Category Archives: Home Life

Stuff going on in my personal life.

Snow clues

Posted on by

As I posted earlier, on Saturday Kim and I installed most of the hardware for a permanent Internet access point and weather station at the Boomershoot shooting line. I went back on Sunday to fix the wiring that jostled loose and verify the solar panel was charging the battery.

The path we had made was compact enough that I didn’t have to use snowshoes. I broke through maybe a half dozen times, but it was pretty easy walking considering the conditions. I have some more pictures which give some clues as to above average snow accumulation we have this year:

IMG_7889

I did have to run back to the car just as I had almost arrived at the solar panel. A large pickup with a very large trailer filled with hay came down the road and couldn’t get past the narrow spot in the road my car had created. I backed down the hill to the driveway for the first house and got off the road far enough that the pickup could get by.

I found it interesting all the frost that had formed in the previous 17 hours:

IMG_7891

IMG_7901

The weather station was almost cartoon like with all the frost.

IMG_7904

IMG_7908

Both wind speed and direction sensors were non-functional because of all the frost.

This was the first time in many years when I went to Idaho and didn’t visit Mecca. Check out the bank of snow behind my car (Mecca is in the background).

IMG_7910

Here is a close up of Mecca taken with my 300 mm lens then cropped to the interesting part. In the lower right corner is a picnic table.

IMG_7917CroppedAdjusted

This was the view from niece Lisa’s bedroom window.

WP_20170115_07_58_55_Pro

Notice the depth of snow on the roof and on the deck?

WP_20170115_09_12_39_Pro

The roads weren’t too bad, but before next winter I’m going to get some new tires for the snow. My current set has seen three winters now and they were having difficulty in the soft snow in the driveway to Doug and Julie’s place.

No such thing as “too sweet”

Posted on by

Barb makes an absolutely amazing caramel sauce for special occasions which she puts on ice cream. There was some left over from a couple days ago and she put it on a Rice Krispy treat. She reported, “I think my eyes rolled back in my head”.

Okay, I need to try this:

WP_20170101_14_16_27_Pro

Yup. Those are awesome!

Happy 2017

Posted on by

Well, in spite of the election, everyone reading this made it to 2017. Let’s hope it keeps getting better, and the only melt-downs are leftie brains exploding as The Donald’s supporters can’t help but get tired from all the winning. Clean the guns, keep the powder dry, get some sleep, hug the kids, eat right, read a good book, walk the dog, plant a seed, support your friends, say something nice to the spouse/SO, and don’t take any BS.

Happy New YEAR!

Don’t get on the crazy train

Posted on by

Tamara says:

here’s a puzzler:

It’s a cardinal sin in the progressive weltanschauung to deny someone the validity of their own narrative.

Unless their narrative is “I’m doing this for Islam and the caliph!”

It’s not really a puzzler. Let me explain in a roundabout way.

I received an email a few weeks ago which said in part:

Standard progressive technique against non-progressives is the “basket of deplorables” attack: accuse them of *-ism and watch them wilt as they do a mad scramble trying to show they are actually good people.  What the victims of those attacks don’t realize is that the attack has no connection to fact, and denials aren’t helpful because it isn’t about evidence or truth.  Harry Reid knew this well and used it against Romney, as did many others.

My reply, in part, was:

The psychology of the progressives is that of a personality disorder. If you were to read the book Stop Walking on Eggshells I would bet you would see, as I do, amazing parallels between Borderline Personality Disorder and the political left in this country. I don’t have the book in front of me right now but here are some things that I remember:

  • It is always your fault when something goes wrong.
  • They create or maneuver things such that you are put in “can’t win” situations.
  • They are at high risk of hurting themselves (riots damaging their own neighborhoods is my analog of this) if they get mad at you.
  • They constantly start fights over nothing.
  • The attempted use of facts will result in accusations of “You always have to get your way”, “You need to compromise.”, or increase the verbal and/or physical abuse.
  • There is no successful treatment.
  • The best you can hope for is to expend less energy/time dealing with them without complying with their crazy demands (or as Barb says, “Getting on their crazy train.”)

The basics of how you deal with them, as individuals, is to tell them you aren’t going to tolerate their misbehavior. They will go ballistic at this, after all, it is all your fault, not theirs. They have done nothing wrong. Then ignore them, walk away, or otherwise disengage and do your own thing when they inevitably misbehave. You must not give in to their misbehavior. They will only encourage them to misbehave more.

