Sunday, December 30, 2012

It's Official, I'm an Old Fart

When I found out my cataract surgery was scheduled for Dec. 26, I thought I'd be wearing an eye-patch for awhile afterwards. One of the things I got for Xmas was a customized eye-patch with the Packer "G" on it.

Turns out the only time I wore the eye-patch was when I tried it out and occasionally when I put it over the unoperated eye to see how much improvement there  is in the eye that had the cataract removed.


What I did have to wear was a clear plastic shield for the first 24 hours after the operation and will have to wear it at night for a week. (Is wear the right word when it is taped in place??)

Supposedly with the new lens in my eye my vision will improve. (They said it's like having a contact lens and my vision should be close to 20/20.) The next day I wasn't able to make out the largest letter on the eye chart with the naked eye. What I thought were three horizontal lines turned out to be a large "E". Now, several days after my vision has at least returned to where it was pre-op. One difference I noticed on the day after the operation was the difference between eyes. My left eye was the one operated on and when I look at things with it, the colors are much brighter than with the right eye. It's like there's a dark filter on the right eye.

Anywho, like the title of the post, I guess now I'm officially an old fart as cataract surgery is one of the things that old people have done. When I see the eye doctor next week, I'll ask when I will have the other eye done.

Friday, December 21, 2012

MOTORCRAFT Batteries SUCK

Because Ford won't honor the original battery with the same warranty as the replacement battery.
Last month the battery in The Old Lady's car died and I wrote a blog post about it. When we checked on what was covered by warranties, including the extended warranty, the battery wasn't covered except under the original 3 year/ 36,000 mile warranty for the car.

A couple weeks later I was perusing the owner's manual to see when I needed to change the sparkplugs. It had over 50k, so I figured if it had standard plugs they were past due to be changed. That's when I saw something that got my hopes up. 

This is a scan of a page from the owner's manual scheduled maintenance. It hypes how good their Motocraft batteries are and what great warranty they have. BULLSHIT!! When I saw that I called the local Ford dealer, in fact I called two of them when the first one wouldn't honor the warranty as stated in the owner's manual. Both dealers parts persons gave the same story. The battery is only covered for 3 years/ 36,000 miles when you buy the car. They did say the replacement battery was warranted as stated above. All that happened was they managed to piss me off by not honoring the same warranty on the original battery as they would on the replacement battery.

Then The Old Lady called the 800 number for Ford in the owner's manual. After talking to someone there and explaining what was in the owner's manual, that person checked and came back and said it should apply and that the dealer would get back to us in 4 business days. After a week, The Old Lady called again and got told the same thing. Then we kinda forgot about it and two weeks went by and The Old Lady called again and this time she got the same story I got when I first called the dealer. When asked what was the difference between the original battery and the replacement, the reply was they are the same. Couldn't get an answer why there would be a different warranty on the original battery if it was the same as the replacement. 

The Old Lady wished her "Happy Holidays" and said she looked forward to buying a Toyota!!

UPDATE:
This is very true in this case, if they won't honor the warranty on the battery, what would make me think they'd honor the warranty if something major broke.

Still Here


What Happens When Your "Plan B" Goes Tits Up??



H/T to Crooks and Liars for the vid.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Speaking of the End of the World



Point 2012 is a beer with the Mayan calendar on the label. When I go to town I'll have to see if it's on sale here. If I was in Cheesehead country I wouldn't have any problem finding it as it is brewed in Wisconsin.

Would like to sample it before the end of the world, lol!!

Firewood

Last year at this time I was still building the woodshed. This year it's full of dry firewood.
 The tree in the background is a popple (some may call it a poplar or aspen) that I dropped last year (2011). This summer I cut, split and piled the wood from that tree. Started burning the wood from that tree when the weather got cold enough to have a fire in the stove. I am now burning the last few pieces of wood and will either use up the last pieces today or tomorrow. I'm surprised how long it lasted, but it was a big tree, about two tiers ( a tier is a pile 4ft by 8ft by stovewood length or 1/3 of a full cord) of wood or as some would say, two face cords.
Now I will start burning the wood stored in my woodshed (more like a roof over the woodpiles). This woodshed is full and I have another one that's half full.  With the amount of wood I have cut, split and stored and with a very efficient stove, I don't have to worry about not having enough wood to last the winter even if it is nine months like the jokes say (nine months of winter and three months of rough snowmobiling!!). I might have enough for two winters and if that's the case I hope I can stay a year ahead by cutting enough firewood next year for the following year.

Altho, if we are to believe the Mayan calendar, it only has to last until Friday!!!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Query??

A thought occurred to me after my state jumped on the bandwagon to reduce wages and benefits for workers through out the state.

A question to the greedy motherfuckers running this country. What are you going to do when you drive wages down to the point where we are on par with Mexico and the Mexicans no longer come here to provide the cheap labor that this country is so desperate to have???? Also, what's going to happen when the workers can't afford to buy anything?????

I Had The Same Problem


Saturday, December 8, 2012

Warning


Xmas Pix

Not sure what to make of this pix. Does the tree want the elves to feed it or someone to feed it elves??


Well the dog has been decorated, what's next??


