Never Forget........

Car Maintenance aned Radio Daze

Did some minor maintenance on our four vehicles today.

Checked all tires for correct air pressure.
Checked all engines for coolant, windshield washer, and oil levels.
Replaced everybody's wiper blades and air filter.
Cleaned the windows in all four cars.

Since my right leg is feeling much better, I've been more active.
The shoulder still hurts, and it takes two Naproxens to knock the pain down. I'm going to tell them Monday afternoon at PT that I don't think my "Subscapularius" muscle is healing.

AND....I'm messing around with some radio stuff. Mostly I'm writing up a beginners guide to short wave and SHTF portable radios for wirecutter, and I'm still working on the "Expedient HF Antennas" article that I promised the guys over at Western Rifle Shooters Association about a year or so ago.

After I get the first article done on listening for Kenny, I'll start one on (legal) transmitting. He brought up some good points in our emails about most people don't know very much about practical radio use in regards to what kind of little radio to stuff into their BOB, SHTF bag, or whatever you call yours, and how to use them.

And he's 100% correct. You can get some excellent, small, power stingy, portable radios these days that cover AM, FM, and SW that you could use to at least get an idea of what's going on if/when things collapse, BUT unless you have a little basic training about how to use them, you probably won't get much "value" out of them.

Out here in the People's Democratic Republic of Kaliforniastan, we call them "Earthquake Radios", and we keep them with our "Earthquake Supplies". 25 or so years ago I was making up a list of stuff, and one of my buddies saw it, and asked if he could add something to it.
Right at the top, he added three items:

45ACP
12ga pump
ten boxes of shells for each

Interesting foresight from a good friend who's no longer with us.....

,

OpenSUSE 12.2 Released

I've been running Linux since about 1995, and various version of SuSE for just about as long. I've tried all of the major distributions, and a lot of obscure ones, and always kept coming back to Suse, now named OpenSUSE.
12.2 was released yesterday, and I downloaded it last night. Since I had a ton of files on the hard-disk in this machine, the easiest way (for me) to upgrade to the new release (I was running 11.4) was to just install another drive, do a clean installation on the new drive, and keep the drive that was running 11.4 as a secondary drive until I can get all my files transferred.
So far it's running just fine, but it'll take me a few days of tweaking it to get it to look like I want it to, and probably another week to get all the packages that I'm used to having installed.
The nice thing about Linux is that it's virtually immune to virus attacks, spyware, malware, and most of the other Bad Stuff floating around on the Web.

"The Union Creek Journal" Now Available for Kindle and as a PDF

I don't know how many of you have stopped by The Union Creek Journal blog.
You can now download all 337 pages of it as a pdf for a paltry $6.99!
It's a really good read, and I think you'd enjoy it.
I don't own a Kindle, so I went with the pdf download.
One of these days when I have an extra half-ream of paper, and a new toner cart, I'll duplex print it out for myself.

Work Injury

Well, I have a sprained left shoulder, and a nerve in my right leg that gets compressed when I stand too long.
At least I'm lucky that this nerve just makes my leg get numb, and doesn't make me fall down screaming in pain.
I start Physical Therapy tomorrow morning, 3 times a week for 6 weeks, and they gave me a bottle of Naproxen.

meh......

Well, we were *supposed* to go see John Williams tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, but my leg has been acting up all day. Even though we get there early so we can park right across the street, we still have to walk quite a distance to where our seats are.
At least we found one of her friends who was delighted to get the tickets, so they didn't go to waste. She says she'll tell us how good the seats were, and how the show was.
As far as my work-related injury, I had my quarterly check-up on Wednesday, and my Doctor informed me that they are NOT allowed to examine or treat a work-related injury. So, after I got back (excellent check-up, btw), I spent TWO HOURS on the phone finding a place that I could deal with out of the dozens that are listed on the State Insurance Fund website.
I have an appointment with them on Tuesday at 3pm, and woe betide my employer if they give me any grief about leaving "early" to get to the appointment!

.

Michelle 0bama Gives.....Shopping Lessons?

I saw this over at wirecutter's place, and his response to it was so on-the-money that I had to repost it here.

This is just another example of the democRATS "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" thinking.