…

I just wish there was a way to divorce ourselves from the political left. I’m tired of the constant abuse and crazy talk.

Back to Tamara’s puzzlement.

These people are nuts. Barb and I have both had decades of experience attempting to deal with people like this and spent time talking to counselors getting help dealing with personality disordered people. Several times a week during the first year or so we were together one of us would tell a story and ask, “Why did they do this?” It took a while but it finally reached the point where the other person would say, “Don’t try to make sense of it. You will go crazy if you try.” That shortened to, “You are trying to get on crazy train with them.”

We mostly have the stories out of our system and it is now rare for one of us to tell one. And if one does come out the response is just, “Don’t get on the crazy train.”

And that is what our response to these sort of puzzlements should be. Give them “that look” and tell the sane people attempting to appease or understand the progressives, “Don’t get on the crazy train.”

Mugme street stats

Posted on by

A friend on Facebook took minor issue with the categorization of 3rd Street between Pike and Pine in Seattle as “Mugme Street”. She said, “It is not Mugme street. Just need to know how to carry yourself.” That she acknowledges you “Just need to know how to carry yourself” should be an admission that there is increased risk there but why rely on perception when facts are available? Here are the stats on that area of town for the last month from the Seattle neighborhood crime map:

MugMeStreet

Within a half block of the area Barb calls Mugme street there were 18 “Crimes Against Persons”. If you use the same measurement on 2nd you get seven. On any other similar area within many blocks you get no more than two.

I rest my case.

On my wish list

Posted on by

A couple of days ago Annette posted about a shooting mat that is going on my wish list. I used to have one I really liked which was similar. But someone, who shall remain nameless, left it at on the shooting berm at Boomershoot one fall and it ended up spending the winter there. I cleaned it up as best I could but the fabric was damaged by all the exposure to sun, water, ice, insects, rodents, and growing grass. I looked and looked for another like it but couldn’t find one. I think the company went out of business. I finally bought another and I just don’t like it nearly as well.

Annette spends a LOT more time on the ground shooting a rifle than I ever have and as well as her calling out the features that I had looked for in a shooting mat I trust her judgment. She isn’t the only real shooter that recommends this mat.

Annette further informs us that if you use the discount code 30CalGal you will receive 15% off.

Maybe some of those people who want to give me a Christmas gift could pool their money and I would have a new shooting mat for next spring.

Mugme street news

Posted on by

Late yesterday afternoon Barb had business in downtown Seattle. I didn’t find out about the “protest” until 5:00 PM on the Internet. This was almost exactly the same time Barb found out about it… as she was walking to her bus stop on Second Ave between Pine and Stewart just a half block from this on Pine:

She skirted the protest as best she could and she got on her bus which was about an hour and fifteen minutes before the shooting started.

The McDonalds you see in the background of the video is on 3rd Avenue – which Barb named Mugme Street. I used to work in a building on that block. I’m sure glad neither Barb nor I have to go there on a regular basis any more.

The “protestors” blocked streets:

From the Boston Globe in regards to Seattle on election night:

SeattleProtestorsBlockTraffic

Later the fire department was needed to clean up after the “protestors”:

On election night daughter Jaime was scanning the reddit forums looking for material to satisfy her schadenfreude appetite and found Hitler reference gems like, “I don’t know whether I should just register myself now or wait for the Gestapo to force me to.” and “I’m thinking it is better to kill myself and die with dignity than to be executed in the camps.” And who do we find practicing for Kristallnacht? Yeah, you guessed it. It was the Nationalist Socialists back in 1938 and it was the Socialists on November 9, 2016.

I know it’s irrational to expect people to be rational, but these people are messing up the streets and causing problems for people who probably voted about 80% or 90% for Clinton (the entire county went over 75% for Clinton, Seattle would have been even harder left).

What is it they are trying to accomplish? The answer, I believe, is that it is in their nature to get physical when they don’t get their way through legal processes and they just can’t help themselves. Socialists are nothing but thugs with a thin veneer of respectability and when that veneer gets scratched, they get physical.

Masterful logic

Posted on by

Barb: (Somewhat sheepishly) I ate a bunch of snacks this afternoon.

Joe: That’s okay. I finished off the cookies Kim gave me. I figured they were making me fat so I had to get rid of them.

Barb: Masterful logic!

