July 3, 2008Pretty, in a morbid sort of wayI don’t know what this means, but here it is anyway:
Sutures or staples or something in the Head Rat’s shoulder. The end product of the surgeon’s work before he stitched up the little holes they stuck the instruments through. (I realize there’s no particular reason to share this with the world, but I can’t e-mail the pictures to Rat Jr. because she only has occasional internet access and I thought she might like the opportunity to say “eewww”.) June 28, 2008In which Cziltang the Ratbastard offers a (lame) explanation for going walkaboutSo I’ve had a month off. It would be easy to blame my absence on stuff at work and the Head Rat’s surgery. I suppose in some respects that would be true. But, a more truthful statement would be that I’ve been tired and everything I’ve felt like writing about has had an angle that in some way impinged on work. Vitriolic rants about various state agencies which may or may not have the power of life or death over your employment is, in my opinion, a less than stellar career move. So, when I have something I really want to write about and for some reason feel I can’t, I mostly don’t write. I haven’t really been following the news, either. In fact, although I’ve been playing a game to clear my mind in the evenings, I’ve been avoiding the internet. Not much else to say, I guess. On the home front, the Head Rat had rotator cuff surgery this past Monday. The surgeon said there was a lot more damage than expected. The surgery took 2 1/2 hours. I’m pretty sure that’s not good. Anyway, sitting in the waiting room gave me an opportunity to remind myself of why I don’t watch CNN. The Head Rat is recovering slowly. And, she’s cranky. Which, given the circumstances is better than I would have hoped for. I rather imagine that were it me that had been cut and sewn and stapled or whatever they did to her, I would be a bit more than cranky. May 31, 2008Me too(via Cold Fury) I’m not much on much on all those do good/feel good/get healthy type days that get promoted seemingly all the time. I pretty much ignored “Walk at Work Day.” I ignore most of the “raise awareness” days. I actively chain smoke whenever possible during the “Great American Smokeout”. You want me to participate in your national “day”? Have a “National Concealed Carry Day” or a “National Government Butts out of our Lives Day” or a “Screw the Economic Stimulus Checks, How About Not Taking It Out of my Pocket in the First Place Day”. Or perhaps this:
Count me in. Too bad it’s on a Thursday or we could have a serious barbecue. I do have a full sized pickup and some cigars… May 30, 2008Yeah, I can live with that (except he’s dead)You are Wash, the Pilot You can be terse…once in Flight School, you were downright laconic! Beware sharp pieces of wood.
Take the Which Firefly guy are you? Quiz at HeavyInk.com May 25, 2008In which Cziltang the Ratbastard live-blogs a hailstormI’m not sure whether anyone has done this before, but you might as well share the anxiety of the moment as I sit here listening to progressively larger hailstones pounding down outside. Sort of on the order of a slow-motion train wreck, I don’t really want to, but I guess I may as well go watch the new Ratmobile getting thrashed. Update: Now we’re up to nickel size hail. I can’t tell if there is any significant damage to anything in the neighborhood or not. I’ve had the new Ratmobile 5 days now. I’m not sure I want to go look. Update: Well, it seems to be over for now. I don’t see any major damage, but I’m not going out to inspect. We were getting absolutely peppered with nickel and dime size hail. I wasn’t so worried about that, but I kept hearing these big “thunks” on the roof. I think I’m going to go to bed, try to sleep and hope for the best. May 23, 2008In which Cziltang the Ratbastard attempts to demonstrate that he is a digital guru only to be reminded that he is, in fact, a techno-geek wannabeFor non-regular readers, the Head Rat has become, for all intents and purposes, deaf. She reads lips very well, and whether it is because my voice is low enough that she hears bits of what I say or whether after twenty-five years of being married I simply have nothing original to say or whether she is, as I have long suspected, psychic is anyone’s guess. Unfortunately, she has been unable to use a phone for quite some time. A few weeks ago, however, Rat Jr. and I convinced her that text messaging was a viable option, what with Rat Jr. being in Idaho and the Head Rat being of the opinion that Rat Jr. needed a piece of her mind some motherly advice. Watching the Head Rat text would be really funny if it was a scene in one of those Adam Sandler movies. In real life it is sort of painful. She has a tendency to talk to swear at the TV and the computer and now, the phone. She gets frustrated and starts jabbing at buttons. Of course, when the menus are controlled by a track ball, jabbing tends to roll the menu before the selection is made, causing her to accidentally select something she didn’t want, which increases the frustration, the swearing and the jabbing. It isn’t pretty. To compound matters, a few days ago, the phone started vibrating every 10 minutes. Like clockwork. Day and night. I thought maybe she had accidentally enabled a reminder or a calendar event or something. Nothing. Then I thought maybe she had an unread text message or an e-mail or something. Nothing. I went through all the menus. I looked at all of the organizer functions. Nothing. Turning off the vibration, of course wasn’t an option, as she can’t hear it ring. I finally had to turn it off at night, as I couldn’t get it to stop and the vibration on the night stand was waking me up. On the third day, I finally declared defeat and called tech support. After two hours on the phone (mine), we discovered that the problem was an un-listened to voice mail. The phone was merely letting her know that she had an unacknowledged message. And who setup the phone to buzz every 10 minutes when she has a pending message of any kind? Me. Still, Deaf chick.