From 2020 To 2021

 

As Much As I Hate...

 ...The City, it does have certain perks that I can sometimes appreciate.  Like sidewalks.  So I can safely walk the pup at night without having to periodically jump into the bushes to avoid vehicles.  And, this time of year, lots of beautiful Christmas lights to see as we walk.

Merry Christmas!

 

The cats say Merry Christmas, too, but they don't do "sit", "stay"...

It's Here

 And it's definately a snow maker.  So far, no wind, though, and wind was what I was most worried about.

Copper is not at all sure what to think of it.  This is his first real snow.  He stares at it and gives littles "oof"s as if he's not sure that it deserves a full bark.

Noooooooo....!

 I hate Winter.  Really I do.  I want to move south.

So What, In Reality, Do We Do?

For months now people all over social media have talked about being ready to go to war.  That we are already in a sort of Civil War and they can't wait for the shooting to start.  And I'm sure we've all felt that way.  We are definitely angry.

But everybody's idea of civil war is colored by our own Civil War.  

It's not the same situation now.  That war was a war of regions.  This conflict isn't.  Sure, there are some states more conservative than others.  But part of Pennsylvania is more conservative than other parts.  Part of Maryland is more conservative than other parts.  Major cities of Texas are liberal, but not the entire state. The eastern parts of California, Oregon, and Washington are more conservative than the coasts.  This isn't a situation where a state legislature is going to vote to leave the Union and take its state troops with them.  It might be brother against brother, but it's not South Carolina against Massachusetts.

And let's say groups do gather with intent to fight.  Fight who?  The police?  Have you seen how they are armed when they get serious?  The National Guard?  They may only train on weekends and they probably don't have the same level of equipment regular troops have, but they have more than most regular citizens are going to have.  And then there's the regular troops.  While we would like to think that all police and all military would be on the same page in indignation and a desire to restore liberty to this country, they won't be.  A fair proportion will follow orders.  And, yes, a rag tag, under-armed bunch of farmers beat the best military on earth a couple hundred years ago but that was a little before combat planes and tanks.  And the military, when ordered, has attacked American citizens in the past.  MacArthur and Patton may be legendary, but they cleared the Bonus Army out when told to do so.  And Billy Mitchell may have only used his planes for recon during the 1921 mining protests and battles in West Virginia but the U.S. military did not interfere when the privately hired planes bombed miners.

We love the Minuteman image.  But it's a very different world now.

So what, in reality, do we do?

Broken Foot, Broken Brain

 And things that make you go "Hmmmm..."

Devout Catholic Joe Biden (insert hysterical laughter here) says "Palmist" rather than "Psalmist".  Twice.  Not withstanding that every day at every Mass in English someone walks up, faces the congregation, and says "A reading from the Book of Psalms."  Pronounced "Salms."  It's one of the call and response parts of the Mass.  We are real clear on Psalms. And its pronunciation.

And then Biden is whisked off to a doctor.  Ostensibly for an ankle injury.

Color me wondering.

Why I Can't Have A Dog...

 ...and live in an apartment...

And Copper's reaction was the same as mine.  Which calls into question whether he actually pees when I let him out for the last time at night at home when it's raining.  If he doesn't  he has a better bladder than mine.

An Update

 To this post.

First, a big thank you to the folks that have donated to us.  A major part of that money allows us to spay and neuter and make a little dent in the endless reproduction cycles of cat colonies.  It also allows us to get treatment for the sick and injured that have a chance at being adopted.  We get discounts from various local clinics, but since we bring them several at a time, it's still expensive.

This is what 19 cats leaving this morning for a spay/neuter clinic looks like:

All 19 came from the same site over 2 days of trapping.  Eight kittens came out of the same site during those 2 days as well.  It was too dim in the hallway where the kittens were, so no cute pictures of them yet.

But there's also the main room in our "annex", where 8 kittens previously trapped currently reside.

