Oh No!! I'm Going To Die, I Bought Some Cookies Yesterday With Sprinkles And Frosting!!

Faux News? got pwned again. They did a rant about the FDA banning sprinkles on doughnuts and ice cream cones!!!!!!




According FDA nutrition expert Harley Sain the FDA was going to ban sprinkles on doughnuts and ice cream cones because sprinkles contain trace amounts of trans-fat. The name should have been a huge red flag and a clue, but the idiots at Faux are totally clueless.

In a post in The Arizona Conservative (sub-titled Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News) there was a piece about sprinkles being banned. Probably the talking heads don't come up with the BULLSHIT they spout, but someone with a couple of gray cells rubbing together should have figured out this was a joke. But I guess they are so delusional about how the Evil Gubmint is going to ruin your life that they'll run with anything that sounds good.

No wonder the collective intelligence of this country is going downhill. A trickle of stupidity now and then like a leaking garden hose is one thing, but Faux News? is like firehose opened all the way going 24/7!!

I wonder who does the hard things for these talking heads that they can't do themselves, like tie their shoelaces????????????

My Weather Station

This is basically my weather station. The railing in the foreground is my snow guage. In the morning I look to see how much snow has fallen during the night. Farther out is the weather vane which at times tells me which direction the wind is coming from. Under the vane is the cups that spin when it's windy if the whole thing isn't frozen in place. Then I don't know which way the wind is blowing or how strong the wind is blowing. I have a feeling it is frozen in place now as we had some above freezing weather and snow could have melted and then froze holding the cups and vane immobile.

Xmas Gift

I think I figured out what happens when there is a downturn in the market for Alpaca wool products.

This is one of the things I got in the family gift exchange this year. All of the items from the person that had my name were Alpaca products. Inner sole liners made from Alpaca wool, the above jerky and some sausage like Slim Jims only made from Alpaca.

Alpaca ain't bad. The jerky and the sausage are kinda like the stuff made from beef. Coulda used a little more spices for my taste, but hey, it's still edible.

I've eaten in a Peruvian restaurant, but I didn't see either Llama or Alpaca on the menu. Maybe they can't get a good supply of the meat in this country. I imagine most of the people that raise the animals wouldn't want to see them go to slaughter for meat. Obviously not all feel that way.

Mammy's Whisk

Mars Farted

Was listening to the radio recently when they were talking about a Mars Rover detecting methane on Mars. The Rover was roving around and at one time it detected methane which lasted for over a month. The rover didn't pick up Marvin saying "I wouldn't go in there for awhile!!"

Questions For Jeb Bush

Now For Some Classical Music

My Snow Removal Equipment

When you live where we do and you get anywhere from 200 inches to 400 inches of snow yearly (from the 1st of July to June 30 or as I prefer from the Fourth of July to the next Fourth) you need a variety of snow removal equipment.

From left to right, a couple of shovels, a Yooper Scooper, and a Toro 7hp snowblower.

Next year keeping the driveway open will be all on me. The truck will take care of the majority of the snow removal, The scoop and/or the snowblower will take care of the paths and the shovels for cleaning off the steps and porches.

Snowplow On Different Truck

The transmission died on my old Jeep plowtruck. Last summer I took the plow frame off the Jeep and took the front bumper of the Dodge. Before I left to go play campground host I brought the Dodge with the plow frame in the back over to my neighbor. I asked him to put the plow frame on the Dodge. It required cutting and welding to make the switch and I don't have a torch or a welder for hearier metals. I told him I'd be back in November, but he thought I'd be gone longer. Anywho, I got my truck back last Sunday after he was done with the job.

Plow frame on the Dodge.

After I got the truck back I had to install the controls and the battery for the plow and the battery isolater. I still haven't wired up the plow lights, but I'm not planning on plowing snow at night. Although it does get dark early these days.

The snow has settled some or it might have been more difficult to find the plow.

When I took the plow off the Jeep, I put it off to the side where I thought it would be easy to get at, but not in the way for snowplowing in case I didn't get it on the truck before the county started plowing my driveway.  It was good that I put the plow with the arms up and the blade sitting on a couple of blocks of wood. Otherwise it would have been hard to find and/or frozen to the ground. I hooked a chain to the plow and pulled it out of the snowbank with the truck.

I plowed a spot next to The Guppy to park the truck.

This truck should hold up better for plowing snow. It has a 318 V-8 with a four speed transmission and a strong transfer case. All I got to remember is to keep the fluid levels up in various parts that require gear lube. All of which I should check before I do anymore plowing. It's supposed to be nice for the next few days, so I'll do that before we get more snow.

Switcharoo

No Grandmas Were Harmed Making This Video

Google Fucking Sucks

This morning I decided to check my Gmail. I signed in and then could not get at the inbox to check for mail. Got some fucking shit about wanting my cellphone number and other e-mail address. I could not find any way around this bullshit so I could check for mail. All the things I tried just went elsewhere and nothing showed that would lead to my mail. Had The Old Lady try and eventually she managed to get at my Gmail. It shouldn't be so fucking hard to get at your mail.