* Voice mail. In my defense, I can only say that it never occurred to me to check the voice mail. The only people who have her number are people who know she is deaf. So, it was of no little amusement to me to discover that the source of the voice mail and the 3 days of buzzing was none other than Rat Jr., leaving her mother a message. Deaf Chick. Voice Mail. Former long-term member of household. The Head Rat was rather less amused than I. Which prompted lots of jabbing and swearing as she attempted to compose a text message to the kid. *”Deaf Chick” is her term, not mine as I suspect it is hopelessly politically incorrect and you all know I’m all about sanitized thought and not offending anyone. May 20, 2008Tonzura koite(Yes, Jr., I’ve been watching Excel Saga)
According to my source, this translates roughly as “and we get the hell out”, which is what I would really like to do sometimes. Get together with a bunch of like-minded individuals in Wyoming or Idaho or some such place, form a libertarian government and secede from the Union. The only problem with that sort of pipe dream is that it is, for me, uncomfortably reminiscent of the times I used to sit around with other pot-heads 30 or so years ago and talk about all the different varieties of dope we were going to stock in our marijuana store when pot was legalized. Still, it’s hard not to entertain fantasies of getting the hell out when Congress is on a roll. Generally I prefer Congress to do nothing other than posture. When the posturing is accompanied by bi-partisan action, Idaho starts looking real good. (via Coyote Blog, again, a link to Q and O)
So we sue. And win. Then what? How do we collect? Freeze some assets? Then what? How does that translate into us getting more oil? I’m sure the rising working and middle classes in India and China would be happy to buy the oil no one will sell to us at that point. Warren (at Coyote Blog) has an interesting thought:
On an individual level, if an individual who believes in and tries to live a personally responsible life has an item in their life that they want/need (food for example) that increases dramatically in price, they start asking questions. Can I do with less of IT? Can I do with less of something else so I can pay for IT? Can I make or grow some of IT myself. Do I get a second job so my family can have IT? Armed with the answers to those questions, they then set about trying to do what they need to do to get IT in sufficient quantities for their family. Irresponsible people start talking about what hardships they are suffering through. They start talking about how it isn’t fair. They start talking about how they are victims of something and then they start looking around for someone to blame. So, Congress is going to blame OPEC and threaten to sue them. That will make all “have+eat” people happy. Won’t fix the problem, even in the short term. Will piss off our major oil suppliers. Is nearly guaranteed to make the problem worse in the long run. But, we’ll all feel better because we have officially established that it isn’t our fault and we don’t have to take any responsibility, make any hard choices, or in fact do anything other than bitch about “them” and what they are doing to us, poor helpless victims that we are. Yeah. Poor helpless little victims who live in the most powerful nation in the world, with nearly limitless industrial capacity (not to mention huge untapped oil reserves which are currently off limits), who are “victims” in only the most tortured definition of the word and only because we would rather be victims than take a chance on inconveniencing several thousand caribou. If we were a responsible nation we would immediately remove most of the restrictions on drilling for oil and on building refineries. It wouldn’t solve the problem in the short term, but it would certainly mitigate it in the future. And it would cut into that “dependence on foreign oil” people claim to be so worried about. Nope. We’re going to sue the people who sell us what oil we do get, ’cause it’s not fair. We’re victims, damn it. *I was tempted to twist a reference from George Carlin here. Far be it from me to insinuate that the liberal/green folks are inherently hypocritical and racist, but have you noticed that while they scream NIMBY if you want to drill for oil in Alaska, they don’t mind so much and, in fact (if you take this stupid piece of legislation as evidence) insist that more oil production take place, as long as it happens in places populated by brown people. (If you’ve never heard it, the Carlin bit was about how it is America’s job to bomb brown people.) Update: It occurs to me after re-reading the last bit that I may have been a bit uncharitable. After 28 years in Corrections I’ve learned to expect the worst of people. I am rarely