There are times…

IMG 2882When I’m very thankful for the Dog.

Sometimes, he’s an absolute pain in my ass!  Other times, I catch a glimpse of the world through his eyes and see beauty.

This morning was one of those mornings.

I did laundry yesterday. As part of that process I changed the bedsheets from the summer lightweight cotton to the winter flannel. 

It’s been cold enough here at night that I have run the heater a few times. I hate getting up to a house that’s 55°F. 

I was even able to pack the last summer sheet set, into its original package. That was cool.

There’s another chore that I need to do. I’ve got to match up the sheet sets. I think I lost one if not two top sheets back in January. That wouldn’t be bad except that they were from the king size sets, not the queen size sets that I thought they were. It doesn’t matter a lot because when the time comes and I move, I’m getting rid of the king sized bed and going to a queen. At that time I’ll buy new sets for a new life. Hey, I’m trying to put a positive spin on it. But in the mean time… I’ve got mismatched sets of sheets that I need to sort out and dispose of, to minimize confusion and frustration.

Anyhow, flannel sheets in place, I went on with the day doing just usual puttering around. I haven’t been sleeping well and my head has not been “in the game” for much of anything lately. 

Bedtime rolled around and I crawled into a nice warm bed. I’ve recently instituted a moratorium on bedside alarms on Sunday. Meaning, I’ll sleep if possible until something wakes me up or until I wake up naturally. This morning, I woke up completely naturally. The dog was curled up on the foot of the bed and there was silence. I sat up, looked at the phone next to the bed and it was after 8am. Sweet! I slept straight through the night. 

I got up, peed, and by the time I was done the dog was ready to do his morning rounds. I let him out, poured myself a cup of coffee, and pulled on some sweats. After a few minutes enjoying my coffee the dog is at the door. I let him in, he heads for his equivalent of morning coffee.

He’s asking for his morning Greenie. 

I give it to him, he starts to trot toward the back door again. “Fine,” I say, opening the door. He heads out trotting to his usual spot (The spot where Greenies are consumed,)  Then he turns back and sits at the door looking at me. He’s still got the Greenie in his mouth.

Because the behavior is “odd” for him I open the door and step out onto the deck to see if something is wrong. 

The dog starts tossing the Greenie at me then playing keep away. I set my coffee on a nearby outdoor table and engage in the game. He’s wagging his tail and challenging me, we’re having fun.

Then he’s a little too rough picking up the Greenie to toss it at me and bites it in half. Game over! Now it’s time to eat it.

I’m standing out on the deck, the morning chill is being displaced by the sun and I’m struck by how pretty the day is.

In fact it’s a spectacular day. Not too cold, it’s clear and crisp and quiet. That’s one of the things that really strikes me… The silence. 

We’ve been living in a construction zone for most of the Summer. There’s been heavy equipment running from 7am to 4 pm every week day and some weekends. It’s annoying because of the dust.

I haven’t been able to paint the trim or the stairs of the house, and now it’s getting too cold at night to do the painting especially the back stairs and deck because they’re in shadow much of the day.

But the noise is also a factor even when the equipment is at the far end of the wash, the sound reverberates right back up the canyon, and it’s constant. Dumptrucks driving 25 or 30 feet from your front door all day long create a wall of noise that you can’t escape. The dust blowing off their loads, and being kicked up by their passing is quite possibly bad for us.

In the height of Summer we tend to have our windows open, most folks here don’t have air conditioning. So we’ve been living with never ending dust to the point that every morning stepping into the shower I can feel the grit under my feet. I vacuum every day and I simply gave up dusting. What’s the point? I have to rinse every dish or pot before using it, or leave everything in the dish washer. 

But breathing all this dust can’t be good for us. Not to mention the possibility of Valley Fever. The sides of the wash are populated by thousands, if not millions of rodents. Valley Fever comes from rodent poop, it’s usually something a person gets if they’ve been out clearing land and kick up a lot of dust. Folks weed whacking without a mask, or using leaf blowers commonly get it.

IMG 2886It’s not the county workers fault, they’re doing what they’ve been told to do. They get paid by the flood control district and even the supervisors think they’re doing the right thing. Although I contend that had they done what had been done in the 1920’s that lasted 70 to 80 years, everyone would have been better off and the county would have saved a shit ton of money.

Not that the county gives a damn about saving money or using it wisely. I have no reason to believe that the County of San Bernardino will take any more responsibility for health issues they’ve caused in this neighborhood than they will for the private roads they’ve damaged, the environment they’ve destroyed, or the degraded quality of life issues their poorly designed and executed “Flood Control Project” has caused.