And our main building, which has a fluctuating number of cats/kittens as we get adoptions or new cats come in from the annex.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to save Buttercup.  Despite $1000 in vet treatment she had so many things wrong and had been starved so long that her poor body was done.  By the second day she had developed a thousand yard stare that pretty much indicated that she was losing ground.  I sort of wonder if in some way our bringing her in and giving her comfort and warmth hastened her death in that she could finally relax and just let go.  

However, a lot of info had by that time had been collected on her "owner", including statements that the cat was "Just old" that she posted to the Facebook discussion about her.  She took down the post when she realized that people were angry about the condition of the cat, but she neglected to take down photos of Buttercup (whom she called Katie) from her own site from before she got tired of her and put her out.  We kept the vet records and statements from the vets about her long term starvation/emaciation and the variety of ailments she suffered from, most of them things that are easily treated if treatment is done early.   We kept the body - yep, it's in a freezer.  And I put together a several page document with all the vet info and statements and numerous photos of her appalling condition, which Animal Control now has.  The officer in charge of the case went to the house on Nov. 4 but nobody was home so she left a "please call" tag.  The "owner" has not called and the officer plans to go back.

It may be a pipe dream, but if we've presented enough evidence for Animal Control to give her a citation, we are hoping that we can sue in small claims court to recover the vet fees.  If not, well, at least she'll be put on notice and her other animals will be inspected.  This is not a question of someone not having enough money to care for Buttercup.  This is her home:

And this is Buttercup when she was still being cared for:

To end her life like this:

Fortunately I have enough self control not to go over to the woman's house and "discuss" it with her myself.  

Need More THIS

 

I'm Shouting Obscenities At The Car Radio

 So...kittens...

And cats...

And silly doggies...

Thank You

 

So, I'm Thinking Of Getting Myself Thrown Off The Community Website...

People have largely been quiet about the election on the community Facebook site, probably because most people on the site don't want political squabbles - they want to know what plumber or roofer to use or who to call about a stray dog.  But there's one person wandering around posting about how marvelous "Vice President" Kamala Harris is.  Including injecting such a post in a thread about the location of the county dump.  I couldn't resist.  I made a comment about the post being appropriate to a thread about trash.  And that the only reason she got anywhere was Willy Brown's willy.

I'm thinking that if someone pings me about it I'll reply that she's nothing but a 2 bit communist ho with a will to power.  

Think that will do it?

This Has Got To Be Hard...

 ...on all the antifa/blm types who positioned themselves to riot Tuesday night.  I mean their choice is riot just for grins and giggles, wait, or go home to a bed and Mom's pot roast...Gotta be hard.

Indian Summer

 

 

A hike, Motown, excellent craft beer, and a great Reuben.   

Best Campaign Ad EVEH!

 

h/t Scared Monkeys

Just Wondering

Creepy Uncle Joe and his buddies have flat out said that they support putting the petroleum industry out of business.  I guess he's dreaming of all those electric cars that charging stations are popping up for.

Leave aside the whole where-does-the-electricity-to-power-them-come-from question.  As of 2016, 50% of the volume of a car was made up of plastics.  Plastics are a by-product of petroleum.  Soooo...

I Don't Often Beg...

 ...and I know I don't have many followers.  But I thought I'd put this out there in hope.

I volunteer for a group called Mountain Cats TNR.  The TNR in theory stands for "Trap, Neuter, and Return" and refers to feral cats.  Trouble is, the stray cat world isn't just composed of ferals - wild cats that will form colonies that neutering/spaying can stabilize - but is full of dumped, abandoned, and neglected cats, as well as an abundance of kittens.  And we try to care for those and find them homes.  It's all volunteers running on donations and trading off chores - trapping, scooping cat pans, feeding, watering, medicating, making vet runs, and giving love to a variety of felines as they come in, recover, then go to a forever home.  We aren't supposed to be a rescue.  But we are.

Today Mountain Cats took in a cat that is in the worst condition I've ever seen an animal outside of the horrifying videos you find on YouTube.  She's been to the vet and we're waiting on test results.  I'm surprised the vet didn't immediately say to put her to sleep, but maybe that's a ray of hope.  

