I'm headed out for camping for a week (in a cabin in Montana...no running water or electric, but a lovely wood stove and a pit toilet a mere 200 yards or so from the cabin...it seems much further when it is dark and cold).
Here are some things that have occurred to me:
If there really was a guy sleeping in my car...why didn't he take more crap? Is my crap not good enough for homeless people?
Do I care if my crap is not good enough for homeless people?
Did he put his nether regions on my steering wheel?
Is there any bleach or cleanser that will remove that residue from the wheel and my brain?
That is all.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Some A--hole Left My F'ing Car 4 Blocks from the Apartment
What sort of an asshole steals my car, and dumps it 4 blocks away in an alley by a gas station?
A stupid one. Probably a junkie.
So I'm leaving this morning in the humiliating Dodge Caliber that the rental car gave me. I drive the usual route away from the apartment...a route I didn't take Friday because I went to a coffee shop in another direction and Heather (who took me to lunch! Thanks Heather) went a different direction. Even coming home I turned a block before the spot where I would have seen the car.
Yesterday I took an unusual direction out of town so I could get used to the aforementioned rental vehicle before hitting the highway.
Today, I take the usual route. About 4 blocks from the house (2 as the crow flies...) I glance an old green subaru in my peripheral vision. I thought "That looks like my car" and hang a left and pull up. It IS my car. It looks OK. (well, as OK as it was when I last saw it.)
I called the cops and told them I'd found my car. In about 20 minutes a cop was there and we chatted about it. It started. The steering wheel looked a bit jacked up, but sorted itself out once I started driving.
The engine has the same ticking. It all felt the same. I called the insurance. They asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to drive it today (since I was headed to Moscow for Maia's B-Day...Hi Maia). That way if there was a problem I'd find out now, before I gave the rental car back. The insurance dude said "OK, the rental place won't take the car back today anyway" (which sounds stupid but might be true...I think they must be open on Sunday).
I asked the cop how they took the car. He said old subarus, hondas and toyotas get so you can just file a key down and it will work. I asked what one does about that and he says "get the 'Club' and use it."
Now I look like an asshole because I have the "Club" on the steering wheel of a 15 year old junker.
The only stuff that I can figure out is missing so far is all the change and cash from the console and the key to my Plummer trailer. I called the landlord and asked for new locks. Since I hope to stay there tonight, I hope he hasn't changed them yet. If he has, I'll just go to a hotel. If I stay at the Spokane apartment, it will drive me nuts. I'll just be up all night looking out the window at my car.
Tomorrow I'll come into town and get rid of the rental car and finish packing for camping.
The good news is that I was leaving early for the B-day lunch and still made it on time even with time out to talk to cops, insurance folks, and call people and say "I found my car."
The cop said it was unusual for someone to find their own car. I suppose it is.
Good, but unusual.
And a message for Angela: I am SO SO SO sorry I bogarted your super funny email.
A stupid one. Probably a junkie.
So I'm leaving this morning in the humiliating Dodge Caliber that the rental car gave me. I drive the usual route away from the apartment...a route I didn't take Friday because I went to a coffee shop in another direction and Heather (who took me to lunch! Thanks Heather) went a different direction. Even coming home I turned a block before the spot where I would have seen the car.
Yesterday I took an unusual direction out of town so I could get used to the aforementioned rental vehicle before hitting the highway.
Today, I take the usual route. About 4 blocks from the house (2 as the crow flies...) I glance an old green subaru in my peripheral vision. I thought "That looks like my car" and hang a left and pull up. It IS my car. It looks OK. (well, as OK as it was when I last saw it.)
I called the cops and told them I'd found my car. In about 20 minutes a cop was there and we chatted about it. It started. The steering wheel looked a bit jacked up, but sorted itself out once I started driving.
The engine has the same ticking. It all felt the same. I called the insurance. They asked what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to drive it today (since I was headed to Moscow for Maia's B-Day...Hi Maia). That way if there was a problem I'd find out now, before I gave the rental car back. The insurance dude said "OK, the rental place won't take the car back today anyway" (which sounds stupid but might be true...I think they must be open on Sunday).
