Category: FWIW

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Warning Shots

Always fire a warning shot. There are two main camps on the subject of warning shots: in the air and into the ground. I demur. The best warning shot is center of mass. It conserves ammo and definitely gets the message across with little chance of misunderstanding. (Center of mass warning shots also minimize collateral damage.)

One should always continue offering proper warning shots until an aggressor’s off switch is fully engaged, although, if the aggressor’s off switch is not located near his center of mass, a polite tap-to-the-head warning shot might be required. Oh, be ultra polite and make it two.

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Doggerel Day

Pease porridge hot;
Pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot,
Nine days old.

Some like it hot;
Some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.

As for me? I don’t know. The only food I’ve ever had simmering away for nine or more days has been broth/stock (chicken, beef, or just plain veggie) left on “warm” on a crock pot. Yummers hot; wouldn’t try cold.

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No One of Any Significance. . .

If I ever tire of Phreddie P. Phineas Phocksphire Pharquhar, I think I would be happy to adopt “Nanny McPhee” as a sobriquet. . . although my Wonder Woman thinks “Manny McPhee” would be a bit less gender-bending. 😉

Thatisall.

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One Little Thing. . . ;-)

Son&Heir’s pooch is definitely one of the top five Best Dogs I have ever known–more like in the top two. Smart, loving, gentle (especially with other animals–he and our cats have a mutual admiration society going), fun to be around. Entertains himself well without being destructive. Fetches well. Plays “tag” really well, too. Personable. Still, one thing he doesn’t seem inclined to learn is the difference between “C’m’ere” and “Sic’em.” *heh*

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Little Things. . .

I made my two favorite cutting boards as gifts (for my grandmothers) 54 years ago, and, after 18 years in one case and 32 years in the other case, they came back to me. I use them daily–far more often than any of my other cutting boards. One I use for meats, only and the other for veggies. The system seems to work for me, and most of the time I don’t need anything larger than these.

mahogany pig

walnut-maple pig

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The Iron Law of Bureaucracy at Work

So, fifth time in six years that “city” *cough* workers *cough* are “repairing” the water line to the house. Yeh, the guy in the hole didn’t like me sticking around to see that he was just putting a patch over the hole in their line. Replace the faulty line? Heck no! That would take work. *sigh*

But at least it keeps them busy going back and re-doing their crappy work.

One of the principles of Type II “Bureaucraps” is to NEVER actually solve a problem, because that doesn’t let them request more funding, more personnel (at the end of the “job” there were five “workers” busyworking the job. Oh, it never needed more than one to do the “work” and another to lean on a shovel and issue directions (which, when it came to the so-so use of the backhoe/FEL at least gave the guy five minutes out of two hours of legitimacy, but it needed five to eat up some time on some time cards), more “turf” to claim as their own.

And their supervisor, of course, set it all up the way it was run, from excess workers using equipment oin a manner assured to take the most possible time with the equipment used, to shoddy repair. All designed to eat up resources in the most inefficient manner possible and assure ANOTHER leak down the road.

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Old Saws Can Be “A Good Thing”

But they don’t always cut true. For example,

“If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence, try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.”

Generally true, but I’ve had folks be upset when their dogs liked me better than they liked them. . . and obeyed me better. Not often, but there’ve been times. . .

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Anyone Else Like This?

I have a quirk, I guess one might say. An example might be, I need to have my cooking utensils hung in EXACTLY the right place–the place where I expect them to be. If a spoon I need to stir a soup is hung just two places off from its place, I have a devil of a time finding it, sometimes (OK, oftentimes). I’ve been known to look all through the kitchen for the RIGHT spoon, because not only is it not in its place, but imagining it being in another utensil’s place is just. . . wrong.

I have experienced something similar if someone referred to “The Messiah” (as a musical work). I am–or was for years–prone to ask “Who is that by?” since Handel’s work is “Messiah.” Now, I know every single note of the Spicker score for “Messiah,” but for years “The Messiah” used as reference to that work kinda threw me. *shrugs* Of course, this usually only causes problems with things I know well.

No, I do not fit the loosey-goosey DSM-IV OCD diagnostic criteria.

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I Hate Spring Pollens

I know they’re a part of the freakin’ “circle of life” and all that, but I’ve been coughing up a lung or two for a couple of weeks now. It’s not all that bad except when a cough surprises me while I’m in the process of swallowing something seasoned with ghost pepper. Then, it’s getting the stuff out of my nasal cavity. . .

I hate Spring pollens.

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Taxes Are Theft?

Every now and then, I see the “Taxes are theft” meme crop up again. It’s simplistic and wrong. Taxes are only theft when government begins to apply revenue thus gained in violation of its essential purpose: the protection of individual rights and liberties. As long as government hews closely to its legitimate purpose, and taxes are not obtained through coercion, taxes are not theft.

Of course, this means that taxes are theft. . . *sigh*