Christmas in D.C. via the Huffman family

Posted on by

From my sister-in-law Julie:

I did it!  I finished the 11 foot tree skirt!!!  It was pretty intense and I had to let a few things go by the wayside and had LOTS and LOTS of interruptions, but it’s done!  This will go to the USDA building in Washington D.C. as part of the Capitol Christmas Tree project.  This years trees are coming from Idaho and my cousin is in charge of the over 8,000 ornaments and tree skirts needed for 70 trees.  She asked me to make a tree skirt and this is what I came up with.  It’s my original design.

IMG_0033ChristmasTreeSkirt

I also took a picture when I Barb and I were in Idaho last time just before Julie completed it:

IMG_7683

Mushroom time

Posted on by

Each year about this time Barb and I go hunting for chanterelle mushrooms. Today we came home with the biggest haul yet:

IMG_7687Adjusted

It wasn’t without some minor obstacles. There were weather warnings about high winds and heavy rains and as of yesterday we had mostly talked ourselves out of going today. But Barb looked out the window after getting up and said she wanted to go. There wasn’t much wind or rain at the time so we were on the road by 8:50. We had our rain gear and although the trees and branches we had to step on and over were slick we made it in and out of the woods by 10:30 with no injuries and only minor cold and dampness.

WP_20161015_10_02_42_Pro__highres

Sleeping advice

Posted on by

I’ve been saying for years that, as far as I’m concerned, clothes only have two purposes:

  • To protect you from the elements
  • To prevent your arrest (this can also be considered a special case of purpose 1).

    •  

    Wearing clothes while sleeping always seemed silly to me. Now we have “experts” agreeing with what Dr. Joe has been saying for decades (I admit that I didn’t know or really think about the first three reasons):

    • Sleeping naked lowers your body temperature, which helps stops you from waking up in the middle of the night.
    • A lowered body temperature at night has also been found to help you burn calories while you sleep.
    • For women, it helps prevent bacterial infections such as yeast infections.
    • And it increases a man’s sperm production by keeping his scrotum at a specific temperature.
    • When couples sleep naked, the skin-to-skin contact releases oxytocin in brain, also known as the ‘love hormone’.
    • This strengthens their emotional bond and and increases trust within the relationship.

    USPSA Open Nationals

    Posted on by

    Here are the top 15 of the 177 participants in the USPSA Open Nationals from this last weekend:

    Place Name USPSA Comp # Class PF Lady Mil Law Age Match Pts Match %
    1 M T L3042 261 GM Major       1826.4678 100.000%
    2 William D FY38810 71 GM Major       1805.9569 98.877%
    3 Lesgar M TY45606 181 GM Major       1792.7980 98.157%
    4 jj R L3137 213 GM Major       1790.1466 98.011%
    5 Brad B TY44785 10 GM Major       1761.8592 96.463%
    6 Shannon S L3936 317 GM Major       1749.1426 95.766%
    7 Eddie G A49035 92 GM Major       1730.8187 94.763%
    8 NILS J L3837 295 M Major       1728.4636 94.634%
    9 Andrew H A68907 119 GM Major       1720.1235 94.178%
    10 Cody B A81837 9 GM Major       1708.0140 93.515%
    11 Robert P A74982 208 M Major       1651.0545 90.396%
    12 Kincaid R TY78373 222 GM Major       Junior 1650.5828 90.370%
    13 John V A79695 272 GM Major       1622.8528 88.852%
    14 Brent L A73332 153 M Major       1620.2520 88.710%
    15 Grant B A72358 29 M Major       1605.3293 87.893%

    John V, at #13, is my son-in-law.

    USPSA Grandmaster son-in-law!

    Posted on by

    Daughter Xenia sent me a text message today to announce that her husband, John, is now a USPSA grandmaster in Open division!

    Congratulations John!

      USPSA PERSONAL PROFILE

    Shooter Information:  
    Shooter Name: JOHN E V
    Member Number: A79695
    Joined USPSA: 1/08/13
    Membership Expiry Date: 3/31/17
    Membership Info Updated: 3/02/16
    Data On Web Updated: 9/21/16
     
    		 
    RO Certification Info:  
    RO Certification Level: None
    RO Certification Date:  
    RO Certification Expiry:  
    Lookup Performed: 9/21/16
     
    Classifications (updated 9/21/2016):
    Open Class: GM Pct: 95.38 High Pct: 95.38
    Limited Class: M Pct: 86.56 High Pct: 86.56
    Limited 10 Class: M Pct: 77.37 High Pct: 77.37
    Production Class: M Pct: 77.07 High Pct: 77.07
    Revolver Class: U Pct: 0.00 High Pct: 0.00
    Single Stack Class: M Pct: 68.56 High Pct: 68.56
    Carry Optics Class: M Pct: 72.83 High Pct: 72.83
    PCC Class: U Pct: 0.00 High Pct: 0.00
     

