In the garden, and RAIN!!!! by SIGNYM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I hear ya. I need a new vacuum cleaner myself. Broke the damn wheel off of mine a year ago and I still muddle through with it to this day.

Kicked some ass at my friends place today. We're hoping to get more done tomorrow, but the stupid weather doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The one I had started dying before I moved and so I just left it at the old place.

Hopefully they will still be on sale tomorrow.

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Monday, August 12, 2019 10:35 PM

So did you get a new vaccuum?

Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.

Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.

He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.

Bartering is cool.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, August 13, 2019 12:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So did you get a new vaccuum?

Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.

Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.

He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.

Bartering is cool.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Yeah, I did. Good thing too. They don't have too many left at the price they are on for. $21.99Canadian. Good deal for a stick vacuum.

Well, you can use one on a hardwood floor.

Way to go on the progress and there is nothing wrong with bartering and helping a friend.

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Tuesday, August 13, 2019 1:53 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So did you get a new vaccuum?

Too cheap to do it myself now. Not a whole lot of reason for me to after I pulled up all the rugs. Mostly hardwood floors now except for the carpet in the attic.

Got a lot of work done with my friend again today. I had no idea how bad his own situation was until I got there since he's always so optimistic about things. Probably going to work with him again all next weekend and really plant those obs on him while I get materials priced out for my job.

He's also got a plumber friend who needs a tile job done. He says that after I send him pics of my broken drain pipe that I still haven't fixed that if he thinks it's something beyond his abilities he's going to call in a favor and get it done for me and do the tile job to pay it forward.

Bartering is cool.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Hey, that seems really good!

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 5:44 PM

Yeah. Everything seems to be going in a forward momentum right now. Got some major things done, no more raccoons, kicked some ass today and I've got two more days before the weekend when I go back out to help my friend with his house issues. He's going to have a lot of work to do after we make everything watertight outside, but that can all be done without the time crunch of worrying about more damage and the city breathing down his neck. I'm hoping that we can make short work of my own major issues after that and I'll be in the same boat.

If I manage to score at least a halfway decent job in the near future, I might even choose to stick around for a few more years and bolster the bank account and get this house back into reasonable shape for the market. I might be able to even really get a head start on the next chapter of my life if I keep doing right here.

Glad I reconnected with an old friend. He kept me sane during the worst of it. Knock on wood the worst is behind me now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 6:24 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

That's good SIX.

Sounds like good progress!

Been a little stalled out lately, I think I'm just in the "prep" phase of moving on to other things.

Dear daughter painted her paint selections with sample paints and decided she liked 3 of 4 colors, so we got two more and she made her final selection. Right now I'm just waiting for an online order of specialized lead stabilization paint to come in.

But the DVD player was repaired and returned today so that's done. I got some supplies for fixing the stucco and screening. Still need a few more supplies, getting familiarized with where everything is in Home Depot. Bought a staple gun, an angle grinder online so we could cut the stucco back to a stud to staple the tar paper and chicken wire. (Got a quote for repair for $1000, at that price it's worth doing ourselves).

I guess the biggest progress I made on anything was blowing a couple of giant chunks of packing out of each side of my nose; sounds gross I know but you have no idea what a relief that was!!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND

America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 7:45 PM

Well, I get my hearing aides back tomorrow and I also get to ask what is going on with my left ear. So, that's a good thing.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 7:48 PM

Had more bad goings on in my province in August. A week ago or so a group, I would guess climbed up and cut the cable on the Sea to Sky gondola up at Squamish. This is a big, big tourist attraction in that area as it takes you high up into the sky area. It is closed down and some of the cars have to be replaced. Thank goodness whoever did this did so at 4am, so no one was hurt.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 8:06 PM

lol Sigs. I thought you said you got packing out of both sides of your house and I had no clue what you meant when you said it was gross. Then I re-read it. Yup. Gross.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 8:57 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Have I mentioned that except for the bedroom I have no AC? Well, it's been freaking hot lately with highs between 90 and 95 - except for today and the next 5 days out of 10 where it'll be over 95 to over 100. And for here it's been pretty humid, the minimum is 50% RH. Hopefully the humidity will help keep the fire danger down.

