I won’t lie to you. Yesterday was hard. Really hard. In no way, shape, or form did I want to leave the house, let alone go to work yesterday. And it was a day filled with frustration and chair time, though I finally managed to fix something that really shouldn’t have been broken, but was anyway (I also managed to not buy anything, which is good). Damn you, ColdFusion 9! It was also sunny and warm yesterday – and I missed all of it (except for the drive in, which at least I can appreciate, now that it’s a half-hour trip). I can’t wait until there’s daylight after work again (in about six months). There’s a ridge due west of my house that bay windows in the living room and dining room look over, and sunsets are gorgeous (when I’m there, and when there’s sun – two hard-to-satisfy conditions this time of year). Today is supposed to be warm as well, though not sunny (a little rainy, in fact). That wouldn’t bother me at all if I was off today. I have a bunch of things I’d like to get done outside, and a little rain wouldn’t bother me a bit.

While I wasn’t paying attention to the local news this morning, they made the astonishing announcement that the Wall St., automakers, etc. bailout that had people all up-in-teabags this past election is almost entirely paid back (with still more to come, quite possibly). Astonishing, because it isn’t frickin’ news – and was in fact well-know (and dutifully ignored by media and teabaggers alike) before the election. So congratulations for keeping all that under wraps. No doubt John Boehner will be taking credit for getting all that money back for the taxpayers (before returning it once again in the form of tax cuts for mega corporations and rich people).

Speaking of the Boehner, it appears that the White House sees him as a “possible partner” to work with. This sort of thing – if nothing else – should cause you to be greatly disappointed in Obama. His insistence on being naive or stupid (or whatever it is he is) enough to think that any of these people will do more than stick a knife in his back while looking him in the eye (which of course involves a reach around) is perhaps the most disappointing thing about his administration. And the reason the Democrats took such a shellacking in the past election.

Fortunately, I’m not paying attention.

Sad news yesterday. One of my all-time personal favorites – Leslie Nielsen – passed away at the age of 84, which seems awfully young to me these days. I’m sure everybody thinks of Airplane or The Naked Gun series, but my favorite is probably Forbidden Planet, in which Nielsen costarred with Robby the Robot (and other lesser-known actors like Ann Francis, Walter Pidgeon, and Earl Holliman). He also gave a memorable guest performance of Col. Buzz Buzzington in an episode of M*A*S*H, and was, of course, the ill-fated captain in the original The Poseidon Adventure. Like most talented, funny people, Leslie Nielsen was born in Canada (his father was a Mountie, even). We’ll miss you, Leslie.

More sad news locally, as our own missing blonde girl event (you may have heard about it, as it made the national news) came to an unhappy – yet predictable – end with the discovery of her body not far from where she lived. Home for the holidays, the 20 yr old college student (who they kept referring to as a “woman,” but at my advanced age, 20 just seems like a young kid) was apparently killed by an ex-boyfriend in her own home and dumped “like garbage” (as our always happy to garner publicity DA so tactfully stated) in a field not far from where she lived. Very sad.

What, we make it through Black Frickin’ Friday, and now they expect us to go back to work and use our corporate Internet connections to buy more shit? Where do they think I’m gonna get the money for all this economy stimulatin’? I do have my eye on a set of Paynes forks for the tractor, though. But $284 plus another $30+ shipping is a bit more than I feel comfortable spending, what with the first mortgage payment due Wednesday. I will, of course, have to get them – but I probably wouldn’t be using them before next spring, and they’re only $15 off anyway, so I reckon I’ll hold off for now.

The thought of having to go back to work again today is pretty sickening. But only another 13½ years to go.

It seems like as if it was just yesterday when I was at work, excitedly anticipating four whole days off. Work has become a pain in the ass (more than usual), and I really needed the time off. And now, it’s over. Back to work tomorrow, with a five-day week to face. That really suck. What we need is a good old-fashioned war to take our minds off of things. Not this Afghanistan nonsense (that’s not a war; we need tanks and aircraft carriers and John Wayne-type stuff). Fortunately, we may just have one in the works over there in Korea. And it’s got everything we need.