I asked the cop how they took the car. He said old subarus, hondas and toyotas get so you can just file a key down and it will work. I asked what one does about that and he says "get the 'Club' and use it."
Now I look like an asshole because I have the "Club" on the steering wheel of a 15 year old junker.
The only stuff that I can figure out is missing so far is all the change and cash from the console and the key to my Plummer trailer. I called the landlord and asked for new locks. Since I hope to stay there tonight, I hope he hasn't changed them yet. If he has, I'll just go to a hotel. If I stay at the Spokane apartment, it will drive me nuts. I'll just be up all night looking out the window at my car.
Tomorrow I'll come into town and get rid of the rental car and finish packing for camping.
The good news is that I was leaving early for the B-day lunch and still made it on time even with time out to talk to cops, insurance folks, and call people and say "I found my car."
The cop said it was unusual for someone to find their own car. I suppose it is.
Good, but unusual.
And a message for Angela: I am SO SO SO sorry I bogarted your super funny email.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Some A-hole Stole My F'ing Car
Here is a wordle that summarizes the crux of the story:
Here is a song about my car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYZhjLrSbUw
(It won't embed so you'll have to click on the link)
6:45pm update:
I have a rental car, and a possible explanation on why someone
would steal my old crap car:
It is not going to have an alarm
It is going to be invisible in the sea of old crap subarus in this area
It is not worth the cop's time to look for so the thief is not going to get caught unless he/she is terminally stupid (which is possible).
STILL...if I were risking jail time, I'd do it for a nice Beamer or 'Cedes, not some old subaru with moldy carpet.
The rental car is nothing I'd ever want to drive. But the insurance will give me 2 weeks free while we wait-n-see if my car turns up drivable. Then, I get 2 weeks free again while they send me a check and I find a different vehicle.
I get up at 5:45 (I slept in. I'm usually up like an hour earlier).
I'm making a cup of tea and looking out the kitchen window like
I always do. And thinking to myself that this is stupid
because who would steal my car and yet every morning
I look out the window at my car while I wait for the
water to heat up.
Today, I'm just looking at an empty spot on the street.
I look all around. No 15 year old subaru in sight.
I run down the stairs in my jammies and socks and
look around. There is no car.
Well, there are several cars...NICE cars including
a much newer subaru.
My car, Betty, is GONE.
Who the f- - - steals a 15 year old car full of crap
with dents, a cracked windshield, busted bug guard,
never been washed (at least not in the last 6 years),
filthy, and 207000 miles on it.
CRAP!!!! my mileage notebook was in there!
CRAP CRAP CRAP! I get most of my tax refund
from that notebook SH!T. That is probably more
valuable than the actual car.
The "good" news is that I have full coverage and
thusly should get a rental car and a pay out.
I'm at the coffee shop (I get a coffee when someone
steals my f'ing car) writing this since I didn't
make it to work.
Cripes.
Anyway, I was supposed to go out with girls from
work tomorrow morning...I'll have to figure that out.
I've got to get to Moscow on Sunday.
I'm going camping Tuesday.
I need my car.
My hiking boots were in there. I probably need to
get hiking boots today so I can start breaking them
in before I go camping.
Who steals an old car?
Also, my snow shovel was in there.
Here is a song about my car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYZhjLrSbUw
(It won't embed so you'll have to click on the link)
6:45pm update:
I have a rental car, and a possible explanation on why someone
would steal my old crap car:
It is not going to have an alarm
It is going to be invisible in the sea of old crap subarus in this area
It is not worth the cop's time to look for so the thief is not going to get caught unless he/she is terminally stupid (which is possible).
STILL...if I were risking jail time, I'd do it for a nice Beamer or 'Cedes, not some old subaru with moldy carpet.
The rental car is nothing I'd ever want to drive. But the insurance will give me 2 weeks free while we wait-n-see if my car turns up drivable. Then, I get 2 weeks free again while they send me a check and I find a different vehicle.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inaugural Speech
You have to admit, whether you voted for him or not...it's pretty amazing to be alive when the first black president of the USA is inaugurated. I'm watching the speech right now. Not bad.
