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… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Home Crap Home

Home Crap Home

by | 207 Comments

This post is in: 

2,570 miles later, the family truckster is parked outside home crap home. Thurston was so excited to see me he peed himself, although in fairness, he does that sometimes when I am only gone for four hours. Rosie came to see what Thurston was all riled up about, gave me a cursory glare, and fucked off somewhere. Still have not seen Steve.

This was the first major trip I have ever taken with Lily, and of course, she was a perfect angel. This should not really be a surprise because the sum total of her existence on most days is sleeping a dog bed five feet from me. So basically she did the same thing on the trip, just at 75-80 mph. She was do sedate at the my parents’ that my dad asked “Does she ever do anything she looks like she has flatlined.”

Some pics of the fat loots from the trip:

First, Tammy’s kicks, which she tried on and loves:

Second, some cigars for Brian, Tammy’s husband:

Third, for the three sisters (Devon, Annie, and adopted sister Tammy), somewhat matching necklaces:

And then finally, for me:

The former is a large picture of the Angel Oak of St. John’s Island, a live oak that is perhaps 600 years old and just massive. As you all know, I have a thing for trees, so I had to have it and am going to see it next time I am down there.

The latter is a print of some artwork by an artist in Charleston named Sam Long. The original piece is something she makes from polymer clay and bakes in a kiln, but this is just a print. I liked all the colors and the Warholesque feel of it. You should definitely check out her website- she seems super neat and she has nine cats.

Final playlist:

Miami to Charleston, SC:

Coldplay- A rush of blood
Donovan Frankenreiter- Move By Yourself
Lorde- Melodrama
The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow
Talking Heads- Stop Making Sense
RATM- the Battle of Los Angeles
Parliament of Funk- Millenium Collection
Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerels- Highball with yhe Devil
Guru- Jazzamatazz
Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms

Charleston, SC, to Bethany:

Donovan Frankenreiter- Move By Yourself
Led Zeppelin II
Lynyrd Skynyrd- All time greatest hits
Beatles- Abbey Road
Beatles- Sgt. Peppers
Zappa- Overnite Sensation
Beyonce- Lemonade
Alice in Chains- Dirt
Black Panther Sountrack
Kendrick Lamar EP
Beastie Boys- Hello Nasty
The Cars- Heartbeat City
Notorious BIG- Ready to Die

I should probably take my road trip playlists to therapy and let them analyze them because I’m sure it says something about me.

I’ll be back later. I need to unpack, shower, put my life back together, and although I am dreading it, check in and see what the orange fuckboy has been up to the last two weeks since I have paid only superficial attention to the news.

It’s fucking cold and that is bullshit.

Oh, and boy is travel cheap when you don’t drink (and you are staying in someone else’s place. I budgeted the money I got back from the insurance from my cancelled Outer Banks vacation and spent 500 less. And that was with eating out a bunch and buying a few things.

Reader Interactions

207Comments

  1. 1.

    oldster

    Welcome home, John!

    I cannot say that I am peeing myself with delight, but I’m glad you’re back nonetheless.

  3. 3.

    dr. bloor

    Still have not seen Steve

    You’ll want to check the bed carefully for boobytraps tonight, of course.

  5. 5.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    Thurston was so excited to see me he peed himself, although in fairness, he does that sometimes when I am only gone for four hours.

    Eww. I’m sure that was fun to clean up. My cat throws up every few days or so and we have to deal with that. Still haven’t figured out why, but he seems to be okay. The vets can’t figure it out.

    And you bought Cuban cigars? Are those legal now in the US?

  10. 10.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:
    I see that they can be brought back through customs for personal use, but not in quantities for commercial uses:

    2014: Obama Lifts the Embargo
    Fast forward nearly 50 years, and in 2014, President Barack Obama lifted the limit on the embargo to allow travelers from the U.S. to bring back Cuban cigars and rum. After all, if Cuban cigars were the #1 most-coveted export for their pedigree, then Cuban rum was a close second.

    Despite the lifting of the cigar ban, there was still a catch … or two, initially. The price of the cigars (and rum) being imported had to be worth no more than $100, and they had to be for personal use only. That’s right, no bringing any Cuban tobacco or alcohol back with the hopes of trying to turn a profit. (And a sad trombone sounds a low wail in the background.)

    But whether you’re a Cohiba or a Montecristo fan, you no longer have to worry about upholding your amateur smuggler status by stashing boxes and bundles in your luggage, hoping that TSA won’t find them. You can now carry them on your flight home, loudly and proudly, so long as the total worth doesn’t exceed any limits enforced by U.S. Customs and you’re only consuming them for personal use.

