"You gonna get another job?"...

[Volpone]

I did watch the Portland video. And I do have some thoughts on it. But not now. For now I'm just going to come back to the Commandant's Reading List. WWI Hun Captains really know how to write about military leadership: https://archive.org/details/battle-leadership-adolf-von-schell/page/57/mode/1up

 

[Volpone]

I need to build a bed.

When I bought my first house it used up pretty much all of my money. They'll sell you a mattress with 2 years no payments/no interest, so I got a nice memory foam mattress. Since the house was small, I wanted a "captains bed;" a bed with storage drawers underneath. Couldn't find any locally so I settled for a cheap MDF one I bought online and it got the job done. BUT... it's close to 15 years old and has been moved twice, so all the MDF is busting up and falling apart.

The Plan is to just replace all the MDF with real wood; do a 1 for 1 swap using the existing bed as a template. Not a terrible project and even if not built to the highest furniture building standards, it will still be sturdier than a bed made of sawdust and Elmer's Glue and little bolt assemblies. I've always had higher priorities and haven't needed to do it so it stays on the back burner, but just now I had to check in one of the drawers and can't avoid how rickety and busted up the bed is getting. Probably time to move this to a higher priority.

 

[Volpone]

OK. I kind of...like(?) going to church. It is a comfortable routine and ritual. Plus it serves as a kind of anchor: The old week has ended and a new week is starting, so the days don't just all blur together. I also like the whole idea of no work on the Sabbath. Go out to brunch, go to the park, maybe catch up on some television. Neat concept.

But this past year I've had so much going on that I've gotten out of the routine of going to church. Now that things are slowing down, I resolved to make an effort to get back into it. Of course this morning at some point I woke up enough to think "wow, seems like I've been sleeping an awfully long time" and realized that the clock had stopped ticking. Looked at my wristwatch and realized I'd overslept by a half hour. Oh well, I guess God wants me to take one more week off.

Having a dog also makes church a lot more challenging. Even if I go to the 11am service, I've got to fit in walking The Dog first. That takes some time and energy. And I'm still working part time nights, which is still apparently enough to mess up my sleep schedule.

 

[Volpone]

I am actively trying to cut back Fecesbook, so expect more banal time-wasting posts here.

Bleah. I have enough time to get the last of my weekend chores done before work. But I don't want to. Bookkeeping and wiping down surfaces. I guess I should get at least one done.

 

[Volpone]

I've always had higher blood pressure. Last time I was at a doctor, she pointed this out and asked about it and I was like "Have you had to interact with people?!" I'm just a constant seething ball of rage because Shit. Just. Keeps. Happening.

Spent the better part of 5 hours and a substantial amount of effort today, failing to accomplish 2 relatively simple tasks. There was a networking event across town and I needed to talk to 2 people I figured would be at it. Then on the way home I needed to stop at a specialty store on the way and pick up something relatively inexpensive and commonplace (within that specialty niche). Fail and fail. First off, it took the better part of an hour to get across town. Because people are stupid. So traffic on a dry sunny day was stop and go much of the way.

This was fine though, because almost everyone else was also late--and the back room we usually meet in had been booked for some other event. I eventually figured out what was going on and we made use of a different, semi-private space in the place. But one of the people I wanted to talk to wasn't there and both me and the other person were too busy to get a chance to talk. (It was ostensibly a game night). Since the last time I was at it, people started using a phone app for scorekeeping and my phone wound up dying before the game was over.

Then I got to the store on the way home and they absolutely did NOT have what I was looking for. You know those little keychain flashlights? It was something like that. Used to be everywhere, a big jar of them on the counter by the cash register 20 years ago. Now you can't find one anywhere. Or those little clear colored plastic dime store squirt guns; look like a .25 caliber Beretta or something. They used to be everywhere when I was a kid. Now you cannot find one to save our life. Oh, and then I couldn't figure out how to get back to the freeway (and my phone was dead from the game app).

So that was it. I blew a half a day. At least I got a decent restaurant meal out of it.

