The Eclectic Dragonfly

mood: tired

And then some!

Posting’s been rather light of late, for which I apologize.  Here’s a smattering of why:

Saturday: Yard Sales and errands.

Sunday: Flea Market and dinner with friends (more on that in a moment).

Monday: Galileo goes in the shop for around $300 worth of work installing parts that had to be ordered from Germany and took nearly a month to be made and shipped.

Tuesday 2:00am: Mum wakes me up wondering “What’s that beep?”  Investigation revealed that the UPS on Mum’s alarm clock was having power problems.  That unplugged and we went back to bed.

Tuesday 4:20am: I awake to the sound of crackling, roll over in time to catch the light show from the breaker panel in my bedroom closet as the heater shuts down.  Fortunately I’d left the breaker panel door opened during the earlier diagnosis or I might have missed it.  There is an audible electrical hum coming from the box.

Not good.

I switched off the oil burner master switch and the hum went away.  So did the heat, but I suspect it may have gotten somewhat hotter than I really wanted it to if I didn’t…

Back to bed – but not to sleep.

Tuesday: Work.  All morning meetings.  Ug!  I finally got to call an electrician around 11:00am.  Had to leave a message.  He called back within a remarkably short time and said he was in town and could be at the house in about fifteen or twenty minutes.  Good to his word he came right over and Mum showed him where the breaker panel is.  He checked out our systems and had to go back to his shop to put something together for us.  After driving back out to the house and fixing the problem he only charged us $100.  And Mum says he was very pleasant to talk with and seemed quite knowledgeable.  I think we have a new team member!  If you’ve read Robert Kiyosaki or Dolf de Roos you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Wednsday: I took the day off.  Mum had hip replacement surgery Wednesday morning and we had to be there at 0900.  We actually got to the hospital at 0830 which made us both happy.  I don’t like to rush and the stress was already more than I’d want to cut with my Boker Cop Tool.

Surgery went well.  Mum was in recovery about on time, but her surgeon didn’t call to give me an update until over an hour and tem minutes late and then only after I had them track him down to call.

Grumble grumble!  Long as Mum’s OK is all I really care about.

Around four in the afternoon I finally got in to see Mum in the recovery room.  For all of five minutes!  Mum looked better in that five minute visit than she did over two weeks after her surgery last spring!

Finally at precisely seven thirty very PM Mum was rolled into her room.  All seemed well so I headed home twelve hours after our arrival - after going out to the car twice to get things for her.  Did I mention that Mum’s room is on the far opposite corner of the building from where we were parked?  No?  How could it be otherwise?

The night time construction on 495 was entertaining!  First the left two lanes were closed.  Then a few miles up the highway the right two lanes were closed in a different construction site.  They were painting the dashed lines on the road in that one.  Much less traffic disruption, having them work at night.  I approve!

Thursday: Back to work.  Blah blah blah. SOSDD with the exception of going downstairs to the cafeteria instead of having a Mum prepared lunch at my desk.  I suspect I’m going to gain weight as a result!  Aside from the salad bar there doesn’t seem to be too much down there that’s particularly good for me.

Thursday Night: Back out to visit Mum.  Mostly uneventful.  That’s a good thing when visiting people you love in the hospital.  Heading back out to the car – WTF!?  Snow?  <expletive deleted>!!!  Then the road is closed and I’m detoured onto the highway the wrong way!  Fortunately I already had the GPS set up and rerouted around it without much difficulty.

Friday: Back to work.  Blah blah blah. SOSDD – Oh, I already said that.  At lunch I brought my lunch back to my desk and did some bills with the on-line banking system on the computer.  Remember way back at the beginning of this post I said there’d be more later about dinner with friends on Sunday?  I discovered this noon that the restaurant we dined at double charged me on my credit card!  I called and got things straightened out.  They admitted the error and my account should be credited within seven to ten business days.  They are also going to send out a gift card to try to make up for the error.  Mistakes happen and they owned up to it without turning it into a big hairball.  If they are good for their word I’m cool with that.  Tonight Mum had indigestion when I called and said she wasn’t up to having company.  :-(

Now here I sit with a Sammy Octoberfest and Mum is supposed to be going to a rehab facility tomorrow.

Breath…  Deep and slow.  And try to get some sleep!  Maybe after I play that Amazing Grace video again…

mood: surprised

music: See my last post...

I live in a house with zero musical instruments.  None!  I have tools.  I have weapons.  But not a single musical instrument.  I haven’t been without at least a recorder since I was around seven and had plenty of toy instruments before that.  Here I am staring down the barrel of fifty and there isn’t so much as a penny whistle here to be found.

I shall have to remedy that tomorrow.

The rack of recorders, the fife and my penny whistle

The good flute

The good sax

My favorite guitar

(The drum kit can stay in storage…)

I’m not sure yet where I’ll put them all.  But I want them here!

