I just wanted to take a moment and say how much I love Steve. He has so much in common with Tunch, but at the same time, he is the un-Tunch.
Tunch was large and in charge of every room he was in, but it was so different. Tunch was in control of a room just by his presence, while Steve is in control of a room because if you ignore him, he’ll bitch at you.
Tunch would jump up onto your lap, the dogs would scramble, and then they would reposition themselves around him. Steve jumps up onto the arm of the chair and avoids the dogs, climbs back behind my head, and curls up there. When he wants down, he will just climb down my shoulder and kick Rosie (he owns her, which is quite hysterical to watch this pecking order be established) off her perch.
At bedtime, Tunch would wait until Rosie and Lily were bedded down, then do a ten minute ritual walking up and down the left side of the bed until he would finally curl up next to my head. Not Steve. When he wants in bed, he jumps up. Doesn’t matter if he lands on Rosie or Lily because he jumped up on the right- he’ll just walk over them until he walks across my head to knock my glasses off the night stand (I have now been trained to put them in the drawer when I go to bed).
If he jumps up on the left side (AKA my side, since the piglets take up the right side), well, hell, he’ll walk all over us anyway. As far as the Tunch ritual of circling to make the pillow perfect before bedding down, Steve doesn’t do any of that. When he decides it is time for a nap, he just falls over. At (my) naptime today I watched him lie on top of Lily’s head. Neither one of them moved for the entire half hour nap. Lily really knows her way around a cat.
Tunch and Steve. Different, but the same, pretty much.
Omnes Omnibus
How fucking big is this bed?
PurpleGirl
JC:
When he decides it is time for a nap, he just falls over. At (my) naptime today I watched him lie on top of Lily’s head. Neither one of them moved for the entire half hour nap. Lily really knows her way around a cat.
Cats are accustomed to sleeping with litter mates in a pile. They tend to just drop down where they are and fall asleep. Steve is just following a habit he has from when he was a kitten. The remarkable thing is that Rosie lets him do it. She has patience.
handy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not big enough if you know what I mean bow chicka wow wow.
Oh god that came out all kinds of wrong. I meant, you know.
Never mind.
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Ten to one, JG has a king-sized bed. But even that isn’t really big enough for two dogs and a cat and the human being. My friends in Peekskill had a California king (extra length) and that wasn’t big enough when the greyhounds decided to sleep on it with the humans.
lojasmo
I hope that if you have not been tested for sleep apnea you will.
Seriously. Do it. From a medical perspective, and from one who has sleep apnea…do it.
Jerzy Russian
It looks like the Chargers are in the process of blowing their lead (I approve). How are the people on the left coast supposed to stay awake for this?
srv
Probably relevant
jl
@srv: So “The effing balls on that guy!?” has a scientific basis?
Liquid
youtube.com/watch?v=PJW3Jpqjx5s
“pussycat” is one word? Moar You Know!
I get this free pass because I eulogized Tunch.
The Dangerman
@srv:
Speaking of balls, this occurred not too far from my Parents place in SoCal:
blog.pe.com/breaking-news/2013/09/08/san-bernardino-man-killed-by-gun-in-his-waistband/
Thankfully, his injuries weren’t described in much detail (OUCH) in that article, but is there any way this Dude didn’t die in the worst imaginable way? Note the size of the gun (read: it was quick, thank goodness).
Ripley
Definitely relevant. Cole’s must be the size of BBs.
handy
@The Dangerman:
From the article:
Uheheheheheheheh heh heh.
kdaug
Me, too. The nieces and nephews think it’s cool, the wife, not so much.
But seriously, I eat when I’m hungry and sleep when I’m tired. What do you do?
srv
@The Dangerman: Not really that big of a gun.
kdaug
@PurpleGirl:
Hell, that ain’t enough for Cole.
Keith P
@Jerzy Russian: Hell of a game (for a Texans fan)…very reminiscent of last year, which makes for exciting games, but I don’t think my stomach can handle another season of these types of games. PS: JJ Watt will be the next mayor of Houston at this rate. Aryan Foster, not so much…he stunk up the joint something fierce tonight.
handy
HAHAHA Chargers!!! That is all.
Suzanne
@PurpleGirl: Mr. Suzanne and I saved up our $$$ and bought ourselves a king-size bed this year. We thought it was absolutely huge, until the two-year-old decided that she liked to sleep in it. On those nights when she wakes up and needs some mom-and-dad snuggles, she takes up the whole damn thing. Literally turns and sleeps completely lengthwise.
I can imagine a similar scenario with that many pets. We don’t let the puppeh in bed with us for this reason.
The Dangerman
@srv:
I confess to not knowing guns much, but looks to me like that thing has a helluva kick:
youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5Tfx0RqVE
srv
Oh, and Godzilla is absolutely the best thing y’all have to look forward to for Xmas:
And if that goes to shit, you can kiss the other 3 reactors goodbye.
