at 84.

I am a white male American gun owner. I am, therefore, a racist. I have a disease. I am powerless against my racism. I will have this racism the rest of my life. Relapse is part of recovery. Recovery is … Continue reading →

…in the wordiest flow chart ever crafted. Seriously I won’t even have the thing on my blog, and you know how low my standards are. So go here to get a load of it. Set your gag reflex to “dead … Continue reading →