The combination of all of the posts today about the Republican bullshit has me just so sick of it all. It’s always the same. On fucking everything. The only thing that changes are the items under consideration and the faces. It’s the same over and over and over again, the only thing mildly interesting about it this time is that it occurred in relative proximity to the actual Groundhog Day. Live long enough you get to see the issues recycle. Fuck, we done a go around with prayer in school this year?
And Mistermix is right it’s a terrible fucking bill. Meanwhile, Israel doesn’t need any money they’re pretty much bouncing rubble at this point, Ukraine desperately needs fucking money and weapons and not only that the display that we’re with them for real. Although anyone who has ever read anything about the Kurds would know better than to trust the United States- we’ll fuck you over in a heartbeat and then spend the rest of eternity telling you it was your fault. That’s just who we are.
Another cold front and some rain are moving in, so I wanted to spend some time cleaning up the back patio and did, and then we had dinner. Joelle has some show she has to watch with her friend Buzz, so I am sequestered in what Joelle calls the “Den of Iniquity,” aka the small bedroom that has my desktop and new antique chair (THAT I FUCKING LOVE).
I don’t remember if I have mentioned Buzz before but the easiest way to do it is to describe him as Joelle’s Tammy. They have been best friends since the 90’s when they were on the road with bands in the Pittsburgh area. At any rate, he lives up in Anthem, and his parents live nearby having recently moved here (last six months) from Mt. Lebanon in the Burgh. Their names are Tony and Pat aka Topat. So if I ever mention Buzz or Topat that is who I am talking about. Didn’t want to throw in new characters without a proper introduction.
I’ve made a command decision that I am not doing shit with the yard. I’ll do that when I come back in the fall. There’s just too much other pressing things to do that can be done for free. The most expensive thing I intend to do is paint, and I think I can keep that under a hundred. Joelle has repeatedly stated she can not believe how different the house looks and feels, and I don’t think I am even a 1/4 of the way done. The outside can wait another year.
I need to do a major product endorsement right now. I also need to do a disclaimer- I have no idea what is in this stuff, I have not looked at the label, and I will not because I do not want to know. But I swear to everything that is holy, Chef Merito’s Red Fajita seasoning is fucking amazing.
For those of you on the east coast, you know how obnoxious everyone from Maryland is about Old Bay seasoning? I feel comfortable saying everyone who has ever known anyone from Maryland has had a jarring encounter with them when they profess their love for the shit and you find out they put it on everything. It may be a regional thing, but it is true and also beyond parody. Honestly shocked there has never been an SNL skit about it.
At any rate, my point was that if Old Bay seasoning tasted like Chef Merito’s Red Fajita seasoning, then their love for it would totally fucking make sense. Because Chef Merito’s is amazing. When I make fajita’s I walk by the kitchen at least ten times picking slices of pepper and onion out of the skillet and eating them.
I’m gonna try it on a sear pork loin and see how it goes. How about that?
War for Ukraine Day 712: The “Bipartisan” Senate Compromise Supplemental for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, & the Border Is DOA Before It Gets To the House
Baud
Who is Leonard?
Anne Laurie
Cole:
The bill, and the Repubs, undeniably sukk dead donkey ballz. But also: Welcome to the Stage of Aging where every barometric pressure change turns your mood to sh*t because all your joints hurt.
(It’s like being hangry — you don’t realize how much your corpus affects your mood until you do something to change the parameters.)
Villago Delenda Est
You’re making me hungry, Cole, you magnificent culinary bastard.
brendancalling
I have a similar relationship with Tony Chechere’s as you do with Chef Merito’s Red Fajita seasoning.
Also, fuck the Republicans. I hate them more for this, because my ex’s elderly parents are back in Kyiv.
Fuck the Republicans. Garbage humans.
piratedan
just hearing word that just after hours of speaking on behalf of the Immigration Bill, that the Turtle has essentially pulled the chord on it and it will not get enough GOP support to get it out of the Senate.
So, Lankford works on crafting a bill with the Dems and gives the GOP the majority of the immigration wins, with some Dem flavorings here and there but gets money out the door and puts in structure to the immigration issue and the GOP shoots it dead in the driveway based on Stand Your Trump grounds….. terrific.