90 is about my limit for getting much done. When it's that hot, I just want to lie down and pant. Sigh.

Still, I'm forever grateful for that cost live oak that planted itself nearly 3 decades ago, that keeps the back of the house cooler (90 or below). And I'm glad I had those super-duper security screen doors put in. When the evening breeze kicks up I can cross ventilate the front half of the house and my yuge and strong cat can't destroy the screening. They've been amazingly helpful getting the house cooler!

Plus I'm losing weight! - which I need to do. I've been living off of broth I keep in the frig.

I did hear a dozen or so very strange noises around 02:30 last night though - not as high-pitched with as sharp an attack time as a cracking sound, and not as low-pitched with as slow as attack time as a thump. But something in between. If you've ever used a hatchet on concrete to chop down firewood, when you first hit the wood a lot of times the hatchet will stick in. Then you lift up both the hatchet+wood and slam it down on concrete to split the wood. It sounded like that. It sounded like it came from near the side of the house. I did look but didn't see much. (The last time I heard something weird, I thought it sounded like a shotgun, and next I knew I saw red and blue flashing lights in front of my neighbor's house across the street and down 2.)

I think that'll be my next home improvement - installing a solar-powered motion-activated security light. If no one's there by the house I don't really care about whatever weird noises there may be in the middle of the night.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:09 PM

Ugggggg.... I feel so sorry for you there Kiki. At least you've got one room to get away from it all. But I know full well how that seems like it becomes a prison when dealing with those temps. That's why I never use that ancient beast from the 80's my parents gave me unless it's life threateningly hot, which thankfully it hasn't been the last 5 years.

Glad to hear you're losing weight.

Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:22 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Thanks for reminding me Jack, with me going on about my stuff.

Brenda, I truly wish you the best luck!

Signy, it sounds like progress to me! and that's always a good thing.

Jack, I'm glad you reconnected with a friend. That's also a good, good thing in my book.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 10:01 PM

You might just try some regular lights that are on all the time to keep undesirables away at night. I used to mess around with timers and the like, until I got lazy and didn't. At that point, my house was pretty much dark all night except for two lights I kept on 24/7, but they were incandescents and it was a huge waste of money.

After I got a bunch of those LED 9w bulbs I put them in every fixture in the house. Now I've got 5 lights that I leave on 24/7. They're bright, and all 5 of them draw 15 watts less than one of the bulbs I used to use. The whole place is really lit up at night now and I don't worry about things like that anymore.

Last time I heard a loud noise was years ago. We were in the middle of the windy season and a pretty decent sized limb had fallen off a tree and nicked my roof and splintered. Scared the hell out of me and I grabbed a baseball bat and flashlight to see what it was making all that noise in the middle of the night.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 11:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.

I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.

Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 11:34 PM

KIKI thanks. I'll be okay.

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019 11:59 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.

I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.

Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.

Well... it's not that there are no problems. My last job was pretty loud with the forklifts going around all night, which I'm sure didn't do me any additional favors, but I did notice that my most commonly used word there was probably "what?" unless we were on break or lunch where we could hear each other a lot better. Maybe I'm just a loud talker, but hardly anybody ever asked me "what?".

I don't have any tinnitus and if there isn't a ton of background noise it still seems pretty copacetic. I know that it's not as good as it was in my teens and early 20's though before I blew them out with the deep bass speakers for years in my own car and my friends cars.

Kids are idiots. That's why I try to take a step back and cut them some slack and remember all the purely asinine shit I did when I was young... and even not-so-young, if I'm being completely honest with myself.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, August 15, 2019 2:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Hope the ears check out Brenda. Done some damage to my own ears with music when I was a youth, so I do what I can to protect what's left today. Thankfully it hasn't become too much of a problem for me yet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

The hearing aides will help again. Right ear is still at 100% which is good.

I had one ear drained of fluid when I was a child and now I don't remember which one. Could have been the left which could account for what is going on now.