    Dueling song birds

    Posted on by

    I am visiting daughter Xenia this weekend and she was telling stories of the different birds that come to her backyard and eat at the bird feeder. Then we went to Lowe’s and brought home a birdbath:

    WP_20160904_14_17_24_Pro

    I told her of the birds I frequently listen to when I camp out at Boomershoot Mecca and that I had recorded them a few times. She wanted to hear them so here is one of the more interesting recordings. It is a dove and a meadow lark sing back and forth to each other. Crank your volume up because the sound level is a little low.

    Destroying Angel?

    Posted on by

    I find two or three of these every year in my lawn about this time of year. They look very similar to amanita virosa, but a. virosa is said to be a European/British species. Looking into it I find a close cousin said to live in Western North America, called a. ocreata. As best I can tell, that’s what I have here. Apparently as deadly as a. virosa, I come across these while picking the common Meadow Mushrooms that fruit in my lawn every Spring and Fall. Trouble is, they’re both white, with rounded tops and in the same size range. The distinct giveaway is the white gills of the amanitas, verses the salmon to dark brown gills of the good food species. Also the Meadow Mushrooms stain light yellow, whereas this white-gilled specimen doesn’t appear to stain when bruised.

    Thin white gills of different lengths, not attached to the stem. Base of the stem in this case has turned yellow-brown. Prominent white annulus, or ring, on the stem. This one was found growing in the grass near a water spigot where the soil has been damp for a long time, with several deciduous tree and shrub species present. Others like it have been found in different parts of the lawn, East to West of the house, mostly on the North side.

    Did not noticeably stain from bruising, even after 20 minutes

    Amanita ocreata? I don’t know

    Gills apparently not attached to stem Gills apparently not attached to stem.

    Cap flesh Did not appear to stain when bruised, even after 20 minutes Cap flesh does not appear to stain from bruising, even after 20 minutes, though the base of the stem has turned yellow-brown. The whole mushroom appears more pure white in real life than in the photos.

    Dog days of summer

    Posted on by

    It’s National Dog Day.

    LincolnCityBeachTrip 032a

    Continue reading →

    Hike to Annette Lake

    Posted on by

    Last June Barb had originally wanted to hike to Annette Lake for her birthday. But there was too much snow so she opted for her second choice, Cedar Butte.

    Instead of 3.8 miles and 900 feet of elevation gain Annette Lake is 7.5 miles and 1400 feet of elevation gain. So they say. We discovered there was about 1600 feet of elevation gain and we reached an altitude of over 3700 feet. I’m not sure about the distance but 7.5 miles sounds about right.

    It was easy trail to find and follow. Just follow the signs:

    WP_20160820_13_57_48_Pro__highresWP_20160820_09_57_35_Pro__highres

    Continue reading →

    Survey says….

    Posted on by

    Monday morning I called a surveying company, and they happened to have an opening Tuesday. I drove down to meet them and talk about what was there.

    Short version: The internet lies, and I was a bit further off than she, but it’s 95% fixed now. Continue reading →

    Lawyers…

    Posted on by

    Can’t live with them, can’t live without them….

    I just got a call from a rather hostile woman. She bought the property earlier this year just north of a piece of undeveloped rural property I own in eastern WA, and then had a roadway pushed thought on the boundary – it was part on her property, part on mine. I found out about it when another neighbor called and told me about it. My non-hostile neighbors and I met and looked at the situation. The road was clearly not all on her land. I talked to the bulldozer driver who’d pushed it through; he said he’d stopped part way along when he saw that the line they’d posted wasn’t lining up with his hand-held GPS. Continue reading →

    I broke it

    Posted on by

    It was two and a half weeks ago since I fell. But still, my left wrist hurts when I try to fully extend or flex it and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. It doesn’t hurt much unless I probe it too vigorously or push the range of motion excessively. It doesn’t really interfere with my normal activities and I only casually mentioned it to Barb. She encouraged me to see the doctor so yesterday I did. The doctor says there is a small hairline fracture in one of the wrist bones. I can’t see it, but the doctor referred me to an orthopedic surgeon for an expert opinion so I picked up the X-Rays today to deliver to the surgeon when I see him next week.

    WristAngleWristEdgeWristFlat