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    You monster, Sam Long has 35 pages of prints and so far I’ve seen at least a dozen I want. Cats, ocean, bright colors is me.

  12. 12.

    Patricia Kayden

    Your playlist says that you have a very eclectic and diverse taste in music which is pretty cool. I can’t say that I know most of the artists but if it keeps you up while driving long hours, that’s all that matters.

    My dogs are too big for me to travel with them (2 Boxers) so I envy those of you who get to drive them around the country for your vacations.

  14. 14.

    Martin

    Former LSU Tigers offensive lineman Matt Branch lost his leg following a Dec. 28 hunting accident and remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

    Micah Heckford, a friend of Branch, told Brian Broom of the Clarion Ledger on Tuesday that a dog jumped onto the truck bed that Branch was sitting on and accidentally stepped on a shotgun’s safety and trigger.

    Dog managed to step on both the safety and the trigger. Impressive. Couldn’t possibly have been the case that the safety was off.

  15. 15.

    HeleninEire

    Home is where the heart is. I used to think that was dumb. Until I went home for another home.

    My work friends took me out tonight. Among other things, they gave me a plaque that reads “cead mile faitle’

    In English “a hundred thousand welcomes”

    My heart. Is breaking.

  16. 16.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Patricia Kayden:
    I’d say I’m the same way. As long as I like the sound, I like any kind of music. I can listen to practically anything to the Dead Kennedys to the Beatles to 80s and early 90s J-Pop as well as American/British 80s synthpop/rock to grunge/alternative rock, and modern indie groups like the Drums.

    I can’t stand modern country however.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @Martin:

    Couldn’t possibly have been the case that the safety was off.

    Not to mention the chambered round. Sorry about the kid and his leg, what do they teach these pups?

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @HeleninEire: Just reading about it, I seem to have gotten something in my eye, You are loved, and that’s a blessing, no matter where you hang your hat. And you can always go back again if that’s what seems right.

  21. 21.

    zhena gogolia

    Wow, I go away for literally two days and I missed the whole discussion of how Siubhan Diunne knew Ayn Rand personally.

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    As you all know, I have a thing for trees

    So in 600 years, that willow should be pretty awesome too. Although it will have demolished the house.

  29. 29.

    Steeplejack

    @John Cole:

    Welcome home!

    “Heartbeat City.” One of my favorite Cars songs. Haven’t heard it in a while. Here we go. “Oh, Jackie, what took you so long . . .”

    ETA: That Angel Oak is probably too close to the house.

  30. 30.

    Raven

    It’s fun commenting on John’s posts when my comments do, or don’t, have anything to do with them! The retiree was going to see her pal for her upcoming UK trip when some clown backed out of a space and raked the passenger side of our brand new Kia that has less than 5000 miles. She called so I dutifully drove to the scene of the crime. The cops were there, everyone seemed safe so I just kept my mouth shut while they wrapped it up. The dude was apologetic and I did ask him if he was ok. I came home and started to get the insurance stuff togther and texted her to get the dudes info. “Oh, I didn’t get it, I was upset and nervous”! Here I figured a grown woman didn’t need some man jumping in and taking charge. I was wrong I guess. Now we have to wait until next week and the PAY for the goddamn accident report before we can do anything.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Raven:

    It will be a very long week, but I’m glad she wasn’t injured. When did people throw out the rules and start driving freeform?

  37. 37.

    raven

    @Mary G: I talked to them and I don’t think we’ll file a claim with them. We have a $500 deductible and the dude, at least verbally, admitted fault so we want to get his to pay.

  38. 38.

    HeleninEire

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I went back just for a regular visit in Nov and I got so homesick. Had a fabulous conversation with a friend here about what the word “home” means. I am happy here. I have a good job, great friends, and a fantastic apartment in the best part of the city. But after more than 2 years I don’t feel “settled.” Martin talked about all the Irish in the 50s who left for a better life and then returned. This is home he said. Forest Hills is home for me. Looking forward to being back.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    Steve will come out when he feels you’re sufficiently sorry for abandoning him, and not a moment sooner.

  42. 42.

    kindness

    I’ve had The Animals (Eric Burdon) on YouTube randomized all afternoon. It’s nice. The only Animals I own are Monterrey Pop Festival. Still nice. Always like your music John. Welcome home.

