BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin will pry your Klondike bar from your cold dead fingers.

calendar   Sunday - December 13, 2009

A Different Christmas Poem

Some of you might recall that I’ve joined a Toastmasters club that is affiliated with the local Republican Party. This was sent to us by… frankly, I forget her title, not chairwoman, but maybe executive secretary of the local GOP? I can’t remember. She does show up occasionally to update us, and ask for speakers to support this-or-that local campaign.

I don’t know who wrote it. Maybe it’s the LCDR who appears at the end of the poem. The picture was also included in the email. I don’t know who it is, or even if it is the LCDR. But it made nice copy.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall..”

“ So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

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Followed up with this request:

PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being able to celebrate these
festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq

Yeah, a good reminder that we are indeed fighting a war on two fronts—on the battlefield, and at home against our own potential Reids, Pelosis, Obamas Quislings. Let’s resolve to do our best to fight FOR our troops against the Democrat enemy.


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Posted by Christopher   United States  on 12/13/2009 at 05:43 PM   
Filed Under: • FREEDOMHeroesHolidaysMilitaryPatriotismWar On Terror •  
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On the threshold of madness

"Find yourself a Drew over there” cracks Rich. Yeah, right.

Let me tell you, it ain’t easy being me. I never get the easy jobs, just the crap.

Today it was “Can you fix the door? It won’t close properly when it’s cold.” Oy. It’s an anodized aluminum hollow section exterior office door, in a hollow section aluminum frame, with an aluminum threshold mounted on slab concrete. The door “hangs” from two “security pin” hinges, each one a single knuckle 1.25” diameter with a 5/8” screwed in pin, riding against a single knuckle that is integral to the door frame. The top pin screws in from the underside, and the bottom pin screws in from the top. Which means the entire weight of the door is carried by the lower pin, because the upper pin is there just for alignment. In theory a single stamped lock nut keeps the lower pin from backing out, although in reality both upper and lower pins have a little set screw in the sides for “security”. Which means you can take the door off from the outside in about 5 minutes with a screwdriver and a C clamp. Such security. It’s hardly worth installing a lock on the damn thing.

And that’s exactly how I adjusted it. Blast both hinges with WD-40, loosen the set screws, then lift up the entire door by tightening a 4” C clamp around the upper hinge. The damn door came up 1/4” with hardly an effort at all. Then it was just a matter of screwing down the bottom pin until it contacted the boss (a ground contact plate under the lower hinge pin). Which I hope is steel. Best fix would be to use a great honking thrust washer between the knuckles of the lower hinge. It’s a cheap design, and it’s a cheap door. But I got it fixed.

Then I had to adjust the sweep on the inside. That’s when I found out that it was mounted with plain steel screws. Ages ago. Totally corroded of course. Rusted in place and rusted almost through. Nothing more fun than being down on my hands and knees, face almost on the ground, making my own impact hammer out of a screwdriver and a 10” adjustable wrench.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s official duck hunting weather here today? Freezing rain falling from the sky with passion. I passed half a dozen accidents on the way down, cops out everywhere, ambulances creeping along. Black ice on everything, and I guess the highway department has the weekend off. Not a handful of sand or salt on any of the roads anywhere. And out in that mess is me, down on my knees on the cold wet concrete. Damn. But I got it done, and brought the sweep down enough to keep the stronger breezes out.

So of course the threshold is now all out of whack. And it’s been messed with before. The 3 main screws that hold it down are rusted to bits, and OF COURSE the screw slots are just chewed to shit. And some bright boy has tried to help things in the past by screwing 3 or 4 drywall screws into each end of the threshold, were OF COURSE the door rubs on them, so those screw heads are both chewed up and worn down. Nothing to get a bite on with any kind of tool.

“Lucky” for me that there’s a Home Depot just down the street. So I go there and buy a few #14 2 1/2” screws to replace the beat ones. What I want is Grade 8 or better. No such luck. So I buy the store brand instead. Bring them back, screw one down into the hole where the old #14 screw came out ... feel it start to bite ... one turn, two turns ... and it shears. Shit. Try the next hole. One turn, two turns, starting to grab, snap. That one sheared as well. Son. Of. A. Beach. #*(!ing dog &*^# camel ~+%^ shit steel from China. WTFF! DAMN YOU HOME DEPOT. DAMN YOU TO HELL.