Several years ago I decided to do a Gmail account for the hell of it. After trying it out for awhile I decided it sucked more than either hotmail or Yahoo, so I hardly ever used it or checked it. In the last year or so I have had trouble getting at Gmail. Sometimes I need to sign out of my Yahoo account and sometimes The Old Lady can find a way into my Gmail.

Last year I made the mistake of using my Gmail for a rewards thing at Kmart. I've tried going to the Kmart site to change the e-mail address for their frequent flyer program to no avail. The shit still goes to Gmail. That is about the only reason I check my Gmail.

I wish I could express myself better in order to say just how fucking frustrating it is to hit a roadblock and not be able to find any way around it!! It's like the computer geeks think everybody knows all the shortcuts and what icons to click on or what fucking keys on the keyboard will get you where you want to go. Like hitting ctrl and some other key to do some function or other. I've never had any classes or training in fucking confusers. I'm a self-taught computer illiterate!!

I would cancel the Gmail if I wasn't afraid that doing so would kill all my Google accounts like blogger. One of the times I couldn't get at my Gmail, The Old Lady trying to access it created another Gmail account by adding a letter to the name. I finally was able to cancel that one, but it still pops up at times in autofill.


I REPEAT, GOOGLE FUCKING SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New York City, Formerly Known As New Amsterdam

One of things that has had me scratching my ass for many years now is why the fuck does the media keep saying "Myanmar formerly known as Burma" or "Myanmar also known as Burma". We are the only country in the world that still calls the country Burma. The country changed its name in 1989 and for a long time the US and UK refused to call it Myanmar. But now we are alone in refusing to just call it Myanmar. The BBC calls it Myanmar, so maybe the UK has given up on the juvenile ploy of adding the aka Burma to the name.

They don't say Sri Lanka formerly known as Ceylon. Or Zimbabwe formerly called Rhodesia. Or Bangladesh formerly know as East Pakistan. So why the fuck do they persist in the Junior High bullshit with the name of the country??

Kinda reminds me of the joke when they decided to switch which side of the road to drive on in Sweden. The conservatives argued that they shouldn't rush into it. First they should let the trucks switch from driving on the left to driving on the right and then after a few months the cars would switch sides!!

I Think I Figured Out Why The Camo

Besides the anglers dressed like they just stepped out of a fly fishing catalog, there are a lot that are dressed in Camo. Their waders will be camo and their shirt and/or jacket will be camo also. At first I thought they were trying to sneak up on the fish, but in that case why were the boot part of the camo waders a solid color?? IMHO the only reason to wear camo is if you are hunting wild turkeys without a blind. Then last night it hit me, a reason for wearing camo around here in this campground.

Buzzards circling.

 Shortly after we got here we noticed a huge number buzzards circling every evening. We have also seem them during other times of the day in fairly large numbers. I keep telling The Old Lady to keep moving whenever I see them circling overhead.

 Maybe the people wearing camo are trying to escape the notice of the buzzards?? That's got to be the explanation as you don't need camo to sneak up on fish.

Buzzards roosting in a tree across the river from the campground.

 This is just one of the many roosting places for the buzzards as there must over a hundred of them.

More buzzards.

The Old Lady said this tree had so many buzzards on it the other morning she wondered how the branches on this dead tree was able to hold all of them??

Was told that in the summer there are Turkey Vultures here and in the winter they go south and the Black Buzzards come here for the winter. I guess at this time there is a mix of the two.

The List Grows

As we are here in The Guppy, a number of things are being discovered. After we had had a few days without rain, I noticed the pavement under the RV looked wet in one spot. (At first I thought the shower might be leaking again. It was in the same area as when the shower was leaking. I found some cracks towards the bottom of the shower and caulked them last summer.) When I checked on it, I found it was coming from the water heater area. Couldn't find any leaks in the water heater. At first I thought the water might be from the combustion of the propane. Maybe it wasn't burning quite right. I adjusted the air intake for the burner. The next time we had the water heater on, I checked the water heater. At first, nothing happened. Then after the water started to heat up, I noticed it was dripping a little from the pressure relief valve. That's something I'll have to replace before we use The Guppy next year. Right now it is a minor annoyance, not a real problem. If it was leaking more, then I'd need to correct it.

Another problem that has been deferred until we get home is the light over the stove. The light stopped working, I put in a different bulb and it still didn't work. Then I wiggled the wire and it came loose and arced on some metal. I think I have the end I need for the light socket at home. If not I can get one from a light on one of the junk cars on the place.

That's a couple things on the list. Another is I want to extend the mirrors on the right side out a few inches. Right now about all I see in the mirrors is the arms for the canopy on that side of the RV. I would like to be able to see pass that framework.

Actually, I think maybe I should write things down and make a list.

The Intratubes Be Very, Very Strange

The campground here has Wi-Fi with 4 antennas in various locations. Because we are using the Wi-Fi for our internet, it seems the Wi-Fi doesn't have a definite location. When I sign into my blog and look at the little globe thingee, it says Farmington, MO. When we are watching shows on Hulu it will have a station logo for an Atlanta station down in one corner. When we are at home it will have a local station logo when we are watching an ABC show.

