Well…as I was reading about breathless reporting that the war in Ukraine has entered a new phase with the Russians “digging in” and making semi permanent placements of their tanks and artillery and this is a bad thing for the Ukrainian army…but, in my non military head, my take on it is a little different…sitting in a semi permanent location that can be found by any one of a number of drones and tells the Ukrainians where the Russians are seems to be a little bit on the stupid side…there are even videos already showing the tanks digging in so what is to keep the Ukrainians from shelling these emplacements with artillery or bombing them with drones or aircraft? After all, these aren’t hardened reinforced concrete structures designed to withstand bombs but they are just holes that they are parking the tanks in…and to keep them useful the turrets need to be exposed so they can aim their guns and the tops of the turrets have some of the thinnest armor on the tank, making them perfect targets for a hellfire missile or even a bomb toting drone…so, what is the thinking here? I sure as hell wouldn’t park my tanks where they couldn’t be used and could be attacked at will…and it would only take about 3 artillery shells to zero them in and kill the tanks…I wonder if they are digging in because they don’t have the fuel to drive the tanks anymore? Whatever the reason, this appears to be just another in a long line of blunders by the supposed “super” Russian army who have been fought to a standstill by the motivated Ukrainians….cripes, I would love to have my enemy just sit there while I attacked…I guess they can fill the holes with burned out tanks…geez…
A real “life” one…
Well…yeah, on the first one today, I got somewhat off track and fell back into talking about work on the house and that’s not what the first one of the day is for…so, let’s go back to what ‘life” posts are supposed to be about….it is nice that it has been raining out here for almost a whole day now but I’m not sure if it’s going to be warm enough to make the lawn green up this soon…there was still ice under the sod that I had to replace in the front of the house and I may have been mistaken about who tore it up in the first place…I thought it was the guys who dug up the road but now I think it was the person who plowed the snow at the vacant house next door since the yard along their driveway is just as torn up as my terrace…but it went back together okay so I can live with it…not sure what I did to injure my right tricep but it has hurt like crazy the past couple of days…I wonder if it was getting on the outdoor bike? I did get a good ride in this morning and did the 8 miles in a little over a half hour and that is getting toward the record…no, I haven’t kept track of that but it wouldn’t be unusual if I did….I did get laundry started and it sounds like it just finished so I need to go down and put it in the dryer…feel pretty good this morning and I do have to remember to get a couple of cups of coffee in me before I get on the bike…only had half a cup is not enough fuel to get these old legs working….more later….
March 19th
Well…it looks like the power went out at 12:36 last night for a time since my stove was blinking that time at me when I got up…and the coffee maker and microwave were blank so I had to reset the time on everything…at least I didn’t notice it and the house was warm when I woke up at 2:14 so it must have been a short outage….slept okay and feel okay today but I am a little irritated that just using the wire brush on the register yesterday has left my right shoulder sore as heck and I am going to abuse it even more with some sanding on the bathroom trim today…and I probably should get take down the blinds in there to get started on the window after I do the trim…and that is going to take a week or so with how bad shape that one is in…I did get the register removed from the big bedroom yesterday to get ready to start working on it…this one was rusted into place and I had to pry the grate out since the latches wouldn’t turn and it really did look like they just poured paint over it instead of brushing it…this bedroom is probably the second worse room after the kitchen and it is going to take a bunch of work…hmmmm…this one has devovled into a house one and I don’t want that…I did get out for an errand yesterday but will be staying in today and just fooling around some…after I get on the bike….and I may do laundry today, too, since I am running out of clothes to wear and haven’t done any this week…not much to do today…there are lots of races on today with the Sebring 12 hours and lots of nascar, F1, along with some soccer so I sure won’t be bored and I may even be tempted to skip the trim work in the bathroom…but, I won’t…the sanding will only take about a half hour or so and I just love abusing the heck out of myself….more later….
Got everything done….