It’s got that olde-tyme feel to it (hell, it was never even officially over, so we can pick things right back up and boogie like it’s 1953 again – and, let’s face it, everything was better in 1953: men were men, women were women, gay people hadn’t been invented, let alone served in the military, and white males – the ones not stuck in Korea, anyway – had it great). Plus, it would, in theory, be two little countries fighting each other (one, a version of what the US used to be with a strong economy, innovation, and manufacturing tons of shit for the global marketplace, and the other a vision of what Republicans and teabaggers are driving this country to become – a pathetic, terrified, backward little nation living in the 21st Century equivalent of the Stone Age, with just enough military strength to be an annoying pain in the ass to the more civilized parts of the world), but in reality be two big military and economic powers fighting a proxy war.

We might even be able to get China to lend us money to fight a war against N. Korea, who they would also be funding at the same time. It could go on for decades, with lots of money to be had by all (well, not all, of course, but you know what I mean).

Granted, it’s a bit of a twist in that it’s usually the US of A that funds both sides of a war, but it would still be pretty interesting. And good for the economy (and by the economy, I of course mean Haliburton, the Carlyle Group, and Exxon-Mobile).

Also, there are a lot of idle people out there that need jobs, and this would put the young ones to work serving their country in the armed forces (where Haliburton could make tons of money feeding them and whatnot – and if a few get electrocuted in the shower, well, there’s plenty more where they came from), and the company formerly known as Blackwater could provide us with all the Christian Jihadist mercenaries we could use. The question is, would we have a WWII-style manufacturing ramp-up to put folks to work in the factories by producing tanks and planes and ships and guns, or would we outsource all the manufacturing to, like, China? Heh. I guess that’s a pretty silly question.

A pretty good scam, there. China lends us money to produce weapons, which we give back to them to manufacture using slave labor. A win-win.

Plus M*A*S*H was a very popular teevee show, so another Korean War should be very good for ratings.

And in the end, it’s all about the ratings, isn’t it?

Against my better judgment, I did, indeed, venture out amongst the humans yesterday – but only as far as Home Depot, and only because I needed to get some stuff to do some fixes around the house (being a good little consumer, though, I couldn’t resist picking up the little compressor they had for $69, which also came with a brad nailer/stapler. It’s a handy little bugger). The main thing was to take care of a couple of leaks in what has become the bane of my existence – the waste pipes. Fortunately, yesterday wasn’t going to involve anything major or nasty. So I thought. First off was a fairly slow drip at the point where the soil pipe leave the house. What I have is an old cast iron ‘Y’ and cleanout with 4″ PVC shoved into it, and it was leaking at the packing a bit. I don’t happen to have a lead ladle (not that I can find, at least), and I don’t know if that’d be a good idea with the plastic anyway, so I got some some goop to smoosh in there that’s designed to harden up. As a backup plan, I got a rubber doughnut. Fortunately, the packing sucked up the goop pretty good, and seems to have solved the problem. Cool. Next, a slightly more involved item.

There’s a 4″ line that has a nearly horizontal run the length of the basement (behind a wall for a good stretch, just to make it a pain in the ass), with a 45° elbow that was leaking. The elbow is in a pain in the ass place, but relatively accessible, so no big deal. Now, had I been thinking, the leak, elbow, and fact the the line really wasn’t pitched properly would all have been clues as to what would be lurking there (not to mention the smell as I started to cut into the pipe). Not really sure what I might have done differently – except maybe put a bucket underneath the pipe, but well, I wasn’t really thinking.

So, not to get too graphic, but there was a pretty large amount of what I’ll call raw sewage in the pipe, and it was most definitely not a pleasant experience. But once you’ve cut things open, there’s really nothing left to do but persevere. And then promptly shower. Hopefully I’ve got a little better pitch in the line now, if nothing else.

So, yesterday was fairly productive, all things considered. I hadn’t set out to accomplish a whole lot, but I did what I wanted to do. I should probably make a run over to the old house and grab my table saw and some more of my tools, but it’s kind of cold out, we got a nice little dusting of snow overnight, and they say we may pick up a couple more inches over the course of the day today, so maybe I’ll just hang out and do laundry while hoping that SU doesn’t stink it up too bad against Boston College at noon.