It's possible that because this is a state park the internet hookup is statewide and therefore doesn't have a location. Maybe the various things are using info stored in my laptop to come up with locations. It's still weird that here we are in Missouri and the intratubes are acting like we are in GA.

More Adventures With The Guppy

We've been living in The Guppy for over two weeks now and we are both still alive!! Wasn't sure if we could survive living in a small space together for a long period.

We've had some hard rains since we have been here and have discovered some leaks. Last week we had a couple days off and went to Springfield, MO to do some shopping. The weather was nice when we left, but while we were there it started to rain. When we got back we found our little pavilion we had put up over the picnic table had collapsed. The rain had pooled on the roof and the weight was too much. The metal tubes for the frame got bent  and the whole thing was on the picnic table. But that was minor compared to what we found later inside the RV.

When we went to bed I discovered the bedding was wet under the window. At first we thought it was condensation from the window. We dried everything and thought we'd just have to make sure the condensation didn't run off the window again. Several days later it rained again and this time I saw water was building up between the window and the frame. At first I tried using a towel to mop up the water. This is the emergency exit window, so I opened it to let the water drain out and wiped the frame. Later when the rain stopped I went outside and looked at the window. I found a break in the seal at the top of the window.

The gray line is the seal. This is where the break is in the seal.

The break in the seal just happened to be almost exactly under where a stream of water was coming off the roof from a low spot on the roof. On one of our days off this week we went shopping again, this time to Rolla, MO. At Lowes I got a tube of bath and tile caulk.I figured this would be the easiest to work with as I don't have a caulking gun with me and I could just squeeze the tube to get the caulk out. This window wasn't the only leak we had found, there was another in the bunk area over the cab. I used that tube of caulk to redo some seams in the bunk area and to fill the gap in the seal on the emergency exit window. When I caulked the seal on the window I filled the gap and then did a thin layer all the way across the top. I sprayed the frame on the window with Pam and hopefully I'll be able to open the window again without it being sealed shut. If it doesn't leak while we are here, I won't try to open it again. Also went around and redid the caulk at the top of the window frames on most of the windows until the tube was empty.

Water on bed platform. It was the escape window on the side that leaked.

Other than the above problems, The Guppy seems to be holding up pretty well. We've been here over half the month and the propane tank is still over half full. We've used the gas for cooking, heating water and the furnace. (The first day and night we were wishing the A/C worked as it was in the 80s. A couple days later we turned on the furnace for awhile.) We usually only run the furnace long enough to warm the place up and then shut it off. We don't leave the furnace turned on at night and some mornings it is quite brisk. We also have an electric space heater for when it's just a little chilly. We may have more cool weather from here on out, but if the tank runs out, I can hook up a 20# tank that I have with us. The previous owner put a tee and valve in the propane line so you can hook up a small propane tank. (Or even a 100# one, but the hose I got is too short for that.)

Honey Wagon

First saw these at a RV store and the reaction was WTF. Now after being here for a couple weeks and seeing them in action can see where these shit wagons can come in handy. If you are camping for a longer time you'll at least need to empty the gray water holding tank. Most people fill their fresh water tank when they arrive and there are water spigots (some people will connect several hoses together, sometimes borrowing hoses from other campers to reach from the water spigot to their RV) around the campground. Even if you aren't using the toilet, sooner or later the gray water tank will need to be emptied and it's easier to haul a tank like this (or a bigger one as they come in many sizes) to the dump station than to have to haul your trailer or drive your motorhome to the dump station. Once you are set up in a site, you wouldn't want to move until you leave.

But it's still funny watching pickups and SUVs pulling these little tanks around.

The campground host sites are the only sites with full hook-ups. I got the hose hooked up and into the sewer line with both holding tanks valves open. Thinking I might close the valves for the last week or so and then drain the black water first and flush the hose with the gray water tank.

The Old Lady's New Toy

We get a golf cart to use as campground hosts. After I showed The Old Lady how to operate it and she drove it around the campground she was hooked. She loves driving it around. She said it is real simple to operate. I told her it has to be simple to operate it so golfers can use it.




One of things we have to do is pick up trash if any is left on the campsites, that's why there is a garbage can in the back of the cart.



This is how simple it is. The pedals tell the story. The only other thing is you have to turn the key on and there is a lever to shift from forward to reverse.




The above pictures were taken with my tablet. This picture was taken even tho I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of because of the glare on the tablet.

This picture was taken with my camera.

Adventures With The Guppy

Last week we left home with The Guppy. We had The Old Lady's car in tow behind it. I expected the gas mileage to suck, but wasn't quite ready for how bad it did suck. I had expected close to 10 mpg and what we got was under 7 mpg. 

700+ miles later we were at The Kid's place in Missouri. About the only problem we had was the tires are flat-spotted and made noise. It was noisier when the tires were cold. For the first 50-60 miles it was fairly loud and then it was only noticeable every once in a while. While we were at The Kid's place I changed the right front tire as that was where most of the noise was coming from. On the way to the campground where we are at for the month, it was better. The spare couldn't have been flat-spotted as it had never been used, it still had pieces of rubber sticking out in the tread area from the mold. It's also possible the spare tire is the oldest one on the vehicle and may in fact be one of the original tires for the motorhome.

