Here’s an intriguing photo from reader “cope” featuring a waterspout on the edge of a squall:
Continuing the rain theme: I pulled a great hoax on my husband earlier today. A while back, he attempted to replace the shower head in the master bathroom with a fancy new “rain” model. But when he was unscrewing the old fixture, the connector that attached it to the water pipe sheared off behind the tile wall.
The mister experimented with various ways to remove the broken connector in his spare time. Meanwhile, we were forced to take showers in the other bathroom, which is a tub enclosure rather than a shower stall.
I just hate tubs — I had never used that shower in the 12 years we’ve lived here until this plumbing crisis for that reason — so I was all for calling a plumber right away. The mister thought he could save a few bucks by figuring it out himself…when he had time to fool with it. His big fear was the plumber would have to knock down part of the tile wall to get at the problem, which would be an expensive mess to fix on top of the plumbing bill.
Long story not quite as interminably long, he finally gave up and agreed on the need for a professional, but did so the day before Thanksgiving. So I had to wait until today to call a plumber, who showed up within half an hour and fixed the pipe in a jiff (without wall damage) for an extremely reasonable fee — all while my husband was out.
Instead of telling my husband about this marvelous jewel of a plumber, I told him I had figured out how to fix the pipe. I told him I’d used pliers to reach through the hole and pull the pipe forward, sawed off the broken connector without damaging the threads and installed the new connector and shower head. And he believed me!
We’ve been married for 20 years and do not lie to each other about important things (e.g., money, birth control, etc.), but we do occasionally make up fantastic stories to see how gullible the other person is. Actually, he is much more prone to do that than I am, so much so that my first reaction is to disbelieve him when he tells an outlandish tale. He’s actually got quite a talent for making up plausible-sounding explanations for scientific phenomena, historical events, etc., inventing things out of whole cloth, right on the spot.
So I was very proud of my ability to pull off the plumbing hoax with a straight face, for the five minutes or so I was able to maintain the illusion without laughing at his astonishment. He’ll try to get back at me somehow, but I will be ready. Anyhoo, open thread!
TaMara (HFG)
Betty Cracker, Making Marriage Great Again. :-)
thanks for the laugh.
Mustang Bobby
His revenge will be making you do all the household repairs from now on.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Genius! I’m going to tell my husband I’ve been bigamously married to Chris Hemsworth all this time and our marriage is illegal. Pretty sure I can pull it off.
Mustang Bobby
[Shameless self-promotion alert] My play “All Together Now” won first place in The Playgroup LLC of South Florida Full Length Play contest.
It is my first win of any sort and it even comes with a cash prize. Stay tuned for further details, including a planned production next year.
NotMax
O what a tangled web we weave…
Major Major Major Major
Cool picture, funny story, thanks :)
I’m in a very very cold all-day meeting.
ETA: @Mustang Bobby: Congrats! That’s awesome!
gogol's wife
@Mustang Bobby:
Congratulations!
NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
Congrats.
The Moar You Know
Same thing happened to me at my FIL’s house, he asked me if I could get the old shower head out. It was frozen and snapped off inside the brass fixture. A couple thousand dollars later in tile/wall repair did the trick.
Got a bunch of those time bombs in my own house and I just flat-out don’t want to deal with them.
Phylllis
@Mustang Bobby: That is so cool. Congratulations!
Mnemosyne
@Mustang Bobby:
Congratulations!
ArchTeryx
Reposted from dead thread to schrodinger’s cat:
It was (some of) the Russian politicians [in Red Storm Rising] who were evil. They started the war based on a false-flag attack they set up after a major terrorist incident (sound familiar)? When the war started going badly for them, their first response was to put nukes on the table to maintain their own power. Not all politicians are bad, but bad politicians are bad the world over.
ArchTeryx
@Mustang Bobby: Wow! Congrats, MB!
Gindy51
In my house this is actually how it always goes down. He breaks it, I fix it.
MisterForkbeard
Gonna take advantage of the open thread and shill for a friend for a minute.
A bit of background: my friend Bronwyn has had a really rough year: tough surgery, lost her boyfriend, lost her job. She’s having a very tough time (as are we all) with the Trump win. And yet she wrote a really fantastic book about her experiences teaching disadvantaged kids in Oakland, including things like having to call Child Protective Services, the cops, and visiting your students in jail. It’s balanced by the really amazing performances and perseverance these kids have. It’s heartbreaking and really inspiring at the same time. She also hasn’t even broken even on the book yet.