Well…had lots of stuff to do today and got everything done so I feel okay about that…even got the heat gun from HF this morning and used it to strip the paint off one register as soon as I got back here with it…took a long time but this register had at least 5 coats of paint on it and maybe more…and even holding the heat gun on one spot for minutes didn’t really get the paint to bubble much but it softened it enough use the wire brush to break it up…it looked like the paint was acting as insulation it was so thick…over an eighth of an inch thick in spots and I almost used up a wire brush doing one register..but, I had gotten quotes of 25 bucks each to strip or sand blast them so I guess I’m still saving cash…and I did find save a lot and got 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters for 3.90 so I’ll have food for weeks and weeks…and I was looked on as a freak with masking up again today but I don’t give a damn…they will look different when they are getting sick from omicron2 and I’m not….needless to say, with all of the register work, I didn’t get on the trim in the bathroom but I will work on that tomorrow…I’m done for the day….
The NYT goes off the rails…again…
Well..in what is becoming a sickening occurrence, the New York Times has gone off the rails again today with the worst sort of bothsiderism that I have ever seen…and a complete, stupid misinterpretation of the first amendment. As the right wing continues to whine that people are pushing back on their lies and conspiracy theories and won’t listen to them spew that nonsense, the Times is on it, first with a right wing college student who was given the editorial page to whine that no one listens to her spout her bullshit and calls it “cancelling” her rights under the first amendment, and today, the editorial page stays on that theme saying that the biggest danger to our first amendment rights is the left not listening and calling bullshit on these right wing assholes. Now, I’ve read the first amendment, and there is not one damn thing in there that says you have a constitutional right to be listened to as you lie your ass off and spout racist, misogynist bullshit…remember folks, the first amendment only applies to the government regulating speech…if I don’t want to hear someone spouting that the idiot trump was the bestest president in the history of the universe, I don’t have to give you a forum to continue to say it…or an ear to listen to it and the snowflakes on the right wing just don’t understand why no one wants to hear their crap other than other trump cult members….and it IS my right to call a right wing racist asshole a right wing racist asshole and dismiss them without letting them pollute my ears with their bullshit…back when I was young, none of the crap the repubs are pushing daily was accepted and the party policed that nonsense…could you imagine anyone taking Khrushev’s side 50 years ago? Or being on Russian tv on a loop to support a war that the rest of the world is against? This is just another incidence where the right wing editors of the NYT are doing everything in their power to normalize how far to the fascist side the repubs have gone over the past 30 years….we all need to call them out and make sure there is a price to pay for all of the lies the repubs continue to spout…and that is not protected by the first amendment…geez…
March 18th
Well…that was crappy…tossed and turned so much last night that I was tangled in my sheets like a damn straightjacket when I woke up for the first time at 3:44…I did get back to sleep for a couple of hours but it wasn’t very good sleep so I am feeling it today…and I have been wondering if doing doubles on the bike for three days in a row earns me a day off today? Yeah, didn’t think so and that means I need to get my butt in gear to be able to get the indoor ride in before 8 when F1 practice comes on…and after that I need to run a couple of errands this morning to see if I can get some 39cents a pound chicken and then over to HF for painting supplies….and this will be a new part of Muskegon I haven’t been to yet and add to the map that is building in my head about the area….it took me 60 odd years to do that for GR and I don’t have that much time out here…didn’t work on the inside of the house at all yesterday but will get to more sanding on the trim in the bathroom today and that will get me to painting in there next week….I sure hope we get the rain that is forecast out here today and tomorrow…the whole place needs a good wash to get the crap from winter cleaned up and start getting the lawn to green up….not much to do today…have 13 minutes to get on the bike and get started but that is harder than I expected and I do have to cook today since all of the leftovers are gone….but we’ll see how that goes as I ease into the day….more later…
Never really thought about heritage much…
Well…on this St. Patrick’s day, I’ve been ruminating on heritage a bit and what it means to me….I’ve really never thought about it much throughout my life other than to make a little sense of why the heck I’m the whitest person I know…even bordering on transparent and that really does mean northern European…and there is French and Irish that are predominately the two nationalities that come from my grandparents on both sides…my father’s parents were from France (and his father still had a bit of an accent although I can’t be sure of that since I only met him like three times in my life) and I remember my mother’s parent’s explaining why there were Irish people who wore orange instead of green…protestant versus catholic…so I’ve simplified my heritage down to those two to just make it easier…like everyone else from Europe, if you go back far enough you’ll find German, Dutch and others included in the main nationalities and that is how it is with us…but I like French and Irish…and when I was young, my beard grew in red so there has to be some Irish in there somewhere…I am looking forward to seeing Ireland in 2023 when my daughter is taking me to the UK and we’ll get to spend a few days in Ireland…not that there is any longing for me to discover Ireland in my blood but I’ve always liked the Irish people and loved what that Island looks like…so, Happy St. Patrick’s day! Hope you all have a good one…think I may have one drink to celebrate….