Another problem we had was the console on the engine cover came lose. When we started we were able to put our travel mugs in the cup holders, but when it came lose, we were kinda shoving it back in place to keep it from falling on the floor. It was held in place with a couple of screws like drywall screws and they had pulled thru the engine cover. There were multiple holes from where the screws had been. Yesterday we went to a hardware store and I got some stovebolt type screws, washers, and locking nuts. I used fender washers to make sure they wouldn't pull thru the engine cover as it basically made from thick pressed paper.

Here we are set up in the campground. In the couple of days that we have been here we have figured out some of the things we forgot to bring or didn't realize we needed. Some of the things we will buy here and some will be put on a list so we can include them in The Guppy before we head out again next year on another adventure. (One of the things is a couple of new tires for the front.)

We are being amused by the trout fisherpeople and their get-ups. This park supposedly has some of the best trout fishing in the state. It should be good because there is a fish hatchery here and they stock the river with fish everyday. Maybe next week I'll check it out, but this weekend will be a madhouse because there is a fishing derby going on.

Could've Used This Idea Earlier, Summer's Almost Over

It's too late to try this as it may snow any day now.

Make Your Own Lite Beer

If I was to do this I wouldn't pour the beer down the sink, I'd put some in another bottle and maybe double the amount of beer. The only hard part would be getting the secret ingredient. The Old Lady's cat is diabetic and pisses alot, the problem would be in catching that vitamin water from the cat.

Not that I'd ever drink it. I so seldom drink beer that when I do I buy high dollar craft brews.

So True!!

I Think I Got All The Life Out Of These Pads

Last week I did a brake job on The Old Lady's car. Here is pictures of the rotors and pads. What's funny is I thought I'd hear something when the pads were worn to the point of needing replacement. There was a little metal tab that would make contact with the rotor when the pad was worn to a certain point, but we never heard any noise from them. Instead they got worn down with the pads. I replaced the pads and rotors and now it should be good for a few more years. The original ones lasted 5 years. I think the rotors were worn to the point where turning them wouldn't have been an option. They were close to the minimum thickness and were grooved pretty much.

The week before I rotated the tires and in the process discovered that the lugnuts were fucked up. There was a metal shell on the lugnuts and after having the tires replaced several times using impact wrenches the lugnuts were to the point where on several of them I had to drive the socket on the lugnut with a hammer in order to remove it.

This is what the lugnuts looked like when I got them off. They were pretty fucked up.

This is what I did with them. I took the outer shell off the lugnuts. It took some time to remove the outer shell from all of them (the shell had come off a few of them already), but now I have solid nuts to work with. I need a smaller socket to turn the nuts, but at least now I can put the socket on by hand and not have to use a hammer to drive it on. The lug wrench in the trunk is for the lugnuts with the shell on them, so I will need to put something in the trunk to remove the smaller size nuts.  They are now 18mm and they were 19mm.

I have a bunch of lugnuts off other vehicles, maybe I'll look and see if I have ones I can use to replace these.

Ford definitely didn't have a better idea with these lugnuts!!

I Might Need This Next Year

This will be the last year the county will be plowing driveways in the winter. Next year I might need something like this or maybe become a snowbird. I have been thinking about changing the snowplow from the Jeep to the Dodge pickup, but this looks like more fun. (I think I'll start removing the plow setup from the Jeep today so I can maybe get it installed on the Dodge before calendar Winter hits.)

Snowmobiles will let you travel over the snow drifts, but this rig would allow you to do it in heated comfort.

A/C

There was one day this summer when the temp was pushing 90 and the humidites were too. I dug out the portable A/C and hooked it up. It managed to lower the temp in the house a couple degrees and made it more comfortable by making it a little drier. Figured out that the trick with the A/C would be to start it early in the day before the house heats up.

We never did remove the firewood from the house. There were some mornings where we debated whether or not to light a fire in the stove.

Anywho, after that one day, never used it again. Left it in place until yesterday and it worked to keep things comfortable. If I had put it away earlier I know I would have had to set it up again as we would have had another hot day.

Cheap Flights

If It Ain't One Thing, It's Several

Got our water situation fixed with a new well, but that wasn't the end of our problems. Discovered The Old Lady's car needs a brake job. It's only got almost 82k miles, why would it need new brake pads and rotors?? I'll deal with that next week.

Recently we had a short power outage. The power was only off for a short period of time. By the time I called friend on the cellphone and found out he didn't have power either, the power came back on a few minutes later. Later that evening I decided we would have some ice cream on some pie for desert (or evening snack) and discovered the ice cream was very soft. I put the ice cream in the big freezer and started checking the temp in the refrigerator. The temp in the refrigerator was pushing 50° and in the freezer it was 15°. If the freezer isn't down close to zero, ice cream will get soft. Thought at first the refrigerator needed to be reset because sometimes after a power failure the compressor won't start again until it is reset. The way to reset this one is to turn off the power and turn the power back on. (Learned that a couple years ago when we returned home from spending some time visiting The Kid and the refrigerator wasn't working. We bought a new one and later when I went to figure out why it died, it worked when I plugged it in.) The Old Lady put stuff like milk in a cooler with some ice.