If anyone’s looking for an interesting book on what it’s like to teach in our modern school system, this is right up your alley. Please take a look: https://www.amazon.com/Literally-Unbelievable-Stories-Oakland-Classroom/dp/1535582553/
low-tech cyclist
Sounds like Male Answer Syndrome!
Schlemazel
@Mustang Bobby:
CONGRATULATIONS!!
MisterForkbeard
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations! That’s really awesome.
Schlemazel
As for weather phenomena, we had a hail storm out here on the edge of the prairie . . . on November 28th. That is pretty far from normal.
Poopyman
@Mustang Bobby:
Mrs. P would seize on that as an opportunity to call in the pros to circumvent my inevitable “I can do that” and adding it to the round tuit file, which drives her nuts.
Editing to add: Congratulations!
Major Major Major Major
@low-tech cyclist: Wait, isn’t the description in that comic pretty much correct though?
Gin & Tonic
A long time ago I convinced my wife that this structure (at Robert Moses State Park off Long Island) stored an intercontinental missile.
Gin & Tonic
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations. You’re going to share that cash prize with your loyal friends and supporters here at B-J, right?
hovercraft
@Mustang Bobby:
Congrats!!
Pogonip
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations!
currants
Great story–thanks for the laugh, Betty. Sounds like you went to MSU! (Making Shit Up)
Mustang Bobby–congratulations!
low-tech cyclist
@Major Major Major Major: Pretty much. I just thought it was the perfect excuse to sneak an Eyebeam cartoon in here.
And WTG, Mustang Bobby!
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations.
Brachiator
Very well played!
Major Major Major Major
@low-tech cyclist: Betty’s story is what I call an example of Engineer Syndrome.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Schlemazel:
You should have seen the frogs and locusts here!
geg6
My John has the same talent your husband has. I never believe any of his stories right up front and have learned to demand evidence for most of his far-fetched fantasies.
The coal miner thread is dead, but I just want to say that, at least here in Bum-fucked Beaver County, PA, the Trumpsters are absolutely, positively convinced that the steel mills that died in the 1980s and were torn down in the 1990s are definitely coming back because Trump said so. They aren’t cynics and voted for Trump even though they know the steel mills won’t be coming back. They believe he is going to bring back the steel industry that our fathers labored in all throughout our youth. No matter how many times my John and I keep saying that it isn’t possible, they say that Trump will do it and the only reason it hasn’t been done over the years is that liberals were conspiring to kill the steel industry and keep it dead. When asked what would our motivation for that be, they tell me it’s all a part of the global warming conspiracy and I should know about it because Penn State (where Michael Mann and I are both employed) is the ground zero of the conspiracy.
And yes, some of these people went to Penn State and some of them send their kids here. I don’t pretend to understand these idiots. I grew up with them and was raised in a family that actually had less money than any of them, simply by virtue of my parents having 6 kids. You would think I would have a clue where they get this shit. But I don’t. I can’t relate to them at all. It’s like either I or they landed here from outer space and we don’t think or speak the same language.
hovercraft
Clinton Is Playing With Fire By Backing a Recount in Wisconsin
Eric Pianin,The Fiscal Times
Threatening your defeated opponent for exercising her rights under the law with jail time, is a strange way to reunite a sorely divided country. Also too sending out bitter tweets. Just Sayin’.
Ruckus
Betty Cracker
Sounds a lot like my ex. Great girl, seemed rather quiet and reserved when you meet her. Ha! Gotcha! One of the best practical jokers around. I think her personality allowed her to get away with such antics. Best one she pulled on me was my birthday always fell on an event weekend at a great get away area. So one yr she got all the people I worked with at the event to show up for a dinner party at a local restaurant. She had told me we were going to a quiet dinner. And she had hired a stripper to give me a lap dance as a present. She never did things half way I’ll say that. Wonderful girl.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
Yes! I want to see that play!
geg6
@hovercraft:
I say let’s do it. If only because the Hair Fuhrer seems to go ballistic over the whole idea.
