Will El Nino Save Us?

 

Severe Drought

The current  picture. By available capacity, Blue Mountain Reservoir is Colorado’s largest. The dam was built at the head of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. 

The monsoons that have blessed Arizona have finally shifted towards SW Colorado. It is probably too late for most of the fish.

Your Mental Image vs Reality

OK, you are an insignificant octogenarian keyboard warrior. No need wasting a spot at the re-education camp; just block internet service.  

Wyoming Strong

Blocked from West Coast ports by bad politics? Find another port.

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Already smugglers are eyeing all those empty coal cars headed north.

We need Steve Inman to make a FAFO video with this fool.

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OK, Emperor Polis, I will give you one atta boy

Ignore the smug econazi verbiage and virtue signaling in this article, this is something I can applaud.

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Pollinators are crucial to most of the growth of much of the food we eat.

What is my personal dog in the fight? A large spoonful of raw unfiltered honey in a cup of coffee starts my day. Local sourced. $70 a gallon direct from the beekeeper.

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I appreciate their integrity by charging me retail. Local shopkeepers are lax in keeping what I want in stock. Clark’s keeps faith with their wholesale customers.

Yawn, Colorado Politics

Colorado has a “robust” citizen initiative process. The idea is to place laws on the ballot for voters to decide (unless the (P)regressives don’t like them or the courts don’t approve, same thing – WSF sarcasm). Somewhere around 13 will be on the midterm ballot depending on where you live. One, favored by (P)regressives may have shortcomings. No problem, Jabba the Hut’s daughter is Secretary of State.

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Rules for you and rules for us. Move on, nothing to see here.

Should you still be interested, here is a conservative think tank analysis.

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When the Little Head Thinks for the Big Head

You may need to scroll down. Facebook!

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While the county has blue enclaves, the county remains conservative.

Car Story

Revenge is a dish best tasted cold.

One rainy afternoon Sound Ford, Renton WA had a lake growing at the North entrance due to a plugged storm drain. Redwood “beauty bark” was popular at the time and was sovereign for blocking storm drains.

I was wearing a trench coat and hat while working to unblock the drain when a driver deliberately moved over and completely soaked me with a wave of dirty water from his tires. Hah hah!

I was able to look around in time to see a very distinctive vehicle, a  Dodge Lil Red Express complete with the optional wood sideboards. While I didn’t get the plate number I did note it was a personalized plate.

My joy was great when I drove by the Denny’s Restaurant down the street twenty minutes later on my way home to get dry clothing. Sitting in the parking lot was the very same truck! Not now Tonto, that is a local, you have seen it around, and timing is everything.

About two week later the owner came out of a bar at closing time, rainy night, to find all four tires flat. Unless he had four spare valve stem cores, the tires stayed flat until the morning when the parts store opened.

A note on tactics. Step one, open the cores just enough to let out the air with minimal noise. Step two, return in 45 minutes to finish removing the cores after the tires were completely deflated. After step two, leave!

As always, YMMV

 

Econazis, Living on Moral High Ground

 Wolves

Turmoil continues as wolf introduction struggles and the ecology of their ranges won’t support them. They eat what they can kill, being wolves, and Colorado isn’t Yellowstone.

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Copied off Facebook.

a day ago ·

That’s me standing over the remains of our neighbor’s calf after Lindsay Martin and I found it.

The calf had been killed by wolves, the same wolves I posted about in my videos. The calf was still warm. We had disturbed the kill. The cow was standing right there beside her dead calf.

And that same day, the crew found another calf of ours that had been killed.

There’s no fence between wildlife and livestock when you’re the one standing in the pasture looking at what’s left. There’s just a mama cow that doesn’t understand where her baby went, and a rancher who has to walk away knowing there’s nothing they can do.

This picture isn’t about hating wolves. It’s about recognizing what happens when rapidly growing wolf packs are brought into a landscape that doesn’t have the wild prey populations to sustain them. When there isn’t enough natural prey to support these packs, our livestock become the next target.

And that’s where this stops being an abstract conversation about wildlife and becomes very real for the families standing in these pastures. The cost is paid by ranchers, their livelihoods, and animals that had absolutely no choice in being caught in the middle.

For us, these aren’t numbers. They’re calves we raised, watched grow, and cared about.