wrong. I am never disappointed. And when I am wrong, I have the unique experience of being genuinely and pleasantly surprised. Anyway this may not be an example of inherent racism. It may, possibly, just be an example of that condescending, patronizing “it’s okay if you provide us with Nikes and clothing and coffee and oil, as long as you do it in an eco-friendly, fair-trade, non-exploitive way that doesn’t offend our sensibilities” attitude that seems to be obligatory in left/green circles. Or, they may indeed be inherently racist. May 19, 2008In which Cziltang the Ratbastard acquires a new Ratmobile and emerges with both arms, both legs and most of his ass intactI hate vehicle shopping. I hate haggling. I hate the “car buying experience”. Nothing about it appeals to me. Nothing about it is enjoyable for me (not even the “new car” smell). The only time I ever really enjoyed buying a car was in 1977 when I bought a 1972 Ford Galaxie 500 (my first car) for $900 cash, free and clear. It remains, in my opinion, the single most endearing quality of online shopping, that you can find something you want or need, look at the price, decide if you are willing to pay it or not, and then buy the thing or not. Nice. Neat. Clean. Add people (especially people who are working on commission) to the equation and it gets all messy. But, I do appreciate art, and car salesmen (the good ones, at least) are artists. I’ll give the guy today credit; his patter was good, the pace was good, he didn’t do anything illegal and to the best of my knowledge and/or recollection, never actually lied about anything. Still, when all was said and done, I figure the deal cost me about a thousand dollars and one junk truck more than it could have if I had been on my game. It is, however, a nice truck. The Head Rat likes it (even though it is the same color as our next door neighbor’s truck and similar to the color of the other next door neighbor’s car). It rides good (ok, it doesn’t ride good, it rides like a truck, but it rides better that the one I traded in). It doesn’t have the rear bench seat like the old Ratmobile did (the Head Rat sees that as a feature, not a bug, since it means we don’t have the room to cart various and sundry neighbors and acquaintances around with us) but there is a storage area behind the seats accessible by doors about half the size of the ones on an extended cab with a back seat. It also has extremely low mileage. And, as near as I can tell, given the fancy names they give things so as to be able to list them as features, I still paid below Blue Book. In the end, the only criteria that matters is whether I’m satisfied with the value for my money. (OK, that’s not true. The only criteria that matters is whether the Head Rat is satisfied with the value for my money.) Do I think I could have gotten it for less? Probably. Do I think the salesman tried to maximize his commission on the deal? Absolutely. Do I think I got a great deal? No. Do I think I got ripped off? No. Am I going to lose sleep fussing about it? Nope. (Not at least until the first payment comes due, since it’s been a while since I’ve had a car payment.) If I get around to it, I may post a picture tomorrow, mostly for Rat Jr.’s benefit. I figure she might like to see what a truck that hasn’t been run into a post at the ATM, twice, at the same ATM, looks like. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more.) ********* On the purely positive side, the speedloaders for my .357 AND my boxed set of the Excel Saga anime both came in the mail today. Is this internet thingy cool, or what? May 15, 2008The “not yet Friday, decidedly un-”Random TenNothing random this week. I’ve been listening to the new Nine Inch Nails album to the exclusion of all else. The Slip has, coincidentally*, ten songs, so here it is: 1. 999,999 2. 1,000,000 3. Letting You 4. Discipline 5. Echoplex 6. Head Down 7. Lights in the Sky 8. Corona Radiata 9. The Four of Us are Dying… 10. Demon Seed My favorite at the moment is Echoplex, followed by Discipline, but that may change after I have time to digest the album a bit more. *as long as we’re talking about random, meaningless coincidences, if you take such things as omens, bet on the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. They won it the last time we painted our living room red. As we’ve just done it again, I figure it’s a sure bet, right? And there you sit with your economic stimulus check burning a hole in your pocket… And a good time was had by allI’ve said before (although I don’t think it was on this web site) that my job/life is sort of like herding squirrels: 1. I’m never completely successful 2. I’m never completely finished 3. On a good day no one gets run over by a car That said, the past couple of days haven’t been all that bad, even though one of my staff did get hit by a car this evening. (No serious injuries) I didn’t say anything really stupid or offensive to the inspectors who showed up at work yesterday. The side-effects of my latest medication are diminishing. We’re on the final leg of our re-painting project here at the Ratlands. Rat Jr. tells me she may have found someone who will do the artwork for my Global Warming Wear T-shirts. And, my concealed carry holster, extra magazines and some other assorted goodies I ordered arrived about 42 hours after I ordered them. All in all, not a bad couple of days. |
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