The next day it was not keeping the temp cold enough in either the freezer part or the refrigerator. It was cycling between 20° and 40° in the freezer. I pulled it out and started looking at it to determine why it wasn't working right. The compressor and some lines were warm and some lines were cold. I decided to look in the back of the freezer compartment. Had a hunch the fan wasn't working. Pulled the back of the freezer compartment off and the coils had frost on them. The fan wasn't running and after I pulled the fan out I discovered why.

The power surge must have fried the solder joint of the wire and it came loose. When I pulled the fan the wire wasn't out like in the picture, it just didn't look quite right. 

I swapped refrigerators, put the old one back, the one I thought had died a couple years back. One of these days I'll see about fixing the fan. First I'll see if I can solder the wire back on, but I'll need to cut away some of the housing to find where connection is for the wire. It was all sealed up. If that don't work I can always order a new one.

Someone Did Half A Tuneup

The other week I decided to tuneup the "The Guppy". When I changed the plugs I discovered that someone previously had done what would amount to half of a tuneup. Of the 8 sparkplugs 3 were original equipment plugs. It's a wonder it wasn't running worse than it was considering there are almost 70k miles on it.

As the picture shows, three of these plugs are not like the others. The plugs that had been changed (Autolite) were the ones that were easy to get at when you removed the engine cover in the cab. The two front ones on the right side of the engine and the one in front on the left were the Motorcraft original equipment plugs. Those plugs are difficult to get at to change. I had to remove the air cleaner box and some of the ducting to get at the front plug on the right. The second plug back I had to go thru the wheelwell with several long extensions  and universal joint on the plug socket, also to change the front plug on the left. While I was at it I changed the distributor cap and rotor. 

The new plugs I put in were ones I had bought for my pickup. It turned out the motorhome engine takes the same plugs as the pickup even tho the motorhome engine is a 460 and the pickup is a 302. The new plugs are platinum tipped ones, so I don't think I'll ever have to do this again.

We got a bunch of maintenance records with the motorhome. So far I haven't found anything about it having had a tuneup. The original owners kept a record of every oil change starting at less than 2000 miles for the first oil change, and repairs that were done, but didn't see anything about a tuneup.

Now I need to take it to my propane dealer to have the regulator on the propane tank replaced and the propane system checked out.

Cabinets

A while back The Old Lady ordered a couple of cabinets for the kitchen. Thursday they were delivered and I started to work on installing them.

This is how they looked when they came off the truck. One cabinet is trying to fall off the side of the pallet. When I pulled the cardboard off the cabinets I discovered both were damaged. The smaller one was basically destroyed.

The smaller cabinet had damage on all four corners. The front was bent out of shape and almost ripped off, Now we have to drive over 100 miles to return it to a Home Depot while they send us a replacement.

This is the before picture. There was a base cabinet that came from someone that replaced their kitchen cabinets and a small table. We wanted to do a more built-in set of cabinets.

I made this picture bigger so the damage would be easier to see.

The larger cabinet only had some minor damage on one side. I was able to glue and clamp it to repair it before installing it.

This is the larger cabinet installed with a piece of plywood for a temporary countertop. When I get the other cabinet installed next to the refrigerator, I will do a better countertop. Still working out the details on what materials to use and how to install it.

We have a division of labor here, The Old Lady picked out the cabinets and ordered them, The Kid will pay for them and I get to install them.

The Rand Paul-EO Diet

The Colbert Repor

How about a shout-out to cousin RuPaul!!

Almost Enough To Make Me Want To Get A Twitter Account

I guess someone at US Airways tweeted this picture to someone that had sent in a complaint.

Of course you need someone to guide the airplane when it backs out.

Stupid Shit Going Around on facebook

The other day the widow of a cousin posted this on facebook.

In less time than it takes to tell about it, I went to snopes.com and typed in "Army cutting back to two meals a day in Afghanistan" and TA DA, got a result that said it was bullshit. (In the comment I just posted the link to what I got on snopes.com) In some areas they are cutting out hot breakfast and giving MREs for breakfast. In fact the troops can get up to four meals a day. Lunch and dinner are hot meals and breakfast and midnite chow are MREs.

Now I'm willing to bet whoever started this bullshit was hoping people would blame Obama for starving the troops, but anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of how government works knows spending and appropriations start in the House. And who controls the House??

A Full Service Garage

Tow Dolly

Yesterday we drove almost 400 miles round trip to buy a tow dolly so we can pull the car behind "The Guppy."

We only paid $400 for it so the drive was worth it. We have been pricing tow dollies since we got the motorhome and most used ones are selling for about twice what we paid for this one. New ones are close to fifteen hundred and up. There's a couple of minor things I need to do to it to get it ready for travel. Noticed on the way home that the ramps were bouncing up and down a bit. Checked it out after I got home and the bolts that hold the ramps on are loose and may be worn. I will check them out and probably replace them. Also noticed a couple of cracks, but I can get a friend to weld them for me. The metal is too thick for my little welder to be able to get good penetration.