This is the part of the wolf conversation I wish more people could see. Not a debate. Not a statistic. Just a mama standing over her yearling, a calf that should still be alive, and ranchers left to deal with the aftermath.

Econazis don’t care about facts, only their feelings.

They are “fighting” gas and oil leases on BLM land. It will harm the deer, elk, and pronghorn migration corridors. 

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Locals in those areas know the critters are not bothered, at worse, inconvenienced, by drilling rigs. Their biggest danger is getting hit with vehicles.

Bottom Line First

A grumpy old man rant.

Somewhere in some past business class or seminar we were told different people learn best five individual ways, reading, kinesthetic, auditory, visual or logical (analytical). My preferred way is reading and logical.

YouTube is overflowing with informative offerings that initially interest me but are seldom viewed in their entirety because they don’t get to the f**king point!

Bottom line first. Example: Properly prepared African oddlebug wing extract will instantly cure impotence, followed by a presentation involving all five ways various people learn. Good!

Bad. The usual way: Suffer from impotence? A centuries old formula will instantly cure your problem, followed by fifteen minutes of five ways word salad before getting to African oddlebug wing extract.

About five minutes into their presentation I’ve moved on. Yes, at the end they want to sell me their product. That I don’t mind. Just put the bottom line first, please!

(Before you ask, I don’t know if there is African oddlebug wing extract)

Wyoming Border Patrol

AI used to amuse while making a social statement.

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 Bloggger Reading List

AI Overview

Google is aware of the ongoing Blogger Reading List bug, but there is no official timeline or estimated time of arrival (ETA) for a fix. 

Google Help

Current Status

·         Known Issue: The broken Reading List feature has been reported by multiple users and escalated to the Blogger team.

·         No ETA: Google has not announced when a permanent fix will be released. 

Google Help

Anyone know how we can fix this? While reading all your posts is difficult I will continue reading them and hope the problem gets fixed.

In the future I won’t be using new Google apps.

Car Story 

Skoda

An account of a gullible Canadian’s greed and arrogance biting him in the wallet.

“Tank, you are a kinky m_____f_____!” That was high praise from my crew chief, Ed Jones, as he reviewed my sale of a Skoda to a Canuck.

The dealership would take nearly anything in trade; boats, snowmobiles, farm tractors, season tickets, jewelry, etc. if it made a sale. Somehow we acquired a Skoda, a car not for sale in the US. Worse, with  no legal way to sell it in the US other than scrap.

The fastest way for seasoned salesmen to disappear like an idle PFC spotting a SGT was seeing a Canadian license plate on a car entering the lot. They loved to visit, waste our time, and never buy anything. It seemed to be a sport for them.

A rental car came on the lot and I pounced. Woody time! Rental=need buyer=sale! After greeting him, damned if he wasn’t a Canadian. Channeling my inner Rudy Russo (*) I  showed him the Skoda and explained Skodas were for sale in Canada, that Canadians could own them, and my manager would likely sell the Skoda for a steeply discounted price. Why? It was a hassle for us to take a car to the B.C Auto Auction.  The sale was made. (I wasn’t sure there was an auto auction in B.C)

What followed was a month of phone calls as Canadian Customs turned him away. We refused to refund his money.

Perhaps I should have extended good customer service by telling him to go to Lynden, over to the Indian Casino right on the border (Road O for those interested) and use the back roads to get home.

Customs? What customs.

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As always, YMMV

 

 

Blogger Revenge?

 Seems Blogger isn't updating on my computers. I'm not ignoring you; as a Latter Day Luddite it will take time to fix this.

Colofornia, Here We Come

 

Onward, Californicating Colorado

In their endless quest for more money to feed the bloated state welfare for (P)regressive make work jobs (boards, commissions, studies, etc.) a escalating income tax scheme will be on the mid term ballot.

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 Per the design that has worked in other states, the “wealthy” will, initially, pay more and the “commoners” less. Long term? The devil, as is said, is in the details.

Muse

Seems to have gone AWOL. May be back later. Burned out on Colorado politics. Same shit, same year.

Car Story

We occasionally see this Hudson around town. This is the first time I’ve seen it parked.

 We have a dealer in town that deals in older, or rare, vehicles.

