Sometimes Miracles Do Happen

I wrote way back in May about modifying the dogs' chair so that Dusty could get in it on her own - HERE.  As I said then, my best efforts were in vain - the ornery mutt refused to try it.

I've waited a few days, didn't want to jinx it, but Dusty has been using the foot-rest ramp now for almost a week.  If we're in the room, she still wants us to pick her up, but if we ignore her, she will get in the chair without assistance. 

It only took her four months. 

Think she might be a little stubborn and/or spoiled?

What If ?

Saw several posts and memes this morning from left-leaning friends indicating that Judge Kavanaugh's righteous indignation at yesterday's senate hearing was a clear indication that he is emotionally unfit to serve.

I'm not sure they really believe that - think it's more likely they were just firing the last shots in a dwindling arsenal.  

But, for any that do, consider this scenario:

You have spent your entire adult life in public service, and have been vetted and approved for increasingly important posts a half dozen times in the past 20 years. 

Now at the very end of a series of hearings about your dream job, someone comes forward and says that you were the "town pump" back in the 60s, the girl that would "pull the train" in the back seat of an old Chevy at the Saturday night dances at the American Legion Hall.

There may have been some girl who fit that description, but you KNOW it wasn't you!

What, if anything, can you do?

What. if anything, can you say?

Do you think, under those circumstances, that you might get irate?

Best Laid Plans

Got the 5th wheel washed, and planned to take it Tuesday to get it inspected so I could renew the license plate in October, then drop it at Terry's RV for  (what I hope is) some minor repairs.
I had it all ready to hook up when I called Terry and he said he was so busy that he didn't even have anyplace to park it while waiting.
Oh well, at least it's clean.

Just keeps getting bigger

I am just over two days into washing our 5th wheel.  Not entire days - but several hours at a time on several days.
It seems like the older I get, the bigger the trailer -and the wash job - becomes, but I hope to finish up later today.

Who's on First

I suppose this is partially about the current Supreme Court hearings, but it is really about the state of society in our country.  

I read a very well thought out article by a woman who contends that actions such as Judge Kavanaugh is accused of were the norm, rather than the exception, when they were in their teens.  She believed that made it likely that the charges were true.

Based on the timing and circumstances, I'm more likely to doubt them, but she did have a point about what was acceptable behavior at the time.

I have no idea what constitutes acceptable interaction between the sexes in the 21st century.  From what I see in the news, any action not initiated by the female amounts to sexual harassment.

Up until the end of the 20th century, young women were given the task of being the guardians of their own virtue, and it was their suitor's job to push the envelope.  

There were even widely used, and universally understood analogies to baseball.  If a fellow got to "first base" it was incumbent upon him to try for second. Once he initiated an action with which his date was not comfortable, it was up to her to let him know.  At that point any honorable young man would back off.

Did that make him a sexual predator?  

I don't think so, but there are those who say it does.   Under their definition, there is probably not a single heterosexual male over thirty who is not guilty of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Selfie

Batteries

A week or so ago, I got a check engine light on our truck.  The auto parts store's reader recorded a code, but when they plugged it into their computer, the code was not in their system.  I reset the code by disconnecting both batteries (a Cummins diesel has two 12 volt batteries) and everything was OK until this morning, when the truck batteries didn't have enough umph to start the truck.
I managed to charge them enough to start and took it to NTB where I purchased the batteries in 2013.
The good news is that now everything is back to normal.  The bad news is that two batteries that cost me $200 five years ago cost $396 to replace today.

Hovering Hummer

We saw something really unusual the other day.  
One of our resident hummingbirds was hovering in the same spot, about six feet off the ground, for several minutes. He would dodge left, then right, go up a foot, then down two, but he continued to maintain the same basic position.
The sun came out from behind a cloud, and we could see that he was in the middle of a swarm of gnats,  and he was having lunch, snacking on the little buggers.

Los Indios

Back in the 60's, when I was a DJ at KQUE-fm in Houston, one of the most often requested groups was Los Indios Tabajaras.  

The story was that they were two brothers from Brazil who were self-taught musicians, learning to play on a guitar they found in the Amazon jungle.  I don't know if anyone actually believed that, but they did support themselves wearing native garb and playing in bars in Rio until they were "discovered" and became international stars.

Their biggest hit was Maria Elena, but my personal favorite was 

Pajaro Campana, which translates literally as Bird Bell.