*****

And then there's the fucking exhausting piece of shit dog. She gets 2 hours of walks a day. I wander like a retard through dogshit minefields because that's incredibly interesting to her. I try to keep us from getting killed when she wants to cross a busy street--and then decides the other side was more interesting. Or stand there while she smells garbage or dead animals or shit. In the morning she gets a "Greenie" dog treat--because that's one of the few things she likes--that costs $1.41 a fucking ounce. In the evening she gets either a bully stick or a rawhide treat (because I don't even wanna know what bully sticks cost an ounce). Then when I sit here and try to unwind by typing this screed, she comes and sits in front of me and stares at me until I pet her. Eventually she'll go lay down on the bed. Until I need another drink. Then she'll get up and follow me to the kitchen to try to beg another rawhide treat off me.

 

[Volpone]

Started a post but it was negative and mawkish. But then I made a pretty girl happy so I'll just brag about that.

One of the girls in my real estate investing club had the idea to get some scenic land, park a trailer camper on it, and do a "glamping" AirBnB. Not a bad idea, but it didn't work. So she's got this stupid expensive camper she's stuck with and making payments on that she's been trying to unload for...I dunno over a year, I think. She'd recently made another post about it on the Facebook group--and even knocked $5k off the price, so I got to thinking while I walked The Dog...

What's the advantage of a camper? Mobility. Once upon a time I had a paintball business. Since it was going to be a part time affair when I was starting out and I didn't want my shop broken into and all my gear stolen I bought an old school bus, painted it camouflage and outfitted it as a mobile paintball rental shop. An unexpected benefit of this was that I could pick up and run a game on someone's land for them with all the conveniences of my regular field. So if you were having a birthday or a bachelor party or something and wanted to play on your own property, I could do it. So I got to thinking...Louisville has a lot of events throughout the year. Maybe she could work out an event calendar, park her camper convenient to whatever festival, and list it for that weekend (or whatever). Or she could network with event planners and offer overflow accommodations for people with friends/relatives in town--park it in the driveway and the family has a place to stay while they're in town. Or she could just move into the camper and list her own house on AirBnB. That way she could make nice money on her house and then live in the house when it isn't booked. She could even carve out some spots for herself to stay in the house if she got tired of living in the camper.

That's the trick--if your plan doesn't work, look at alternate plans you can do with what you've got. She loved all the ideas and while they might not pan out any better than her first plan, it is at least an opportunity to make a little money off something that's been a liability for too long.

 

[Volpone]

I've started a few posts and discarded them. So I'll pare things down. Hobo update.

Around spring a homeless woman moved into a thicket where my dog liked to hunt for groundhogs. Eventually she built quite a camp with a boyfriend and a solar panel and who knows what else. At some point they added a derelict SUV and, while it took longer than I expected, it was only a matter of time before this drew the attention of the authorities and they had to move.

They wrecked the thicket badly enough that about 1/3 of it was bulldozed. Then they moved under a bridge a few blocks away. Unfortunately for them, this was just about when the weather was turning cold, so they had to give up their cozy camp and make do with what they could salvage. Well we had a cold snap and the hobo girl managed to burn down the new camp so they wound up moving to the bridge between where they started the fire and their old camp.

I know these people because they camp where I walk my dog. And they throw away more food than I probably eat in a week, so my dog likes to come sniff around for hamburgers and steak and hot dogs and whatever else they've thrown out. And I'd love it if they went away, but I won't rat someone out for trying to live--as long as they aren't stealing from me or keeping me awake at night, etc. But (according to her) the boyfriend can't resist collecting crap. And they do. Just crap. An inflatable Santa decoration. An empty 5 gal motor oil jug. Car batteries. Other random pieces of crap. Once in awhile they'll have something nice like a sleeping bag, but then they'll hang it out to air it out or something and then just forget about it until it blows down and gets dirty and falls in the creek.

Well because they couldn't keep low key and crap started piling up, the city found them and in a few weeks they're going to come and clean up their latest campsite.