I am curious as to what kind of creativeness the Biden Administration is going to use to help those who need it… cause the GOP just fucked over ceasefire, help to the Palestinians, Ukrainians and Taiwanese… as well as those seeking asylum.
now, if only anyone is paying attention…
Percysowner
@Anne Laurie:
While also giving you killer migraines! I could always tell when the weather was going to change because my head would kill me. Now my joints hurt too. As a friend says, getting old is not for the faint of heart.
Leto
You’ve mentioned Buzz before, but a re-introduction isn’t bad. Hello Buzz and ToPat! I made cashew chicken tonight and it was very good. Pretty fast coming together, and enough for Avalune and the kid to have lunch for tomorrow. We watched last night’s episode of True Detective and now settling in.
And to echo today’s theme: fuck conservatives. Forever.
waspuppet
Oh GOD I want fajitas so bad. Two weeks on the Blood Sugar Diet (gentler 5-2 variation) and I’m down eight pounds but I’m starting to lose it. This seasoning sounds great.
Oh, and Cajun seasoning minus cayenne = Old Bay. (Ducks)
NotMax
IMHO, go easy with it. Spices can quickly overpower the mild ‘n’ mellow flavor of pork loin. Maybe opt to throw together a sauce using the stuff to drizzle over the cooked slices?
Leto
@Anne Laurie: this is also me, but it started after my accident. But for some reason, the past few months have been especially painful. Medical staff keep saying how I’m still a young man (48), so I’m just looking forward to seeing how much further this goes. Wheee!
Jackie
Imagine pork tenderloin fajitas! 😋😋
raven
Chef Merito Fajita 12 oz 2 pack
Brand: Chef Merito
$24.99 ($24.99 / Ounce)
I’ll get right on this.
Scout211
Agree. That’s why I tuned into this episode of John Cole presents “Stories from the Road” and not the previous threads. I think I may need to change the channel.
Any SoCal jackals around to check in? Everyone okay there in the torrential rain, flooding and mudslides?
wenchacha
Thanks to WKRP in Cincinnati, and a friend’s niece, we named our daughter Bailey, back in ’88. I have sent her a can of Old Bay for her birthday.
raven
@Leto: My buddy is a serious fitness freak. He was still playing baseball (on 90 ft bags) at 69 years old. He had bypass surgery in the spring and we just had to cancel our Costa Rica fishing trip because he’s having severe physical problems.
schrodingers_cat
If you think the Republicans are shitty (and they are) you have not had the pleasure of seeing a revanchist Hitler worshipping group destroy your beloved birthplace while your near and dear ones are all nodding their heads enthralled by the man who headed a pogrom.
wenchacha
Thanks to WKRP in Cincinnati, and a friend’s niece, we named our daughter Bailey, back in ’88. One year, I sent her a can of Old Bay for her birthday.
swiftfox
Been in Maryland for most of 65 years. OB is great on crabs. Don’t use it for much else.
trollhattan
Am ALWAYS happy to try new seasonings, even “The Official Seasoning of the Dodgers.”
Who knew?
Leto
@raven: you know, that was the plan. Pennsylvania roads had a different idea. I was scheduled for a major surgery at the end of Jan, but had to push it after another specialist was brought in. So it’s looking like some time in March? April maybe? Idk, but when something is finalized I’ll talk about it more. But I really was trying to gracefully glide into older age with minimal problems. Oh well.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Definition of having advanced to a certain age cohort:
When I wake up, everything I have two of — one hurts.
‘;)
Leto
@swiftfox: I had a coworker, who I guess was from that area, who put OB on damn near everything. If he was from area, that makes sense now.
mrmoshpotato
@Villago Delenda Est: He’s also a magnificent weather-controlling bastard apparently – bringing cold and rain to the desert.
schrodingers_cat
I am no chef. But I have my own mix of spices which is good on everything from eggs to fish to poultry.
It has freshly toasted cumin, coriander, fennel, plus oregano, fenugreek leaves, red chilli flakes
trollhattan
@Anne Laurie: Holy crap our barometer cratered when the Big As A Big Thing Storm rolled through this weekend. 29.35 @ sea level.
raven
@Leto: We’ve talked about this before but I struggle some with my mobility problems and then remember that, since I broke my back in a wreck in 1975 and should have been a quad, I’m lucky as hell to still be motoring at all.
different-church-lady
Today was one of those days that makes me wonder how anyone does days.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Also: you injure yourself in your sleep.