This is one of my worst pet peeves. All the hardware stores only carry nuts bolts and screws imported from China these days. And China - as usual - turns out a garbage product. It’s not that a #14 screw is a dinky little thing. Hell no. You OUGHT to be able to anchor a car with one or two. They’re pretty hefty. You don’t use a #2 Phillips screwdriver with these, you need the special, hard to find, bloody gigantic #3 Phillips. A screwdriver that can double as a tire iron. The screw shaft is nearly 1/4” across. And they sheared off with hand pressure. Deep in the holes too, naturally. Because Chinese steel is even worse than French plastic. And the froggies make some sorry ass plastic. It’s nearly powder, since they save a few euros by not heating it up properly during manufacture.

You need screws? Go to McFeelys if you can’t find American made ones locally. Even screws from Taiwan are far better than the junk from China. Ooh, but they cost less! Sure, because they’re absolute crap. I thought I’d learned my lesson with a huge drywall project some years ago ... but you hold out hope, and pray you’ll get lucky, because the chicom screws are almost all that’s available. And halfway through a job you don’t have the luxury of mail ordering stuff.

So that was a couple hours of cold wet aggravating non-fun. Now it’s time to prop up the ADA sink I wrote about the other day. Let’s see, how to do that? Ah, I know, let’s tighten the mounting bracket. OK ... crawl under the sink (very glad I just washed the bathroom floor!) ... and there is no mounting bracket. No lag bolts holding it onto the wall either. WTH? This sink has some kind of hidden mount, and a couple of holes on the underside of the hollow porcelain with some sort of bolt on a strap dohicky thingamabob. Is that the mount? Some kind of lever operated turnbuckle? Beats me. So I tighten them up until I start hearing those scary crunchy pottery sounds. Is it tight? No. Does it still sag? Yes. And look, when you push down on the lip of the sink, the WALL bows outward!! Huh? this ain’t right. So I find a nice hefty steel shelf bracket, made in America, all white powder coated and gusseted for strength. I figure I can mount that to the sidewall and support the sink, right? Ought to work. Use the stud finder, locate stud in the right area, jack up the sink, mark the holes, then mount the bracket with 3 5/16” diameter lag bolts. That ought to hold a cranky pony, at least. So supporting a 60lb sink should be nothing. Funny thing though - the pilot holes drilled awfully easy. Through the drywall, then a bit of pressure, then POP! and the drill bit sank in all the way. Huh. So I do all the work, let the jack down, and watch the bracket torque off to the side under the weight of the sink. Son of a bitch, the damn wall is made with metal studs.

Metal studs suck ass. Sure, they’re just fine for holding the drywall in place. And they cost less, weigh less, and are faster to install than wood studs. But they’re made out of tinfoil. You can’t hang anything from them. And they don’t support screws and bolts for shit. No wonder the sink is sagging off the wall. There’s no wall in the wall. Darn sink is supposed to be held in place by a 2x8 brace between 2x4 studs.

Another cheap ass implementation. Office buildings are just shells. The walls are just for show. The ceiling is just a fiberglass panel that hides some wires. I am just so sick and tired of this. Everything is made like crap, installed like crap, and built like crap. Which makes repairing things nearly impossible.

As far as I can tell, to have this ADA sink held properly in place, I’ll have to tear out the wallboard and install actual studs, long ones that I can screw into the concrete slab on the bottom and clamp on to the rebar truss roofing network ten feet above. I can’t see any other way to have a strong enough wall. But what else can I do? It’s a customer bathroom, therefore the sink has to be ADA compliant. Which means no legs or pedestals under the sink. This sucks.

I am slowly. Going. Crazy.

UPDATE: As the text message junkies say, “FML”. I’m as tenacious as a terrier, so I couldn’t just walk away from that sink situation. No, Google is my bitch, and the entire world is on the internet, therefore my solution is out there. Somewhere. I tried and I tried, and entered all sorts of searches. Finally I tried something like “hidden mount ADA sink” and in the results saw the words “concealed arm carrier”. I knew they weren’t talking about guns, so I followed the link to Zurn, which showed me what these things are. Then I had to download and install a free copy of SolidWorks’ eViewer, so I could read the .dxf file. I’d never even heard of a .dxf file; turns out that’s an AutoCad rendering. So I put that in, read the file, and saw my nemesis, that two armed bastard. Now properly enlightened, another quick Google sent me to MiFab, where an even better picture showed me what was going on.

