One Of My Projects Before Winter

I moved the carport to cover the travel trailer. That's the only way to keep the roof on the trailer from leaking, by putting a roof over it.

Work in progress, I got this end closed in and only need to put metal up on the other gable end.

Because I won't be here to remove the snow off the roof this winter I decided I needed to reinforce the roof. The frames for the carport are a little over 4 feet apart and I figure with the amount of snow we get the roof panels could sag from the weight of the snow. I put 2x4s between the frames to support the sheetmetal panels.

Hopefully I put enough 2x4s to reinforce the roof. 

Notice how little room there is to work.

The hard part was working over the trailer as there wasn't a lot of room to work. If I had been putting the carport up for the first time I would have put the 2x4s in before putting the metal on, but I had already assembled it a couple years ago to put my boats in. That meant I had to get the screws back in the same holes again.

The metal I'm using to close in the gable ends is from a 12x60 mobile home we used to have. I dismantled it 10 years ago. The metal is aluminum, but the price for scrap aluminum hasn't been high enough where I felt it was worth the gas to haul it to a salvage yard!! So I have been using pieces for a couple projects. This is one and I covered the end wall on the barn with the aluminum. The barn used to be twice as long, but my brother tore down the haybarn part 55 years ago and the end wall was bare boards. I used lumber wrap and aluminum to cover it and stop the cold winds from coming thru the wall.

Veteran Memes

I am a disabled veteran, life member of the DAV. I'm feeling highly insulted with all these veteran vs whatever memes. A few years ago it was illegal immigrants, i.e. illegal immigrants deserve nothing, Veterans deserve everything. (My niece posted that one and unfriended me when I said illegal immigrants don't bother me, it's the cheap bastards that hire them!!) Now the latest group to be denigrated is refugees. We can't help refugees because we need to take care of the vets and in the end nobody gets any help. The vets get the same-old, same-old, LIP SERVICE!! And Jackshit as far as more help.

Spreading the various memes of veterans vs whatever is so easy, a couple of mouse clicks and you're done. Then you can feel good about yourself like if you actually did something to help the vets. That helps about as much as "Thoughts and Prayers," which is FUCK ALL!!

Actually these memes are doing the opposite of what people think when they spread them on social media. People think everyone is doing stuff to help the vets when in reality (some people don't even have a passing acquaintance with reality!!) everybody thinks someone else is doing something to help and nobody is. It's that "Thoughts and Prayers" mentality.  But hey, it's the thought that counts, RIGHT??

I feel insulted by the use of veterans to denigrate or refuse to help others because you don't happen to like that particular group. I've lost count of how many groups they've pitted the veterans against, illegal immigrants, refugees, even community college students (instead of giving free tuition, we should spend that money on the vets.) We are supposedly the richest nation in the world, we can afford anything, all it takes is the WILL TO DO IT, which is sorely lacking!!  And don't call this a christian nation when you do refuse to help!!

Another thing is when a football player doesn't stand for the anthem and immediately people are saying he is disrespecting the veterans. NEWS FLASH, every veteran when they were sworn in swore to uphold the Constitution, that means they didn't serve to take rights away from people!! This country was built on protest, if there hadn't been protests the national anthem would be "God Save The Queen"!! If you think the flag and/or anthem represents the military/veterans, your thinking is totally ASS BACKWARDS!!

Another thing that grinds my gears a bit is people going around telling veterans, "Thank You for your service". That does Jackshit other than making the person saying that feel good, look at me, I did a good deed, I thanked a veteran!! It actually kinda creeps me out to see perfect strangers going up to vets and saying, "Thank You for your service." That's why I never wear anything that would signify that I am a veteran.

 If you really want to thank a veteran do something to improve the situation for vets. There are 22 vets committing suicide every fucking day!! Lots of veterans are homeless. Some wait many months for a hearing on disability claims and years to hear an appeal on disability claims. I know the later from personal experience.

There are times when I feel we got used 50 years ago. The United States was in a pissing contest with the Soviet Union and Vietnam was just the proxy. Whether we were used then is debatable, but I damn sure don't want to be used now. Don't use veterans as an excuse to justify your prejudices!! 

Basically it's all just LIP SERVICE, just like the politicians that say, "We love the veterans" and when in office vote against most of the bills that are designed to help the vets!! It's gotten to the point where the only LIP SERVICE I want to see is for the aforementioned people to KISS MY DISABLED VETERAN ASS!!

An Old Dude Had To Be Involved In Naming These Jeans

An older person had to be involved in naming these jeans. I can remember when I was a kid older guys talking about tight pants as being like a cheap hotel, no ballroom!!