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 Sisty, who knows everybody as an Insurance Adjuster, said the owner of Conquest tried to buy this Hudson at auction and was outbid.

Occasionally I will slowly drive by Conquest and drool.

As always, YMMV

Lawyers, Lawyering

 Firearm Wrongs in Colorado

A long discussion of this state’s firearm laws as relating to the many ongoing court challenges.

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Our Attorney General, and likely next Governor, uses this one line in the Heller decision to justify all the state’s restrictions.

. “The Constitution leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns

Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting

The fight goes on over the Colorado River water. California and Nevada have done little to improve their infrastructure while demanding more water, counting on political clout to get their way.

Seems they have bet wrong.

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No Dog in the Fight

As someone who lived on Colorado’s Western Slope I’ve always been aware of the skiing business. With some amusement, the angst of skiers sitting for hours on I-70 so they can max out their credit cards warms my evil heart.

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Followed by this.

Blue Colorado Blues

A 28 minute video on the financial woes of ten Colorado trust fund snot’s favorite towns isn’t good news for (P)regressives. What it means for the state political climate remains to be seen but all ten vote for, and support financially, Democrats.

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Last winter’s scant snowfall will only make the town’s problems worse.

Both Sisty and I are Ski Town USA (Steamboat Springs) High School graduates. She was a far better skier than me.

Several relatives are buried in the Breckenridge Cemetery. It has little maintenance which, to me, is a sign the current area residents have no ties to the community or the area. There are twenty year old trees growing among the graves.

As the carpetbaggers, idle rich and ultra wealthy move on to despoil Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming these towns will once again fade away.

The Train won’t Keep Rolling, Taxes Will

Progress! We have a new way to increase taxes and neuter TABOR. This will guarantee full employment for many lawyers. Oh, WSF, you are soooo cynical! Bite me!

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Car Story

In the 1970’s I owned several Cornbinders aka International Pickups and Travelalls.  They were terrible for rusting from road salt. One jewel was held together with Bondo and paint but still looked good. (I bought it in that condition knowing what I was getting)The spouse wanted something smaller and I traded it in on a used 1967 Mustang plus cash. Nice, V-8, automatic with cold A/C. After exchanging titles and cash I was leaving when the dealer’s lot attendant backed the Travelall into a spot too fast and hit a post. Most of the exterior door panels separated below the windowsills and landed on the ground.

 While the dealer took in the scene with his hands alongside his head, I carefully exited the lot and never looked back.

 As always, YMMV

 

The Dog Ate My Homework

 

I hit the wrong key and wiped out the blog I was working on. As a Latter Day Luddite I’m not smart enough to recover it. Instead you get another car story.

A multipart story involving a lazy cop, a stereo thief, a medical emergency, and a rare car.

One year I managed a two man pot lot off Washington Avenue in Thornton, CO just North of 88^th Avenue. From the street there was a ten foot section of gravel then a sidewalk. There was one entrance and a 600 sq/ft office halfway to the rear of the lot.

I ran the lot and the owner roamed around buying cars. All car lots in Colorado are closed on Sunday and we closed at 6 pm.  By pot lot, I mean older vehicles purchased for cash, no bank financing and no buy/here pay here.

A Thornton motorcycle cop motorcycle cop with his laser speed gun liked to sit on our NE corner next to an older gas station. While neither the owner nor myself liked it, we didn’t feel like getting into a pissing contest with the local PD.

I’m a proponent of frequently moving inventory around. Often when your lot is chaotic you will get customers coming in. Why, I can’t define but it happened so often I’m a believer. Other benefits are finding vehicles with dead batteries and giving the lot a new look.

Want to start in a sales hole? Have a vehicle you need to jump start in front of a prospective customer.

We had a very rare vehicle, a Mitsubishi Galant with a five speed manual transmission. Mitsubishi only imported a few thousand each year. That setup was wicked fast and so innocuous it didn’t attract attention.

One afternoon while I was moving cars around, the Mitsubishi was parked directly behind the motorcycle cop. All keys were on the hoods. A customer came in and I spent ten minutes with them. When I came back to the lot the Mitsubishi was gone. I ran up to the cop and he told me to call 911! Which I did and in another ten minutes three patrol cars were on the lot. The other Thornton officers were clearly embarrassed. We never got the Mitsubishi back and I paid the $500 insurance deductible.

