Crazy Weather.

I guess winter is finally here. Sideways falling snow. Why it has to start at the end of February, well, only the clouds know.

Of course, that means I'd really rather sit in the easy chair reading a book than go to work. Oh well, huh? Onwards and upwards...

Thought for the day

I don't know what kind of black magic they put in the stuff, but I swear that BG44K fuel cleaner gets the job done.

Oh, and also, I am no longer buying the cheap gas at that particular station.

And I hope the bad gas is all my problem is...

Thought for the evening

Just say "No" to gin and coke. Please.

Wooo!

Got my tax return from the State of Colorado, to the tune of almost $300. Now just waiting for the Feds to get it into gear--my mother is still waiting for hers and turned in her paperwork a couple weeks sooner than I did, so I guess I should get hopeful for a while yet...

Still, $300 would pay for a little lever action .22...

Speaking of Leisure...

I've got none. Going over to help the neighbor (the good one, not the crazy one) to set up what was described to me as a "Grilling Gazebo." Not sure what it is exactly, but this neighbor loves cooking out on his grill, and has a large patio set up with his grill, and a smoker, and all the accoutrements that go along with such things, so I imagine this is some sort of structure to cover the patio.

Then after that I'm hoping to get over to a friends house to work on a gun I have that has a very stuck screw. Bought a new one from Brownell's (10 bucks for a screw and lock washer?!?!?) so assuming we can get it out with some of his fancy tools, I'll be happy.

Also, I have been meaning to make a cold frame so we could get our vegetables started, so maybe I'll get going on that.

Hooray!

Taxes filed, and supposedly my refunds will be back to me "within 7 days." That's a good feeling to have off my back, but it will be an even better one when I get my interest-free loan back from the government...

Ah, screw it.

Boss is out, having to babysit some of his grandchildren.  I've been plugging along here productively, fixing contours on a map and listening to some gun podcasts, but I have suddenly come down with the desire to be doing anything else, somewhere else.

Time to blow this pop stand--bluesun, out!

Location, Location, Location...

[Apologies to anyone who notices, but this post was apparently hijacked by the internet gnomes. It is my sincerest hope that you, the reader, is not unduly inconvenienced by these happenings. The person charged with guarding my blog against said gnomes has been... replaced. As an effort to keep you, the reader, happy, your check for the 100% money back guarantee is in the mail.]

So I'm currently working on a project turning an old gravel pit on the river into a breeding ground for some stupid endangered fish.  Besides the fact that this fish is so dumb that it can't survive unless enviroweenies spend lots of money on it, and that it doesn't fill any particular niche in the environment that other species can't cheerfully and willingly fill, this project bugs me (and my boss) because basically letting the river flow into a shallow and wide pit will just cause the pit to fill up with sediment in a season or two.  But the customer is always right, and more importantly pays with shiny money.  But all of that is beside the point.  While I was looking around the area I came across this house, on the other side of the river from where our gravel pit is: 

Now how do you like that? Built on another old gravel pit, right next to the river, so lots of water, with your own lake... a field that you could grow your food on, if you look close you can see that the big shop has solar panels, and only accessible over that nice narrow spit of driveway.  I immediately thought: Zombie Survivalist Outpost.  Oh yeah. According to my boss, there's a DuPont house around there somewhere, I wouldn't doubt it if this is the one.  It's got some of that type of flair.

So, I wonder how you make friends with a really rich person who lives on an isolated spit of land out on the river...

Life

My grandpa, who hasn't been to town for maybe nine years (he lives out in the boondocks an hour away in [very small agricultural town]), is coming down today to get a small skin cancer removed at St. [Big Town] Hospital.  I guess spending half your life on a tractor and the other half on the country mail route will get you that.  Hopefully it all goes well and he gets to see how much town has changed since the last time he visited.

WARNING. WARNING.

Weather Conditions: Alternating Wet and Icy
Traffic Conditions: Pickup Pinball
Faith in Humanity: Previously Unheard of Lows at Level -11 (i.e. one more than -10)

And yet, when I pulled off the interstate to the red light, I came in right behind the people who had passed me. Going 85mph only gets you something if you are going cross country, in all other cases your lead will be negated at the first signs of real traffic (or when you peel off sideways into a guardrail).

I said it once, and I'll say it again

Just ordered a pizza, sitting in the living room, over the internet, from my phone.

I wish we had a moon base and star drives, but I guess this future thing is still pretty cool sometimes.