A “concealed arm carrier” is a sink support that is mounted inside the wall, and two iron bars stick out of the wall like arms. The hollow sink slides onto them, and a couple of screws adjust the tilt of the sink up and down. Son of a gun. Duh. No wonder that sink wasn’t lag screwed into the wall - it wasn’t supposed to be. And the screws I was turning just tightened the sink to the mounting bars. They didn’t do a darn thing to adjust the saggy angle. Sha-grin.  red face

So tomorrow morning I’ll go back down there with a knife, a caulk gun, and a screw driver. Loosen the locking screws, pare off the caulk seam I put in, and turn the adjusting screws. That should raise the lip up and get the back edge snugged up to the wall. Re-tighten, re-caulk. And it should be good to go. Duh, I’d better take my adjustable wrench too, to remove the utterly useless and unnecessary bracket that I put in today. And if this doesn’t work, at least I can explain why the wall needs to come out - to replace the carrier.

Parts drawings on the overleaf:

See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/13/2009 at 04:41 PM   
Filed Under: • work and the workplace •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

THE GREAT WATER TANK ADVENTURE OF OUGHT 9

I didn’t even want to boot this morning. Exhausted to be truthful and yesterday and last night was a nightmare of sorts.

Still, I always try and generally succeed in stopping and remembering that I’m far luckier then many.  Really.  It may not be a perfect roof over over our heads but it’s holding out the rain and there’s some heat indoors in some rooms when it’s cold.  And we sure don’t go hungry.  Oh boo-hoo. Poor me.  I had to boil some water in a pan and carry it upstairs early this morning, pour it into the bathroom sink, add some cold and then proceeded to shave. Gee, what a hardship.

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The electrician arrived with our new water heater at ten minutes to four yesterday afternoon.  He didn’t finish till about 8:10 that night. And I helped by running up and down the stairs to the kitchen sink, to report if water was coming thru the hot water tap there.

Let me explain.  The old tank had to be drained. In this house, if the hot water has to be turned off, which thankfully doesn’t happen often, it ALWAYS causes an airlock.  And it’s hell to undo.  So, a hose was attached to the new tank and run out through the bathroom window and down to the front yard.

Then, a hose extension was attached and run around to the back of the house where the only outside faucet is.  Had to turn on that water and blow it into the tank to try and free that airlock.  Which of course meant that I was also running back and forth from the back yard to the front to communicate thru the open window in that upstairs bathroom to see if things were working out. They weren’t.  Also tried the old way of putting a hose between the hot and cold water tap in the upstairs sink, forcing water from one to the other.

It took an hour to finally get it unblocked.

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so out that window drops the hose. keep this in mind. it’s very cold and it is very dark. fortunately the front security light keeps coming on and burns for three minutes. but it’s activated by movement so it comes on every time you’re near it. it covers the corner of the house and driveway and part of the front.

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okay so I’m getting more exercise then I ever planned on but it felt good running back and forth except for the damn chest pains.  well not really pain at all. not even close. just not comfortable.

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Oh ... I forgot to mention it above.  Once the tank was installed and the new immersion heater put in place, it was found to have a missing part. But NOT the kind of part that could be replaced by a part from another unit and screwed on. It’s a fixture of some kind.  Luckily, the electrician had another new one on the truck and so then uninstalled the faulty rod and put in the other one. But it’s all time consuming.  It’s taken me a bit of time to relate this but by the time all was done, it was a bit past 8pm.  With the unit installed now and the red light glowing indicating it was heating water … I happily fell exhausted into bed with a book.

Up this morning and needing a shave as it had been a few days, went into the bathroom and ran hot water in the sink.  Except …

THERE WASN’T ANY HOT WATER.  IT WAS RUNNING OUT COOL.

We paid £65 more for weekend setup because after four days minus hot water, we did not want to go the weekend without it.  Or at least I didn’t. 