As I think about it, enjoying my coffee and the beautiful morning on my back deck. I think that I should probably write a complaint letter to the County describing all of this, I suspect that OSHA would shut this down if the neighborhood was a worksite. But since we’re a neighborhood I doubt there are any regulations. Nonetheless I should get a letter on file so that if I develop some disease caused by breathing granite dust I can point to them as responsible.

In the mean time… I’m going to sit here enjoying my home for the first time in 4 months. I’m glad the dog dragged my ass outside this morning. He’s snoozing in the sun occasionally raising his head to survey the world.

Have a happy Sunday.

OMG! It’s the end of the world!!!

Annular EclipseDOOM! DOOM is upon us! The Sun is being eaten!!!! 

The eclipse is starting. I can see the changing of the light and am debating about making a pinhole observation device.

On the other hand, maybe I’ll just wait for the pictures later today.

I wonder how many religious cults are gleefully drinking Cyanide laced kool aid? Yeah, apparently several years ago there were a number of fundamentalist cults who believed the time of The Rapture was nigh and had to be talked off the ledge over some special eclipse.

I’m to the point in my life where I think no-one should talk idiots off the proverbial ledge. Evolution demands that only useful genes get passed on and those genes which are not useful are recycled as food. Stupid brutish humans are good for protection. (Ogg, you stand here. Don’t let anyone come through this gate. Yes Ogg, you can hit…) Generally stupid humans who are neither pretty, or strong, can probably be excised from the gene pool without causing a ripple. 

I think it was Dr Who, that said it best. “Life is just natures way of keeping the meat fresh

“What about the smart people?” You ask. 

Hey they’re the ones who know it’s an eclipse, a natural phenomena, and can maybe make a few bucks off the stupid by selling reflective mylar sheets for $200 a pop to morons as radiation shields. (Hey, Light is radiation… I never said which kind of radiation the sheet shielded against!)

It’s probably a really good thing that I don’t work at a Suicide Hot line. I’d have the worst “save” record because I’d be doing exactly what it said on the tin…

Happy Holidays, Suicide hot line how can I help? So how far along are you in your suicide? Oh, you’re up on the top of the building? Uh huh, and the building is at least 4 stories tall? Oh? Only two stories… Are there any wrought iron fences with spikes nearby? You’re just barely going to reach terminal velocity with a two story jump. I’d suggest finding a taller building or throwing yourself onto something that could impale you. Oh you’re welcome sir… have a wonderful death!

Yeah I’m a sick fuck!

Damn! The sun is recovering… I guess the Rapture isn’t happening today!

There’s always tomorrow!!!!

Have a nice day! 😉

Dog Farts!

IMG 2879

Okay. In light of the Israeli Hamas war we need something lighter.

I’m totally on board with Israel carpet bombing Gaza and the West Bank. I don’t care how many Palestinians are killed. For almost my entire life, Palestinians have been doing this shit and I’ve had enough. No fucking mercy, No Prisoners.

In honor of Hamas trying to declare a global day of jihad let’s talk about dog farts. After all Dog farts are way more important than Hamas or Palestine.

This is a picture of the fart machine that I live with. When I snapped this photo he was sound asleep and farting continuously.

We’re talking farts that peel paint, they make your eyes water, and burn the hairs right the hell out of your nose. Insects flying through the cloud of gas immediately fall to the ground dead.

He isn’t bothered an all by the stench. A benefit of the way his nose is built.

I on the other hand have no such biological adaptations, and am wondering if he’s a Jihad dog. Saddam’s nerve gas couldn’t be much worse than the stench my sweet puppy emits!

You’ll notice he’s wearing a bandana. That’s because he was groomed the other day. I’ve noticed a pattern.

For a few days after he’s been groomed, he has the foulest farts. I think it’s probably because he manages to work the groomer(s) out of an excessive number of treats. 

The campfire blazing saddlesI don’t know if this is actual fact and the pup sure as hell isn’t going to tell. He’s a treat / cookie monster and people want to give him treats.

I’m looking for something that I can eat to balance the scales. Since the dog sleeps on the bed with me I want to produce farts that drive him out of the bedroom at 3 am! 

Fair is fair!

Maybe I need to find some baked beans an recreate the “Beans” scene from Blazing Saddles.

Hmm, That’s interesting!

I updated my IOS and Apple Watch OS to the latest due to some security concerns.  Sigh!General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Suddenly the weather functionality on my watch is all wonky. It’s obviously a bug. The weather info complications will work for a bit, then begin displaying “—“. They’ll still link to the actual weather application and that seems to be working just fine. 