  43. 43.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @HeleninEire:

    I see. I’ve never experienced that, but I can imagine how that would feel, not really feeling like where you’re living is “home”. Glad to have you back in the US. I hope you recapture that feeling of being home again. Now, you can directly join the fight against the Trump regime : )

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne: When I was in my early twenties, I was stupid enough to take a month-long trip when I had a 3-month old puppy. She stayed with my sister while I was gone — they saw me off at the train station and picked me up at the train station again when I returned a month later.

    People were stopping and staring at the joyous reunion at the train station.

    As soon as we got in the car, Mellon completely ignored me, sat right up against my sister for the whole ride home, and ignored me at the house for the entire evening. Ignored me all morning, too.

    Then, we all went out to breakfast (minus the dog) and everyone else got back in the house before me – maybe I was checking the mail or something.

    She was frantically looking for me in the group of people that had returned from breakfast, and once she saw me walk back in the house, all was forgiven. The end.

  45. 45.

    Eric S.

    I visited Charleston and Angel Oak some 10 years ago. It is massively impressive. Do go visit next time.

  46. 46.

    Millard Filmore

    @debbie:

    When did people throw out the rules and start driving freeform?

    Must have been around the time that people decided that it was safe to go behind a car that is backing up. “There is still room for me to zip by, if that driver is watching me and stops in time.”

  50. 50.

    Jay C

    That Angel Oak is pretty awesome. Can you approach it? It looks like a relative of the Whomping Willow….

  52. 52.

    Jharp

    “I have a thing for trees”

    So do I.

    Dysart Woods in Ohio is not too far from you and they have some monsters.

    White oaks 6 feet in diameter.

    And not very far off from I 70.

    I think. It’s was 25 years ago I was last there.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) is coming across as a wuss on Chris Matthews’s show. Let’s get in a room with Trump, let’s compromise, blah, blah, blah.

    No, no, no!

  60. 60.

    Sab

    @chris: When I was a tiny tot in the USA the NRA used to teach gun safety. That was one of the things I learned when I was about ten years old. Times change.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Martin:

    Disclaimer (LOL, like I need one!), I do not follow most sports:

    LSU Tigers

    Just out of curiosity, how the hell many sports teams are called “Tigers”? Don’t even bother with high school teams; that way lies madness.

    ETA: Now I’m seriously wondering what the most popular team nickname is in college and pro sports. Someone must know.

  65. 65.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Elizabelle:
    It would be a circumvention of Congress and would be another example of actual Executive overreach. I’m afraid he would attempt to declare martial law along the southern border and directly seize land in addition to wasting funds for actual disaster relief and other projects.

  66. 66.

    A Ghost To Most

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, but how many purple and yellow tigers do you come across,even if you’re in the trade?

    Alabama logic: the mascot of the Auburn Tigers is the War Eagle.

  67. 67.

    MelissaM

    Welcome home, sounds like a fun trip. We had a doxie that lurved men and would pee when she certain ones came over. It became a ritual for them to just wait outside where Greta could greet them and pee safely. Nice to hear a male dog will do this, too. And yeah, car travel’s cheap when gas is around $2/gallon (here in the midwest, it’s slightly under.)

  69. 69.

    chris

    @Sab: Safety for sure but here they made it a law, no loaded firearms in a vehicle. Not to mention no loaded firearms on public thoroughfares. The erosion of freedom continues apace in the socialist hellhole.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    Wow, I go away for literally two days and I missed the whole discussion of how Siubhan Diunne knew Ayn Rand personally.

    I have a strong suspicion that we haven’t had the last of that discussion, although I have no plans to re-introduce the subject myself.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost website, up near the top:

    ‘The story keeps changing’: Trump falsely asserts he never promised Mexico would directly pay for wall

    President Trump’s mendacity over how he planned to pay for his top campaign promise has boxed him in during the shutdown fight.

    Post is getting shrill.

  78. 78.

    Sab

    @chris: Many years ago I had a close friend who moved to northern Michigan to live and hunt whatever moved in whatever hunting season was on. His second year there either he or his best friend almost blew the other guy’s hat (and possibly head) off by climbing a fence with a loaded gun (possibly safety off). He was kind of traumatized by it although no one was hurt. As he said: “What were we thinking? It’s not that hard to load a modern hunting gun.”

  79. 79.

    dexwood

    @Elizabelle:
    president Dicktator Traitor’s brain is a fried up rotten egg. He can’t keep anything straight and his base doesn’t care. Hell, they admire his loud and proud ignorance. His lies excite them.

  80. 80.

    JanieM

    Another tree person here.