I think it was only pure luck or whatever else you want to call it, before leaving last night Phil, the fellow who installed the tank and did hook up, suggested I take his cell phone number in case there were any problems.  So I called at 8:10 this morning and he was here by 8:30.

What happened was, he had turned down the temp. setting quite low while we were working with a mostly empty tank and trying to clear that airlock.  By the time things were in hand and equipment and drop cloths were picked up and things cleared away and hoses unhooked etc., he forgot to set the water temp.  Think this is over?  HA! 
He turned things back on again after setting the correct temp. and waited about 15 minutes to see if warm water would finally come out.  Of course the entire tank wouldn’t heat up in 15 minutes, but enough at the top would so at least you’d know it was heating. And it was.

UNFORTUNATELY

He then discovered after a little time that the thermostat did not seem to be working properly.
Turns out it was defective I guess and so he put another one in, in a matter of a few minutes.

So then, all is now well.  I think.  I hope it is.  Yeah. I’m sure it is.  Maybe.
Stay Tuned.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/13/2009 at 10:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
Comments (5) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

When tolerance is taken too far.  America … please note.  That ocean is not a barrier anymore.

I was gonna take a day off today, which will be explained in my following post.  Been a fraught 24 hours.
Saw this earlier today and thought it was something that needed to be shared, most especially with fellow Americans.
It may not be this exact way in the US at this moment.  But my feeling is it isn’t too far away.
Simply change wording and maybe substitute towns or cities in the US.

This is just another example of what’s wrong here and why many feel the place is doomed.


Telegraph View: Haringey Council seems determined to evade its responsibility to ensure that Muslims are integrated into British society

Telegraph View

One of the most pressing challenges for Britain – not just for the Government, but for the whole of our society – is to find a way to integrate fundamentalist Muslims: to ensure that they embrace the basic values of tolerance, equality of the sexes, and the primacy of secular democracy as a way of making law.

Haringey Council currently provides an object lesson in how not to meet that critical challenge. As this newspaper reported more than six weeks ago, a Muslim school there, run by individuals with links to the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, received £113,000 of taxpayers’ money last year. After our report, state funding was suspended. Now it has been resumed: an investigation by Haringey Council found “no evidence to suggest inappropriate content or influence at the school”.

One of the school’s three trustees is Farah Ahmed. She has refused to deny membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, and has also written a pamphlet attacking the National Curriculum for “pushing the idea of religious tolerance”. In it, she insists that “attempts to integrate Muslim children” into secular society are an effort to “produce new generations that reject Islam”. She attacks English literature as “one of the most damaging subjects”, and says democracy is a “corrupt tradition” and Western education is “a threat” to Muslims’ “beliefs and values”.

If those attitudes do not count as “inappropriate content or influence” when it comes to state funding, it is hard to see what does. Yet Haringey seems determined to evade its responsibility to ensure that Muslims are integrated into British society. As does the Government: Ed Balls, the Children’s Minister, has backed the council. There could be no more effective way of ensuring that religious minorities remain dangerously excluded from mainstream society.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

£113,000 of taxpayers’ money to dump on the host country.  And they put up with it. This is why islam will rule here one day.
The citizens don’t have guns. Bet ya the muzzies will when the time comes.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/13/2009 at 09:42 AM   
Filed Under: • CULTURE IN DECLINEEditorialsRoPMAUK •  
Comments (6) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Saturday - December 12, 2009

Understanding Climate Change With One Picture

all it takes is a little perspective




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Click pic for bigger version




For nearly all the years that people have been people, the climate has been much warmer than it is today. We are currently in a cold period, not a warm one. And if the Earth can warm up and cool down this much all by itself, how can you fault humanity for this latest blip?



Does this mean that CO2 isn’t a greenhouse gas? No. Does it mean that it isn’t warming? No. Does it mean that we shouldn’t develop clean, efficient technology that gets its energy elsewhere than burning fossil fuels?  Of course not.

For climate science it means that the Hockey Team climatologists’ insistence that human-emitted CO2 is the only thing that could account for the recent warming trend is probably poppycock.




Plenty more graphs, plus text and tons of comments, over at Watts Up With That?.

Lovely timelines like this one and this one can be found at Parthenongraphics.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/12/2009 at 11:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
Comments (5) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

WEEKEND WOMEN

So I thought I would start out with mommy and daughter.