Although in troubleshooting the issue I wiped all my saved locations. Not a big deal…

I thought it was a communication fault between my phone and watch, because I noticed the problem typically when I was outside and my phone was inside. Initially it looked like something not working when the watch was disconnecting from bluetooth. 

I was just about to flush the watch and start over. 

Then I thought, “Wait, I wonder if this is documented?”

It was, apparently Apple has introduced a bug as part of their updates to Weather. I’m glad I didn’t just wipe and restore my watch. The effort would have been pointless.

Busted software is busted software!

I’m wondering if Carrot Weather works, but then I’m not sure that I want to pay for another weather application. I really liked Dark Sky then Apple purchased the company. They did a pretty good job of merging the features of Dark Sky into the Apple weather app. But I’m now hesitant to spend on a subscription.

I have to say Carrot might be amusing because it apparently has a smart ass mode. That might be fun for a while.

Yes I can look outside and see the weather… But I like seeing a mini forecast like the expected high and low and what the probability of rain or snow is for a day or week. The complications on my watch face provide this information at a glance and while you wouldn’t think it would be missed, once you get used to it… you miss it a lot.

I miss it even in Southern California where the weather is boring in its sameness. If I lived in the Midwest or South I’d be losing my mind!

I also noticed another Bug in Apple Music on my phone. If you press the big, obvious, centrally located “Play” button it doesn’t change. There’s no indication that the album or playlist is actually playing. If the selection has a long quiet lead in you might find yourself pressing the play button repeatedly wondering what’s going on. What you’re doing, is restarting the playing selection over and over again.

User interface issues?

Come on Apple! You wrote the book on user interfaces. At least change the color of the button, change the symbol to the || symbol. Do something that tells the user their command has been accepted and is being executed.

Ive told you again and again… I’m happy to test your software. I keep applying for your open positions, I’m experienced, speak, read, and write English. I’m low maintenance! Just give me software and what specifications you have… I like testing software! I don’t need a special glitter covered desk or specialized bathroom designations. A simple workspace and the normal male symbol Malesym

Will do just fine. 

I’m being a little snarky because no matter how many applications I fill out with Apple, the deafening silence coming back from their HR department is a universal constant. Like Gravity.

Anyhow, off to fiddle with something else that needs fiddling with.

Have a good day

 

I keep trying to write a non political blog post, but…

I keep running across reports out of Israel. 

My God! How can humans be that monstrous? Raping the women of your enemies is something that’s been going on for centuries so it’s not terribly surprising but I’d thought we’d gotten past that stage as a species.

Apparently I gave the human race more credit than it was due.

However, murdering infants? Decapitating them? Murdering women and children in their beds? That shit is vile beyond words. It also demonstrates what fucking cowards Hamas is. 

Their, Oh so Brave ‘Freedom Fighters’ killing unarmed people is wrong on so many levels that I find myself wanting to see Gaza leveled Indiscriminately. I find myself thinking “No Mercy, No Prisoners”

My rage quickly expands to those praising Hamas and Palestines actions in other countries. Australia I’m looking at you!

How can a country with such asinine hate speech & disinformation laws that they imprison their own citizens for misgendering a gender fuck drag queen, allow such hateful things as “Gas the Jews” to be chanted in front of the Sydney Opera House? 

I can tell you this, I don’t think I’ll be visiting Australia. I’ve heard it’s beautiful, but I don’t deal well with confusion. If “Gas the Jews” is okay, I’m going to assume my telling a tranny to get away from me, or calling the COVID Vaccines ineffective, or stating the fact that COVID 19 was only fatal to about 2% of the people contracting it, is going to be okay too. 

Except… We all know that’s not true and I’d end up in jail.

Then we have our own politicians, & citizens supporting Hamas with demonstrations in the streets or flying their flags outside their offices. Our own colleges saying they support Hamas and Palestinian causes. 

And I ask myself what has happened?

If this is humanity… then maybe it’s time for God to start over. 

Even I, pointing out the horror, am willing to look the other way when I say, “no mercy, no prisoners,” and say that Gaza be leveled. I’m willing to look away knowing that hundreds of thousands of men women and children would be killed.  

That makes me just as defective as the rest of the human race.

Recognizing my own defect… I still think every single member of Hamas should be hunted down and shot in the streets like the filthy rabid dogs they are. I might even be up for torturing them a bit first.

I have no idea why I feel that way. Is it that what they’re doing is so heinous I’m almost blinded by rage? OR is it moral outrage?

I look forward to the Israeli counter offensive