Lunch

 Belle wanted a little Cajun-Oriental fusion for lunch, so I started by chopping a pound of good Conecuh sausage and browning it in a skillet. Then I added a bag of Picsweet 3-pepper and onion and let that sautee with the sausage.  Next, a pound of good Louisiana Gulf shrimp, along with a half can of pineapple tidbits and a can of water chestnuts.  Then I added some teriyaki sauce and some Sweet and Sour sauce.

I let that simmer for a bit while I nuked some leftover rice.  Go easy when you add the sauces. It's easy to overdo it. You can always add a bit more.

Outrage

 I'm hearing all this outrage on the left and commentary on the right because CBS has decided to cancel Stephen Colbert.  Next year.

Big yawn here.  He makes upwards of $12 million a year, and they are going to pay him this year and next year. Simple math says that he is walking away with more money than I'll ever see.

I've never been fired, but I've seen people fired.  Generally, they get escorted off the premises, not given another year to make plans.

I really don't feel sorry for the boy.  He'll be fine.

Go Get 'Em, Judge

 I understand that Judge Jeanine Pirro is now the US Attorney for the DC district courts.

Judge Jeanine was a Fox News contributor for many years.  I'm a fan. I like her no nonsense style of calling it like she sees it.  She and I may not agree on everything, but you don't have to worry about where she stands on an issue.

Good on her.  I don't know why she wanted the job, but I'm convinced she will do it right.

Ruminations

Belle's daughter from Missouri came down this weekend for a visit, bringing her husband and two granddaughters.  They got here Friday morning and left this morning after breakfast.  It was good to see them.  The husband is an old soldier, having served both in the 25th Infantry division and the 5th Infantry division..   We have things to talk about.  He also likes Scoth whisky.

The great-granddaughters, both 10 years old, had never seen an in-ground pool. They were amazed, and spent several hours in the pool Friday and Saturday.  I am amazed that they are not sunburned, but they are not.

Of course, grandma cooked all weekend.  On Friday, it was chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and white gravy.  On Saturday, it was crawfish etouffee with rice, a salad, and fried fruit pies for dessert. PawPaw was showing off, too.  I showed off my selections of single-malt whisky, which is fairly depleted as of today.

The kids left this morning about 9:00.  Missouri calls.  Belle and I ate Popeye's for lunch.  Right now, I'm into some bonded bourbon, thinking about the benefits of family, and the pleasures of a working AC system.

Tropic Lightning

 No, not the 25th Infantry Division. I'm talking about the unnamed weather event that hit us last night and will probably roll across us again today.

This thing is basically a nothing-burger, just lots of thunder and lightning.  It has no wind field to speak of and never really got organized before it came ashore.  This thing originated in the Gulf, so technically it is a tropical something-or-other.

The weather-weenies tell us that we are under a 99% chance of rain today, which means that there is a change we won't get rained on.  Yeah, right.

Hogwash

 I'm seeing a lot of hogwash online about the .30-06 cartridge being obsolete.  Hogwash. The old Thirty Aught Six is an old cartridge, no doubt about that, but obsolete?  Not likely.

It can still take all the game on the North American continent.  There may be other cartridges that are better for a specific task, or more suited to specific game, but that doesn't make the old warhorse obsolete. It's proven itself over and over, and it is the cartridge that everyone compares against.  It is a benchmark cartridge.

If I knew that I was going on a medium-to-large game hunt somewhere in North America, with no other inclination of where I would be, the old Savage 110 in .30-06 would go along, and I'd be neither under gunned nor second-guessing my choice. From deer in the thickets to moose in Alberta, the .30-06 would be just fine.

Obsolete, indeed.

The Crew Is Here

 The AC crew is here to install the new unit. I'm very happy with that.

I told Belle this morning that it is now illegal for me to wash dishes. When she asked "Why", I explained to her that Donald Trump had signed an executive order forbidding men from competing in women's sports.

Just so you know.

Tuesday Yard Work

 It's supposed to rain on Thursday, but it has been over ten days since I mowed. My yard holds water, and the afternoon showers have the ground saturated in sports. I decided that today would be a good chance to roll the dice and see if I stick the mower.  I didn't.  Got the front mowed except for the front ditch.

Tomorrow we have a contractor coming in to replace the home AC unit. It's been limping along for a while, and it is 24 years old.  It's time for an upgrade.  We're getting a new inside furnace and outside AC unit.  The contractor told me that out present unit pulls 40 amps, and the new one should pull no more than 13 amps.  That should help the electric bill quite a bit.