Just not in the mood for too much more than that, I don’t think. Especially with the thought of Monday looming on the horizon.

Did you hear? It’s Black Friday. :reaper: I know this, because every store I’ve ever made a purchase from (or even driven by) has been telling me so for about two months now. In case you don’t know what BF is all about, it means you have got to go out and buy shit. Lots of shit. It’s your patriotic duty, and, in order to do their part, fine American merchants are selling Korean, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Mexican merchandise at deep, deep discounts in order to stimulate you. Yes, you! Home Depot, for instance, is selling a Rigid 16-gallon shop vac (technically not a shop vac, I guess, since Shop-Vac® is a registered trademark) for a mere $28.88. Although they’re probably sold out by now, since the Depot opened up at 5AM (plenty of time for you West Coasters to get out there, though). I have two Shop-Vacs already (official ones, too – an old red and black one that I use for the pellet stove, and a big ass yellow and black one that I use mostly for wet pickup), but still feel compelled to by another. I could keep it in the basement. But I won’t.

I do have a need to go to Home Depot this morning, though, as I need to fix a 4″ drain line that’s leaking (in two spots, no less; I have a plethora of fittings left over from the septic project, but could probably use another hunk of pipe), and I could also use some pressure treated plywood (to recover the septic tank cover) and maybe even some 5/4″ PT to deck the 3PH carry-all I bought for the tractor, and have yet to actually use (for one thing, it would mean taking off the back blade). But venture out into the world on this, of all days, amongst the teeming throngs of humanity (and I use that term loosely)? I don’t really like people to begin with – let alone large numbers of them all at once. So, maybe tomorrow.

Otherwise I trust you all had a good holiday yesterday. Or at least a fairly standard one. If you’re like me you were forced to resist being force fed while explaining why it is you weren’t eating (while you were in the middle of eating), or have the size and content of your dinner plate commented upon. I’ve never quite figured out why people seem to be worried about what other people are eating (or drinking, for that matter). I mean, I can honestly say I don’t give even a tiny bit of shit what anybody eats. But I guess I’m just weird that way.

Oh well, at least that’s over for a month or so, and I didn’t actually have to leave the house.

Thanks to everybody for everything. Except for Time Warner, who, I just found out, wants me to pay extra to get the NFL Network. So, no Jets game for me tonight. Oh well, it’s on too damn late anyway. Y’all have a good day, whatever it is you’re doing.

Well, it’s official. Our Congressional District will now be ‘represented’ by a teabagger, who appears to have won by about 700 votes or something (and she’s not even good-lookin’; at least with Michele Bachman, she may be a horrible, crazy, bitch, but at least she’s easy on the eyes). Words cannot adequately express the shame I feel, which is only mitigated by the fact that the district was severely gerrymandered years ago, and it’s really the rednecks of Wayne County (who have absofrigginlutely no business being in the same CD as we are), who put this…person into office. That’s the last goddamn bit of non-sports news I’m gonna pay attention to for the foreseeable future. Well, except for TSA gropings. And Dancing with the Stars, of course. Oh, and the upcoming Royal Wedding (did you hear? They set a date and everything, and it’s gonna be a national holiday – for the Brits, not for us, sadly – and she’s so gorgeous and elegant, and he’s so dreamy…and oh my God wouldn’t it be just freakin’ awesome if they were on Dancing with the Stars next season!).

I woke up to a snow-covered ground this morning. It shouldn’t stick around long, since it’s gonna go all the way up to 40 today (which probably means 35 out here in the sticks). I also awoke to my first utility bill in the new place (caught the guy on my surveillance camera reading the meters, so I knew it was coming), and it wasn’t too bad. Of course, we weren’t totally moved in here for the whole period (still aren’t, really), but my efforts at turning out the lights (funny thing, some of the switches must be defective, as they keep flipping up, even when there’s not a person in sight – and, do nocturnal animals like cats really need a light on? No, I didn’t think so) seem to be helping.

