21 December 2022

Merry Christmas!!

Four days until Christmas and I’m still sitting here on my duff and not shopping. For most of sixty years I have done ‘Man Shopping’. I procrastinate until the day before Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve to do my shopping. Of course, by the time I get into the stores they are out of anything and everything that might be appropriate for those on my shopping list. For all of our children’s lives it was up to Connie to decide what was needed and discern what was wanted by these two legged animals. I simply had to shop for Connie, I learned early on that ‘Man Shopping’ for Connie was easy and sometimes relatively inexpensive. I would go to a locally owned jewelry store on Christmas Eve, pick out something that was about twice the price of the cash I had with me and offer that for the item. I once bought a large Opal mounted on a 14 karat gold ring for $350. The marked price was $1100. Unless you think that I took advantage of the poor store owner, he was in a mall that was scheduled to be demolished after the first of the year and he was liquidating his inventory. Anyway, a jewelry store is a ‘Man Shoppers’ best Christmas friend.

I just got tossed off Fakebook for the… I have no idea how many times. I stopped counting at 20. This time for “incitement to violence”. What I said was that Jane Fonda should have been tried for treason 60 years ago and given the proscribed punishment ie. A firing squad. To me that seemed much more like a personal opinion than an “incitement to violence” I did not say that someone should immediately go kill Jane Fonda as that would have been an incitement to violence. She did in fact ’aid and abet’ an enemy of the United States. It is the opinion of many, including myself, that her actions led directly to the deaths of many of the 58,220 American Army Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard who died in Viet Nam. We think that she should have been tried for treason. If it had been during WWII and she was aiding the NAZIs, she would have been executed. Hanged by the neck until dead or stood in front of a firing squad and she would have deserved it. Fast forward 20 years and we have the existence of a Dual Justice System made obvious. One for the elites and another for us peons. Had any other ‘Jane’ been in North Viet Nam, danced around on a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun mount and condemned the United States they would have, at the very least, been serving twenty to life in a federal prison. I think I may be through with Fakebook. I’m about as sick of their arbitrary behavior as they are of my comments. On the other hand, they did not make any indication of how long this suspension was to be. This leads me to believe that I may be permanently suspended. C’est la guerre!!

I have not been sleeping well of late. Not really sure why but my brain just won’t stop ticking over. I go to bed at my usual 11-12 and often see 1:30-2:30 on my bedside clock. I’m really not worried about anything in particular. Some of it is rehashing the past and some of it is concern for the future. None of it I can change or do a damned thing about. Anyway, this has led me to sleeping well past my usual by or before 8:00 am ‘crawl out of bed’ time. Yesterday, I got up a few minutes after 9 am and noted that the outside temperature was -2.5. That folks is pretty cold in my book. The sun was yet to get completely out of bed and it was still pretty dark. Even though the temp here in Fritz Creek pretty low, the temp in Chicken, Alaska was lower. Their low for the day was -67 and the high temp was -55. Now that folks is really, really cold and I want none of it. According to electroverse.co, it is and has been very cold in the Lower 48. I hope y’all haven’t given all of your coats to the Salvation Army due to the Global Warming myth.

The water froze in the kitchen and in the water house during the -2.5 episode. The heat tape on the line from the big tank to the pump failed. At least, that is my working theory. I switched over to the 500 gallon tank and we have running water again except in the kitchen. Because it has been so cold 9-10 degrees during yesterday, I haven’t done anything to get the big tank operating again. Summer went into town this morning and will purchased a new heat tape that I will install on the warmest day possible and before the 500 gallon tank is empty, I hope. I am sick to death of fighting this water situation. This coming Spring and Summer, I am going to add an addition to the house that will contain the water tanks. I intend to get rid of the 500 gallon tank and install another 1000 gallon tank. The addition will be extremely insulated and have it’s own heating system. I will not go through another winter worrying about whether the water will flow or not. The water must flow!

I’m sure it is obvious to even the most casual of observers that no work is being done outside in this unusual cold snap. I have the metal straps to attach the house to the new foundation pilings. What I don’t have is any source of heat at the drill press where I need to put in the necessary holes for the attachment to the house and the pilings. Even with insulated gloves my fingers are numb after about 30 minutes even when the outside temperature is in the mid and high 20s. In the current temperatures (teens), I might get in 10 minutes before I stop feeling my fingers. The temps are predicted to have highs in the upper 20s during the rest of this week and into next week. I’m going to attempt to find a way to heat myself that doesn’t result in carbon monoxide poisoning. Not sure what that will be but I’ve got to do something before and earthquake shakes us off the new foundation. I’ve got some electric heaters that I could use. One of them might keep my feet and legs warm. However, there is one draw back and that is 35 cents per KWH. Two heaters, one high and one low, would cost over a dollar an hour and add to our $300+ monthly power bill. The other problem is that the drill press is in the Conex where the only power source is an extension cord. I’m going to have to do some figuring but I guess I’ll just have to tough it out.

Well, Summer is back from town and I am going to have to tote slabs of water and groceries. See ya!