As usual, you have to go to someplace like Al-Jazzera to hear about this shit. Thanks, US NRC, US MSM and an admin burying this stuff.
burnspbesq
Well, shit. Sheryl Crow made a state-of-the-art Nashville record. It’s fabulous, but it’s also really disappointing on some level.
burnspbesq
@srv:
Out of idle curiosity:
(1) what would you have TEPCO do? Got a list of clearly superior alternatives that you’d like to propose?
(2) what would you like the NRC and/or the IAEA to do, since they don’t have jurisdiction?
(3) if you want TEPCO out of the picture, explain how that happens under current Japanese law?
Geoduck
@burnspbesq:
For me, one of the major problems with forming an opinion about the whole Fukushima mess is that there’s no one I really trust to authoritatively say just how bad it really is/could be. Everything I read comes across as either locked down corporate ass-covering or hair-on-fire alarmism. If there’s another quake and the whole thing spews into the ocean, how far will the effects really reach?
Plus, as you say, as an American citizen there’s pretty much zero I can do about this.
piratedan
@burnspbesq: well I do kind of wish that they would eat their pride and bring in some folks to help them out, either with expertise, materials, something……because I think that they’ve been doing too much whistling past the graveyard with this, destroying the ecosystem on land and sea.
bago
Well, pets are nice. Today has been a shitstorm of Syria, Eagles, and a touch of pet reconciliation. (The cats in my house appear to have reached a catnip negotiated truce)
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
At this point TEPCO has the credibility of Zimmerman and seems capable of shooting themselves in the balls like the man in San Berdu noted above. Japanese gummint is going to have to take over the entire mess at some point. Couldn’t give a fig about how they wrangle that, legally.
ETA, it just gets better and better.
burnspbesq
@piratedan:
The good news is there’s no precedent.
The bad news is that because there’s no precedent, there’s no playbook.
I assume that entombment-in-place was considered and rejected, but I’d like to know why.
The prophet Nostradumbass
So, I have a cousin who, on Facebook, shares both garbage from a chiropractic about fat reduction, and crapola from some creationist page that violates the dictate that amounts to “God should not be put to the test”. Ugh.
trollhattan
RIP, Cal Worthington and his many dogs, Spot. A true California institution, even if he was born an Okie.
sacbee.com/2013/09/09/5720900/iconic-auto-dealer-cal-worthington.html
Odie Hugh Manatee
Cats are just cool, full stop. I just finished a slap-boxing contest with our Stewie because that’s what he likes to do with me. I had to quit putting my hand on the railing at the top of the stairs because every time I do it Stewie jumps up and attacks my hand. I think he wants me to fall down the stairs. I think I’m his Lois.
He’s perched on top of his cat tree now, enjoying the breeze from our fan as it swings his way and looking like he owns the place.
He does.
NotMax
@srv
The article is very vague, but what it describes sounds like testing of methodology and equipment towards implementing the latest roadmap on decommissions, which last I’ve read (.pdf link) has been slightly accelerated with a goal to fuel debris removal in 2020, which “represents the earliest possible scenario from the viewpoint of expeditiously reducing risk.”
(Somewhat related is the recent development of a human-free contaminated debris (not fuel rods, yet) collection and transport system. .pdf file)
piratedan
@burnspbesq: same here, i.e. why logistically is it not an option, if its off the table, then what exactly is on the table?
at this point I begin to wonder if they have more issues with the leaks into the sea than the land…. but again, not a lot of indications as to the details and what has been done. I assume it’s complicated but more visibility is required rather than less.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@trollhattan: Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal.
burnspbesq
@piratedan:
It’s worth remembering that the cleanup at Three Mile Island went on for 14 years.
burnspbesq
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Cal was one of the people (along with Holmes Tuttle, Earle Jorgensen, and a few others whose names I’m not remembering) who were instrumental in convincing Reagan to run for Governor in 1966. I can forgive, but I do not forget.
piratedan
@burnspbesq: yeah, but you’d like to think that there have been some advancements in that field but with our own record on cleaning up burning oil rig disasters, perhaps I shouldn’t be crowing about American exceptionalism here. I would imagine that I would take some offense about the Japanese making noise about our lack of inspections on fertilizer plants in Texas… apples and oranges, but for us to be indignant about how one of their companies is reacting while ours have as much latitude and attitude (if not worse) causes me to dial back my outrage a bit.
NotMax
@burnspbesq
Surely not the only reason, but prolonged exposure to high levels of radiation degrades concrete, eventually rendering it somewhat spongy and permeable.
In a location which is both seismically active and subject to a constant flow of groundwater from the mountains, that’s two strikes against entombment in place.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@burnspbesq: I’m not surprised, really. I was born in 66 (not particularly old for this site interestingly), so I don’t remember that stuff first-hand, obviously.
In the Bay Area, there were the TV ads for “Jim Burney’s Dodge Center”, featuring the “Sheriff”, who was almost exactly like Boss Hogg in the terrible Dukes of Hazzard TV show.