(CNSNews.com) - As part of her anti-obesity Let's Move campaign, First Lady Michelle Obama is now presenting a brief online course: “Supermarket Shopping 101.”
The course, which now appears on the letsmove.gov website, provides novice shoppers with tips such as “steer clear of the cookie, snack and soda aisle.”
More of this ridiculous bullshit here

And Kenny's response:

What the fuck is she doing "presenting" a course on shopping? When was the last time she ever went shopping for her own food? When was the last time she went to the store and had to buy generic because the better quality brand name item was 75 cents more expensive? When was the last time she thumped a watermelon to see if it was ripe? Don't answer that one..... When was the last time she had to wrap her kids' lunch in tinfoil because she couldn't afford to buy baggies until Friday? When was the last time she skipped a fucking meal so her kids had plenty to eat? When was the last time she ate Top Ramen with an egg and some slivered leftover ham in it and considered it a fucking treat? When was the last time she checked her bank balance before she went to the store so she wouldn't be embarrassed if her card was refused because there ain't enough money on it? When was the last time she put a picked clean bone in the freezer so next week's beans will have at least some flavor to them?
You want me to keep going?

Well done, Ken!!

.

Obamanation

The Feral Irishman found this.

THANKS!






And here's  link to an interactive version of the painting, explaining all the symbols used.

.

Might Get Some "Weather" Tonight

The temperature's dropping, the humidity has dropped like a rock, and there's HUGE thunderheads off the the North and East.

The National Weather Service has issued Flash Flood Alerts, and the weather app on my phone has been screaming at me for attention.

Might a get a drizzle or very light shower, but if you're up in the foothills....HEAD FOR HIGH GROUND!

.

Who Am I?

I'm sure this has been floating around the Web, but it's the first time I've seen it.



I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country.

I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women.

I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me.

My mother died at an early age from cancer.

Although my father deserted me and my mother raised me, I later wrote a book idolizing my father not my mother.

Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy.

No one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate.

I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my new country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs and didn't follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny.

I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them.

That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. 

It was clear to those who read my memoirs, that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

I became active in local politics in my 30's then, with help behind the scenes,

I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s.

They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything.

I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization.

Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me, as though I were a magnet and they were small roofing tacks. I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego.

At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy.

I was very critical of my country in the last war, and seized every opportunity to bash my country.

But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy.

I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better, and every poor person would be fed and housed for free. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess.

It was the free market, banks and corporations.

I decided to start making citizens hate them and, if they became envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight.

I called mine "A People's Campaign." That sounded good to all people.

I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics and was able to gain widespread popular support.

I knew that, if I merely offered the people 'hope,' together we could change our country and the world.

So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant, to include "persecuted minorities".

My true views were not widely known and I kept them unknown, until after I became my nation's leader.

I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. I'm glad they didn't.

Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And then the world learned the truth.


Who am I?

ADOLPH HITLER

If you were thinking of SOMEONE ELSE, you should be scared, very scared!

RCBS "Rock Chucker" Kit

Well, I went over to my buddy's business today to pick up my mail and my packages.

Besides the RCBS kit, I'd ordered a bunch of books on the X-15 Research Aircraft and the XB-70 Valkyrie Experimental Bomber, and another book on the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine..

It took me about 15 minutes to bring everything in from the Jeep once I got home.

I'm really impressed with the RCBS "Rock Chucker" kit! I knew it came with the big items I wanted, like the press and a scale, but I'd either forgotten, or didn't look at everything listed in the description.

It came with a hand primer, and an automatic powder measure, along with a bunch of other little things. Every box I opened was "Oh Boy!" to the point my sweet wife came over and started looking at all the goodies.

We talked about reloading yesterday when I was plopped on the couch relaxing, and I showed her pictures of all the equipment, and explained all the steps in reloading empty cases.

She agreed it was a good aspect of the hobby to know and understand, and said I'd probably "Do everything exactly by the book, and get really good at it".

At this point (Rank Beginner) I'm just looking to get performance comparable to the factory loaded ammo I buy, learn a bunch, and save a few bucks. Perhaps at some future date I'll do some experimentation to develop loads suited to my particular guns, but as Ellie Arroway's Dad told her...."Small steps".

.