GOLDIE HAWN has long been a favorite. Not only her looks but her talent as an actress and as a director. Have liked her since Laugh In days. She always stood out from the crowd.  I know hardly anything about her daughter KATE HUDSON except that she is a stunner.  I think I may once have seen her in a movie. Can’t remember.


GOLDIE HAWN AND KATE HUDSON

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Gee guys, don’t we just LOVE pretty women?  Well, I think most of us do.  I look at either of these two and melt and can’t imagine ever wanting to hold hands with Kurt Russell.  Much less anything else.  The only thing that rivals these ladies might, I say might, be beautiful classic cars.  Like this for example.

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STUTZ BEARCAT
I could fill this page and more with cars but then it wouldn't be Weekend Women. Maybe I'll include a car each week. Just one. Cos I truly LOVE the horseless carriage.

OK ..  Here’s some cheese cake from the year 1909. MISS MAIE ASH But then things pick up a bit by the 1930’s and a favorite blond bombshell from that era,the fabulous JEAN HARLOW.

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My finale for today was not a find of my own.  If anyone doesn’t like this awesome beauty from Russia, blame Drew.  He sent it to me. How could I ignore this one.  No way Hozay.  She is gor-jus but I have to say.  Women really don’t look like this everyday unless they’re posing for a camera or dating Tiger Woods.
And none of them look this good.

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Posted by peiper   United States  on 12/12/2009 at 07:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
Comments (4) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Baby P Torturer Floored By Fellow Inmate … GOOD!  Sorry he didn’t cripple the bastard. Or kill him

I hadn’t intended this to be an early Saturday post but found it when I went to my inbox.

Some of you may recall I went somewhat ballistic on this story and all of our readers who took time to comment, were not far behind me.

The baby mentioned was only 17 months old.

So the scum is jailed and .....

Steven Barker, the boyfriend of Baby Peter’s mother who was jailed for his part in the child’s death, has been attacked in prison.
SKY NEWS

The 6ft 4in lifer was punched to the floor by a fellow inmate and needed hospital treatment at HMP Wakefield.

The attacker - who has a history of prison violence - was ready to continue the assault when guards intervened, prison sources told Sky News Online.

Barker was knocked to the floor with a “single blow” and no weapons were used, the source added.

It is understood the attack was part of a planned ambush.

A prison service spokesman told Sky: “We can confirm that a prisoner at Wakefield was assaulted by another prisoner.

“Thanks to the prompt and professional action of officers at the prison who intervened the situation was brought under control almost immediately.

“The prisoner who was attacked was provided treatment at the medical unit and the assailant is in the segregation unit.”

Barker - who was the boyfriend of Baby Peter’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28 - was first jailed for his part in the death of 17-month old Peter Connelly in Tottenham, North London.

He was later given a life sentence for the rape of a two-year-old girl.

Baby Peter died in August 2007 after suffering 50 injuries including a broken spine.

Connelly, Barker and his brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed in May.

SOURCE

People like this exhibit violent criminal behavior loooong ,long before it gets to this pass.  So why aren’t they taken out sooner?  Why does a baby have to be raped and another tortured and killed before anything is done?  This creep and his brother should have been taken somewhere and shot early on.


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/12/2009 at 07:11 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeJustice - LACK OFUK •  
Comments (3) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Friday - December 11, 2009

Water tank and electronics in an old house … problems almost near an end. GUARANTEED.

Well, todays the day. GUARANTEED!  New unit scheduled for replacement this afternoon between 1 and 2.

Just so you guys know what I’ve been posting about these last few days, here it is. 

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SOME OTHER VIEWS ... TO THE RIGHT IS OBVIOUS.  DON’T KNOW IF BRITS STILL CALL IT A WATER CLOSET BUT IT ISN’T MUCH BIGGER. ALSO CALLED THE LOO. THERE IS NO SEPARATE CONTROL OF WATER THERE. FOR EXAMPLE, SHOULD THAT TANK OVERFLOW, THERE IS NO VALVE OR TAP TO SHUT OFF.  YOU WOULD HAVE TO RUN DOWNSTAIRS AND SHUT THE WATER TO THE HOUSE OFF FROM A TAP UNDER THE KITCHEN SINK. THEN RUN OUTDOORS TO THE FAR FRONT OF THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR. OUT THERE IS THE CONTROL FROM THE MAIN WATER LINE THAT ENTERS THE HOUSE.