I hope my neighbors don’t mind too much…  *eyeroll*

Have your sound up
and be prepared to have your socks knocked off!

We’ve been rather busy here at the HerrBGone Homestead V2.0 these past few weeks.  I have been on something of an anti-clutter warpath.  The worst offender is was the enclosed porch.  Our original plan for this space was to “fix it up, finish it and turn it into our office and craft room – someday.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t find “Someday” on my calendar.

I proposed a new holiday several yeas ago making February 29^th “Someday” but for some reason I haven’t been able to get anyone to go along with that idea.  It may have been that, without realizing it, I had originally made this proposal in late January or early February of a leap year.  Everyone I mentioned it to said they wanted nothing to do with actually having “Someday” on the calendar because then they’d have to finally do all those things they’d been putting off.

But I digress…

Since “Someday” hasn’t come and the enclosed porch hasn’t been fixed up yet it had become the de facto clutter trap.

Some of the clutter I have been gathering over the years is in the form of tools in anticipation of that day – long in the future – when I would actually have my own workshop.  So I decided to repurpose the space and turn it instead into the workshop I have been wanting for years.  That doesn’t have to wait until the place has been all prettied up.  It’s actually better that it isn’t. 

The straw that finally broke the proverbial camel’s back was my purchase last weekend of a big honking industrial drill press.

Have I mentioned how much I love flea markets?

Oh, I guess I have…

Being much too big and heavy to take home in Galileo, the seller offered to deliver it for me since we live relatively close by.  Now I simply had to get the clutter straightened out enough to have a patch of floor to put it on.  It’s amazing how having an actual deadline can motivate you to get things done!

So why stop with just clearing a patch?  Time to declare it Someday and actually set up the workshop I’ve been craving.

By no means is this the ideal work space.  But it should be plenty usable and it can be improved as I see fit.

And most of all, the space is no longer an unused clutter trap.

UPDATE: The Graffiti and black walls (badly painted over by someone who obviously didn’t want to…) are remnants of the grunge band wannabe’s that lived here before I bought the place. That will be fixed in time. Though I’m not sure how I’m going to fix all of the little dents in the metal siding of the trailer itself that surround where their dart board used to be. At least they only made that level of mess in the enclosed porch.

mood: Stellar

Yesterday, on our way to the flea market, Mum and I stopped at a very good yard sale.  A very good yard sale indeed!  It seems that the woman running the sale has had a husband who decided not to be any more.  Apparently he left in sufficient hast that many of his toys remained behind.  In an effort to make them go away they were priced, how shall I put it? – quite generously.  Yes.  That’s what I would call it.  I’m actually surprised that the items I bought were still there!

The item I shall regale you with in this post is my new (to me) Mead telescope.  It’s a nice slightly older model 76mm x 700mm f=9.2 reflector.  Rather modest as telescopes go.  But it’s on a fairly nice motorized mount with an Autostar 494 controller and folding tripod.  It came with three oculars, a 3x Barlow, a cheesy toy lensatic compass and a small case for the accessories.  The kit also included a red-lensed flashlight to help with setting things up while not messing up your night vision too much.

So last night I messed around with it here in the house since it was cloudy out.  This evening there were some patches of high thin clouds with some thicker bits mixed in.  Between those were some nice bits of sky poking through.  After trying unsuccessfully to align the telescope and get the drive to synchronize with the sky I manually drove it to the brightest object I could find: Jupiter.  By golly I could not only see four of the Galilean moons, but I could even see some detail in the surface of the planet itself.  Well, in its clouds, that is…

As I was looking a shooting star passed by right across the disk of Jupiter.  Very cool!

Using that not very good compass and the amount of light pollution around here didn’t help, but I finally managed to get the system to align itself reasonably well.  After that I used the controller to locate several objects and to tell me what a couple of things I was pointing at were.  Vega was the first ‘hey, what’s this?’ object I’ve identified with this telescope.

One of my biggest problems (third in line after not having much un-blocked sky in my yard and way too much light pollution) is how badly the eyepiece keeps fogging up.

So, a few frustrations, a few good observations and an over-all reasonably satisfying evenings viewing once I got the telescope aligned.  I’d say I got my twenty-five bucks worth out of it this evening.  The rest is gravy.

Captain Greg never had it so good!

Good night from Gull Cottage!

Updating the numbers: Via SayUncle.

mood: amused

An RCMP officer stops at a ranch up in Iron  Mountain , B.C. and talks with the old ranch owner.

He tells the rancher, 'I need to inspect your ranch for illegal grown drugs.'

The old rancher says, 'Okay, but don't go in that field over there.'