Amir Khalid
Corporations. They think they own everything.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Amir Khalid:
That’s as stupid as Apple getting a patent on rounded corners…lol!
piratedan
@Amir Khalid: well, everything except blame and responsibility…..
Amir Khalid
There is precedent. Billgatus of Borg once tried to copyright the word “Windows”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The prophet Nostradumbass: A few months ago, I was telling my step-daughter about the old 60’s/70’s Cal Worthington commercials, how the “dog” Spot would change from a lion to a tiger, etc. This discussion was initiated by passing and Earl Shibe(sp?) body shop, where the commercials were “I’ll paint any car for $29.95”, and a few years later it’d be “I’ll paint any car for $39.95” and then “I’ll paint any car for $49.95”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Microsoft also tried to copyright “Metro” for their Windows 8 start menu, that didn’t work either.
piratedan
@BillinGlendaleCA: methinks you were close but cigarless, Earl Scheib….I will now weep because I know that and therefore must have forgotten something more important
NotMax
@piratedan
And also close, but it was “I’ll paint any car, any color, for $29.95.”
NotMax
Really short notice heads-up on a masterpiece of film noir from France.
TCM, Tuesday Sept. 10, 10 a.m. Eastern: “Rififi”
Liquid
Gentlemen, the eternal question –“The hell’s he ‘goin in an ambulance?”
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: But what was most amusing was the price increasing $10 every few years.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Scheib ran a successful franchise operation for quite a long run, even formulating and manufacturing his own paint.
AxelFoley
@jl:
Well done, my friend.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: I kept repeating the “I’ll paint any car…” for my wife and her daughter in an Earl Scheib like voice. Neither of them had ever seen the old commercials, the kid too young, the wife wasn’t in the US.
raven
@NotMax: I did the body work on my truck and an old school dude “shot” it for me. I used John Deere Blitz Black”, paint that is used on the wheel wells of tractors. It’s alkyd paint and only cost $30 a gallon. I did it 8 years ago and it has held up well.
Randy P
@kdaug: But seriously, I eat when I’m hungry and sleep when I’m tired. What do you do?
Most of us will unwrap the food, perhaps take time to assemble multiple items into a sandwich, maybe even do something involving cooking, a plate or utensils.
And when tired most of us also have preparation rituals such as going to a particular piece of furniture, removing shoes or other pieces of clothing, possibly moving blankets or sheets around.
From your question I’m envisioning you gnawing on unopened packages of hot dogs and dropping off to sleep on the floor in the same spot.
Splitting Image
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Which was the terrible Dukes of Hazzard show? The one with Catherine Bach as Daisy and Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer was pretty good.
WereBear
When you are eight, sure. Supposedly there are only five plots in the world, but Dukes of Hazzard had, at most, one.
It also helps if you regard the shenanigans as existing in the realm of fantasy. I lived in the South at the time, and corrupt authority, female objectification, Faulker-level dysfunctional heritage worship, immature men: these were my future if I didn’t get out.
I got out.
MomSense
@Geoduck:
Arnie Gunderson. You can trust Arnie. fairewinds.org/
NotMax
@raven
Spiffy paint job.
Dunno if have ever mentioned the first new car I ordered from a showroom dealership. Same year as this, except mine was British racing green, with a tan leather interior and a manual V6.
When it arrived and went to pick it up, discovered it had a sunroof (an option I hadn’t ordered). The dealer tried every trick and wheedle to tack on an extra cost, but as the VIN matched the one I had ordered and paid for and the ‘screw-up’ was at the factory, stood firm and resolute and drove off, paying not one red cent more than had already laid down.
Zippy little thing; it got 33 mpg on the highway.
NotMax
@WereBear
One of the most ludicrous things ever seen in a parking lot was a Toyota Corolla which had been painted to mimic the ‘General Lee’ car from that show.
Randy P
I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets up early and has to deal with long-dead threads that were obviously hopping at 3 am.
It feels a little like sipping the unfinished drinks the morning after a wild party I didn’t attend. But like I say, at least I’m not the only one
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Randy P:
You go with the open thread you have, not the one you wish you had.
WereBear
@NotMax: I lurve it.
raven
@NotMax: Sweet ride!
phoebes-in-santa fe
@BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t forget the constant, “No ups, no extras” that Sheib would intone in his ads.
schrodinger's cat
You guys has a cuddle puddle, how sweet. Now you should post pictures. In focus and sharp.
Redshirt
Sounds like there’s a lot of love (and feces) all over that bed.
LittlePig
When he decides it is time for a nap, he just falls over.
This is known as ‘the tabby flop’. A tabby thing.
Every black cat I’ve had (many) had the bit of walking across in front of my path far more often that cats in general. I believe that’s one of the causes of the ‘bad cats are bad luck’ meme.
Peanutcat
“Was”? “Would”? OMG, I didn’t know about Tunch! I was having computer problems at that time, and didn’t keep up, and now I’m bawling my eyes out! I’m so glad you have other fur-babies to love and to love you back!