Be glad you aren't seeing any problems. I started seeing them in my late 40s.

Well... it's not that there are no problems. My last job was pretty loud with the forklifts going around all night, which I'm sure didn't do me any additional favors, but I did notice that my most commonly used word there was probably "what?" unless we were on break or lunch where we could hear each other a lot better. Maybe I'm just a loud talker, but hardly anybody ever asked me "what?".

I don't have any tinnitus and if there isn't a ton of background noise it still seems pretty copacetic. I know that it's not as good as it was in my teens and early 20's though before I blew them out with the deep bass speakers for years in my own car and my friends cars.

Kids are idiots. That's why I try to take a step back and cut them some slack and remember all the purely asinine shit I did when I was young... and even not-so-young, if I'm being completely honest with myself.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I used head sets quite a bit when I was in my 20s to into my 40s, so I'm sure that didn't help me either. Then of course my mom had hearing loss as well and she would hike up the volume on the tv. So bad sometimes that I could hear it through the apartment door before I opened it. Don't think that helped much either.

We never do consider these things when we are young.

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Thursday, August 15, 2019 3:12 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

When I think about all of the stupid things I did when I was young ...

That's part of being young, I guess. You don't have any experience to tell you what might happen next (when things don't work out) and imagination doesn't kick in either. Plenty of times in my youth I was surpried by what happened next.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

I'd nuke a BILLION PEOPLE if it would save the other 7 billion from living under Putin. Hell, I might go all the way to the last 100 people on Earth to keep this planet from being under fascist rule.- posted (and erased) by WISHIMAY
You idiots [white men] have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Thursday, August 15, 2019 9:35 AM

Slept straight through the night again. Nice? Yes, but I left that blower on all night. That's going to cost me. At least I woke up early enough that I wasn't blowing hot air in the house and it did drop the temp down to 72 from 81. Definitely the coolest start to my day in a few weeks since I usually don't leave it on all night if at all once I figured out how pricey it was to run.

Got a few hours before the trash man comes. Time to figure out what I can throw out before they get here. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Thursday, August 15, 2019 11:56 AM

Need my hearing aides back. Using loaners and getting massive feedback and my ears are clean. Annoying!

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Friday, August 16, 2019 1:08 PM

Got my hearing aides back yesterday with 2 new programs on them. I can now adjust the volume and they have a program added so I can get distracted from the buzzing I hear in my ears ever so often. It's a nice relaxing ocean sound.

Have to use them a bit more. Right ear is just starting to take a bit of a dip.

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Friday, August 16, 2019 4:36 PM

Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, August 16, 2019 5:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Who's that Jack?

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Friday, August 16, 2019 6:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Who's that Jack?

The main character of one of the best short stories ever written.

Quote:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for
instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in
that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-
year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very
hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't
think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's
cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.

The rest of it's here:

https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, August 16, 2019 6:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful with that ocean relaxation setting. That's how Harrison Bergeron starts.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Who's that Jack?

The main character of one of the best short stories ever written.

Quote:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal
before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter
than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was
stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the
211th, 212th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing
vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for
instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in
that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-
year-old son, Harrison, away.

It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very
hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't
think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his
intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his
ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would
send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair
advantage of their brains.

George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's
cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.

The rest of it's here:

https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I went and looked it up after and read a little bit of it. I've never heard of the story before. But I'll finish reading it just out of curiosity.

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Friday, August 16, 2019 6:46 PM

Interesting enough story Jack.

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Friday, August 16, 2019 7:31 PM

Yeah. I wonder if it will be that way by 2081. It's definitely the way things are headed. It's 2019 now though and we still don't have flying cars everywhere.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Friday, August 16, 2019 11:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yeah. I wonder if it will be that way by 2081. It's definitely the way things are headed. It's 2019 now though and we still don't have flying cars everywhere.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Don't know. I would love a flying car with an autopilot for me at least.