The RCMP officer verbally explodes saying, 'Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me.' Reaching into his rear pant pocket and removing his badge. The officer proudly displays it to the farmer.  'See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish… on any land.  No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear?  Do you understand?'

The old rancher nods politely and goes about his chores.

Later, the old rancher hears loud screams and spies the RCMP officer running for his life and close behind is the rancher's bull.

With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer.

The officer is clearly terrified.

The old rancher immediately throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs.....

'Your badge!  Show him your badge!'


- Author unknown.   Just forwarding an email without clogging up your in box…

Well said, sir, as always.

MA SJC to MA DoR: F.U.

According to a report on WCRB radio quoting a statement from his family, the Senior Senator from Massachusetts succumbed to brain cancer over night.  He was 77.

Marine sends Congress a message.

Go forth un to LawDog’s and watch for thyself the video.  I joined the standing ovation in my living room.  I suspect you will too.

Now how much (must we all) pay?

Latest in Stimulus: 'Cash for Refrigerators'

I literally just got in from my local Sears Appliance and Hardware outlet from buying a brandy spanking new refrigerator to replace the one that crapped out on me some time overnight whilst I was blissfully asleep.  The groceries that were in it will be replaced next week after the new one is delivered.

And there was much rejoicing.  Yea.  *eyeroll*

The article says it’s “not a moment too soon” for the appliance industry.  Too bad it’s not soon enough to get me back some of the money I’ve paid out in taxes towards all those other “stimulus” programs.

Tip ‘o the hat to my buddy Roger for the pointer.

Updating my previous post about hypocrisy being alleged against a certain Senator (D) by a certain State Rep. (R), there may be more to the story than I was originally aware.

It seems that there was a change to the law made in the predominantly (D) State legislature just a few short years ago to prevent the previous Governor (R*) from being empowered to appoint an (R**) to replace one of the long entrenched (D)’s presently serving in the Senate, should the opportunity arise.

Harrumph!

These clowns have been playing their games far longer than I’ve been watching.

* In Name Only

** Real or otherwise…

Translation: Read the [expletive deleted] manual, stupid!

Since I couldn’t get the comments page at boston.com to work, I’ll post what I was going to say over there over here instead. 

The article is about the claim of hypocrisy leveled by Representative Jones (R), minority leader of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, at Senator Kennedy (D) for requesting that the Governor of Massachusetts (also a D) be allowed to name a temporary replacement for the ailing Senator if he should be unable to serve out his term. I think it’s a safe bet that the Governor, if so empowered, would select another (D) to fill the seat, if it should become vacant. Hence the very public grousing by the (R) in (at least) one of our major newspapers.

Republicans balk at Kennedy proposal to change succession law

Here’s what I would have said in the comments:

Before spouting off about the alleged hypocrisy of Senator Kennedy’s request, perhaps Mr. Jones should read the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It is entirely appropriate for the Governor to make a temporary appointment should Senator Kennedy be unable to serve out his term. I am not a Democrat and I don’t agree with Senator Kennedy on very many issues. But in this one case he does have the backing of the Constitution. Mr. Jones’ statement is nothing more than petty party bickering.

And just for clarity, here’s what the Constitution has to say on the matter:

The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Key phrase: “may empower”

The Governor is not automatically empowered by the Seventeenth Amendment to fill the vacancy, but the legislatures of the various States are granted the authority to so empower the Governor if they see fit to do so. It’s right there in the manual.

One thing that has occurred to me to be profoundly absent from the manual is the requirement that our elected officials actually read the manual. I’ve commented before on how readable and understandable our Constitution really is. I simply cannot understand how someone can achieve elective office, even at the State level, and not have at least read the Constitution through once. It simply boggles! But then again, they don’t read the bills they’re voting on either, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…

I drive Volkswagens. The car I’m driving in my most often used userpic is Fritz, my ’71 VW Superbeetle.  Most of the time these days I drive a now eleven year old “New” Beetle named Galileo. Galileo has over 178,000 miles on the clock, most of them put there with me behind the wheel. He came into the family back around 2000 when he was barely three years old. (And had driven a lot fewer miles…)

Some time ago I ‘read’ an audio book about a kid with Asperger’s Syndrome. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It’s an interesting book written from the point of view of a young Aspie. One of his quirks is noticing the colours of the cars he sees while on the bus on his way to school. (British spelling because Christopher is from England.) Red is Christopher’s favorite colour and if he happens to see several red cars in a row he figures it going to be a good day.

A cute theory from a fictional kid in an entertaining story.

After ‘reading’ that book it occurred to me that I couldn’t recall a time since Galileo joined the family that I’d seen three VW’s in a row in traffic. Much less three Beetles. Just as a game to play while driving around I started making a point to notice other VW’s. I got into Volkswagens in the first place from playing Punch Buggy. So beetles have always been on the radar. But now other VW’s started getting noticed too.