He's all about the thrift and hard work. It will be an interesting change from that last guy who just told us to keep shopping while he shuttled our money to his cronies. If you disagree, feel free to. That's supposed to be the point of living in this country.
The crowd looks HUGE!
By the way, I've heard all this crap about how Obama's inauguration is costing more than Bush's last one. It's not. The figures they are using for Obama's include the security, porta-let rentals, etc. What they are counting for Bush when they say "40million$" is actually JUST the $$ Bush raised to fund the actual event. NOT the security costs etc. The last report I heard where the reporter compared similar costs for the last Bush inauguration the total sum was higher than Obama's total cost. AND, with only about 400,000 people at the Bush one, it was about 392$/attendee. For Obama, the total cost is lower, and with an expected 2million (will be recalculated when a better count is available) it will be about 78$/attendee.
Obama is clearly the fiscal conservative and getting more bang for his buck.
I do hope people are well behaved and patient at the event. I also heard on liberal-diatribe-radio that there was one porta-let per 5,000-6,000 attendees...there is no way one porta-let can hold 5000 poos and/or pees. I hope people wore diapers or peed before they left their housing and restricted their liquid intake (it's cold...they won't pass out).
I don't know what I would choose if it was to be the 5000th person in a porta-let or to poop my pants. If those are the options, what do you choose?
I'll have to post a vote thingy on the side of the blog. Please vote.
OK, back to listening to the speech.
He's all about the thrift and hard work. It will be an interesting change from that last guy who just told us to keep shopping while he shuttled our money to his cronies. If you disagree, feel free to. That's supposed to be the point of living in this country.
The crowd looks HUGE!
By the way, I've heard all this crap about how Obama's inauguration is costing more than Bush's last one. It's not. The figures they are using for Obama's include the security, porta-let rentals, etc. What they are counting for Bush when they say "40million$" is actually JUST the $$ Bush raised to fund the actual event. NOT the security costs etc. The last report I heard where the reporter compared similar costs for the last Bush inauguration the total sum was higher than Obama's total cost. AND, with only about 400,000 people at the Bush one, it was about 392$/attendee. For Obama, the total cost is lower, and with an expected 2million (will be recalculated when a better count is available) it will be about 78$/attendee.
Obama is clearly the fiscal conservative and getting more bang for his buck.
I do hope people are well behaved and patient at the event. I also heard on liberal-diatribe-radio that there was one porta-let per 5,000-6,000 attendees...there is no way one porta-let can hold 5000 poos and/or pees. I hope people wore diapers or peed before they left their housing and restricted their liquid intake (it's cold...they won't pass out).
I don't know what I would choose if it was to be the 5000th person in a porta-let or to poop my pants. If those are the options, what do you choose?
I'll have to post a vote thingy on the side of the blog. Please vote.
OK, back to listening to the speech.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Check out the Flood Blog!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bring Back National Thrift Week
Here is a SHORT history of National Thrift week that I swiped from
www.getrichslowly.org (a favorite blog of mine)
In still other news, Sher's kitchen is progressing apace. There have been people there all weekend working to install the cabinets and countertops. I think after this it will be ready for floors. And Sher will be ready for her vacation to Hawai'i. Interesting how Sher is headed to Hawai'i and I'm busy planning our next vacation to Nova Scotia (and hoping we can switch to Newfoundland because there is even LESS going on there).
In still other news...I tried to help a friend strip wall paper yesterday. We consulted Sher for tips and got very good direction. BUT, the friend got super sick and wouldn't just go to bed and let me finish. It was just borders and the vinegar water wash Sher recommended was working just fine. So, I had to leave the job half done. Perhaps she'll be back on her feet next weekend and we can finish then.