    Here’s one of the magnificent old maples that graced the front yard where I live, until the power company took them all down three winters go. I still get tears in my eyes sometimes when I walk out front and they’re not there. There’s a sequence of pictures of this tree in different seasons if you click on the right arrow.

  82. 82.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Steeplejack:

    Previously elected to the East Moline City Council in 2007, she defeated Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling in the 2012 congressional election and a subsequent 2014 rematch. Assigned to the House Committee on Agriculture and Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, she represents a northwest Illinois constituency anchored by the Quad Cities, Peoria, and Rockford. As of the 2016 elections, Bustos and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin are the only Democrats in the Illinois Congressional Delegation who are not from the Chicago area.

    I found this on her wiki page.

    From Ballotpedia:

    The 2018 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+3, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district’s results were 3 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Illinois’ 17th Congressional District the 179th-most Democratic nationally.

    So yes, it seems like a fairly conservative area. My district, OH-13, is D+7 but is also fairly conservative. It is represented by the risible Tim Ryan.

  84. 84.

    Sab

    @HeleninEire: Welcome home. I hope you don’t have any regrets about going to Ireland. It was a dream and you went there and did well. Now you know where home is, and you still love the other country.

  85. 85.

    Sab

    @chris: They did this in 1982. Both of the nitwits knew better. That’ s why Canadians have laws and sensible Michiganders don’t go out in the woods in hunting season.

  86. 86.

    Aleta

    @JanieM: Those are beautiful pictures. My neighbor had a huge sugar maple (one of two) taken down though it was healthy. (Judging by the beautiful solid straight-grained wood inside.) It wasn’t close to their house. I still think about it, like: if I’d bought that house years ago when I had a chance, that tree would be alive. After they had cut it into firewood, a few of its short logs were left out for waste collection so I took a couple home.

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    @pat:

    God, Tweety was in full anti-Trump rage mode and was teeing it up for her— “Whose fault is this?!” [the shutdown]—and she couldn’t bring herself to just say, “Trump.”

  88. 88.

    Daniel'sBob

    @Steeplejack: She’s in a Republican district–northwest Illinois. She won it 61-39. Adam Kinzinger won the district (16th) next to hers with similar demographics 60-40 against a fairly progressive woman candidate. She’s the only kind of Democrat who has a chance of winning in this part of the state.

  92. 92.

    chris

    Low quality hire. (Thanks, Kay)

    “Embarrassing & shameful.” “A joke.” “Unstatesmanlike.” “Absolutely empty.” “It’ll be forgotten in about five minutes.” The things diplomats say about Pompeo’s Cairo speech are much more fun than the actual speech. By the great @lrozen https://t.co/Vl0lqMfh9x— Liz Sly (@LizSly) 11 January 2019

  93. 93.

    Gravenstone

    @raven: The guy that sideswiped me in a traffic circle also admitted fault (rightfully so). His insurance company, which told him that they were holding him at fault (communicated to me after that finding, via text) denied my claim. Mine ended up taking them to arbitration (which we won). So don’t assume good faith on their part.

  95. 95.

    Gravenstone

    @Elizabelle:

    I heard that Trump is looking at using money earmarked for disaster relief for his wall.

    So whichever states get nailed by hurricanes this season, plus the wildfires and whatever else nature cares to toss around – will all become Puerto Rico. Got it.

  97. 97.

    JanieM

    @Aleta: Thanks.

    Some wood was saved from our trees, and if we’re lucky a woodworker friend is going to make my kids and me some small coffee or end tables from that wood. I went on a quest to find someone to turn some of it into boards — you’d think this would be easy in rural Maine, or at least I thought it would. But none of the lumber mills would touch street or yard trees for fear of ruining their blades on embedded metal (spikes, nails, metal bands, who knows what). At $1500 to replace one chain, I can see why. But this friend took some of the wood and managed to get some slices out of it with a regular chainsaw. And the rest of it did become firewood.

    This pic shows why the trees had to come down, although they weren’t all as bad as that one. The rows in the background were baby maples twenty years ago, but I won’t live to see them the way the old ones were. Lesson: plant more trees! And more often!

  98. 98.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Aleta:
    If it was walnut, I’d have stolen every stick I could. Maple too, although sugar maple is too hard to carve easily.

  99. 99.

    Gravenstone

    @Sab: Knew a kid a year ahead of me in school who shot himself in the shoulder with a shotgun while trying to cross a fence. Fortunate for him it was “only” a 410.

  100. 100.

    JanieM

    @Steeplejack: Didn’t see your comment while I was typing my own in response to Aleta. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find someone who would mill those trees into boards. And through the land trust I volunteer for I had access to plenty of people to ask. If they had been forest trees it would have been different.