Dan B
I have a love for Basque seasoning. A specialty store carried it until the pandemic. It was great on everything but sweets, meat, fish, veggies, etc. But no more ;<(
It was probably some combo with smoked sweet peppers.
Leto
@raven: same. There’s a lot of things that added up to why I lived. I’m lucky that I survived with all my limbs intact. I do have a certain jaded view whenever people say that “I’m so lucky to be alive” but I try to keep that to myself because I know it’s well meaning. And same as you, it’s supremely good that I can still walk, and get around. I just hope that if/when I hit your age bracket, I’m still fairly mobile.
Manyakitty
@different-church-lady: agreed. Today we said goodbye to by handsome man cat Heisenberg at the too-young age of 15.5 years. I miss him terribly already and it’s only been a few hours. 💔
NotMax
@trollhattan
Nilsson, Down.
;)
John Cole
@waspuppet: it’s good on anything. Sautee up some veg with it. Your doctor will love it.
CaseyL
@Manyakitty:
I am so sorry. (Heisenberg! What a great name for a kitty. May I ask how he got that name – did it have anything to do with the Heisenberg Principle?)
piratedan
@trollhattan: jaysus christo! Using the official seasoning mix of Los Dodgers, while living in the heart of Diamondbackland?
Yeah, that will ingratiate him with the locals :-)
cripes man, get your ass hither to a local farmers market and get some real seasoning…. sheesh.
https://www.thesouthwesterngriller.com/
https://www.azgunslinger.com/store/
Manyakitty
@CaseyL: thanks. And yes, he was named for Heisenberg the physicist. We named his brother Schrodinger. They were my first cats and now they’re together again 💞 (I don’t generally count on an afterlife, but I make an exception at the thought of seeing my jokers again)
Scout211
We got emails from BallotTrax today informing us that our primary ballots are in the mail. Nice.
Super Tuesday is only a month from tomorrow and early voting is already starting here.
Yutsano
@Scout211:
Yeesh. I don’t want to even think about it.
Leto
@Manyakitty: I’m so sorry!
Steve in the ATL
@brendancalling:
You and every other decent person in the world. We put it on everything except pancakes! [not literally]
schrodingers_cat
@Manyakitty: I am so sorry. Heisenberg is a great name for a 🐾.
NotMax
Mowed the property this afternoon. After all the rain we’ve had of late things were shin high. Now my eyes are a bit itchy and sinuses not yet but threatening to become drippy.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Low level, not symptoms worthy of resorting to a pill. This too shall pass. ;)
SiubhanDuinne
@Manyakitty:
Great names! Next time I get a pair of kitties, I’m leaning toward naming them Michelson and Morley
I’m so sorry for your loss.
glc
It seems to me that this is new: Biden veto threat.
One thing that’s certainly not new is discussion of the desirability of the threat, so perhaps it was seen coming.
I didn’t think he’d step out in front of it though.
Lapassionara
@piratedan: thank you. Trump is running this show, and it sucks.
Kineslaw
@Leto: I almost had a traumatic arm amputation during a car accident that was a totally random occurrence and could be blamed on no person, including myself.
“You’re lucky you still have your arm” was only occasionally followed by me remarking about how unlucky I was to be in the accident in the first place, but I wanted to yell it EVERY SINGLE TIME.
“You’re lucky that …” is not a helpful phrase.
mrmoshpotato
In
Soviet Russiathe United States, election season thinks about you – because it never ends!Manyakitty
@Leto: thank you.
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: thank you. As a kitten, he embodied the Uncertainty Principle.
Eric S.
@Leto: I did well until 44. Then a life time of baseball, softball, and volleyball – basically an over hand throwing motion – caught up to me. Two rotator cuff surgeries later and I still plat softball at 52, but I don’t throw anyone out at home from the OF any more. I said after the first surgery I wanted to make my age 55 season. I think it might happen.
Yutsano
@Manyakitty: Oh no. I hope you do meet up with him in the next existence. All my love and healing light to you.
Manyakitty
@SiubhanDuinne: thank you. Naming pairs is so much fun. I think our next will be another single, as Asimov needs a buddy so that Manya can enjoy some peace 😃
Manyakitty
@Yutsano: thank you.
Eric S.
@Manyakitty: My condolences.
My 2 boys are Newton and Kepler. They are almost 3yo.
Manyakitty
@Eric S.: excellent names. Lots of happy times ahead for you all.