It’s hard to explain to some people that the cost of running those 9 watt under cabinet lights and all those LED “night” lights – that don’t ever shut off in certain parts of the house where the sun don’t shine – 24/7 really does add up (I mean, 9 watts for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is damn near 80 KWh a year – each – about 75 of which are needless).

It’s not that I’m cheap, mind you. Hell no. It’s the environment I’m thinking about.

Of course, the gas bill is another problem, mainly due to the fact that the heating hot water is used to hear the hot water storage tank. I’d hoped to install a tankless system, but the logistics of running a gas line (normally not a big deal, but in this case, for reasons I won’t elaborate on – ‘cuz I know you don’t care) are too big of a pain. My long-term goal is to build a home-grown solar heater anyway (for at least the domestic HW – if not to at least supplement the heating hot water, too). Of course, this is all predicated on my other expenses settling down at some point, here.

I just ordered some parts for my tractor, including some steel diamond plate skid plates (that I thought about making myself, but these were fairly reasonable, come highly recommended by the tractor forum people, and are fabricated by a guy up in Canada), and I really need to order a few tons of wood pellets, too. The first mortgage payment is due in a week, and then the taxes come up in January.

I’m feeling oppressed. Good thing I have a teabagger to watch out for me now.

Speaking of expenses and stuff getting shoved in my mouth, I start the day with yet another dental appointment. They decided to schedule a “long” visit to get more done (and so the dentist has a bit more cash for Christmas – or more like Makar Sankranti or something). There must be something wrong with me, that I prefer the dentist to going to work – not that I get out of work, mind you, as I have to go there after. But it at least kills an hour or two. Maybe I can weasel some Lortabs out of him.

Jane Hamsher wants me to get all outraged over the TSA’s aggressive “pat down” (a term I frankly don’t care for) techniques. I’m sorry, Jane, but I’m all outta outrage, and I think I’m entering the “duck and cover” phase of my life. Go to work, pay my bills (and my taxes, of course; it’s not like I’m wealthy enough to deserve any breaks there), try not draw any attention to myself, and hopefully pay off the mortgage and retire with a few years of life – and a fairly complete set of teeth – still left in me.

Then I’ll set out on the front lawn with a shotgun in my zero-gravity chair and wait for these f*ckers that keep coming up my driveway to see what’s there. I’ll show ’em what’s there, by Jeebus. And what’s there is a one-way ticket to the afterlife if they don’t get the hell off my property!

But today, it’s the dentist, and then work, and then a few days off.

Traveling this week? Congratulations! You may be selected to spend some intimate, quality time with this guy from the TSA (who looks a bit like Markos Moulitsas’ older brother – only not quite as creepy). So if you’ve got a thing for latex gloves, you’re in for a treat. Howie Kurtz says the media (you know, that monster that he, apparently, isn’t a part of) has really blown all this stuff out of proportion, and that 99 percent of travelers have been unaffected by the TSA’s new “grope-a-dope” policy. Let’s see, at roughly 150,000 flights per day, with, oh, I dunno, say an average of 100 people per flight, 1% comes to a mere, what, 1.5 million people getting the rubber glove treatment for the crime of trying to get home to see grandma for the holidays. See? That’s nothing. Hopefully Howie will get to experience the full grope for himself wherever he may go this weekend. As for me, I don’t plan on flying anywhere ever again, anyway. It was way too much of a pain in the ass before. Now? Fuggeduboutit. I’ll go flying on my tractor instead.

Thanks to Sue for posting Mr FK’s report from yesterday. An excellent job, as always (Mr, that is – though Sue did an excellent job as always, too). The only thing that would have made the report a little better would have been if Mr. signed off with, “…and by they way, Christi, “some” say you look like a dude in drag, unlike Richard Engle, who looks like a woman in drag.” Of course, then we might not be hearing from Mr. for a while.

Otherwise, this past weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I’m hopeful that my septic problems are behind me (so to speak) – at least for a while. And, while it isn’t exactly perfect, I’ve got the holes and ruts filled in and smoothed out as much as possible. I’m sure it’ll all sink in, but, barring torrential rains, it will hopefully stay more or less intact until I can get some grass planted in the spring. And I now have a good dirt, stone, and mulch connection, which is always important.