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve noticed that Galileo and I were in a string of three in a row. And only once have the other two also been New Beetles. Two in a row happens all the time. But three? Almost never.

That’s the back-story. Now to the point.

So I’m driving along this morning minding my own business listening to a CD of sci-fi theme music.  John Williams’ theme originally written for the first Star Trek movie happened to be on at the time.  Galileo and I are on our way to work, when the headrests in the Pasat in front of us aligned themselves so I could see the VW emblem on the back of the Tourag that’s in front of the Pasat.

Cool! Three in a row!

Then all three of us turned into the parking lot of the building I work in. Also cool. We’re still three in a row.

Then as the Tourag and the Toyota in front of it split off to go into opposite parking areas they revealed a Golf that was in front of them. Three in a row again! And for a brief moment as the Toyota turned but before the Tourag started its turn we were four in a row.

Now that’s unprecedented!

None of this means anything – except that I’m paying too much attention to what kinds of cars are around me as I’m driving down the road. I just found it interesting and thought I’d share.

At least it beats channeling Bogart as I was arriving in the parking lot on Monday:

‘Of all the spaces in all the lot he parks it in mine…’

Galileo and I got our regular parking space this morning and it’s been a good day so far. So maybe Christopher was on to something after all… ;-)

mood: amused

How can you tell when the ghost in your attic has finally decided to leave?

It has a cyan aura…

*rim shot*

mood: pleased

Childless man released from child support debt

Good. That’s anther step in the right direction. He’s been released from jail and now from the debt that resulted in his incarceration. Next on the agenda should be reimbursement not only of the $6,000 paid after DNA tests back in 2000 proved the child was not his but of the full amount he paid over the years since 1988. Justice demands no less!

For more on this story see: An absolute outrage!

mood: amused

… on the Lincoln in front of me was a license plate frame that read:

I want to be Barbie

That bitch has everything!

I’ve occasionally thought it would be nice to have everything. But then I have to ask myself, if I did actually have everything – where would I put it?

... over at Snowflakes in Hell:

“They who would sacrifice liberty for security
deserve neither and shall loose both.”

-- Benjamin Franklin, the First Fireman

Go see why.  Then weep for the children who will not know the liberty that we have watched slowly erode these past few decades.  The high ground of American Freedom has been undermined and is finally giving way.  Short of a full-on Reset how do we stop this insanity?

-        Your property (real estate including your home) can be taken by eminent domain and given to a private developer for his commercial purposes if his project will generate more tax revenue for the government than your home

-        Going to a government website relating to automobiles will give the government cart blanch to search you computer – without bothering with a warrant

-        To use many forms of public transportation you must surrender your Fourth Amendment Rights and submit to often humiliating searches of both your papers and effects as well as your person

-        The government has used SWAT teams employing no-knock raid techniques with weapons drawn and flash-bang grenades lobbed in through the windows to forcibly take children from their parents to force unwanted (and later proven unneeded) medical care on the child

-        I won’t even go into ATF’s actions at WacoTexas.  Here’s what you’ll find through Google.

-        American industrial power manufactured our way to victory in WWII but would not be a viable option today because so much of our heavy industry and even light manufacturing has been “off-shored”

-        Many sectors of formerly private industry have been nationalized

-        The government is bankrupt from the costs associated with “stimulating” the economy (see links under nationalization)

-        The “health care bill”

o      includes language giving health care professionals acting as agents of the government real-time access to the financial records of all Americans to determine our eligibility for coverage – without bothering with a warrant – page 58 5~8

o      includes language allowing the requirement of a national ID card (Real ID?) to obtain services – page 58 11~13

o      also includes restricting access to health care for the chronically ill and elderly since it would be more cost effective to give them an aspirin for the pain and to council them on the benefits to society of their committing suicide  – page 425

§       It took the President five months to pick a puppy for the White House yet he wanted to ‘fast-track’ this bill through Congress in two weeks – IMHO, to make sure nobody had time to read it first

-         All children’s books manufactured before 1985 have been banned

-        The “currency” is essentially worthless

-         Because certain cars are deemed ‘politically incorrect’ the government is paying for their destruction

-        And with the vocal opposition to the “health care bill” all over the web the White House has established an email account where you can be a good brown-shirt and rat on your neighbors for expressing ideas that don’t follow the “Official Narrative.”  The email address is flag<at>whitehouse<dot>gov – No direct link from me.  Google that for more details

These are all things that exist and are established fact today.  The “health care bill” could still be stopped, but those provisions are in the bill as written.  The rest are already implemented.

I could go on, but the more I think about all this the more depressed I become about the State of our Union.  And the more angry I become at state of the helpless dependence our government would have us believe We the People are in today. 

Where do we go from here?  I’m open to suggestions.

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, …”

Does America have the will?