M. Bouffant
@Scout211: O.K. so far. Had to go out this afternoon (when the rain let up) & there was no power on the corner where I was going to the 7-Eleven to get some cash, so I had to visit another one. Traffic lights there were back on an hr.-&-a-half later.
Course I live on the concrete plains, so not much chance of being flooded or washed away.
M. Bouffant
@trollhattan: As a Dodger fan, I knew, ’cause you can’t escape the adverts.
TeezySkeezy
@SiubhanDuinne: no matter how fast you chase them they always moving the same unattainable speed?
Frankensteinbeck
Republicans negotiate a bipartisan bill where they get 90% of what they want, then refuse to vote for it, Take 73.
satby
@Manyakitty: Condolences! You gave him a life of love, that’s their heaven.
Trivia Man
Pronounced Toe-Pat or Top(h)at?
Manyakitty
@satby: thank you. We’re already on the kitten list at the vet’s office (she small-scale fosters the kittens her patients and techs find). Gotta adopt a new baby in Heisenberg’s memory.
Also, her kittens include first year care/vaccines and a spay or neuter.
Another Scott
@glc: Relatedly…
(Beyer is my rep.)
I don’t think Johnson’s gambit is going to work as well as he hopes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Manyakitty: Farewell to that handsome cat with great name. (I love that another jackal has a cat named Salad.)
Know you will miss him forever, but may a new kitten arrive ASAP.
Leto
@Eric S.: Mine was a little different. I only miss running and yoga everyday. I’m waiting for actual better weather so I can get my bicycle out and head to the trail near us.
@Kineslaw: I also had a major problem with the phrase, “You’re lucky to be alive.” Again, they’re well meaning but I just wasn’t in a place to hear that. The rare times I hear it now I can just shrug it off similar to, “Thank you for your service”. Just took time.
Jay
@Manyakitty:
I am sorry for your loss. They had good lives with you.
Kayla Rudbek
I want to name cats after the allotropes of carbon – Diamond, Graphite, Fullerene for starters. Although there are no cats in this house because Mr. Rudbek doesn’t want them (I understand and agree with his rationale). So I get my cat fix vicariously.
Manyakitty
@Elizabelle: thank you.
Manyakitty
@Jay: thank you. That’s the goal.
Jackie
@satby: Well said, satby ♥️
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: I’m so sorry you have to go through watching fascism come to your birthplace. And now your adopted country too.
I don’t have much else to say.
Big Mango
rotisserie chicken seasoning is my fav…
it is awesome on an ear of corn
Sister Golden Bear
@piratedan:
There are advantages to being a big, ornery dude who doesn’t give a fuck. /s
HumboldtBlue
This is what a happy otter sounds like.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: I’m sorry. I really can’t imagine even though, clearly, we should all know by now that many people are enthralled by delusions of shared superiority.
Sister Golden Bear
@Another Scott: When both Nikki Hayley and Fox hosts are both yelling that Republicans are stonewalling the bill so that they can complain Biden isn’t fixing the “border problem,” your cunning plan is running into problems.
Granted both are invoking the specter of invading brown borders who MUST BE STOPPED RIGHT NOW, but it’s still nice to see the hypocrisy called out.
Barbara
@Leto: Re: mobility — I just learned via latest hip xray that joints have deteriorated a lot in the last 2 years and I should be planning joint replacement surgery soon. I’m not yet 64. My mother had the the same surgery at age 80.
The good news? The surgery is so well advanced that you almost always get back to pain free activity. Still very bummed out about it.
Leto
@Manyakitty: when our beloved Bella (Manchester terrier/terrorist) passed away in May 2022, at the ripe old age of 15, it personally took me a long time to really even look at other dogs again, such was my grief. Avalune grieved for a few months, but then quietly started searching again. She eventually told me she was looking, and started showing me a few puppers. She had a specific search criteria of, “adopt a handicap dog in need”. Preferably older, but just looking for ones that were typically overlooked.
She eventually found a little guy who’d been on an adoption list for quite a while. She’d send me a new pic once a week saying, “Hey, he’s still available!” It was a deaf dog out of the Turks and Caicos. There’s no animal shelters on the island so they typically take the dogs, send them to the states, and try to get them homes. Deaf dogs have a harder time just due to them being… deaf. They don’t pick up on a lot of the audio queues other dogs give during play time, or feeding, which can lead to a lot of problems. Which in turn causes them to, generally, stay in shelters/foster homes for years.