  103. 103.

    Yarrow

    Welcome home, John. Let us know when Steve finally decides to grace you with his presence. Or, whatever he decides to leave for you as punishment for leaving him. Heh.

  104. 104.

    waratah

    I just do not understand why Texans are not fighting him on this darn wall. They do not like someone using eminent domain. I will have to look it up but I think it was not easy to agree that the Rio Grand to be the border.

  105. 105.

    JanieM

    @JanieM:

    why the trees had to come down

    This is a sort of “she loved big brother” framing. I didn’t actually believe they all “had” to come down. But I’m not the property owner, and it wasn’t my decision.

  106. 106.

    Yarrow

    @waratah: They are according to the NBC Nightly News segment I saw while at the gym. Texas border land owners preparing for legal fight against eminent domain.

  107. 107.

    Sab

    @Sab: Another American gun nut story from my past. I worked in a small public accounting firm in Ohio. One of the owners’ sons who was a good accountant but hated it. Hehad left years before to do something else that required lots of sales. His business collapsed after 9/11 because sales were so hard because flying was so hard with the weird security. He came home to work for Dad.

    After about six months he was so unhappy he tried to kill himself. Fortunately he survived (he was and is a really nice man.) In the aftermath, his elementary school kids were running wild around the office. One of his office decorations was a rifle hanging on the wall. After one of his kids ran into my office with his dad’s gun, pointed it at my head, pulled the trigger and yelled bang bang , I went storming into his grandfather’s office and yelled that the little twerp had fired a gun at me. His grandfather said what’s the big deal, it wasn’t loaded. I said “the big deal is your son just tried to kill himself, so why would you assume it’s not loaded other than that my head hasn’t been blown off. And also that basic gun safety is to assume all guns are loaded.”

    I left that job as soon as I could get another.

    I have lots of family hunters but I hate guns in America. We are morons down here.

  108. 108.

    Emma

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: The Bello family has been making cigars since that time. One of the first things the Castro government did was to take over all the tabacaleras. Made a pretty penny from them too. The families came to the US and established themselves either in Little Havana or in Tampa.

  110. 110.

    Sab

    @chris: Another American gun nut story from my past. I worked in a small public accounting firm in Ohio. One of the owners’ sons who was a good accountant but hated it. Hehad left years before to do something else that required lots of sales. His business collapsed after 9/11 because sales were so hard because flying was so hard with the weird security. He came home to work for Dad.

    After about six months he was so unhappy he tried to kill himself. Fortunately he survived (he was and is a really nice man.) In the aftermath, his elementary school kids were running wild around the office. One of his office decorations was a rifle hanging on the wall. After one of his kids ran into my office with his dad’s gun, pointed it at my head, pulled the trigger and yelled bang bang , I went storming into his grandfather’s office and yelled that the little twerp had fired a gun at me. His grandfather said what’s the big deal, it wasn’t loaded. I said “the big deal is your son just tried to kill himself, so why would you assume it’s not loaded other than that my head hasn’t been blown off. And also that basic gun safety is to assume all guns are loaded.”

    I left that job as soon as I could get another.

    I have lots of family hunters but I hate guns in America. We are morons down here.

    ETA: screwed up link back to chris who or whom I was responding to

  111. 111.

    waratah

    @Yarrow: I can see that but he wants to do national emergency and just take it. I would like for all the ranchers in the state to kick up a fuss.

  112. 112.

    Aleta

    @Steeplejack: My exact thoughts. At least let the wood stay, make it part of your home.
    @A Ghost To Most: I have some basswood (linden) limbs that came down last summer. (Don’t know if they’re American or European.) Is the American kind also good for carving? I guess for carving they need to be dried carefully? Thought I’d offer them to someone.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    @JanieM:

    That’s too bad. I watch a lot of woodworking shows, and there are people who specialize in milling and reclaiming “urban” lumber. They use metal detectors to make sure there aren’t any surprises in the wood. They typically use a saw that can be mounted on a trailer. Many times they mill the logs right on site. Maybe the mills you talked to were too big and didn’t want to be bothered. Whatever, a sad loss.

  117. 117.

    chris

    @Sab: Scary stuff! Don’t think I’ve seen a gun just hanging on a wall in the last 25(?) years since the safe storage laws came into force. I guess one could if it was chained to the wall and trigger locked.

  120. 120.

    raven

    @chris: I have four rifles in a rack on the wall. There is a locking compartment on the bottom of the rack and rod that holds the weapons in the rack.