More companies to boycott over support for Putin…
Well…even with most US companies pulling out of Russia in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and his committing of war crimes there, there are still a few companies that have always supported Putin or his predecessor Stalin or even Hitler in WWII and are staying there…and you can guess at least one of them would be Koch industries whose war profiteering in Germany in support of Hitler gave us the Koch brothers who have done more to damage this country than just about anyone else…but guess what Ada, Michigan based company is on the same list as the Kochs? Yep the ultra right wing DeVos and VanAndel’s company Amway has stated they are staying in Russia…and, are you surprised? You shouldn’t be if you watched the damage the DeVos’s did to public education here in Michigan and across the country as Eric Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos tried her best to ensure that we couldn’t compete with the world in our children’s education all the while trying to make our whole system a for profit one that her rich cronies could milk dry before they moved on to steal somewhere else. These are not the only companies who have decided to stay in Russia to support Putin’s murdering and war crimes…how about Nestle? Yep, they’re staying along with all of the brands they own…like Gerber baby food, Purina cat foods along with Friskie…you get the picture…please take a look at these companies and boycott them from this point forward…buying from them supports children being murdered in Ukraine…it’s that clear…geez…
No work two days in a row…
Well….okay, that one is not really true…I didn’t work on the inside of the house today but I did work on the lawn and picked up branches and trash all over my lot…and I did get the sod that was torn up on the terrace out front replaced and smoothed out and some more of the dirt and concrete raked off it so when it rains tomorrow, it should wash the rest of it down into the soil and give me a better looking front of the house…there was still ice under the sod that was torn out so I couldn’t get it to lay flat but that should happen with the rain tomorrow….and I did get out for an outdoor ride on the bike that was fun with the bike working so well after sitting all winter…still haven’t started to sprint at all out there since my legs and lungs are not ready for it yet even with riding over 500 miles downstairs….I do have to remember that mileage since I am in training mode outside and I don’t have to be…I normally take about 300 miles to be ready to go hard but I have already done that downstairs….and my butt is already 300 miles hard and doesn’t hurt at all…but no ride tomorrow with the rain that is forecast to come in about 7am and last all day and into Saturday….but I will get on the indoor bike for my miles…and then back on the work in the bathroom so I can get painting the trim in there…hope I have enough paint…might have to get a gallon tomorrow…
What the hell is he thinking?
Well…cripes, normally when you are in a hole, you stop digging to get out of it but not with the moron Putin…just yesterday he gave a “speech” that basically attacked everyone in Russia that aren’t him and threatened to close the borders in a return to the bad old days of Stalin and basically make everyone in the country a prisoner who would not be able to leave…so, guess what the response was? everyone who could get out of the country did…and a striking thing was the 300+ private jets that made a run for it, heading to Dubai and other middle eastern countries and I would guess full of family and friends of the owners of the jets….and these weren’t the only people getting the hell out of dodge…since the invasions and war crimes started, everyone who could afford to get out have gone…and the Russian airlines have had to double and triple their flights out of Russia to meet the demand…and so far, almost 400,000 Russians have voted with their feet and everyone is scrambling to get out…and, in a real example of the crazy that is left in Putin’s government, one of his crazy assed “ministers” said the other day that Russia is “owed” all of the territory it has ever given up and the war will continue until it is returned to them…and that includes Alaska and other parts of the Northwestern US….so now we see where this is all going…Putin is going to continue to spiral down into madness until there is nothing left in Russia except a hollowed out husk that will never be a player on the world stage again…how’s that working out for you puutie boy? what a moron…geez…