It will be interesting to see what they do next. There isn't an obvious place to move after this. I know someplace that could probably work for them. But I think it isn't public property. And anyway I'm not going to tell them. Again. I mentioned it the first time they got rousted out and they ignored it. And I shudder to think how much they could wreck a place that is hidden and out of sight before someone found them and complained. Seriously, I like them as people, but with all the stupid rednecks where I live, I deal with enough garbage and shit, but 2 fucking hobos manage to triple that. It's breathtaking, how they manage to wreck anyplace they live at.

 

[Volpone]

Today I'm awake in time for church but it is 18 degrees out. I don't want to get the winter clothes back out and spend an hour out in this, walking The Dog. We'll see if I can procrastinate long enough.

 

[Volpone]

I decided to put it off another week. Of course by the time I started a pot of coffee and sat down with breakfast, it was up to 22.

 

[Volpone]

I'm old enough to have gone to school back when colleges taught you *how* to think, not *what* to think. Indeed, there was a time (just before me) when *what* your degree was in was a lot less important than that you *had* a degree. The degree meant you were smart enough and diligent enough to learn things and you were resourceful enough to pay the expenses while getting the degree. Back then you could talk to adults who were working in...I dunno, probably not finance, but a lot of fields where they'd go "I my major was in literature and now I do this."

By the time I was in the job market it seemed like they increasingly wanted someone with a degree related to the field. But it got worse. Eventually they wanted you to have at least a certain GPA. And then someone decided *everyone* should get a college degree. This is a problem in a number of ways: 1) Everyone is not suited to a college education. My brother is very clever and good with his hands, but he's only been able to read one book in his whole life without losing interest. 2) If this (and the GPA requirement) are expected, then it is on the colleges to accept all applicants and give everyone a degree (and the requisite GPA). This causes them to lower standards--even remove them--and encourages them to raise prices. Since loans are guaranteed, there's no incentive to "students" to budget and work a side job when they can just pile on the debt.

Meanwhile, when everyone gets a degree, the degree stops meaning anything. So HR departments start expecting people to have degrees specific to their job; colleges basically become white collar trade schools. It reached its peak around the time I got my MBA. I was chatting with someone who had multiple degrees and was studying for some expensive MBA certificate. This was news to me so she explained that, now that they'll just give an MBA to anyone, the degree is meaningless to HR people so they want you to get a certificate that demonstrates you know the things someone with an MBA should know. To this I replied "That's what the MBA degree *is*--it's a certificate that says you know the things someone with an MBA should know."

Well, that's about it. I've already managed to miss church and it's up to 28. I should probably put on some pants and go walk The Dog.

 

[Volpone]

Random stuff:

It is officially groundhog season. So every patrol is straight to known groundhog burrows. So far no kills. One got in its hole with plenty of time but didn't go deep enough and The Dog was tugging on something. I got there just in time to see her come away with a tuft of fur with a bit of tissue attached to it. I'm assuming it was off the tail. At any rate, I've seen far worse scars on some whose luck eventually ran out. Today one kept popping its head out while The Dog was standing behind the hole, but it was smart enough to spot her while she was out of striking distance.

I feel like I'm crap at time management. Got up at a reasonable time. Managed to waste enough of the morning that I was barely on schedule. Then I decided to check e-mail quick before walking The Dog. This put me back to my usual 40 minutes behind schedule. Then my time waster good friend called during lunch. Still had something left of my tasty beverage so I called him back and we wound up burning a bunch of time I didn't have.

I realize God has better things to do than fuck with me, but sometimes I feel that way anyway. Anyway, if he is omnipotent it takes no effort to fuck with me while doing everything else. And there's the whole "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil"/idleness-devil's workshop thing. Whenever I start to get comfortable, I start to think of ways to get in trouble. So maybe Life's curveballs are just attempts to protect me from myself.