  122. 122.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Gravenstone: just about the first thing I learned from actually practicing law was NEVER assume that any insurance company is acting in good faith ever.

  125. 125.

    raven

    @Steve in the ATL: I have half a mind to just file with USSA. I just asked the princess again and she said the cop told the dude he would be listed at fault and he said “I know”. I know it doesn’t matter b ut he did tell he he was sorry as things wrapped up.

  126. 126.

    Sab

    @chris: That’s kind of weird. Lots of people down here have guns hanging on the wall somewhere. It’s just interior decoration until someone gets shot.

  129. 129.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: inter-insurance arbitration resolves a lot of these stupid issues, though it adds a completely unnecessary delay.

  131. 131.

    chris

    @raven: Laws are maybe a little different here, the cops can arrive unannounced and inspect gun storage. So people keep their guns out of the sight of random cops and thieves.

  133. 133.

    Aleta

    Speaking of sawing.

    NBC: Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through
    A photo shows that the steel columns were breached with a common industrial tool.
    …
    Testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.
    Photos of the breaches were not included in a redacted version of the CBP report, which was first obtained in a Freedom of Information Act Request by San Diego public broadcaster KPBS.

  135. 135.

    geg6

    @Sab:

    My BIL’s son was killed in a gun accident about twenty-five years ago. He and a friend had been target shooting, came into the house. The son tripped over the cat and the friend tried to catch him, dropped the gun he was holding and it went off and hit the son in the head. Took him off life support three days later. Horrible. Happened on NYE. My BIL has never celebrated NYE since.

  138. 138.

    chris

    @Sab: It was common when I was a kid but no more. I live deep in the country and would guess that more than half the places have at least one gun but it’s not on display. Canada has been working at gun safety for more than 60 years and it seems to have worked.

  140. 140.

    Elizabelle

    @raven: I love USAA. They’re excellent.

    Sorry to hear about the bride’s misadventure. That stuff is scary while it is happening.

  141. 141.

    Steve in the ATL

    So, uh, is this giant winter storm going to affect the Cincinnati meet up next week? Guess I won’t be wearing my seersucker.

  142. 142.

    J R in WV

    I’ve never tried to cross a fence while hunting… haven’t hunted in at least 2 or 3 decades, went with neighbors way back, was on one side of a saddle in a ridgetop, waiting for a deer to cross the mountain right over there.

    Suddenly some asshole opened up with a high-power deer rifle at some turkeys flying over the ridge! Right over my head!!

    I went down the mountain, enjoyed hanging at the camp, which was a fire pit outside a school bus they dragged across the river with multiple 4×4 trucks chained together. Great eating, fresh killed deer, comradeship, stories and lies, but didn’t go into the woods again.

    Too many guys think going hunting and camping means drinking a lot, with guns. The answer to many hunting accidents is just that, drunk with a gun.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chair of thoracic surgery at Mt Sinai– not RBG’s doctor but a colleague at the same hospital– volunteered to go on Maddow “to calm down the country.” He’s saying with absolute confidence that she’ll be back at work and “she’ll be fine”

    Also, I shall declare a bloggy emergency in order to create a new thread.

  147. 147.

    Steve in the ATL

    @J R in WV: the number one cause of hunting injuries is falling out of a deer stand. How many of those involve alcohol? I’ll leave it to our readers to surmise.

    You never hunted on land you you had neither legal right to hunt on nor a key to open the gate to get into? The usual method is to jack up your car, take off a tire and throw it in the trunk as if it’s off being fixed, and climb the fence to get to your desired hunting ground. No one pays attention to a car like that on the side of the road! Anyway, be sure to unload your gun when climbing the fence.

    Note 1: as your attorney, I advise you not to use this method and not to trespass.

    Note 2: I am not your attorney and this is not legal advice. Anyway, it’s not like you paid me for it!

  148. 148.

    dnfree

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: Cheri Bustos is my representative. The district has a few cities but also a large rural population. Bustos is well known for her concern for and interest in working people, so the Democratic party has been promoting her in a more public way. She does something called “Cheri on Shift” where she takes a shift at various companies and occupations.

    http://www.cheribustos.com/news/congresswoman-cheri-bustos-releases-cheri-on-shift-ad-highlighting-her-commitment-to-standing-up-for-hardworking-families

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    Have Maddow on in the background. I liked that Mt. Sinai (?) physician. He said one of his patients ran a marathon after similar surgery. That he didn’t expect RBG to do that. But then … remembered she’s RBG.