The next day when I spied the motorcycle cop setting up, I told him in clear and forceful words to never set foot on our lot unless he was a customer. And, he never did.

The owner bought a small forklift. It was unpowered but had an electric motor to operate the lift. Why he bought it mystified me but, oh well, sell the damn thing. I would park a few vehicles on the gravel strip out front and that was where I would push that damned heavy anchor every morning. One day a driver in a Dodge Dakota had a seizure going southbound on Washington. I watched as his vehicle drifted across the street and slammed into the forklift pushing it into a convertible LeBaron (K car version). He was flopping around but held in place by his seatbelt. I called 911 then monitored his condition from outside the Dakota until the EMTs arrived. (of course, he had no insurance or driver license, just saying). Best case, the damned forklift was damaged beyond repair.

The owner bought a “customized” Chevy pickup. Lowered, 6 cyl short bed, painted bright yellow with a red velvet interior. It did have an elaborate stereo/speakers set up you could hear a block away. I had it parked on the side street of the lot that was visible from Washington. One evening I returned to the lot about an hour after closing and found the passenger door open and an individual standing beside the truck partially inside. When he heard me he pulled back but not fast enough and I closed the door trapping his right hand in the door and causing him some discomfort. His wallet was in his pocket so I removed it, removed his driver license and tossed his wallet into the street.

After informing him I now knew who he was, where he lived, and the consequences that would befall him if anything happened to our lot in the future I opened the door and he took off.

When I reconnected with Little Hitler aka Steve Lance, I left the pot lot. While it wasn’t it wasn’t going to make me rich, it was fun and the owner and I remained on good terms.

As always, YMMV

Medical Advice You Can Trust

 

Doctor YouTube

The biggest frustration in my life right now is belly fat. Diet and exercise are fine, I’m stronger, but the weight doesn’t go away.

A theme on Facebook and YouTube currently is a “fatty liver” and stored cortisol in the liver. Remedies are offered, for a price.

Every year when I visit the VA to prove I’m still alive, they run fifty tests on me.  Living in a building with retired nurses, I ask their opinion. The only concerns they see is slightly elevated glucose. At my age that isn’t a big deal.

The liver function tests are dead normal. My morning diet includes flax seed, chia seeds, and walnuts; all are recommended for a healthy liver.

Titanic Menu Planner

Denver’s Major.

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By many measures, Denver is a crime ridden failing city. Solution? Showcase you are doing something by going after a trivial problem with zero chance of winning. Blue city playbook

Way back Machine

Recently we old farts were talking about the gas crisis 55 mph speed limit. At the time I was working for a prefab/modular builder in Ogden, UT. My primary responsibility was a sales representative for a territory including Wyoming, Western Colorado, Southern Utah and Eastern Nevada. I would average eight quality face to face calls per week. When 55 mph came in that dropped to five per week. That was the start of a nearly ten year kick in the nation’s financial nuts. My income didn’t drop but my time at home with my family was greatly diminished. 

Do you care to speculate how much the 100 kilometer speed limit in Canada is costing them?

Who is old enough to have owned a Fuzzbuster?

 Car Story

My fair advantage at the car lot. (yes, I’m an asshole)

Fresh inventory arrives and there is a gem! You have one or two hot prospects for that car but so do other salesmen.

Technique  #1.  “Lose” the keys.

Technique #2.   Bury it in the storage area so deep it is hard to find. Or, do both #1 and #2.

Technique #3.    The pro move. Loosen a spark plug wire just enough to make the engine run rough. Being older than dirt, my selling days were when there were still distributor caps which I preferred. Slipping something loose in the fuel injection system was an option.

Technique #4.   Keep a selection of blown fuses to install as needed. Most starter systems take a 30 amp. Works best when the car is buried out back.

Confess. “Folks, every salesperson on this lot are trying to sell this car and I wanted it to be here for you. Don’t worry about the misfire. Let’s take it for a test drive and it will be running perfectly before we get back”.

The downside to these methods was the occasional intense conversations with others after the customer drove off with the happy tag in the rear window. Salesmen and/or managers would make ugly accusations. Who me?

As always, YMMV