I just checked with the Secretary of State's (Michigan's version of the DMV) office and I don't have to get a license plate for the tow dolly. (Wait until the current FuckingRepublican Governor leaves the state broke again, they'll be licensing everything to get money to get the state out of debt like happened the last time. You used to be able to get a trailer plate for 6 months or a year. Now the only choice is a permanent plate for $75.)

On the way to get the tow dolly we stopped for lunch. We had crossed over into Central Time and it was close to when fast food does the switch from breakfast to lunch and The Old Lady decided she wanted a sit down restaurant. It's a good thing we aren't secret shoppers because that place would have gotten a very shitty review. (Sometimes I wish we were secret shoppers and/or reviewers) When the waitress brought out our orders, she went to the next booth and then finally ours. After I dug into my omelet I discovered it wasn't what I ordered. Instead of having sausage, onions and cheese, it was mostly ham with barely enough cheese to qualify as ham and cheese omelet. (Not only was the omelet wrong, it wasn't even a very good one. It was like fast food eggs wrapped around some ham and cheese and nuked to warm it up). I didn't feel like waiting to get the right omelet, so I ate that one. When the waitress was informed the order was wrong, first she said they gave me the wrong one, then later admitted it was her fault. I was in the bathroom when the waitress brought the check. She never offered to correct the error in any way shape or form. When the order was wrong, she should have deducted the wrong order from the check. The Old Lady didn't leave a tip. The waitress was an older lady, but if she is starting to suffer from Alzheimers, maybe she shouldn't be working there anymore. I may ask The Old Lady to do a thing on Yelp on the restaurant. (She has a way with words!!)

Like I said, sometimes I wish we were secret reviewers because we seem to get a lot of lousy service. We are just ordinary older people and for some reason some seem to think we don't deserve good service like the pretty people and the ones in suits!!

Next time we'll do Burger King. The eggs will be better quality.

Let The Religiosity Wars Commence

Now that the Supremes have ruled that we can be a Theocracy the only question is what cult will rule the Theocracy?? The owner of Hobby Lobby that brought the suit to the Supreme Court is Pentecostal, but the justices that gave him the green light are Roman Catholic. I'm sure there are others in the mix too because several others were involved in the suit. It'll be interesting to see which version of religion will prevail in the years to come as the Theocracy takes shape.

The ironic thing is that over 200 years ago we fought for independence from a country that used religion to rule.

 Now that religion can trump a federal law (which the ACA is), state laws don't mean shit.  I'm willing to bet there are some Mormons thinking they can now have multiple wives and the law can't do anything about it as religion trumps any law. Maybe when a Muslim says the Koran allows him 4 wives, that'll be a different story. But, but, you have the wrong religion!!

Any business can disregard any law or regulation by whining "Religious Freedom!!" I don't need to provide safety equipment, god will keep the workers safe and if not, maybe they weren't pious enough!! Pay extra for overtime?? My religion forbids that.

If They Find It, They Will Play With It

Maiden Voyage of the Guppy

Tuesday we took the motorhome and went to a state park and spent two nights in the campground. It was a test run to see how we would live in the motorhome and to figure out what all we may need to stock in the motorhome.

The pollen from the pine trees reminded us of when we lived in Hot-Lanta.

There's a leak in the propane system, so we weren't able to use the stove for cooking. We brought along a microwave (it got pitched because some things on the touchpad didn't want to work, it was only a little over 20 years old so don't know why it didn't want to work properly now), a hotplate, and an electric kettle for heating water. It worked out pretty well altho we figured out it would be good to have a power strip to plug all the electrical appliances into. It was a pain in the ass to have to unplug something in order to plug in another thing that you want to use.

 .
The part of the park that is most used is beyond the main entrance by the beach at the lake’s east end and the two campgrounds . The park was named after Dr. Paul Van Riper, who was known as Champion’s frontier doctor. The Van Riper State Park beach was known as a favored swimming spot for many Champion residents. Dr. Van Riper had helped the town to acquire the beach through his position in politics as the town commissioner. Local legend has it that Dr. Van Riper did so after local kids observed him in the act of changing into his swimsuit and made up chant about it that was not very flattering. His first order of business was to make sure that the new park got areas for people to change in immediately.
This is the beach in the park at the lake. It was a summer day the last week of June and nobody was there. Don't know what the water temp was, but the air temp was in the sixties, maybe seventy

I guess the geese didn't read the sign that said, "No animals or glass containers beyond this point"!!

We bought a new 19 inch TV for the motorhome, it works on AC/DC and has a built-in DVD player. We were hoping to get a couple of channels, but were only able to get one with three sub-channels. Will have to look into getting a new digital antenna for the RV. Also figured out I need to come up with some way to hang the TV where we can see it better. Had it on the bunk over the cab, but the picture didn't look right when we were looking up at it. It has a good picture when you are looking straight at it, when it is on the same level as your line of sight. I have an idea on how to hang it, but I need to figure out what type of screws I need for the mounting holes on the back, are they metric or SAE??