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 2:48 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Still chipping away at things here. Because I was waiting for that special paint to come in I was a little stuck on that, so I decided tht (instead of the perennial fight against weeds) I was going to start cleaning up around the outside of the house, again

As we go thru things in the house there are the inevitable unanswered "what do we do with it"? and "where do we put it"? questions, and sometimes the answer has been "on the back porch". Or the other little porch under the kitchen window. Well, a couple months ago dear daughter and I scoured the yard for recyclable metals and did a big cleanup, but now detritus is building up again, and some messes that weren'e cleaned up need cleaning. So I went thru my rusty metal gardening cabinets and threw out a bag of soil conditioner (Gypsum) and a crap-ton of those black gallon nursery pots and odds and ends that our former handyman/gardener thought might come in handy "some day". Also discovered a nice corded drill and a bunch of sprinkler parts that will come in handy plus a bunch of crap that needed tossing. It was a short cleanup because I had a lunch date with dear daughter, but tomorrow and for the next few days will continue the cleanup until all is neat and tidy.

Made an awesome ham and bean stew too. I had cooked two pork picnic roasts and had the juice saved, plus a couple of chicken carcasses (for the dog) with attendant broth and a chuck roast (for beef/bean burrito) with its broth, and juice from cooking three pounds of summer squashes, so the frig was building up a lot of leftover broths. (BTW I found that if you pour the unskimmed broth into a clean jar the fat acts as a terrific cap and keeps the broth fresh.) So the pork broth and half of the summer squash juice went into the ham/bean stew, the dog got the chicken broth, and the beef broth and remaining squash liquid will be going to make beef minestrone (onion, celery, carrot, broth, beef, beans, tomato, bay, oregano etc) Frig is a lot cleaner now too!

hey, I'll take my victories where I can get them!

So mornings will be outdoor cleanup and now that the paint is in afternoons will be painting, and when THAT'S done a big item will be off the checklist. Whew!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

You idiots [white men] have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 3:52 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt

Do Right, Be Right. :)

I read the story and I couldn't help it - my mind picked at a loose thread that instantly occurred to me. What about height? It's really hard to make a tall person shorter. And then it occurred to me it wasn't about making everyone average. Because you can interfere with someone's brain to make it work less well, but you can't make someone's brain work better to reach at least average. Since the story didn't say anything about raising people up, just handicapping people down, it was about making everyone meet the lowest common denominator, which would be blind, deaf, dumb, ill, and imbecilic. That way nobody would be better. And then I thought about who would I identify with in the story. (Not who you might assume.) And before I knew it, I had picked at so many loose threads, it kind of fell apart.

I guess I'm too literal!

I get that it's about people not being born to the same standard, and that we can't / shouldn't try and erase those differences because it would result in a hideously distorted society. But it didn't carry me along well enough due to its logical inconsistencies, and so I didn't make the emotional leap to agreement.

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 1:03 PM

Workmen on the roof of an apartment building next door. Have been workmen in my apartment building replacing fire alarms.

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 3:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.t
xt

Do Right, Be Right. :)
I read the story and I couldn't help it - my mind picked at a loose thread that instantly occurred to me. What about height? It's really hard to make a tall person shorter. And then it occurred to me it wasn't about making everyone average. Because you can interfere with someone's brain to make it work less well, but you can't make someone's brain work better to reach at least average. Since the story didn't say anything about raising people up, just handicapping people down, it was about making everyone meet the lowest common denominator, which would be blind, deaf, dumb, ill, and imbecilic. That way nobody would be better. And then I thought about who would I identify with in the story. (Not who you might assume.) And before I knew it, I had picked at so many loose threads, it kind of fell apart.

I guess I'm too literal!

I get that it's about people not being born to the same standard, and that we can't / shouldn't try and erase those differences because it would result in a hideously distorted society. But it didn't carry me along well enough due to its logical inconsistencies, and so I didn't make the emotional leap to agreement.

Yeah... I don't think it was meant to be taken literally. Vonnegut is a great writer, but the story was only about 3 pages long. Not much you can do in that context. He certainly wasn't going to fit a fleshed out Orwellian or Huxleyian nightmare in just a few pages. But what he did do in 3 pages was drive a point across that has been stuck in my mind for the last 26 years since I first read it.