That's not actually brown around her mouth - it's bright red blood.  She is nothing but skin stretched over a frail skeleton.  I'll be surprised if she lasts through tonight.  I'm trying to comfort myself with the thought that tonight at least for the first time in God knows how long she's safe, with all the food and water she needs if she can get it down, and with a soft bed to lay on.  Even if it's just to die on. As weak as she is, she is very affectionate.  She's breaking my heart.

Anyway, despite discounts, vet bills cost money.  Sometimes lots of money - I think Mountain Cats has spayed/neutered something like 400 cats over the last few years.  And that's just the spay/neuter side.  There's vaccinations, respiratory illnesses, eye infections, ear infections, worms, wounds, fleas, FIV, and this year's particular plague, panleuk, which has killed kitten after kitten despite weeks of fighting for them.  And if this little girl survives she's going to be hellaciously expensive before she leaves.

And then there's the everyday costs of litter and food.  

So if you have a few bucks you aren't doing anything with, could you throw it at Mountain Cats?  Our furrbabies would appreciate it.

Best Comment...

 ...I've heard has been "You could shove Hirono's brain up a flea's butt and it would bounce around its gut like a BB bouncing around in a freight car."

Much Better Today

 And these pics I WILL post.

It's not a formal range - just a rough berm in the WMA that is legal to use until hunting season gets serious.  It's a half mile walk in.  Hanging the targets on a clothes line rather than having them on a stand adds a bit of a challenge when the breeze kicks up.  Don't laugh at the cluster in the lower left of the one target - I was trying for the orange dot while the breeze was blowing.  I finally taped a can to the bottom of each target to give it a little weight and steadiness. 

And frabjous day, caloo, calay - just when I was seriously thinking of getting rid of the Kahr because of jamming issues I did some digging online.  Turns out that it's a long known issue with the CW's 7 round magazines.  AND instead of racking the slide to load the first round,  you are supposed to insert the magazine with the gun locked open.  Then disengage the lock and let it chamber the first round.  AND if you load a mag completely, the first round will want to tilt nose down and jam, so just load 6.  There was a whole explanation of what was going on in the guts of the gun that caused the issues, but the important thing is that I took that knowledge back to the range today and had only one jamb, and that was a flaw in the cartridge that I hadn't noticed.  Seems odd that Kahr hasn't fixed the issue and appears to have to intention of doing so.

Next time a rifle or two is going back.

Now to deal with the reload issue.  Brass I have coming out of my ears, primers are available. But bullets are as scarce as hen's teeth.  It's not going to do any good to start shooting if I'm going to get pinched on practice ammo.

Went Shooting Today

And oh hell no I'm not posting pics.  But I expected that.  3 years of laying off.  Still finding that post-cancer treatment doesn't mean you immediately return to normal in a hurry.  The 3 middle toes of each foot are not yet completely back.  And I understand from my reading that they may never be.  

But the first bang reminded me of what I had missed.  I didn't understand golf until I started shooting.  

Yeah boy.  Need to resume reloading asap.

On the way home I swung up to a new gun store to check it out and to see if they could recommended an armorer/gun smith.  I had issues with both of my 9 mms.  Turns out the guy on the counter is and he took both guns back.  I'll find out tomorrow if the Kahr behaves but the trigger problem with the Barretta is fixed.   It's beautiful.

While waiting the regulars and I were chatting and I commented about the troubles of certain cities not coming up here because too many of us are armed.  Turns out BLM/Antifa has been trying.  But there's a group monitoring them.  And when they show up they are met by a quiet but armed group that heavily outnumbers them.  And there is no crap.  Because that quiet presence tells them that no crap will be tolerated.  And this works.  

Trip To The Big City

Copper is a country dog, accustomed to walks in relatively quiet areas.  But the restaurant and shop area of old town Frederick, MD, blocks off the main street on weekends, creating a walking mall into which restaurants can expand their seating.  The city is very pretty and very dog friendly and Saturday was a gorgeous Fall day, so I thought it would be fun to give the pup a new experience. The place was hoppin'.