We went to a RV sales place and bought a few things for our RV. Man, the stuff there is expensive!!  Bought a new latch for the screen door because the one on it was broken. It cost $30!! They say a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into, wonder what the equivalent is for RVs??????

The campground had electrical hookups for 20-30 amp and 20-30-50 amp. Figured out we only need the 20-30 amp as 30 amp is the type of plug on the motorhome. There was a dump station so I was able to empty the holding tanks on my way out. The gray water tank I can empty at home by just letting the water run out on the ground, but the tank for the toilet is another matter!!

About the title of the post. My oldest brother had a class A motorhome and The Old Lady called it a Leviathan, ours is a class C and smaller so she calls it "The Guppy".

Squatlo says pussy makes you stupid, but who knew it could also trap you??

An American student in Germany got trapped in this vagina sculpture. It took 22 firefighters over half an hour to deliver him.

Police confirmed that the firefighters turned midwives delivered the student "by hand and without the application of tools".

 TheChacán-Pi (Making Love) artwork by the Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara has been outside Tübingen University's institute for microbiology and virology since 2001 and had previously mainly attracted juvenile sniggers rather than adventurous explorers. From .theguardian.com,

It also appears Squatlo beat me to doing a post on this and probably did a better job of it, but I figured I'd give it a shot anywho.

Those Classy Christians

This week in Washington, DC, the Freedom and Faith Coalition is holding their Road to Majority conference.

How's this for pure class???? As much as I disliked aWol, I wouldn't have pissed on him if he was on fire!!!

Another Fix On The Motorhome

Last fall I put some gas with Sta-Bil in it into the motorhome and ran it for awhile as part of the winterization process. After shutting it down I noticed there was gas on the bottom of the gas tank. Didn't get around to working on the problem then. During the winter I started it up and moved it. I noticed that it looked like someone had pissed under the motorhome. There was a yellow stain in the snow where it had sat with the engine running. After the snow was gone I crawled under and figured out the leak was on top of the tank. Finally figured out the leak was in the return line as it only leaked when the engine was running.

This was the culprit, the fitting on one end was leaking. 

I thought I'd have to drop the tank to get at the problem, but while working on removing the tank I saw there was enough room between the frame and the floor of the motorhome for me to reach the line. I took the rear wheels off and was able to gain access.

This is where the leak was.

I wasn't able to get a replacement line at the parts store, but I was able to get the parts I needed to make a new line. After installing the line and running it there were no leaks, so I guess it's good to go!!

Blogroll Addition

Just added a new blog to my blogroll. I came across Stonekettle Station sometime last year and have occasionally looked at it and read some of his posts. Today I found a link to one of his blogposts on facebook. See previous post. Anywho, I read a few more of his posts and really liked the ones he did on veterans, one on the VA and another on Thanks for your service.

By putting the blog on my blogroll I will see when there is a new post and will check it out instead of going months between looking at the blog.

A Delicious Rant

Saw something on facebook and when I clicked on the link, I found a very delicious rant. This guy expressed my feelings about the media circus about Bergdahl's release from being a POW better than I could. Here's a link to the blog post. Then he did a followup post on his blog Stonekettle Station.

Like I said this guy has done a couple of very reasoned posts about the Bergdahl situation. The thing that sums up the fury in the media that I think says it best is this:

These people are so eaten up with hatred, their souls are so corrupted by their poisonous worldview, that instead of satisfaction at the return of their fellow countryman they feel only loathing – because they simply cannot stand to see Obama with a joyous Jani and Bob Bergdahl, announcing the safe repatriation of their son.

Both of these posts are fairly lengthy but well worth the read.

Things That Make You Go HMMMMM!!

Yesterday I bought some Neapolitan ice cream. This morning I was wondering why vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream together in one container would be called Neapolitan?? Is that the only flavors available in Naples?????

Google Fucking Hates Me

Or maybe I should say Fucking Google hates me!! Yeah, Fucking Google hates me and everybody else.

Once you make the mistake of getting sucked into google, you can't get out!!

Several years ago I made the mistake of doing a gmail account just to see how it works. I never was very thrilled with how gmail worked and rarely used it. Last year I gave the gmail address for Kmart when I signed up for some kind of shopping thing. Turned out that might have been a good move as Kmart sent me a ton of e-mails trying to get me to buy shit.

The other day I tried to access my gmail account to empty out the Kmart bullshit and had trouble getting at my gmail account. I've had trouble getting at the account for a long time now, usually I get a page that wants me to add a new account and I haven't been able to work around it. Sometimes when this would happen I'd ask The Old Lady to help me and usually she'd be able to get at my gmail (sometimes by shutting down my Yahoo account). This time she asked me what my gmail address was and typed it in to the add an account thingee. I told her it would say that address is already in use. Well, it didn't, turned out she put in an extra letter and now I have another gmail account. That wouldn't be too bad, but now google wants me to use that gmail address for signing into my blogs.

This isn't the only problem I've had with Fucking Google. Last year I thought I'd try out Google+. I set up a Google+ page using my Yahoo account. In the process of working on the Google+ thingee, I somehow wound up with 2 Google+ plus pages.(Google+ is about as user friendly as their fucking gmail.) One using my Yahoo account and another using gmail.