I'm not sure if you've ever read Vonnegut before, but although I find him to be just as cynical as the two former, I find his writing to be hilarious most of the time. Sure, that story itself wasn't very funny, but it did have some pretty far-fetched and/or comedic elements and visuals of his style interwoven in it. It should be noted that it was written in 1961 as well, so like Orwell and Huxley, he was very ahead of his time. 2 years from now will be that story's 60th birthday, and it will be the halfway point between when he wrote it and when these events are supposed to take place.

But I think you got the gist of it. Until we make pills that make you smart and beautiful and strong, whenever government steps in to make everybody "equal" the only possible way to do it is to lower the bar for everybody and choose inferior candidates for things by quotas that are either mandatory or are adapted "willingly" because of the heavy monetary penalties/rewards that come along with making the "wrong/right" choices.

I should probably also mention that my Jr. Year English teacher (a female) had us read that in class. She made us read a lot of things that weren't in the government approved books, and was always handing out stuff like this that she photocopied for us to read. I didn't appreciate that at the time, but by my mid to late 20's I appreciated very much recollections such as this and things that other teachers went out of their way (and out of the purview of the government approved curriculum) for us to learn about. I'd love to know that teachers still feel safe doing that in 2019, but for some reason I doubt it. (The "penalty" for such wrong-think, of course, the fear of losing their job and being deemed un-hireable anywhere else in their chosen field if they stray one inch off of the government approved learning path that has been mandated).

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 4:17 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
But I think you got the gist of it. Until we make pills that make you smart and beautiful and strong, whenever government steps in to make everybody "equal" the only possible way to do it is to lower the bar for everybody and choose inferior candidates for things by quotas that are either mandatory or are adapted "willingly" because of the heavy monetary penalties/rewards that come along with making the "wrong/right" choices.

Just about this in particular, and it's not really a thought, just some semi-related notions I need to think about ...

We have a conundrum - probably several - here in the US with "All Men* Are Created Equal" (see Ursula K Le Guin's *'I am a Man' https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nm9cg )

It's pretty obvious that people aren't born physically or mentally equal. So what does equality mean?

One of the ways I've read to interpret "All Men* Are Created Equal" is to qualify that it means 'before the law'. That the laws are set up to govern without fear or favor, and the political systems and justice systems are set up to operate without fear or favor.

But "All Men* Are Created Equal" exists within the context of the Declaration of Independence (not the Constitution, which is the law of the land) and within the context of a larger idea: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men* are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men*, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
So afaik it means that people of traditional European institutional power (church, royalty) have no special divine right to rule, and that governments are created by people to serve the needs of the people, and can be dismissed or reformulated when they cease serving the people.

This is a very grand statement, but it's NOT within the Constitution.

The closest things I can find in the Constitution re equality are
"Article XIII (Amendment 13 - Slavery and Involuntary Servitude): where slaves get to be men* under the law
"Article XIV - Rights Guaranteed: Privileges and Immunities of Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection" applied variously to 'persons' - persons being legally defined elsewhere in the Constitution, citizens, 'excluding Indians not taxed', male inhabitants/citizens ... being twenty-one years of age'
"Article XV (Amendment 15 - Rights of Citizens to Vote)" applied to citizens
"Article [XIX] (Amendment 19 - Women's Suffrage Rights)" where women get to be men* for the purposes of voting, under the law.
Other limitations, exclusions, exceptions, and reservations are scattered within the Constitution.
(BTW, reading through the Constitution, I have to say they needed a good copy-editor, as whole groups of people are referred to using various terms within the same amendment like citizens/ people/ men, making it questionable whether the groups referred to are meant to be the same - or different.)

So we are supposed to be equal in liberty, representation, and justice, before the law * (*your rights may vary depending on Native status, age, past felony convictions etc).

With so many divots and detours, one wonder what's the underpinning to mess with a simple idea.