Mr. Jim

The old Boggy Thicket is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere.  We're on what is essentially a cul de sac with only one way in or out, five miles from the closest gas pump or convenience store - but we do have an ice cream truck!
For as long as I can remember, that ice cream truck has come by our house, and I can't understand why.  The sales per mile have to be low enough to make it a losing proposition, but "Mr. Jim" continued to make the rounds until his old van was literally on its last legs.
A group of Huffman residents raised enough money to buy him another truck, and presented it to him this week - NEW TRUCK.

Serena

If you didn't see it live, I'm sure you saw it later.  

There was no way to avoid the coverage of Serena Williams' hissy fit at the US Open.

Australian cartoonist Mark Knight captured the moment perfectly, and immediately became the target of a barrage of charges of Racism.  Everyone and his uncle - from J. K. Rowling to Jemele Hill to folks you've likely never heard of and may never again - seems to be in a sprint to pile on.

Racism is easily charged and, once charged, it is  impossible to prove your innocence. But was the cartoon racist - the guy who drew it says it was not.

Since it is a cartoon, her depiction is by definition a caricature, but it is accurate.  Nobody who hasn't spent the last ten years living under a rock could fail to recognize her.  

And the actions it represents are only slightly exaggerated - Williams' meltdown reflected poorly on her and were an embarrassment to professional tennis in general. 

When John McEnroe acted this way back in the eighties, everyone just called him a jerk . Back then, nobody claimed that calling a jerk a jerk was racist.

9/11

My post from 9/11/11

Remembering Nine-Eleven

Like just about everyone else this morning, I’m remembering the events of ten years ago today.

I was a technical trainer for IKON in Houston, and on the way into work that morning I heard on the radio that what they first said was a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. 

We had a large TV in my classroom to show images from my laptop to the students, and we quickly jury-rigged an antenna.  Reception in the building was poor (especially with our coat-hanger rabbit ears) but one local station came in well.  We got the system up and running in time to see the second plane crash into the second tower.

My manager came in to tell me to turn it down – he said that the noise was bothering people out in the general office area - but when he saw what was happening, he quietly sat down to watch. 

I didn’t do any teaching that day, but we all learned lessons we can never forget.

Hook Em

I don't have a dog in this fight, but this was too good not to share.  An Aggie couple got the shock of their lives when they saw the ultrasound of their son!
You can see the whole story HERE.

Rough Cuff

Last spring, while Honey was having her cataract surgery, I took a spill in the surgical center parking lot.  

I didn't think much about it at the time, but it soon became obvious that I had done some damage to the rotator cuff of my right shoulder. Nothing too serious - I still have full range of motion, and can do pretty much anything I could do before I fell.  If I swing my arm in a windmill motion I do hear (and feel) cracks and pops and grinding noises, but usually, it doesn't bother me.

I have learned that repetitive back-and-forth motions - like vacuuming or using the weed eater - will cause it to flare up, but it's nothing a couple of ibuprofen won't handle. 

Surprisingly, it seems that the worst thing I can do is sit here at the computer. An hour or so of moving the mouse around causes my shoulder to ache worse than an hour doing something that is actually productive.

Isn't Easy Being Green

Near Miss

Sometime during the heavy rains yesterday, a large dead limb fell from a big oak tree, just missing the statuary that we recently added to the yard.  It literally missed the little boy and his dog by less than an inch.

September 3rd

It has been raining hard, off and on, all morning, and most of Southeast Texas is under a flood watch.
Yes, we  now have standing water at some low spots in the yard, and it brought to mind my post from one year ago today:

boggy thicket

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Yard of the Month

We haven't hauled anything out to the street. The carpet we pulled out is in rolls in the garage. 
The flood insurance adjuster is supposed to come today, so our yard might still look something like this before it's all over.

 

Thanks Windows 10

We have an old Brother printer - actually a multifunction printer/copier/fax/scanner.  We have it connected to Honey's laptop via a USB cable, and I print to it over WIFI, using her computer as a print server. It has worked very well...until yesterday.

Yesterday, I couldn't print to it at all.  I tried every trick I could think of including blowing it away and reinstalling.  I was able to print a test page - once - but when I tried to print normally, I got a message that my User Name and/or Password were incorrect.  

It had never required a password before, something changed with the last Windows 10 update,  and it took me all day yesterday and most of this morning to find a place to tell it that it didn't need one now.

If you should ever have this problem, go to  Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings.  Then scroll down to All networks  and click to expand.  At the bottom of the page you will find

password protected sharing.  Click the button to turn it off, and you're back in business.

September

It's September, and just in time for the new school year, our school district has posted the signs seen above.
Local TV stations tried to label the signs as Controversial, but here in our small conservative corner of Harris County, they are not controversial at all.