I would like to get rid of the gmail and the Google+ bullshit, but I'm afraid if I try to delete any of that shit, I might lose my blogs because they are on blogger.

I think the next time I run into the add an account page I'll try making a new gmail account using either fuckinggooglesucks or googlefuckingsucks!!

I googled "google sucks" and got a shitload of hits. Here's one, google-sucks.org. There is a facebook page, several YouTube videos and several other hits on just the first page and there are many more pages of hits.

That Rich Old Fart That Owns The Clippers

Seeing what all is happening on the news, I'd love to be able to ask that old fart this age-old question.
Is the fucking you got worth the fucking you took????????

Bundyfest

I like how he keeps holding up a picture of Ted Bundy labeled Cliven Bundy.

Happy Tax Day In Michigan

Here's A Good Cause

Another Take On Libertarianism

Libertarianism Is A Farce

IMHO most of those that call themselves libertarians do so because of the low approval ratings of the GOP. Has anyone heard of someone claiming to be a libertarian who supports the Democratic Party????? I rest my case.

A prime example of why I think libertarianism is a farce is Ron Paul and his spawn. Ron Paul has run on the Libertarian ticket and is a doctor, an obstetrician, who is anti-abortion. That for me is a deal breaker. You can't call yourself a libertarian and be anti-abortion. To me libertarianism means being for individual rights. You can do whatever as long as it doesn't affect me or other people. Some woman having an abortion is none of my business as long as I wasn't the one that knocked her up!!! Then there's Ron Paul's spawn, a board certified eye doctor, certified by a board he made up, could it be he couldn't pass the requirements of existing boards for ophthalmologists?? Anywho, MSM calls him a libertarian and he also is anti-abortion.

Recently I shared something on facebook.

This received a comment from someone that started off saying if he had to label himself he'd be libertarian. He started by saying have all the abortions you can bear. Then he accused me of name-calling. I replied that it ain't name-calling if it's true. Then a couple days later he came back saying a friend convinced him a fetus was a little human, not something like a toenail that's too long. I replied saying that abortion is something that should be left up to the persons involved, not some politician that hasn't the foggiest what the situation is.

Then I shared something else on facebook.

The same person commented on this with: There is already an "equal pay" law on the books. If another such law were passed, do you think Obama would pay his women staffers as much as he pays the males? Of course, he has "his pen" and could even change that law to suit himself.
The Old Lady jumped in and explained how in the White House there are more women working in jobs like secretaries that tend to be lower pay grades and fewer women working at the higher pay grade specialities (analysts, attorneys) and that's why the female average salary is less than the male average. Within the same pay grade men and women are paid the same. She also did a snide remark about how maybe they didn't teach civics when he was in high school because the President can't change laws, only Congress can do that. He came back saying he didn't like the snide remark about his school. Then he tried saying that federal workers in the civil service system don't receive equal pay at the pay grades because there are different levels of pay in different parts of the country. The Old Lady replied by saying the sarcasm must have been too subtle, she wasn't dissing his school, she  dissing him, that maybe he slept thru the civics class.

I commented that if he has to distort the facts, his argument is pretty weak. I found an article at InTheseTimes.com about how the Paycheck Fairness Act would help men and women. One thing it would do is strengthen workers rights. I copied it and pasted the following. And did a link to the full article.

[The problem is that employees’ labor rights, as articulated in the NLRA, have notoriously weak penalties. Labor and employment attorney Vincent Mersich explains to In These Times that an employee who is retaliated against by being demoted, suspended, or anything short of fired for discussing her wages can anticipate little response under the NLRA. The employee must first hope that the Labor Board takes her case; if they do and the employee is successful before a judge, he says, “the best [the employee] could hope for is a notice and posting requirement.” If an employee is fired, for that matter, the strongest remedy she can expect from the Labor Board is lost wages. 

Under the Paycheck Fairness Act, an employee would not have to rely on having the Labor Board take her case. Instead, she would be able to go straight to federal court and seek real remedies, including compensatory and punitive damages.
This prospect scares Republicans. As much as they complain about the Labor Board and its “pro-union bias,” they much prefer its regulatory structure to one where workers could take their cases directly to court, have their cases heard before a jury of their peers, and be awarded damages that actually compensate workers for their losses, while punishing and deterring employers. Right now, Republicans can rein in and control the Labor Board by blocking nominees—thereby denying the Board a quorum—or halting funding; although the Senate does have to approve federal judge appointments, the same level of interference is not possible in the court system. Conservatives complain about the Labor Board, but they fear the courts.]

I also mentioned that I thought libertarians would be all for empowering individuals, but I guess it's all about empowering corporations.

Then he came back with an insult to The Old Lady. I can call her The Old Lady, but when someone says "Tell your wife to learn to read" instead of addressing the comment to her directly, we both take umbrage. She's not a possession!! 

This is typical of trying to discuss things with a libertarian or a FuckingRepublican (I'm still wondering if there is a difference. Nobody has ever given me a rational explanation of why libertarians side with the GOP) . They keep throwing out talking points and if you call them on the it and point out the facts then they start insulting your intelligence and name-calling.