Copper was so excited by all the new he didn't know what to do.

 

I Want

 Retro freezer.  Wouldn't be hidden in my laundry room like originally planned, though.

And why am I looking at freezers?  Well, um, STOCK UP!   I hope I'm wrong but I think we are in for a rough ride that will cause a domino effect even for those of us who aren't in major cities.  I thought we had until November but now I think we have about 2 weeks.   If I'm wrong, well, we're going into Winter anyway and you should be stocked for that.  And if we have no shortages due to Insanity or bad weather, well, our grocery bills will drop in the Spring as we use stuff up.

Next week's goals also involve replacing the pieces of my reloading stuff that seem to have dissappeared.

Enemies Without, Enemies Within

Nineteen years after 9/11 a new generation of enemies is burning more than New York and the Pentagon.

New York, 9/11/2001

Kenosha, 9/11/2020

Peaceable Kingdom

 

Think About It

 These people are protesting what they view as possible interference with mail-in balloting.  Because covid makes it too dangerous for standard in-person voting.

Think about it...

All This Turmoil...

... relatively close to me.  Yet it's quiet here.

I'm wondering if it's because we'd shoot the $#!+ out of the mamma's boys over here and they know it?

So I Was Thinking About the American's With Disabilities Act Today...

...and wondered how someone who is hearing impared and relies on lip reading can do that when masks are forced on people.

OW OW OW!!!

OW OW OW OW A cicada killer bee just got me twice OW OW OW I've had 4 nasty tick bites this year and now OW OW OW!!! I am so tired of things biting and stinging me OW OW OW!!!

It's So Doggone Hot That...

...I'm cleaning house and washing windows because even I, with my love of Summer heat, can't work outside.

I Went Out For a Beer and Came Home With a Cousin

Well, with her contact info. I'm still wandering around with my eyes as big as the full moon and my jaw scraping the ground. After a long walk with pup and getting some things done at the house, I gave in and went to Glory Days for a couple beers. It's hottern' hades and it's July 4th. Other regulars were there and we were chatting, talking history. And somewhere along the line I mentioned that my family is from Preston County, WV. And a woman at the table next to us asked "Where in Preston County?" It's not like there's a lot of options - Preston County is real West Virginia and is way more rural than where I live in Jefferson County. I told her that technically our address was Terra Alta, but we always say Whetsel Settlement. She knew the area and I asked what her name was. "Arnold." !!!!! "Who was your father? Grandfather?" "My grandfather was Ernest Arnold." OMG OMG OMG. Ernest was my great-uncle. He lived in Cleveland, OH, so we didn't have much contact with him or his family and things were weird and we lost contact with that branch decades ago but OMG OMG OMG. She's my cousin. She remembers the few Arnold reunions we had in the late 60s.

LOL! The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

I've set myself a goal of reading at least one biography of each of our presidents in order of their presidencies.  It's not like I'm charging through - I'm easily distracted.  Plus it's sometimes harder to find a good biography of some of our lesser known presidents than to find one of Elvis.  Which is annoying.  And sometimes the major issues of an administration just aren't that interesting:  I can stand about 2 pages of tariffs or monetary standards before I zone out.  The administrations of Cleveland, Harrison, and McKinley involve hundreds and hundreds of pages on those subjects. 

Currently, I'm reading In The Days of McKinley, written by Margaret Leech in 1959.  As she writes about the post-Spanish American War turmoil over what to do with the Philippines she comments:

"One resemblance between McKinley and Lincoln was not alleged.  Both reduced their political enemies to a jumble of inconsistent accusations that they were absurdly weak and dangerously strong.  The hostile press in 1899 endowed the occupant of the White House with a dual personality:  on the one hand, an amiable, ordinary politician, befuddled by adulation; and, on the other, a self-willed dictator whose policy in the Philippines forecast his benevolent assimilation of the functions of Congress."