I think the unstated assumptions about who got included and who was excluded from this recognition of human*ity has to do with our sense of 'souls'. When we look into the eyes of another human*, or even another creature, do we see a 'soul' - do we see ourselves in them.
And from my various readings, that sense is remarkably flexible, even being influenced by our childhood experiences. (If we grew up in a diverse environment we're more likely to be able to 'read' people of different ethnicities and include them in our concept of 'us', and the other way around.)
It's influenced by the general concepts of our society.
It's also influence by the process of dehumanization.
And by our deeply contextual way of parsing the world.
I'm sure there are others.

Anyway - when we see a child and we look into their eyes, do we recognize ourselves in them? Do we want for them their best futures? How about the homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk?

However we see other people is how we'll bend our laws.

So I find 'equality' to be a slippery legal concept, subject to the vagaries of society and psyche.

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 9:18 PM

I think it's pretty simple here, but it's always made much more complicated than it needs to be.

If you're an American born citizen OR a legitimately naturalized citizen, male or female, any race, any religious belief, yada yada yada, then you are privy to the same laws as everyone else and entitled to the same rights as anyone else. Period.

At least, that's where it should end.

But it doesn't. At least not today it doesn't.

What I said above is true, and people of certain races, sexes and sexual persuasions absolutely get the benefit of the doubt over others. I won't get into specifics here because overall politics are kept out of this thread and I think we all like it best that way.

I'll just say that I do know that you're a fan of meritocracy as well as I am, and that we both realize that we're not living in a meritocracy today. I believe strongly that this is a reason why it's not.

In an effort to force equality, we've severely lowered the bar and we've made certain groups "more equal" than others.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 9:24 PM

Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)

Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.

Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.

Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.

Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.

I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Saturday, August 17, 2019 10:21 PM

Yuck....

Next two nights aren't going to be much relief here heatwise. Low of 70 both nights. Opened the windows and realized it's about the same temp outside right now as it is inside. No point in fanning it up, at least not tonight. Will be in the 80's inside by tomorrow night though, so I'll have to use it then even if it won't cool off much.

Doesn't get much better than that until Thursday night though with a high of 59. That'll be sweet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 12:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)

Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.

Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.

Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.

Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.

I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Good for you Jack.

I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 9:14 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Good for you Jack.

I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.

Nice.

Glad you looked into it. There isn't any sentimental value in tax stuff (or at least their shouldn't be). I knew full well I only needed 7 years, but like everything else I was collecting them like baseball cards. I've only got 3 years in paper forms and the rest are all in PDFs on my computer and backed up to a thumbdrive. That's all the worry I'm ever going to put into them either unless I ever get a good job again. There's just about zero chance of getting audited when you work on a payroll and you make less than the standard deduction 9 out of 10 years. There's simply nothing to audit.

Got a big freaking mess to clean up today. :(

It's unusual for a storm to wake me up. I usually sleep like a baby through them. But my windows were open and the wind was fierce. By the time I closed the windows upstairs I had water all over my hardwood floors. I cleaned that up real quick before I headed outside to pull 2 large tree limbs 200 feet to the driveway in the pouring rain and I had to get my telescoping limb cutter to pull another one down that was hanging like Damocles' Sword right over my front walkway, just waiting for somebody like the postman to walk under it before it struck.

Thankfully, it appears that nothing hit the house. The large one on my doorstep may have glanced it, but I would have noticed the bang if it actually hit it. It looks fine.

I'm wet. I'm tired. I'm sick of the rain and especially the violent storms we've had this year. And I doubt very much that I'll be helping my friend on his house at all again today with thunderstorms predicted well into the evening.

Crap.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 12:28 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Got a ton of stuff done today. All of my documentation over the years is sorted through. I got rid of about 90% of it and it's now destroyed. The rest is organized and filed away in a single small box. :)

Cleaned out and bleached all of the nice containers a lot of this stuff was in as well as two more tool boxes that I'll get to actually use for tools now, so I can sort everything in the garage this week and finally see if I can't find the rest of my countersink set. Here's hoping that I don't have to buy a new one.

Put about another half-can of junk in the trash.