But… this little asshole was so cute. Has one ear that’s permanently half way bent, so a perpetual super cuteness that helped win her over. We officially notified the adoption agency in late Nov/early Dec ‘23 that we’d like to adopt the guy. In Jan we went over to meet the host family, meet the pup, and see how we’d do/fit. Spent a few hours there, but we all seemed to gel so we were allowed to take him home. And Ocean’s been with us ever since. Saturday was the official 1 year mark. (Yes, his name is Ocean. It’s both cool and also “you couldn’t come up with something better?”)
In that year period we’ve learned sign language to be able to communicate with him. He’s learned that this is his forever home. We’ve learned that he has allergies and needs special food/some meds to help with that. He’s learned that he likes ice cubes. I know you’re already looking again so I hope you find your Ocean.
Kristine
@Manyakitty: I am so sorry.
Barbara
@Leto: My dog is now deaf. She also wears diapers and takes two sleep medications. I do know what you mean about lack of interaction. She doesn’t really engage the way she used to. Ocean is really lucky to have you.
Leto
@Barbara: in a nebulous time in the future, I know I’ll need both knees replaced. That was discussed with my original surgeon. I’m sure my hips will be discussed as well with my current one. I know that they’re fretful of going back in because of how extensive everything was the first time, although they’re going back in soon. But that’s a future Leto problem. Ofc future Leto will look back on past Leto, and curse him, but past Leto won’t care at that point :P
Edit: @Barbara: we believe he was about 8 months when we got him? Going to say he’s about two now. He’s such a goober. And for a deaf dog, he’s the most vocal dog we’ve ever had. Just loves to feel himself bark. Goober.
Barbara
@Manyakitty: So sorry for your loss.
Hoppie
@Scout211: San Diego is just a steady, dreary, chilly drizzle right now, with occasional gusts. Nothing so bad as LA. Rinse and repeat tomorrow. Next sunny day is forecast for Sunday, appropriately.
Joelle
@piratedan: I’m telling ya dude. Maybe the Dodgers discovered that magic sprinkle while they were out here for spring training and culturally misappropriated that shit. He buys it way out in Mesa at the Ranch Market and it makes everything better. I’m really mad I’ve lived out here this long without it in my repertoire.
Joelle
@Trivia Man: toe pat. Like pat of 🧈
piratedan
@Joelle: I understand, since he’s such a taste maven, there’s gonna be a whole lotta flavor exploration as he explores everything that is out there…. just wait til he starts to grok the differences between tex-mex, baja, and sonoran styles :-)
RandomMonster
Thank you, John, for the refreshing take on Old Bay. I’m a Californian who had to move to Maryland (don’t ask), and one of the many things I’m sick of is spotting the inevitable dish on the menu with Old Bay on it. Doesn’t matter what kind of restaurant it is, there will be something seasoned with the stuff.
Ruckus
@Percysowner:
It’s better than the alternative.
Chris
I know you were in the Army, and IIRC during Desert Storm – are people in the Army, especially from that generation, as pissed off at how systematically and repeatedly we’ve fucked over these people as we are? I know how all the older veterans I’ve ever heard talk about it feel about the people we didn’t manage to save in Vietnam, especially among the Hmong, and this is basically that over and over and over. (And I know not all of our allies are remembered especially fondly by the soldiers, but the Kurds pulled more than their weight and didn’t tend towards the kind of “your women can die for us, but OMG do they have to drive cares?” type bullshit that, say, the Saudis did).
Ruckus
@Leto:
I find that remaining reasonably active really does help.
If the weather allows (which it isn’t currently – damn weather) I walk. Normally a couple of miles. Not as fast as I once did for sure but still, the effort does work for me. Without that I find that joints really do not like being old. But with at least semi regular use I am a lot better. Now everyone is different in some way so what works for one is not necessarily going to work for others. But I find that not walking for a few days really doesn’t work for me. YMMV. As a side note, most of my life I’ve had jobs that meant I was on my feet most of the time. So maybe that’s a difference.
Alison Rose
This is the kind of shit I simply cannot comprehend anyone wanting to do, for a thousand reasons but the first one is definitely what happened to this guy:
I refuse to call this man a mariner.