 Sound familiar?  Trump is an incompetent, yet he lays waste to the country and the Constitution by every possible evil.

Gah. Dear Authors.

If you are going to have guns in your book, please be a little knowledgeable and specific.  My current book has the bad guys running around with a "machine gun."  I don't know what the author means by that.

I Wasn't Sure We'd Survive

But we're doing OK.

The Good News And Ow!

The good news is that both the well pump issue and the HVAC issue were the result of fried components in control panels, not the complete death of systems.  The AC crapped out completely last night, but I have been fortunate in finding service folks who are honest and are as prompt as possible while not trying to up-sell me things.  I suspect that the power failure we had just before this started had something to do with it - when the power came back on the surge fried some older components.  But, anyway, this week cost me $900 as opposed to the thousands it might have been - the estimate for the well pump replacement alone was $4600.

The Ow! is from Petey, an adorable mixed pitty who is one of Copper's dog park friends.  He greeted us so happily yesterday and rocketed up to give me a doggie kiss.  He has a really hard head.

Sigh

My house is 17 years old.  I've started replacing things here and there and actually caught a huge break in having a hail storm (referred to as Hell Storm by my insurance agent) give me a new roof for the cost of the insurance deductable.  But yesterday I noticed something was going on with the heat pump.  And then the well pump kept kicking off.  The HVAC guy will be here next week.  The well guy came today.  The well pump is shot.  It's 750 feet down.  It will take a crane to pull it.  Which is going to cost more than the pump will.  Now is not a good time to be pulling from one's IRA...

Apparently It Got So Hot...

...my dog melted.

Ummmm....

These are the CHAZ/CHOP folks that the Seattle authorities can't take 6 blocks back from?

Seems Like Just Yesterday...

...that we were being lectured about not condeming a whole group of people for what a few did.

By the same people who are now condeming all police.

Is This, Like, The Year Of The Snake?

Yesterday, a rattlesnake.  Today, on a walk by the river, it was a brown water snake making a valiant attempt to get a way-too-big and still flipping fish up from the river.

The Morning's Excitement

Fortunately I watch for just this sort of potentual surprise when Copper and I are on a trail.  I saw it before pup had a chance to get nosey.

Nice sized timber rattler coiled next to the Appalachian Trail.

Happy Birthday, Hattie!

Born in Wichita, Kansas, on June 10, 1893, Hattie McDaniel was the daughter of two former slaves.  According to Wikipedia:

In addition to acting in many films, McDaniel recorded 16 blues sides between 1926–1929 (10 were issued), was a radio performer and television star; she was the first black woman to sing on radio in the United States.She appeared in over 300 films, although she received screen credits for only 83. 

McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions to radio and one at 1719 Vine Street for acting in motion pictures. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and in 2006 became the first black Oscar winner honored with US postage stamp. In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

And, of course, we all know that she was the first black to win an Oscar.

And now she's being erased because I'm racist. 

911 Call

Minneapolis 911 Dispatcher:  " What is the nature of your emergency?"

Caller: "Someone's shooting up the store!"

Dispatcher: "I'm sorry, but funding has been re-allocated to unicorns farting rainbows.  Please call back when you have one of those type emergencies.  Have a nice day!"

Click

They Might Want To Re-think The Wording, Given The Times...

Having once gotten their catalog, I get regular e-mails from Henry Repeating Arms.  One of these days I may unsubscribe but until then, it gives me things to dream about.

When I looked at my inbox and saw today's email, I burst out laughing.

Given that our cities are burning, the 'burbs are now being threatened in some areas, police are being overwhelmed and unsupported, idiot liberals are saying idiot things and giving support to violent rioters and looters, the definition of  "pest" and "varmit" may mean something other than ground hogs to some folks.

Now back to dreaming...

They Seem To Have A Costume

Antifa does.

Pretty distinctive.

Reminds me of the red sashes the bad guys in "Tombstone" wore.  And the same thing that happened in "Tombstone" should happen to Antifa.

Yeah, I'm at the more than sick of it point.