Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Of Course They Are. . .

Word “on the street” is that Mediacom is making major “improvements” for our area. I already knew that, since the “service” has sucked dead bunnies for the last few days (yes, even suckier than normal).

Notice where the upload “speed” test says, “Connecting”? Yeh, well it stuck there for five minutes before I gave up.

“Mediacom is making improvements” has invariably meant “Mediacom is screwing things up, again” for years now. But, never fear! Meadiacom really is “making improvements,” where “making improvements” = “we’re getting ready to hike you rates, and a compliant government regulatory agency is already greased to issue its approval for further gouging,” no doubt.

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One of Those Days. . .

*sigh*

It’s been a mixed bag of a day, so far. Sent a not quite right dessert off with my Wonder Woman for a “potluck-ish” day at work. *meh* Tastes OK, but texture and appearance lacking. So-so, so far.

I’ve gotten a goodly number of tasks marked off today’s list. Plus.

Phone call. Cancel whatever I have on Thursday to be pallbearer at a longstanding client’s funeral. *sigh* Transitioned over the years from strictly business (keeping he and her daughter’s computers and network running well for their home medical transcription work) to real friendship. Five months ago, I attended her daughter’s funeral. Now, her family has asked me to participate in hers. Mixed feelings.

I’ll have to see how much I can get done the rest of today and this evening, so I have the entire afternoon off on Thursday. I know it’ll be hard on her surviving son and his wife (pretty much all that’s left of the family, now, apart from some great-nieces and -nephews.).

On the plus side, shes Home, and her longstanding health issues are over.

Mixed bag all around.

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Lil EDC Tip

Have instructional cards (cheat sheets, EPrep “Cliff Notes” as it were) for various things, like fire-making, basic first aid, etc., in your EDC bag, in case YOU are unable to access your EDC bag and have to ask for help from someone else.* For example, my EDC bag has a small set of instructional “fire-building cards.” They’re waxed 3×5 cards with instructions and a few matches affixed to the cards via the wax (so, the matches are also waterproof, more or less). . . 😉 Each of them separately packaged in nicely flammable envelopes, containing a bit of waxed dryer lint.

Even Dunning-Kruger-ites should be able to start fires with those resources.
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You, of course, should already have all the info in the cheat sheets down cold.

Note, also: my “EDC Bags” are bags I keep in my car for emergencies away from home, but they are essentially smaller versions of 72-hour kits. Since I also have car-specific emergency kits in the trunk/rear package area (the latter referring to a hatchback), these kits are tailored for more personal items, and can also double as very (very) short term bugout bags. . . or “Get home bags.”

Micro-mini kits I carry on my person (knives, multi-tool, VERY simple and limited first aid, etc.) should be enough to get me back to my car (and my car and its kits, back home).

Since we live in an area with VERY low risks, apart from weather risks which can usually be anticipated, preps like this combined with our home preps should generally be sufficient.

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Take Note: It is Always Appropriate to Give Me a Knife. :-)

It’s taken some time, but I’m finally coming to grips with (*heh*) the opening/closing mechanism and finger hole/blade grip on the lil Spyderco Estimable Son-in-Law gifted me. Nice knife. The very nicely-machined jibbing on the finger choils on both the spine and edge sides of the blade have proven to be a nice feature, and it definitely came sharp enough to shave with right outa the box (and has held its edge nicely).

All-in-all, it’s proven to be much more useful than one might expect any knife its size to be. Definitely an “always-carry” lil knife.

Thanks again, Joshua.

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A Generation of English “Teachers” Have Much to Answer For

. . .as do their students, IMO.

Every time I see some absolutely stupid construction like, “If I would have [done such and so] then I would have [so-and so-ed]” I want to string up a generation of English “teachers” and their “students” and beat them all with dangling participles. No, illiterates, it’s “If I -HAD [done such and so] then I would have [blah-blah-blah-ed].”

See “Past Perfect Conditional,” for example, “If I had owned a car, I would have driven to work. But I didn’t own one, so I took the bus,” as found here.

But then, I see the simple past used where the past perfect is required in published (and reportedly edited) works all the time, too.

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It’s Still Just a Phone

So, new phone to replace the one that went through the wash. . . So-called “smart” phone. More phone than I need. Phone calls only. Screen’s still too small for any computing use. Heck, my tablets’ screens are too small for most computing uses, and only marginally usable (for computing stuff, or even web just browsing) with a Bluetooth keyboard. Not even useful for email–and do NOT get m started on texting. “Dislike” button, anyone?

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*sigh* Does it ever end?

Ongoing pain in my Wonder Woman’s arm (the one she broke at work in August), but not where the obvious break was. Another round of Xrays Saturday. Hmmm, seems on top of the radius break and the two ulna breaks, there was also a hairline fracture of the humerus. *sigh* Well, at least it was reported as healed. . . now.

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Safe Spaces

Elsewhere on the Interwebs, an acquaintance quoted Sir Conan Doyle,

“There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger’s Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed. and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.” ~ Sherlock Holmes, “The Greek Interpreter”

A sort of 19th Century British “safe space.” *meh* My “safe place” is designed for the safety of others. I’m thoughtful that way.

I have my “Curmudgeon’s Corner” home office for that. Comfy chair. Semi-adequate research capabilities. TONS of books and periodicals. Fine music. Phones NOT allowed. And “Do NOT Disturb” is well-observed by the household. A “Misanthropists’ Club” would probably include some asthmatic wheezer or “irritable bowel gurgler” to harsh my curmudgeonly “mellow.” *heh* No thanks. 😉 (OK, I do allow the dog to share the space, sometimes, even though his presence tends to curdle my curmudgeonry into a genuinely peaceful attitude. Oh, well. The sacrifices I make for his adoration. . . 🙂 )

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Islands of Sanity

Elsewhere on the Interwebs, I saw an otherwise nice lil ole lady stating that as divided and rancorous as the public square has become, she expects she’ll have to “duke it out in real life at some point. . . ” in the real world.

Maybe, maybe not. It mostly depends on the venue, methinks. Here in America’s Third World County™, the irrational, emotionally-derived non-arguments (spewing of lying memes, parroting of angry rhetoric) just does not exist for the most part, at least as I am out and about in the county I have never found it so. As a matter of fact, America’s Third World County™ seems to be such a haven of sanity and safety that when nour state’s so-called “Constitutional Carry” law went into effect, I felt no need to take advantage of it as I went about my daily affairs here in America’s Third World County™. Oh, I put a lil revolver in a holster and–legally, now *heh*–carried the thing concealed inside my waistband for a few days, but since so many other folks are doing the same (or carrying in the open, also lawful), and the general conditions of civilized safety and sanity still prevail here, I just set the lil wheelgun aside for plinking.

Seriously, I am THAT comfy with the civilized deportment of ou citizens. LE guys (and gals *sigh*) still have too much swagger and project far, far too much self-importance (unnecessary here, IMO), and there are a few bad actors around, but realy very few, but still, overall this area is the safest and sanest, the most civilized I have ever lived in, well, at least since I was seven years old, nearly 60 years ago. Oh, we lack some of the amenities and pleasures of big city life, but a trek of less than an hour can afford a trip to a world class museum of art, a middlin’ quality orchestral performance, good craft beers, etc., if desired. Fortunately, no professional sports teams are within what I’d call driving range, which pretty much eliminates the hooliganism I associate with that stupidity.

Yeh, unless I stray too far from America’s Third World County™, I don’t think I’ll have a lot of RW “in your face” confrontations with rancorous loonies. I suspect there are more such enclaves of civilization around, islands of sanity in this mad, mad world, havens of civilization contra the Crazy Years.