There is nothing to lose by having it. At least, not on my side there isn’t.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: Rule number one, believe the autocrat…
OzarkHillbilly
@Ruckus: The only thing my ex ever gave me was a warrant for my arrest.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mustang Bobby:
Congratulations!
Brachiator
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats!
WereBear
@Mustang Bobby: What great news!
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: I agree with you, but many of our progressive betters including several FPers on this blog disagree, they see it as a distraction.
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats!
In weather news, rain is suppose to move through the area after midnight. It’s a miracle. The Atlanta airport reported rain in mid October, but since I live north, it skipped me. I’m not even sure, when the last time it rained here.
Pogonip
In a close election I think it is perfectly reasonable to request a recount, and we ought to have public funds to be used for that purpose.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
The lap dance was better. And I got to complain to my ex about getting a flat chested stripper.
WereBear
@geg6: When you live in an imaginary land, anything is possible.
Just, you know, not in reality.
Me, I like actually having something on this corporeal plane. Maybe that’s just me…
Josie
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations. Your hard work is paying off.
Felonius Monk
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats, MB.
Ruckus
@WereBear:
I think I counted 32 of us once. I could have been off a bit.
liberal
From Cole’s post below:
That’s LOL funny.
eemom
We saw a waterspout like that at the Outer Banks last summer. Very cool.
trollhattan
@Mustang Bobby: Very cool. Live the dream!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations!
Mary G
@Mustang Bobby: Go Mustang Bobby! That’s awesome.
We have had 4.92 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks here in so. Orange County, CA, which is twice the last year’s total. It’s freakish, but I’ll take it. All the plants look so happy.
Yutsano
@Mustang Bobby: WOOT!!!
@Mary G: All my California friends are complaining about the rain while we up in Washington quietly snicker.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
As a distraction from what? I don’t get this at all. Bernie Sanders and his stupid book and “revolution” are distractions. Hell, Jill Stein has done more with this recount stuff than Bernie ever has on anything that I’ve seen out of him over the years. And it has That Man going insane, a state we should keep wanting to promote. What’s the problem here?
JPL
Since this is an open thread, is this game appropriate for a twelve year old?
https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Special-Xbox-One/dp/B01GW902DM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1#Ask
Roger Moore
@hovercraft:
Except, of course, she isn’t “backing” the recount. Since one is going to happen no matter what she does, she wants to have people from her team participate. That is different from backing the thing.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: Depends on the 12-year-old.
dww44
@Ruckus: One of the primary reasons I support the Stein recount effort is because I view it as a necessary step to examining the race in such an anomalous election as this one. Plus, if it has the apparent effect of getting under Trump’s skin and irritating others, then it’s all good. I just don’t buy that we are hurting ourselves more than if we had done nothing. I’m sick of rolling over and playing dead. We did that in 2000. That was one time too many.
dww44
@dww44: Don’t know how I did this but reply above should have been to this one: @Pogonip:
amused
@MisterForkbeard: She sounds like the perfect candidate for the Ellen Show. She loves teachers, you should give it a try.
donnah
@Mustang Bobby: Congratulations! That’s wonderful news!
Hungry Joe
Growing up, my little sister learned never to believe a word I said to her unless it was about something serious. I lied to her about everything else — just made up the most outrageous stuff I could think of. Now, as an adult, she’s rarely fooled by anyone about anything. I take credit for preparing her for life.
Patricia Kayden
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats to you!
@Hungry Joe: So I take it that she’s not a Trump supporter.
Hungry Joe
@Patricia Kayden: Correct. In fact, she recently joined a NorCal chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice). I’m active in the San Diego Chapter. It’s a solid, active, get-out-there-and-take-no-crap organization.
opiejeanne
Beautiful photo, Betty.