Why is it so much easier to do projects at someone else's house? I have needed to paint the bathroom at the trailer for years. I've needed to sort the piles of paper at both homes for...well, since about a week after I moved into each. I can't get that done. But take me to a remote location and I'm fine. I wonder if I could find a friend to trade housework with. I don't mind cleaning other people's homes (I was a janitor and a hotel maid in the past). It's just cleaning mine that doesn't interest me.
Anyway, I need to finish websurfing before I run out of power on the laptop. Then I should clean the car...but I probably won't.
www.getrichslowly.org (a favorite blog of mine)
In other news...I'm going to lunch today with Dean Yohe. A cousin I haven't seen in decades. Like 3 decades. that should be interesting! Me and El Kid are meeting him and his family after they go to church (Yes Aunt Mary, they invited me to church but I declined). I know I'll recognize him because he looks like a taller version of his mom (the aforementioned Aunt Mary...technically "Great Aunt Mary" but the original "Great Aunt Mary" was such a character that I don't think the current reigning Aunt Mary wants to be mixed up with the original...have I told the horse-turds/AuntMary's Ashes story?) (OK, just typing that made me giggle and sort of put americano up my nose).In 1916, with the First World War looming imminently on the horizon, the leaders of America’s major civic organizations launched an ambitious education campaign designed to ready the American public for a wartime economy…
The activities of National Thrift Week were guided by several specific principles and behaviors and each was given its own day. Hence, Americans joined together every January in celebrating:
- Have a Bank Account Day
- Invest Safely Day
- Carry Life Insurance Day
- Keep a Budget Day
- Pay Bills Promptly Day
- Own Your Home Day
- Share with Others Day
Then, as today, critics often maligned thrift as simple hoarding, but these principles demonstrate how the founders envisioned Thrift Week as so much more — they saw it not as a way to encourage miserly behavior, but instead to cultivate responsible consumerism and civic progress. Rather than self-denial, the goal was self-control…
National Thrift Week fizzled out in 1966, after being passed from one sponsor to another. Around that same time, thrift as a national virtue seems to have faded from the collective public consciousness as well…
I'm a few days late getting this posted but that is because I just heard of it. I've had to cut back on my internet use at work and with dial up at the apartment...well, there is no point in signing on if all you have is dial up. Anyway, it seems I'm the "Bandwidth Queen" at work. They installed internet use monitoring software and I've been the top bandwidth consumer! Woohoo! I'm number one. Apparently letting videos run in the background while I work is not as common as I thought. Perhaps it's because I sometimes have 2 or 3 video sites open at once. Anyway, the upshot is that I'm trying to cut back on internet use at work and was not reading my fave blogs for a while so I missed the beginning of National Thrift week.
It isn't actually a current holiday but maybe we can get Obama to bring it back. lord knows in this economy people need to be a bit thriftier in general (as I sit at a coffee shop with organic locally produced strawberry coffee cake and a hazelnut americano).
If you're interested in bringing back National Thrift Week check out
In still other news, Sher's kitchen is progressing apace. There have been people there all weekend working to install the cabinets and countertops. I think after this it will be ready for floors. And Sher will be ready for her vacation to Hawai'i. Interesting how Sher is headed to Hawai'i and I'm busy planning our next vacation to Nova Scotia (and hoping we can switch to Newfoundland because there is even LESS going on there).
In still other news...I tried to help a friend strip wall paper yesterday. We consulted Sher for tips and got very good direction. BUT, the friend got super sick and wouldn't just go to bed and let me finish. It was just borders and the vinegar water wash Sher recommended was working just fine. So, I had to leave the job half done. Perhaps she'll be back on her feet next weekend and we can finish then.
Why is it so much easier to do projects at someone else's house? I have needed to paint the bathroom at the trailer for years. I've needed to sort the piles of paper at both homes for...well, since about a week after I moved into each. I can't get that done. But take me to a remote location and I'm fine. I wonder if I could find a friend to trade housework with. I don't mind cleaning other people's homes (I was a janitor and a hotel maid in the past). It's just cleaning mine that doesn't interest me.
Anyway, I need to finish websurfing before I run out of power on the laptop. Then I should clean the car...but I probably won't.
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