You know, we take a lot of things for granted in this country. And not just cable and Internet access, either. The ability to have your shit whisked away someplace where you don’t really have to deal with it should close to the top of the list – if not right there at #1 – of things to give thanks for on Thursday. I suggest that, as you stand at the head of the dinner table preparing to carve the turkey, you ask everyone to bow their heads and give thanks that, when the meal they are about to receive has been processed by their digestive systems, it will go down the hole in that magical chair in the bathroom with, at most, no more than a brief struggle with a plunger. And if you’re on a septic system, tell ’em to go easy on the paper.

Sportswise, things were also pretty shitty this weekend – at least for the home teams. On Saturday…well, never mind Saturday. Let’s just agree not to talk about it. Then, on Sunday, the SU basketball team – ranked #10 in the country (proving that the rankings – much like the American Music Awards – are bullshit) barely survived against William & Mary in a game that went down to the wire. If you didn’t think W&M was (were?) exactly a hoops powerhouse, you’d be correct. Plus, they’re inconsistent. Their nickname is “The Tribe,” yet their mascot is a griffin. What’s up with that?

Speaking of tribes, NY State’s lame duck Governor is scheduled to make a major announcement today. In an effort to settle a land claim in nearby (to me; in fact, I own 10 acres of land there, if anybody’s interested) Madison County by the Mohican tribe (yeah, I know; I thought we’d seen the last of them, too) the Guv will promise State support of a tribal casino in Sullivan County (a mere hop, skip, and jump) from NYC – probably a lot easier to get to than Atlantic City, too.

This may go down as the most important initiative by a lame duck elected official since Gerry Ford proposed statehood for Puerto Rico. And look how well that turned out.

Oh well, time to get out there and get this week started. Thank goodness it’s a short one.

I’m guessing there’s only one reason to pay attention to the news – and the boobleheads – today. And that would be because – as Okat told us yesterday – that rogue, insurgent, guerrilla (or maybe even gorilla), incredibly handsome, Edward R. Murrow (only better) reincarnation, intrepid reporter and defender of truth & justice, Mike “Hugh” Boettcher, has infiltrated the Goebbels network, and will have a story featured on ‘This Weak’ with Christi Amanpour. If you only watch one talking heads show today, make sure it’s this one. As for the rest? Eh, who gives a crap. Speaking of crap…

Yesterday would have been a nice day if it hadn’t been for the wind, which was relentless (and cold). Not too bad when standing in a four foot deep hole, though. If only I could have spent more time deep down in the hole without having to do so much shoveling by hand. Oh, the back is not happy with me this morning. Nor are the knees (and we won’t even mention the shoulder).

But I’m pleased to report that we managed to repair the crushed and broken pipe. Sadly, we had to dig out a lot more than we’d counted on, though, because the pipe they used 35 years ago was very thin-walled and brittle. It shattered like glass when you breathed on it (or even near it), so we wound up replacing a lot more than we’d hoped to when we started. It was also a challenge transitioning from the old to the new, because this old pipe was actually a bit small for the new fittings. A real pain, but thankfully it’s not like this stuff is under pressure (and they hadn’t even bothered to glue the old fittings, so this has to at least be no worse). At least water should make it through the pipe now. Necessity was the mother of invention when it came to the new distribution box, as we cut up and cobbled together a storage bin to use as a cover, and tried to pile rocks and plastic shards around to cover any large gaps. Again, the old one had nothing covering it but dirt, so this should be no worse.

At least I now know where it’s located (duly photographed and annotated with the modern, electronic equivalent of 8×10 color glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph – in audio format – on the back explaining each one), should I ever need to revisit it (hopefully after I’ve had enough time to save up for a backhoe; digging with the front end loader worked rather impressively well, but it isn’t exactly a precision instrument, and left a great deal of devastation – in the form of a 15 foot long, 5 foot wide – not counting the ‘ramps’ – and 3 to 5 foot deep hole to repair).

So today I’ll be trying to use my new pile of topsoil to even things out. Hopefully it won’t be so goddamn windy today. Plus I have a lot of laundry to do – hopefully everything will go (and stay) down the drain the way it’s supposed to.