My idea of a bucket list!!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

It Must Have Followed Us Home

This is Bimbo  (pronounced beem-bo) bread. The other week The Old Lady bought a loaf of Bimbo at the local grocery store. The first time I saw bread by this company was at the carneceria across the street from our apartment in Hot-Lanta. It's a Mexican company with their corporate offices in this country in Horsham, PA. They also make Thomas' English Muffins. The Old Lady likes it because it's soft mushy bread like Wonder bread. I don't mind because it doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup. I've been trying to avoid HFSC for many years ever since I found out that shit ain't good for a body.

Saw something where they were interested in buying Hostess. They have access to cheaper Mexican sugar which would be a plus in making the junk food like Twinkies.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

A Kid Grows Up

Here he discovers boobs. He really was impressed with what he saw.

He also checked out the other side.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

It's Not Who Votes That Counts, It's Who Counts The Votes


Looks like Anonymous stopped the election from being stolen in 2012. According to their press release they installed firewalls in the FuckingRepublican's system designed to flip the votes in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. That may be the reason Rove freaked out when they announced that Ohio had gone for Obama. Interesting that Ohio's election computer system crashed at the same time this election night as it did on election night in 2004. In 2004 when the system came back up aWol had the most votes even tho exit polls showed Kerry leading. I've thought that the election in 2004 was stolen in Ohio and it looks like that was the first run for hacking the system to flip the vote. This time they needed more and set it up for more states. But even with these three states RMoney would have come up short!!  

One of the things I've worried about ever since they started using touch-screen voting machines with no paper trail is that someone could hack into the system and flip the vote to steal the election.  Or just put in the votes they want to get the result they want.

There are articles in Salon, Examiner.com, and a number of others when I googled this. One of the hits that came up is the drudge report, but I didn't bother to look at it. I have never looked at that POS, and I don't intend to start now.

And this from truthout.org.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Finally a Petition I'd Gladly Sign And It Got Pulled

Along with all the petitions to secede, there was one calling for everyone to have the opportunity to punch Grover Norquist in the dick.
“Peacefully grant the people of the United States of America to have Grover Norquist be brought forth in chains and put in a public pillory,” the petitioner wrote. “Once Grover Norquist has been secured, anyone who wishes will be allowed to punch him once, and only once, square in the dick.”
Raw Story (http://s.tt/1tCnu)
But now you get this message: The petition you are trying to access has been removed from the site under our Moderation Policy because it is in violation of our Terms of Participation.
While you can't sign this petition, there may be other petitions on We the People on a similar issue that you'd like to add your name to. Or, you can create your own petition.
It also says if you try to create a duplicate or similar petition, it'll make it harder for you to get an official response.
Now, if anyone deserves such treatment, it is most definitely Grover Norquist!! 
H/T to Crooks and Liars for the links to this.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

I Gotta Figure Out How To Set Up A SuperPac


Damn, people give you money and after the election you can do whatever the fuck you want with it!!! No wonder there's so many fucking SuperPacs.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Wipeout

























It'll be interesting to see what kind of stupid human tricks the FuckingRepublicans come up!!

As for the show Wipeout, who says slapstick is dead????

But I Thought They Wanted To Eliminate FEMA!!


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Nice Surprise For The Country

After spending millions and failing to buy the White House for RMoney, will the owners of the party take back control from the crazy bible-bangers or will they double down on the crazy and fulfill my fantasy of the party becoming the Whigs of the 21st century.

Here's two of the owners who invested millions. There are a bunch more and for successful business people, they aren't too smart. In the first place the party they support and pour tons of money into is the one that when it is in power the economy goes into the toilet!!

The Old Lady's Car Battery

Last week when I had the oil & filter changed on The Old Lady's car the battery went tits up. The funny part is the car started after the oil change to check for leaks and then I shut it off and paid the bill. Then it wouldn't start, just made funny noises when I turned the key. They jumped it going with one of those booster packs.

Anywho, I went home and cleaned the terminals and checked to make sure all the cells had water/acid and thought that would do it. (Kicking myself for not checking the cells with a hydrometer as I have two, one with the little balls and an old school one like a big turkey baster that I got for a couple of bucks at a St. Vinnies a few years ago.) Last Monday we were going to go to town for bread and milk and the car wouldn't start, just made the funny noises again. Checked to see if we had any kind of warranty on the battery, turns out even with the "extended warranty" the battery is only covered under the 3yr/36,000 mile original warranty. The car is 3&1/2yrs old and has 56,000 miles on it, so SOL. If I didn't know better, I would think they got their batteries from Wally-World because their NEVERSTART batteries only last a couple of months past the warranty too!!

Took and swapped the battery for the plow out of my Jeep  for the car battery and was able to use the car yesterday to go vote. The battery is the same size other than not being quite as tall and the posts were positioned slightly different, but I got it hooked up. (It actually has a 50 more cold cranking amps.) Hopefully the car battery will work to operate the plow on the Jeep as it will be running while it is in use. The car battery has one dead cell, but with the Jeep running all the battery needs to do is keep the cables from shorting out on inner fender.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Winter's Coming

The Old Lady's "weasel" has gone from wanting to go out to spending time next to the stove. I guess that is a sure sign that Winter is coming. Actually it may already be here as the snow we got last week hasn't melted and the ground may be snow covered until some time next Spring.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Pasties

Stolen from Ramona



















Pasty, rhymes with nasty, not hasty as those are nipple coverings and usually inedible!!

Made pasties again yesterday and while they don't look as pretty as those from a pasty shop, they turned out OK and taste good.