Carlo Graziani
@Leto: I’ve come around to Old Bay, lately. It’s useful in a new trick that I stumbled into upon discovering that, at $30 per 1 lb can of refrigerated crab meat, I can no longer afford to prepare the crab cakes that I came to love when I lived in Maryland.
The solution? Shrimp Cakes! Shrimp is cheap as dirt, and I’ve actually come to prefer these patties over crab cakes:
Ingredients:
1 lb Shrimp
3/4 cup Panko
4 Green Onions, coarse chop
1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
3 Tbsp Mayonnaise
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1 Egg
Flour
Shell the shrimp, and place it in a food processor bowl with the dry ingredients. Pulse a few times, pausing to scrape down the bowl with a silicone spatula (or functional equivalent) until the result is a kind of grey glue. Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the mayo and lemon juice and stir. Add the goo from the food processor to the bowl, and stir vigorously until combined.
Patty-making time! If you should have a box of disposable nitrile or latex gloves, I highly recommend donning a pair for this part (my Costco box of nitrile gloves is now an essential culinary tool…), but dry your hands thoroughly before attempting to get them on. Grab a lump of shrimp dough—I measure out 125g lumps, but you do you—and shape it into a rough ball, then a disk, on a work surface. Press it down using a metal spatula, then go around the edge of the patty with the flat of the spatula to more-or-less circularize it. Slip the spatula under the patty to flip it over, revealing the nice flat surface made my contact with the work surface, and repeat the process. Transfer the finished patty to a plate or platter. Continue, forming all the patties. Transfer to the fridge for 30 minutes.
In a 12″ or larger skillet, heat up about 1/2″ of vegetable oil until about 350F. Place enough all-purpose flour to coat all the patties in a dish, or a storage container. Working in 3-4 patty batches, flour each patty, shake off the excess, and place it gently in the pan. Cook 3-ish minutes on each side, watching that the temperature doesn’t soar much above 350F or fall much below 320F. The color should be golden turning slightly toward the dark side, but not browning. Remove and finish the cakes by batches, keeping the finished ones warm in the oven at 200F.
Serve with spicy mayo (add as much Sriracha to a few tablespoons of mayo as feels decent, and stir. Maybe taste to confirm decency). Or serve with whatever your favorite condiment, or just plain. Just plain is awesome too.
Ohio Mom
@Alison Rose: (Sorry, I can’t help myself.) He’s lucky to be alive.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
This ain’t nuthin. It’s been a lot worse. Late 60s we had rain for days upon days upon….. I believe if memory serves it rained for 40 days. Straight. Every day. Once during I drove across a wooden bridge not far from home and the creek it crossed was over full and water was actually high enough to have water on the bridge. So while this storm is a bit unusual, it’s not close to the worst I’ve seen here in SoCal. Now if you want storms I’ve got stories. Thunderstorm in OH, everyone driving like it’s no big deal, with lighting strikes all around my car. Very interesting to watch, not so much to experience. But – I’m still here to talk about it, so…. Have seen a tornado, that will get your attention and make the hair on the back of your neck leave town. Ever crossed the Atlantic on a ship? I have 6 times. Once we had to turn into the waves because they were about 50 ft high and end up about the St Lawrence Seaway instead of South Carolina. Took us about 5 extra days to cross. Ever see a large ship go head on into 50 ft waves? Very interesting – to see from anywhere other than onboard the ship. 305 men on board, 4 of us didn’t get sick. I was one of them. I’ll describe the trip if anyone wants…..
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Manyakitty:
How sad to hear of your loss and I love the name. We all know that day is coming but we are never ready for it.
RIP Heisenberg kitty…
Ruckus
@raven:
It’s good to stay active. Not so much to push way beyond the limits, which get lower as one gets older. But I’d bet you know that.
Jay
@Alison Rose:
You need a sat-com connection outside of VHF and SSB range. Those are not cheap.
It’s a massive El Nino year, so both currents and winds are not like a normal year.
The south sailing route to Hawaii is not a commercial transit corridor, so making VHF or SSB communications to a passing ship, to relay a message are rare.
In the early 80’s I did the same route in a racing sailboat, with no more comms than a VHF, good for about 16 miles range. We got stuffed about 150nm out. 2 guys got broken legs and the cabin top was sheared. Deck gear was broken, but we stuffed the gaps with bedding and clothes and carried on.