    Also said it took him a month personally to recover from an appendectomy at age 42.

  152. 152.

    Steeplejack

    @geg6:

    So tragic. As I said above, I was an NRA member in about 1963—age 11—and gun safety was drilled into our thick skulls so deeply that I remember it all to this day. Your BIL’s son and friend should never have brought loaded guns into the house; they should have been unloaded at the shooting site as soon as they were done. But of course you know that. It’s amazing how it escapes so many of the ardent gun lovers.

  154. 154.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Steeplejack: were you also taught not to hold your pistol sideways when firing it, or did that only get popular with the rise of gangsta rap several decades later?

    I once saw a kid holding a squirt gun that way. The “ammo” was dripping out. Clearly it wasn’t designed to be held that way.

  155. 155.

    Gravenstone

    @Steve in the ATL: I seem to be a font of anecdata tonight, had a former co-worker who was paralyzed as the result of a deer stand fall. In that case alcohol was not involved, just a tragic slip. But yes they can be quite treacherous.

  161. 161.

    Steeplejack

    @Steve in the ATL:

    It was fine to hold your pistol sideways as long as you were flying through the air to take cover behind a couch that would clearly protect you from return fire. C’mon, that’s just science.

  162. 162.

    Sab

    @chris: My people used to be Canadians until they moved south. Deeply sorry about that, but now we are not you.

    Especially since we are a deeply @ucked up country and you are not so much.

    Although you did have Steven Harper running things for DECADES.

  163. 163.

    Jay

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Around here, that’s a good way to get shot. Illegal hunting is seen as a “big deal” and most land owners here, no longer allow hunting on their property.

    About 7 years ago, some guys were using snowmobliles to run moose out of season. They cut my wire, so I called the cops and the Wildlife Service. They “caught” the guys trying to load a dead yearling and their snowmobiles onto their 4×4 truck, which for some strage reason, had 5 flat tires.

  165. 165.

    Steeplejack

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I have a nearly unlimited supply of pictures of one cat sleeping. When I flip through the pictures on my phone to get to one that I want to show someone it is sometimes very depressing.

  175. 175.

    NotMax

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    Haven’t scanned entire thread, so perhaps being repetitious.

    re: Cuban cigars legality

    The answer is yes and no. It is again legal to bring them into the country from outside the border. However AFAIK it is still technically illegal to sell them within the U.S.

    At between $20 and $50 each, not something one smokes regularly unless your last name is Bezos.

  176. 176.

    Jay

    @Steve in the ATL:

    They only had 5, 4 on the axels and the spare.

    On the bright side, She Who Must Be Obeyed, talked me out of shooting them.

    Couple of decades ago, Mark and I came across some poachers netting steelhead. Mark talked me into walking back to the trucks, call the Wardens on our cell phones, and then, just before we left, Mark stabbed a can of Coleman fuel, tossed it under the poachers truck, along with a match.

  177. 177.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Elizabelle: Yeah, Billin posted some pics from Sydney that prompted me to look through mine, since we were discussing the inside of the Opera House. But I had trouble with the “On the Road” form. Anyway, here’s a non-standard view of the Harbour Bridge.

  178. 178.

    opiejeanne

    @Sab: Grandma Blanche Green’s first cousin, Thomas Adolphus Warren was married to Millie May Coffey (Grandpa Chester Green’s first cousin) for 11 months, and died while hunting. He leaned his shotgun against a barbed-wire fence while he climbed over, it went off and the shot hit him in the thigh. He was 19. Their baby was born after he died. Millie May was 17 in the photo below.

    https://flic.kr/p/gi3tS
    https://flic.kr/p/gi3ww

  182. 182.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I do not believe this attempt at snark, even though it is a bigly failed attempt at snark, came from the thumbs of The Only President We’ve Got (as Miss Ivins used to call Shrub)

    Donald J. Trump Retweeted Jim Acosta
    Dear Diary…

    Jim Acosta @ Acosta
    The steel slats don’t run the entire length of the border in the McAllen area. We found one part where there is a chain link fence. Occasionally migrants come thru but residents say their community is quite safe.

    sounds like the Kellyanne I was first exposed to on the old Maher show

  183. 183.

    J R in WV

    @Steeplejack:

    I once, years ago, saw a factory razed and burned on site. The beams were huge wood, like 18×24 inch beams, to support floors with heavy machinery on them. It was burning blue flame, with masonry sitting in the fire. The bridge ramp went right by the site, they put in a now-defunct shopping plaza.

    Always wondered why no one thought about saving that old-growth timber for reuse.