The e-mail I was looking for was to see if I'd gotten my monthly check from the property management company yet. The new place has been rented for almost 3 weeks now, so my worries that something would be wrong were subsiding. And I'm about due for my check. The month ends on the 15th so however long it takes them to do the books is when I get paid. Well, no money yet. But there was an e-mail with a bunch of work requests for the new place. Most of it was fairly mundane--the dryer makes a funny noise, the latches on the fence and on the storm door won't stay closed--but also "several of the floorboards have popped up." I went cheap on the laminate and you get what you pay for. And I installed it myself and you get what you pay for. I was going to buy area rugs to help with the issue but it all seemed to be staying in place so I never got around to it. Of course now that someone's living in there...renters are a lot harder on things than I am.

Well, it is what it is. The maintenance lady at the property management company wasn't too worried. That's why I pay them. It isn't personal to them and also they have a lot more experience than I do.

 

[Volpone]

Yeah...and the day remained off the rails to the bitter end. I got nothing from my things to do list done (or even started). The first thing was to make a things to do list. After the above post, it was time for the afternoon patrol. And this time she DID get her first kill for the year--and carried it all the way back home. So she's spent the past hour and a half or so proudly laying next to it while I pulled weeds in the gravel driveway and The Cat barreled around the yard like a lunatic.

I guess I could still get my tax shit together.

 

[Volpone]

Reading "The Soldier's Load and The Mobility of the Nation." If you've heard of it but not read it, you probably think it is about how the typical American soldier has too much gear to carry but you'd only be partly right. The other part is the reason for this is because people become weaker--physically and mentally--when in a fear-inducing stressful situation.

And boy, can I relate to that. I gathered up all this year's tax shit I could find and pulled the files from recent previous years. Now I need to compare them and make sure I have everything to send off to the tax preparer. And that's exhausting. On top of that The Cat is Out and has no interest in coming In yet. The Dog was Out but wanted to come in--but didn't want to leave her new trophy unattended. She wound up coming In but just about the time I was sitting down to my paperwork she wanted to go back Out so now I'm worrying about that too.

Nothing like worrying about stepping on a landmine or walking into a machinegun position, but it is tiring me enough that I can appreciate the author's thesis.

 

[Volpone]

Holy hell, aging is an interesting ride. I'm at an age where I can do all the things I've always been able to do, but now at the end of the day I feel like I've been dragged down a flight of steps.

2 days of mowing lawn (along with the regular patrols along the creek banks with The Dog, hunting groundhogs). Weather was nice today and I'd hoped to wash cars too but I had maybe an hour of good daylight when I finished the lawn so instead I pulled weeds in the gravel driveway until it was time to go in for dinner. All good vigorous work, but I shouldn't feel like I just fought Mike Tyson in his prime right now.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

Lame. Same here. Aging sucks balls..

 

[Loktar]

Lame. Same here. Aging sucks balls..

Agreed. Sucks even worse in Obese mode.

 

[jack]

Getting old is overrated. I'll be 63 this year and I'm in the BEST I've ever been. Run 5 miles a day. Best shape I've ever been in.

Love everything I do. Fat retirement and pension.

Have better energy and drive then when I was younger. Traveling and performing with my band around the country and the world as I wish.

Old enough to do something about it.

 

[Loktar]

Getting old is overrated. I'll be 63 this year and I'm in the BEST I've ever been. Run 5 miles a day. Best shape I've ever been in.

Love everything I do. Fat retirement and pension.

Have better energy and drive then when I was younger. Traveling and performing with my band around the country and the world as I wish.

Old enough to do something about it.

I can still dance and I walk to work. I just get winded, sore, achy and out of breath quicker. And I'm only 50.

 

[Lanzman]

Getting old is overrated. I'll be 63 this year and I'm in the BEST I've ever been.

I too will be 63 this year and I keep thinking "it shouldn't hurt just to be alive." Over the three-day weekend we were doing a bunch of cleaning at the girlfriend's house and that pretty well wiped me out. Oh, my achin' everything.

 

[jack]

Oh I'm good for being a weekend warrior too. My physical therapist loves it when I overdo, which I do a lot. Still there's something to be said for daily cardio and laying off the double bacon cheeseburgers which used to be a staple.