New Boots

I've been needing some new hiking boots, as my old ones are 6 years old, have started leaking, and shrank the last time I wore them on a big hike because they got submerged in a stream when I slipped off a wet log (fun times). Went into REI yesterday, and they would have gotten my hard-earned cash except no one there seemed particularly enthused with selling me anything, so I wasn't enthused to buy. Funny how that works. Anyway, this morning I went down town to the little old shoe store that's been in business since 1910 or something, was greeted by a cheerful sales lady who made me try on all sorts and sizes till I settled on some Merrel Chameleon mid-height boots.  Amazing what a helpful staff will accomplish over an apathetic one.

All leather upper, nice sticky Vibram soles (hopefully to prevent the falling off a log incident from repeating), and a solid, stiff construction.  Very comfortable, especially as I also bought some green superfeet insoles to go with them (I have narrow feet with high arches--the superfeet keep me from wallowing around in my shoes, and will hopefully keep me from following in my mother's footsteps (heh) of large, bothersome foot surgeries).

Looking forward to getting out on some more hikes, now!

Death by Restraining Order

My boss is off to his cousin-in-law's funeral today; a very sad situation.  Seems this lady was in a bad relationship, bad enough that the guy was arrested back in January.  So what did the Sheriff do?

Let him out on $1,000 bond, put an ankle monitor and a restraining order on him, and sent him on his merry way.

He disabled the ankle monitor (the second time that has happened in the past year, I might add) went back up to where the lady was living (way up in the mountains, where even if the monitor worked, the cops would have been an hour away) and took a shotgun (don't even get me started on where he got a shotgun) to her and himself in a classic murder-suicide.

I'm sorry, but I can't see any way to get around it.  She was killed by the ineffective "justice" system.  Why anyone would have thought any other outcome was likely when they let him out, I don't know.

As Weer'd always says: "Carry your guns people."  You never know when an ex with a grudge might get let out of prison...

Seen on the side of the interstate

A small "well used" civic hatchback with the words "Just Divorced!" painted brightly across the back window, dead on the side of the highway.

Somehow I doubt the owner of that particular vehicle was having the best of days...

Fun while it lasted

Well, my Uncle's girlfriend had to come back from Belize a week earlier than him because of a little thing called "work" so she came by yesterday to pick up his dog. In honor of the occasion, here's a picture of the Corgi fitting in nicely with the general decor of our house here, more specifically, my mother's sewing room:

'Twas fun while it lasted, but it is going to be so nice to not have drifts of hair flying around anymore. That's the nice thing about our Schnauzers.

Boy oh boy...

I sure hope [insert team name here] wins!

No but really, just using the game as an excuse to go over to my buddy's house and play minecraft while eating barbecue ribs and tons of guacamole...

Dogs

There's our little annoying dog (taking a break from trying to pull off my socks) and my Uncle's Ridiculous Corgi (who was supervising him taking off my socks) I mentioned the other day.

Dogblogging!

Strange and wonderful*

It's very odd how you can rip all the skin off a knuckle and it doesn't start hurting till two days later, no?

*I say that because just thinking of the healing process is just so amazing it makes me freak out a little bit (kinda like looking at the stars, or the Hubble Deep Field photograph), and feeling the pain again means things are moving right along in there.

Sigh, and sigh again.

So came out of work yesterday to be greeted by a very flat tire:

So, got the spare on, went by the tire store to hear the professional opinion... it was too far gone to save, the sidewall had torn. I'd known that the tires on the truck were going to be needing replacement soon, the tread was getting down there, so I just had her give me a quote.

$826.24 later (over a hundred dollars of which was taxes and fees, thanks fed.gov!), I got to walk out the door of the tire place with brand spankin' new rubber.  Yokohama Geolandar ATS--reading reviews you get a nice even spread of people praising and complaining about the very same things (They wear great! They wear worst of everything! Great traction in wet conditions! Worse than slicks in wet conditions!).  Averaging things out, I figure they're decent all around tires.  I will say that they ride noticeably smoother than the old tires.

So yeah, spent the equivalent of a nice new entry level AR-15 yesterday on molded rubber.  How was your day?

Sigh (no yay this time)

Decided to call the humane society about the little missing cat, just to see if anyone had dropped one off... though I'm not sure that they bother with cats anyway. And of course the office is closed on Tuesdays. So far things aren't looking promising...slightly depressing.