So, I’m pretty well doped up today still, because the aftermath of the appendectomy on Wednesday still hurts. So I’m sleeping it off and it’s noon, and the phone rings; blocked number. I answer anyway and it’s some group called 21st Century Democrats. The spiel was super-aggressive about how we have to fight and continue to fight because if we just mope etc, etc. I stopped her and let her know that yes, I am a Democrat and yes, I will continue to volunteer, etc but that right now I was busy napping because of the painkillers and was too groggy to stay on the phone. She empathized for about 2 seconds, her mom had just had gall bladder surgery two weeks prior and took a deep breath AND LAUNCHED BACK INTO HER SPIEL ABOUT FIGHTING THE RIGHT BLAH BLAH BLAH DON’T MOPE, FIGHT BACK ACT [email protected]#[email protected]%% AAARGH! Her rant about helping to elect candidates specifically mentioned PROGRESSIVE Democrats, but the ones she named were Senator Patty Murray and Kamala Harris, two candidates that needed precious little extra help from her organization since they were from Washington and California.
I finally cut in again and sobbed emotionally that I just couldn’t handle it right now, and hung up on her.
Then I dug around online because I don’t know this group, and what I found didn’t exactly endear them to me.
Info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21st_Century_Democrats
They’ve been accused of sitting on money they’ve raised, but not using that money to support candidates, just creation of more PACs. There is a connection with something called Landmark Education, and this is worth a read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landmark_Worldwide
Iowa Old Lady
@Mustang Bobby: Yay you!
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: You will have to ask them that question, because I don’t get it either.
trollhattan
@opiejeanne:
Sorry about the appendectomy–get better soon!
The est tie-in is hilarious and a little creepy, especially now that we’re getting The Department of Education–sponsored by Amway ™. Which also reminds me how much I miss “The Americans” and how it’s going to seem all the more ironic in its Reagan years retelling.
NotMax
@JPL
What Major⁴ said.
BTW, there’s a massive sale on Wow (everything except the very latest expansion, which applies to characters after they reach level 100). Note that WoW does require an ongoing subscription to continue playing.
schrodinger's cat
@trollhattan: Who needs Phil and Elizabeth when you can have a source right in the White House.
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: Yeah, the EST tie-in brought me up short and I remembered why the caller reminded me of every asshole I met who came out of that program or Esalen.
Mustang Bobby
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words and wishes. I’ll let you know when the production goes. Preliminary plans are for it to be at a theatre in Boca Raton kicking off their 2017-2018 season, so I’m guessing a year from now (which is 20 minutes in play production). I can’t release the name of the theatre until they make it official; I’ve been burned on that before. Anyway, thanks again.
quakerinabasement
Tell him about the deep diving ducks of the Amazon. That’s a favorite tale among my people. Nothing specific. Just make stuff up.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
First, hope you recover soon from the appie. Can not believe any surgery is fun. The ones I’ve endured sure haven’t been.
Second, I give no quarter to calls that try to hard sell, berate or guilt me, no matter the subject. Mom was good at that guilt thing, by just never letting go. Sooner or later you gave in just for a little peace and quiet. People that call me and give me any shit get it back but even stronger. My use of language that offends is second to none so I tell them what and why nicely and then lay it on. The object is to have them hang up as soon as possible and to never call back. If I just hang up I usually get them calling back. I don’t want that. They will hang up if you just give them shit but I’ve had repeated call backs from assholes when I do that. I also will file a complaint with the FCC about harassing phone calls. That doesn’t always work because a lot of people us dialers that block the actual number. I don’t normally call for violence but people who do that should be something-something-something……..
J R in WV
M. Bobby, congratulations~! Great news, hope I don’t miss the notice of the actual date/time/place of the production… maybe we can combine visiting S Florida, Cuba, play watching culture, and waterspout watching.
While we lived in Key West and I was in the USN, there came a few times when I had time to look from my ship out west into the tiny keys beyond the overseas highway. At the right time of year, we would see a lot of water spouts around the thunder squalls out over the tiny islands west of Key West.
I’ve seen as many as 2 or 3 from a single storm, out in the shallows of the lesser keys. (I made that up, I don’t know if there’s a name for those tiny islands.) Once one came right into the harbor, ran up onto the shore, and dropped many, many gallons of water and a few sea creatures right on the docks. Amazeballs!!
The Keys are great, a huge shame they’ll be submerged in the lifetime of people alive today. A shame Key West isn’t like it was in the 70s today, after visiting a couple of years ago, I can say with authority that it was better then than it is now. Lots. I could go on about the differences, but will refrain from annoying folks about the good old days.
At least the feral chickens still roam the outdoor restaurants!
SWMBO
@Mustang Bobby: Dead thread but Congrats! Please publish when/where in due time.