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These are the electronics, fuses etc. for the house as installed in 1924 with a few updates over the years.
2wice a year someone from the electric company comes to your house to read that grey box.  There is a long list of numbers which is accessed by pushing that blue button you see there. Each pressing of that button gives a reading of various things. I never asked.
Once or twice we have had to do the reading which is very difficult as we can not always make out the numbers in the small window provided there.
It would cost THOUSANDS to move all that and modernize and take it outside. Some of that wiring quite old.
These controls are in the kitchen.

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/11/2009 at 09:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily LifePersonalUK •  
Comments (5) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

New Yuks from Rich K

Life Under Obamacare

The phone rings and the lady of the house answers.

“Hello?”

“Mrs. Sanders, please.”

“Speaking.”

“Mrs. Sanders, this is Dr. Jones at St. Agnes Laboratory. When your husband’s doctor sent his biopsy to the lab last week, a biopsy from another Mr. Sanders arrived as well. We are now uncertain which one belongs to your husband. Frankly, either way the results are not too good.”

“What do you mean?” Mrs. Sanders asks nervously.

“Well, one of the specimens tested positive for Alzheimer’s and the other one tested positive for HIV. We can’t tell which is which.”

“That’s dreadful! Can you do the test again?” questioned Mrs. Sanders.

“Normally we can, but the new health care system will only pay for these expensive tests just one time.”

‘’Well, what am I supposed to do now? “

“The folks at ‘ObamaCare’ recommend that you drop your husband off somewhere in the middle of town. If he finds his way home, don’t sleep with him.”


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/11/2009 at 05:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

ALRIGHT, LONG AS I WAS ON THE SUBJECT. I LEFT THIS ONE OUT COS IT DIDN’T FIT RIGHT.

Yeah I suppose I could have stuck this one in someplace in my previous posting. But somehow I thought (correctly) it would spoil the mood of that post.

So here it is ... on its own.  I think it’s funny but I can’t remember where I got it so sorry.  NO LINK. 

One of you guys with the right software and know how to use same, can light this guy up.

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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/11/2009 at 03:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

More Stevie!






He’s got the SOJ* part down pat! The cheesy puns are good, but he needs to work on his slightly annoyed, slightly impatient, slightly out of breath delivery.


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* Sunglasses Of Justice, naturally!


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/11/2009 at 03:07 PM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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chesterfield cigarettes. not a cough in a carload.  lucky strike green goes to war.

Hey ... that’s how they used to advertise guys.  Chesterfield boasted not a cough in a carload in the 30’s and possibly early 40s.
Lucky Strike cigarettes used to have a green colored pack. Once America went to war in 1941, they couldn’t get green dye I guess. They went to the white pack I’m familiar with as I smoked those things steadily for 38 years. Unfiltered.  In 1941 they advertised, Lucky Strike Green goes to war, and went to the white package.

But way,way before then ...like way before.  Well known actresses appeared on packs. Like this brand.

imageimage

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Smoke,smoke,smoke that cigarette.  So I did.  But times and tastes changed. And so did cigarette ads and images.
From 1933. Lucky Strike Green
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Not a Cough in a carload.  1940
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I tried smoking Old Gold because I liked the package design.  But quickly went back to Luckies and stayed there.
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By 1948, the folks who made my coffin nails had TV and things got interesting before they settled down to just plain dull and boring.
This was great stuff in ‘48.

H/T http://www.archive.org/details/LuckyStr1948

But in modern times like today ..... the makers can make us look like this and not only that. Vitamins too.  But I don’t wanna look like her.
So here I am stuck. Old,bald, over the hill and waiting for a water heater to be installed tomorrow.  GUARANTEED!

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OK, hang on.  Youthful Glow I can accept. I can live with that.  (cough)



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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/11/2009 at 02:16 PM   
Filed Under: • HistoryMiscellaneousPersonal •  
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First Night, One Light

Chanukah Sameach!



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Just for fun, here is the latke song.