We came in last in the race by 9 days after the 2nd to last boat.
Ruckus
@Scout211:
Sent mine off today. Now I don’t have to remember to send it in or drop it off.
Ruckus
@Leto:
I had a situation once on my motorcycle, had three choices. Run into a fire hydrant, run over a squirrel, or head on into/under a pickup truck. If I had hit the squirrel I would very likely have gone down, and into the fire hydrant. The third choice was not seemingly an option. I tried to split the difference between the squirrel and the fire hydrant. It worked right up until the second it didn’t. Front wheel washed out, bike threw me off, then went down – it had the least damage – none. I got thrown off and hit head on by the truck, driven by my neighbor. Amazingly I walked/rode away. Helmets work! Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. Damn sorry it doesn’t hang on longer. Only damage was I broke my thumb on the truck. The squirrel? He got the best of all, not a thing touched him or hurt him.
VFX Lurker
I received my ballot on Saturday. However, I spent my weekend voting for the Visual Effects Society Awards, and the Los Angeles Times has not yet released all of their endorsements just yet.
You rock.
TBone
I make delectable crab cakes but never once thought to use Old Bay seasoning. Lived close enough to the Chesapeake to always have it in the pantry, but Old Bay goes on the rim of a Bloody Mary with a bit of crusty sea salt, or in the pot for a crab boil in my world. Minced red pepper, celery & onion softened in plenty of butter, lemon juice, dash of red hot sauce, slug of Worcestershire, good mayo, panko, egg.
RIP Heisenberg. 😔
wjca
But one might wish that he had refrained from embarking on this lamebrained stunt. Which left the Coast Guard spending significant resources searching for him. Frankly, they have better things to do. Things which need doing, and which aren’t merely the result of some inconsiderate twit.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Dan B: Can you remember the brand?
Alison Rose
@wjca: It does remind me of a bumper sticker I saw once:
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost
snort
TBone
@Ruckus: glad you lived to tell the tale. I’ve had many, many motorized accidents. Funniest one was a friend driving her new to her old Jeep Cherokee. She hit a patch of black ice and we spun round in front of an oncoming 18 wheeler. Life flashed before my eyes. She is a very large (over 6′ tall and large boned) woman. Our vehicle missed the tractor trailer but went off road, up over an embankment and into a cemetery. We hit & knocked over about 4 or 5 granite grave stones while she threw herself on top of me to “protect” me. My broken tailbone was NOT grateful. At least everyone we hit was already dead!
Jay
@wjca:
So, if you don’t have thousands upon thousands of dollars, you have a start date and location, and an end date estimate, and location. If you miss your end date often SAR get’s called, sailing, hiking, skiing, etc.
If you have thousands of thousands of dollars to spend, you have sat nav, e-charts and sat coms.
Once, sailing back to my berth in Eagle Harbour, a heavy fog had come in, 5 foot visibility, so I heaved to outside the harbour with a reef on my port, and another on my starboard, which I found in the fog by seals and seagulls.
A line up formed behind me, bigger boats, better boats in many ways, but by contacting others on Channel 16, I learned that their radars were useless for entering the harbor.
So I yelled, listed for the echo’s, moved forward a few 100 feet, rinse and repeat. Bit by bit, I made my way in, followed by about a dozen other boats, following my stern lights and mast light. Right in the middle of the entrance is a reef and a marker. We all managed to avoid it, eventually find our berths and tie up.
With sailing, you get there, when you get there.
cain
@Dan B: What was it called?
Steeplejack
@Manyakitty:
Condolences on Heisenberg.
🌈 🐾
BeautifulPlumage
@Manyakitty:
so, so sorry to hear this. My condolences!
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: That rainstorm was in the winter of 1969. I was a freshman at Cal Poly Pomona and ran out of dry socks. There was a lake behind the Commons that shouldn’t have been there; it was nice to look at from indoors and would have been nice to eat at a table on the patio beside the lake if it hadn’t been January and raining like mad. People died in a mudslide in Glendora, their houses just overwhelmed in mud and debris in the middle of the night. Rainbow street? Rainbow something.
Ramalama
@brendancalling:
Good lord.
Manyakitty
@Leto: what a fantastic backstory! Wishing you and Ocean many happy years together.
@Kristine: thank you.
@Barbara: thank you
@Odie Hugh Manatee: thank you. His name truly fit him, too.