Really coming down to the end of the stuff to sort and throw out in the house besides my clothes and the rest of the furniture I have to decide whether or not I'm going to keep.

Garage is mostly cleared out of stuff I'm getting rid of. Really need my friend to get out here and take some of the big stuff he wanted.

I'm thinking two more weeks, tops, and I'll be officially de-hoarded now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Wow. You're like a one-person whirlwind. That's tremendous progress!

In an earlier post you were wondering whether it was the house that was too much for you, or all of the "stuff" that you had accumulated since you moved in. (BTW, it seems quite a few people offloaded THEIR "stuff" onto you. Oh,SIX has got a house. Maybe he could "use" this and then they gave you something totally unuseable.) Maybe a lot of bad associations got purged with the "stuff"? It's kind of like starting fresh when you strip down to what you need.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 2:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Good for you Jack.

I got a bunch stuff shredded on Friday and I took your advice and looked up how long before I can shred old tax information with Canada Revenue. Their site says 6years. So I am okay to shred anything of my mom's I find or anything of mine that is from before 2013.

Nice.

Glad you looked into it. There isn't any sentimental value in tax stuff (or at least their shouldn't be). I knew full well I only needed 7 years, but like everything else I was collecting them like baseball cards. I've only got 3 years in paper forms and the rest are all in PDFs on my computer and backed up to a thumbdrive. That's all the worry I'm ever going to put into them either unless I ever get a good job again. There's just about zero chance of getting audited when you work on a payroll and you make less than the standard deduction 9 out of 10 years. There's simply nothing to audit.

Got a big freaking mess to clean up today. :(

It's unusual for a storm to wake me up. I usually sleep like a baby through them. But my windows were open and the wind was fierce. By the time I closed the windows upstairs I had water all over my hardwood floors. I cleaned that up real quick before I headed outside to pull 2 large tree limbs 200 feet to the driveway in the pouring rain and I had to get my telescoping limb cutter to pull another one down that was hanging like Damocles' Sword right over my front walkway, just waiting for somebody like the postman to walk under it before it struck.

Thankfully, it appears that nothing hit the house. The large one on my doorstep may have glanced it, but I would have noticed the bang if it actually hit it. It looks fine.

I'm wet. I'm tired. I'm sick of the rain and especially the violent storms we've had this year. And I doubt very much that I'll be helping my friend on his house at all again today with thunderstorms predicted well into the evening.

Crap.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

Never thought about it before to tell the truth. But having that knowledge is good. And no there is nothing sentimental attached to tax returns. I'll go through and double check what I set a side of my stuff and shred it in the next few days. Anything I need to keep, I've got a folding box that I can put it in.

The rest I need to shred is just old forms and old letters that my mom had to write for whatever reason for me or my brother or my dad which at this time are all useless. Shredding is easier in case there are SIN numbers on them or birthdates.

Combo of the winds and the windows being open is probably what woke you.

At least nothing was damaged with the falling limbs and such.

Sorry the weather is sucking so much down there right now for you.

Suppose to rain up here in a couple of days. Only good thing is this fire season hasn't been as bad as the last couple with the weather.

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 2:25 PM

Lazy Sunday here.

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 2:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

As a casual weather-watcher SIX, here is a little forewarning .... every time you anticipate a sudden change in weather, especially hot to cold, expect sudden storms as well. What's happening is that a cold air mass comes swooping down (from Canada) and meets the hot humid air mass that's already there. Since cold air is denser than hot air (As you know, hot air rises) the cold air kind of wedges under the hot air, forcing it upwards suddenly. Those sudden updrafts cause the moisture to condense, wringing out the water suddenly and causing downpours. As the air continues to rise (sometimes to 20,000 ft) it eventually chills and falls back to earth which creates lot of wind when it hits the ground with a "thud" (downdrafts and microbursts). If that happen violently enough you get tornadoes.