There are millions of recipes for latkes, also known as potato pancakes. I love them. But the best ones ever are my mother’s. Of course! Take 2 large peeled Russet potatoes and run them over the wire grid grater and don’t throw out the juice. Beat in an egg. A splash of milk I think. Toss in a tight handful of chopped yellow onion, but not too much. Add some salt. Now add enough white flour to make a thin batter. That’s it. No garlic, no carrots, no schmaltz (but a little can’t hurt), no matzoh meal. Cook them up like pancakes in an iron skillet with a small amount of Crisco or olive oil. Not deep fried. They turn out soft and a little chewy, just like pancakes. Add salt, pepper, butter, and sour cream and they are divine. Try them with applesauce too. You have to make them in small, 2-4 potato batches because the grated potato starts to turn brown quickly. Maybe that’s entirely the wrong way to make them. I don’t care. The crispy ones I’ve had are hardly different from McDonald’s hash browns.

Hmm, it may be that she goes her own way in the kitchen. Her Yorkshire Pudding is a soft and chewy lightly browned souffle made with loads of meat juices, while most other yorkies are cooked until they’re as crisp as cookies. Bleh. Mom’s is better. [ hmm, her potato pancakes may actually be Swedish raggmunk. Like I said, millions of recipes out there. ]



Anyway, a very happy Hannukah to everyone, best wishes to all, and let’s try and be a better ally with Israel.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 12/11/2009 at 01:13 PM   
Filed Under: • Holidays •  
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GLOBALWARMINGGLOBALWARMINGGLOBALWARMINGGLOBALWARMINGGLOBALWARMINGGLOBALWARMING

Some other nice photos at the link ...


UPDATE WATER HEATER

OK so, we found someone through age concern and he came out and looked at what we have.  Doesn’t look very good as the immersion heater won’t come cleanly away from the the tank it sits in. There was always that danger and I was aware of it the last time that part was replaced.

Cut to the chase we are looking at a new water tank/heater.  Doubtful it can be done today, it’s already late in the day.  So we hope by tomorrow.
I suppose the upside is that a new water tank will be more energy efficient cost wise to run.
Stay Tuned.

Temperatures to plummet to -3C as Britain faces a weekend of freezing fog and ice

By Arthur Martin
Last updated at 1:18 PM on 11th December 2009

After enduring the wettest November on record, you might have hoped for a bit of respite before the Big Chill.

Alas, any relief you might have enjoyed will be frozen out this weekend by sub-zero temperatures and widespread frosts.

Temperatures will drop to lows of 3C (37F) in the daytime and will plummet to minus 3C (27F) or less in northern parts of the UK at night.

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Forecasters believe the cold temperatures could bring snow to northern and eastern parts of the UK next week, most likely over hills.

Travellers attempting to make an early start to their weekend today were hampered by a thick layer of fog which shrouded much of the country.

The RAC warned drivers of increasingly treacherous conditions on the roads, with visibility limited to less than 100metres in some places.

Bosses at Heathrow Airport were forced to cancel 56 flights today. Holidaymakers and business travellers whose flights were still operating faced delays of up to an hour.

Stunning: In this picture from the Lake District, sheep graze as a blanket of fog covers the valley beneath them. It was taken by Becki Higgins on the A6 in Keswick, Cumbria

Forecasters said much of the fog had cleared by mid-morning, but some pockets are persisting.

Sarah Holland from the Met Office said: ‘Over the past couple of weeks we’ve seen very unsettled weather, although it has been very mild.

‘It’s going to feel significant colder over the next few days, but at least many will be able to enjoy bright crisp days.

‘The cold weather is caused by a cold front coming in from Scandinavia.’

The Met Office said it was too early to predict if this cold snap would increase the prospects of snow on Christmas Day.

However, Paul Michaelwaite, forecaster for NetWeather.tv, was less reticent. He predicted the cold spell would last ‘right through Christmas’.

‘There are no certainties,’ he said. ‘I’d say 30 per cent to 40 per cent risk of snow [on Christmas Day] - not a bad risk two weeks away.’

LINK HERE FOR PIX


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Posted by peiper   United Kingdom  on 12/11/2009 at 09:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-WeatherDaily LifeEnvironment •  
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