@TBone: thank you. He would love being included at the end of such a delicious-looking recipe. He would also demand several tastes.
@Steeplejack: thank you.
@BeautifulPlumage: thank you
lowtechcyclist
@piratedan:
This is why the filibuster needs to go. They can block any legislation, whether to hold it hostage or kill it outright, just because they feel like it.
Sure, that means we can’t stop them from doing bad shit if they get control of the White House and both houses of Congress, but if you don’t ever pass the good shit, what does it matter? At least if you pass it, people who benefit from it will be pissed when it’s taken away. Otherwise, it’s “those politicians never do anything.”
Fuck the filibuster. Kill it.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I agree. I actually think it’ll go the first time either party has a trifecta again. Hopefully us, next year, and not them next year.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Nah, if it’s them, they’ll just carve out narrow exceptions for the few bills they actually want to pass. Just like they did for Supreme Court Justices.
If it’s us, I hope you’re right. Are Mark Warner and Angus King sufficiently frustrated yet by the state of affairs? Who the fuck knows?
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
We might do that too.
Once there’s one exception, there will be more.
lowtechcyclist
Not being an expert in Senate arcana, my understanding of the cloture vote is to bring debate to a close when only a small enough minority want to keep debate going. So I wonder why Schumer can’t do this:
1) Hold cloture vote. Cloture vote fails to get 60 votes, so it fails.
2) Schumer says to Mitch & Co., “OK, debate continues. The floor is yours.”
3) They shrug and start heading for the exits.
4) Schumer says, “Hearing no further debate, debate is closed. I call the vote on the bill.”
5) Bill gets voted on, passes with a simple majority, since it’s only the cloture vote that requires 60.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
You need an affirmative vote to end “debate” and move to a final vote.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Good point.
Maybe Schumer should call cloture votes on this bill three times a day just to see if it gets any media attention.
The Senate really does have an abominable set of rules, and this would be a chance to point out to people who aren’t normally aware of this stuff just how stupid and counterproductive this rule is.
The GOP can ‘filibuster’ this bill, or any other, by simply not showing up. I’d be surprised if even 10% of Americans have any idea about that.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Agreed. It is ridiculous.
NanaR
@Barbara: I had 2 hip replacements at age 65 and 67. My new joints are more flexible than the old ones. Great for my yoga practice and other physical activities. I am 77 years old and do a mean downward facing dog.
Paul in KY
@Leto: Hope things get better for you soon!
Paul in KY
@raven: I’m so sorry the Costa Rica trip got cancelled! Crap on that and your buddy having his problems.
Paul in KY
@Manyakitty: So sorry for your loss! I bet he was a wonderful kitty! Great name too. I’m sure there are some alternate universes where he’s still frolliking.
Paul in KY
@Leto: Glad you & missus have found such a great dog!
Paul in KY
@Alison Rose: If you (of your own free will) take a sailboat out into the Pacific to sail to Hawaii, you are a mariner. Maybe in his case, just not a very good one.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: I imagine there was a distinct puke smell on that trip across the Atlantic! My dad did one of those in WW II. He was going into battle, but was just so so so happy to get off that ship!
TerryC
@Ruckus: “It’s good to stay active. Not so much to push way beyond the limits, which get lower as one gets older. But I’d bet you know that.”
I’m 76 and this is important. Do as much physical activity as you can. Age and illnesses can degrade you in ways you won’t even notice until you overcome them back.
Since August my congestive heart failure has been exacerbated by A-fib. I spent f months huffing and puffing and losing my mental sharpness. Got cardioversion last week and walked 2.5 miles yesterday! But it was hard when in the depths of it to just give in and do nothing.
I am so fortunate to have no mechanical issues requiring cyborg status.
wjca
It doesn’t need a trifecta. It’s an internal Senate rule, so all it takes is a majority of Senators to change it. In short, if all the current Democratic senators agree, it’s gone tomorrow. But since a couple do not….
wjca
Or just go back to requiring them to actually get up and talk.** At least have to be a price to hold up business.
** I’m old enough to remember Strom Thurmond holding up some piece of civil rights legislation by talking for over 24 hours straight. But they waited him out and got the job done.
Manyakitty
@Paul in KY: thank you. I hope so, that dude could frolic with the best of them.
Paul in KY
@TerryC: Glad you are having better times! Very true to stay as active as you can.