  184. 184.

    Mike in NC

    @NotMax: $20-$50 for a lousy Cuban cigar??? When my ship pulled into Majorca in 1984 everybody went ashore to stock up on Cuban cigars. Yeah, I tried one just to say I did. Yuck.

  187. 187.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steve in the ATL:

    were you also taught not to hold your pistol sideways when firing it, or did that only get popular with the rise of gangsta rap several decades later?

    Film nerd alert: that actually originated with cheesy Hong Kong action movies of the 1970s and 1980s — gangsta rappers swiped the look from there.

  189. 189.

    Marcopolo

    @Jay: I lived in a cabin 20 miles outside of Fairbanks AK for a decade in the 90s. One year we had a rash of firewood thefts in the area. One of my neighbors cored a hole in a one his pieces, inserted a quarter stick of dynamite, then plugged the hole. We found out who was jacking our wood when there was a report of a wood stove blowing up not to far away a few days later. Lucky for them only minor injuries but a lot of damage to their place. We didn’t see any more firewood go missing after that.

  191. 191.

    NotMax

    @J R in WV

    Father of a friend owned a very large multi-story warehouse in New Jersey. It was originally built as a hospital during the Civil War. Unbelievable beams and floors inside. Less than 24 hours after he finished relocating to a new building, the place burned to the ground.

    Nope, not at all suspicious that. //

  192. 192.

    Marcopolo

    So I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but tomorrow is an official Trump news blackout day. Barring a bunch of juicy Mueller indictments dropping all of us should make our best effort to totally avoid mentioning/talking about him. I’m in, though not being on any social media platform other than this blog makes it pretty easy for me.

  193. 193.

    J R in WV

    @Aleta:

    A photo shows that the steel columns were breached with a common industrial tool.

    A Sawzall can destroy almost anything short of a bank vault, and could do one of those given enough time and sufficient spare blades. The Trump Wall — no challenge at all~!!~

    I think some guys were arrested for trying to do in the Brooklyn Bridge with Sawzalls a while back — that would take a while, but with time and blades, I think it could be done.

  194. 194.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    It’s seen as a “big deal”. The two key sources for illegal guns are home thefts from improperly secured fire arms, and illegal smuggling from the US.

    We have almost as many guns per capita ( some accounds more) than the US. The stats are a lot different though. Most are long guns, used for hunting, very few hand guns, few semi automatics, and “scattered” about ( aboot) in 2’s and 3’s, not 50 in someguys basement.

    The great majority here still see guns as tools, not toys.

  195. 195.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    You never hunted on land you you had neither legal right to hunt on nor a key to open the gate to get into?

    Not much hunting on fenced farm land around here — plenty of just open forest to hike into, National Forest, State Forest, just unfenced forest is available if there aren’t no trespassing signs, which are a pain to install and repair.

    We had fencing around our place, but just to keep the stock in, not to keep neighbors out. That was 20+ years ago now, there are remnants of fencing in the woods, but nothing someone could climb. Fencing is expensive!

  199. 199.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Lou Dobbs: Trump has to “declare a national emergency, and simply sweep aside the recalcitrant left in this country”

    So, Lou Dobbs doesn’t believe in the constitution any more? The fact that Congress is established in Article One of said Constitution? The fact that funding Acts are required to be moved out of the House of Representatives by the Constitution?

    Dobbs must have never taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, like so many of us have. Cretin!!

  201. 201.

    Marcopolo

    @Jay: Generally speaking, people who are lazy, or who don’t have the sense order it in advance, or maybe folks who are economically challenged. I went through 2-3 cords every winter. Typically ordered it for delivery in late September. Had it dropped in my driveway which gave me the incentive to split & stack it as quickly as possible—my driveway was 150 yards long & I couldn’t bring my car up to the cabin until I finished.

  203. 203.

    Jay

    @Marcopolo:

    Here, $15 bucks get’s you a firewood permit. Cut, buck and split all the slash you want.

    Years when money was tight, I still managed day by day to scrape up enough wood to keep the home fires burning.

    Decades ago, had a route home, passing by mills, millworks and other sites, where kilndried offcuts sat in “free firewood” bins. Start loading the trunk in spring, and you are good by winter.

    And then, there are skids, some of which I burned for heat in hard times, some of which I built sheds and a fence out of, and some of which ( teak, rosewood, mahogany) I still have stacked away for use some day.

  205. 205.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @dnfree:
    That’s good if she likes talking about working people and I guess she has to act conservative for her rural voters. “No Labels” is still a mark against her though.

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