I have a stack of stuff that I could write about today, but for once I don’t feel like writing about anything. It’s a big mess out there, there’s precious little any of us can do to fix things, or so I think, and it’s dispiriting. Politicians are making big noises about how we will not stand for terrorism, but offer no solutions. And everybody is using this episode to promote their favorite ideas, and I sometimes feel I’m among them. That all pales in the face of the 50 young people whose lives will never be fulfilled.
I’ll try to leaven my mood by posting two new-ish episodes of Simon’s Cat.
“Fast track”
“Muddy paws”
Yes, this is a gloomy day even if it isn’t Friday the 13th. Why not go for a walk, and hopefully find that sweet tuxedo tabby you petted yesterday?
Keep your chin up.
And what about me? I have a cold and have to spend $1000 for critter damage to my radiator. 🙂
Is this the oppression Olympics? 🙂
If so, nobody will expect it when I show up with a scimitar-tossing watery bint….
Cheers,
b&
“Next up we have Ben Goren, with his chief weapon of surprise and a watery bint… his TWO chief weapons of surprise, a watery bint, and a ruthless application of reason… his THREE chief weapons…”
Spanish Practices, eh?
I imagine the critter that damaged your radiator had a bad day too.
Yes, I found out it was a chipmunk so now I feel bad as it was probably one of the curious babies that have just come out. 🙁
I have to ask. How does a chipmunk do $1000 of damage?
Gives a new reason for my “I brake for squirrels” bumper sticker.
Crawled in between the radiator fan and the radiator and got stuck. Shorted out the fan and damaged the wiring.
I will pray for you.
Maybe you should pray for the chipmunk. And the mechanic who had to remove it…
cr
(Umm, and extend sympathy to Diana too, of course)
And what about Joe Pesci? Isn’t it high time somebody prayed for him, too — or is he just chopped liver?
b&
>
The wife had her first puncture in the car – while I’m at the other end of the country.
And I’ve told her for 3 years since she passed her driving test that “You need to learn how to change a wheel. It’s easy ; I’m lazy ; the tools in the boot which won’t require any more than one hand.”
Nearly £50 for a mobile mechanic to change the wheel for her. Probably another £50 to get the tyre repaired or replaced. [SIGH]
In the States, there’s a wonderful company, AAA, that provides a roadside assistance service. They’ll change tires, give you gas to make it to the next station, charge your battery, and tow you when it’s more serious. Their fees are most reasonable…
…and it’s practically a must-have if you’ve got older, especially classic, cars.
Just last week I was driving my parents’s 1955 VW Beetle in the middle of the afternoon when it was well over 100°F…when the engine cut out due to vapor lock.
It’s typically no big deal…you just wait for everything to cool down and the car starts right up again, maybe with a bit more cranking than usual. But you have to wait for it to cool or else it’s not starting, no way no how.
Problem was…it happened going up a small hill on a major thoroughfare shortly before a freeway onramp, and with a concrete barrier preventing you from getting out of the travel lanes.
So…a call to AAA, a slightly nerve-wracking short period of time waving idiots around the car stopped in the road, a short tow home, and the car fires right up after we unload it from the truck.
That service call right there more than paid for my membership dues….
Cheers,
b&
>
The equivalent in the UK – “AA” or “RAC” was about £60/year last time I looked. The insurance to cap the call out cost is £27/year, IIRC.
Which is why I pay the insurance premium. (It”s a bundle with the regular car insurance.)
We have the same thing in Canada but it’s called CAA.
I often feel the same way because the politicians are really good at creating problems but rarely solve any. Terrorism and mentally defective people have been around for a long time. The one thing we could do to greatly reduce the killing is to eliminate the guns that allow people of all orders to do it. Just forget about the idiots who don’t know how to interpret history or amendments and get rid of the guns. That would be all assault type rifles and all hand guns. No ownership and no sales. This is the only realistic answer.
If you were a terrorist in 1787 in Philadelphia and you wanted to do some mass killing, would you manage that with a gun available at the time?
What perplexes me is why everyone goes into overdrive appeasing and whitewashing the doctrinal violence that comprises all of Islam, as if all thes non muslims understand Islam better than anyone else. Why the denial?
Blackwashing good, whitewashing bad? I’ll rev you up a notch. The problem is not the whole of Islam; the problem is the whole-damn human race. The problem is human nature.
Which is not to say that making it more difficult to get hold of weapons of mass murder wouldn’t be a step in the right direction.