Sounds like a hellacious storm. Any reports of tornadoes nearby?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

You idiots have been oppressing the entire sexual spectrum as long as you have existed. I can't wait for the day your kind is dead - WISHIMAY

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Sunday, August 18, 2019 5:06 PM

lol.... Speaking of whirlwinds, Sigs

No tornadoes as far as I know, but that is the second hardest downpour I ever remember seeing since I've lived here (the 1st being the time a few months ago when there were quite a few tornado sightings).

I've never really feared leaving windows open before. I've gotten a little water inside on rare occasion, but nothing like this before. The winds only lasted about 5 minutes total... They must have just been at the front of the storm. It's rained pretty steadily all day, and it was torrential for about 20 minutes after the winds. Jeez... that wind must have had the water going practically sideways.

Still way too wet to go out and cut all those limbs down, although they're all dragged to the driveway already so my frontage doesn't look like a complete disaster. They pick up branches on my street every Monday. It's usually early too. I'm hoping that I can get out there tomorrow morning and either beat them to it, or if they see me working on it I can convince them to maybe swing back around so I don't have to have them on my driveway for another full week.

No damage to the house though, so any branches weak enough to fall in a storm is a good culling, IMO. Much rather they fall during a storm than on a nice day where the kids are walking to and from school.

Having a lazy day here. Weather didn't allow me to get anything done with my friend on his house this weekend, which until he comes to help me out is by far the most valuable use of my time since he is unable to do so during the week (which was sunny every day, I might add).

Winter is coming... Hope he doesn't break my heart.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Tuesday, August 20, 2019 11:52 PM

Rain heading my way tomorrow.

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 12:39 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I know you don't like rain - but I'd really appreciate it here!

ETA: and looking at the NA drought monitor which covers through July, you might be just a touch dry. So maybe some rain will keep fires away.

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 12:40 AM

Been virtually swimming for the last few days here too Brenda. :(

Went through a few more boxes of stuff and got rid of almost all of it. Got one can full for garbage day.

I think I am going to get rid of the patio furniture set I bought years ago. It was a cheap piece of crap I got from KMart and time hasn't been too kind to it. On top of the patio pavers that were all but ruined by the ants, it's just an eyesore right now. I think I'll keep a few of the chairs for now, just to have something to sit on, but that'll be something huge I can get rid of along with the trash this week since I have no plans on ever taking that with me.

Going to try getting through a few more boxes and consolidating my artwork tomorrow. If I get through that, I'm going to try to spend some time organizing stuff in the garage with all those nice boxes I cleared out.

I looked at the "keep" boxes I've got and it's a bit more than I'd like to have. I already have a plan for getting rid of three of them. I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of more than that though. But I do need to think hard about it because once all that is done I need to keep in mind that whenever I do move I have to pack up clothes, toiletries and kitchen stuff that I use regularly and I'm not packing up now. That's going to be quite a bit of extra boxes on top of what I already have.

Speaking of clothes, I hope to go through all of them next week and get rid of about half of them. When I started doing all of this my plan was to keep any clothes I wasn't going to ever wear again for packing material to protect fragile stuff. But now that most of the stuff is packed I don't have to do that anymore so a lot of that can go in the trash or to goodwill when I get to it.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 12:53 AM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

So, my neighbor lady is a Mexican born, bilingual American citizen, who, sadly for her, becomes easily anxious. (She's mentioned that to me more than once over the decades and has shared some of her anxieties over diverse things.) After the El Paso shooting she confided to me over the fence that she felt really nervous. Ehhh ... all I could do to relate was to say that a relative and his Mexican-born wife live in El Paso and I was happy to know they were OK.

As far as I'm concerned, all our chances of ending up in a mass shooting in this neighborhood - whether it's a foreign-born terrorist or a gang-banger or a right-wing nutter or a random schizo shooter or whoever - are pretty darn low.

What DOES make me nervous is when the police helicopter circles overhead a few times with their searchlight lighting up the yards --- like what just happened. Sigh. I just never get used to that.

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 1:02 AM

The chances that anybody in any neighborhood gets caught in a shooting is about as high as getting struck by lightning. I wouldn't spend any time worrying about it. You're much more likely to get in a car wreck on your way home from the doctor.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 3:24 AM