We have a 3-ton unit now and I asked the guy if we needed to increase the tonnage.  He took a quick measure of the house and told me that 3-tons would cool and heat it just fine.

It's allpart of being a homeowner.  

Why "MAYDAY"?

 Waiting for the AC guy, I was surfing around and came upon some videos talking about the Air India crash. And I started wondering why MAYDAY became the universal call for distress.  So, I started looking again.  From Wikipedia:

The "mayday" procedure word was conceived as a distress call in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport, England. He had been asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency.[1][2] Since much of the air traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the term "mayday", the phonetic equivalent of the French m'aider.

 And there you have it.  It was phonetically distinctive and easily understood over the radios of the day. And now you know.

Spoke Too Soon

 I was feeling good about the home AC unit until about 5:00 yesterday, when it went out again.  Just dammit. I borrowed a portable AC unit and installed it in the bedroom so that Belle could sleep comfortably. Then started texting around, getting recommendations from friends.

This morning, I found a guy, recommended highly by a friend.  I called him and he said that he could be here sometime early afternoon, as soon as he finishes a job, he's on just across town. That works for me.  Belle and I are in she the shop, where there is plenty of air conditioning. In battling the weather it helps to have a fallback position.

Cool Breze

 Belle and I spent most of yesterday in the shop, as we usually doo.  About cocktail hour, we went intot he house to find that the AC unit had quit working.  I put a call in to my AC guy, not really expecting a response late on a Saturday afternoon. Well, hell.  It soon got too hot, so we fell back to the shop where the AC units work. and spent the night in the shop.  Noot terribly comfortable, but it beat the hell out oof sweating our butts off.

I started watching YouTube DIY videos and trying to learn what I could about modern AC units.  Before lunch, second son came over and we tore the outside unit apart to do some troubleshooting.  We learned that the controller and the capacitor are okay, and that the problem seemed to be in the control circuits.  And, we were having a problem with a switch called the high pressure reset switch.  After we got the unit torn apart, I got out the water hose and gave the condenser coil a good washing from the inside.

Just before we were about to quit in disgust, second son had the idea of turning the complete system off at the breakers, waiting five minutes, and letting the endite system reset.  We tried that and it worked.   When we turned the breakers back on, the system came to life. The house is cooling off slowly, and it appears that Belle will be able to sleep in her bed tonight.

I am pleased to know that the compressor is okay, the fan is working, and the controls seem to be operating for the time being.  When my AC guy calls me tomorrow, I'll schedule a service, tell him everything I've done, and let him give the unit a thorough inspection.  The unit has been running now for about two hours and the house is cooling down.  We are spoiled to air conditioning in these latitudes and I do not apologize for that.

257 Roberts: The Second Chance Cartridge

I'm putting this right here, for a variety of reasons.

Ask The Question

 I was watching an interview on Fox with Kristi Noem, the DHS Secretary.  She was telling Fox that DHS is making some changes in airport security, and one of those changes is that passengers will no longer be required to remove their shoes as part of the screening.

Fox asked her (and I'm paraphrasing here), but she said that she asked why removing the shoes is necessary, and evidently no one in authority had had asked that question.  The answer is that the tech has gotten better and that there is no real reason to have a passenger remove their shoes.

Luckily, I don't fly much.  I don't have to fly much.  I used to really enjoy flying pre-9/11, but the security theater after 9/11 made me more likely to schedule a colonoscopy than an airline flight.

The bigger point of the Noem interview is that no one had asked that question.  In my experience, the biggest function of leadership is to ask those questions.  "Why are we doing this thing?" If the answer you get is "We've always done it like that.", then you have a problem.

There may be very good reasons why an organization does certain things. Those reasons may be regulatory, or legal, or based in logic and reason.  But, if the worker bees cannot articulate good reasons, then it's time to look for alternatives.

At the very least, Kristi Noem is asking the right questions.

Random Thoughts

 So, I'm seeing where Trump, Bondi, Patel, et al, is saying that there is no Epstein list.  The guy was implicated in sex-trafficking, and his gal Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking, and there is no list?  No file of clients? If we don't know who the clients were, how can we be assured that sex-trafficking was happening?  I understand that the victims were young girls, but who were the Johns?  The administrations answers beg for clarification.

Now, I'm hearing a lot about that nutjob that the Democrat party nominated for mayor of New York.  Good for them.  Who cares?  I love nowhere near New York.  The one town I live near, I can't tell you who is mayor.  I just don't care.  Likewise for the mayor of any other burg in the nation. Mayoral politics are local politics, and I ain't local.  Or for that matter, the mayor of Buttcrack, NV or Armpit, MS.  Just don't care.

The calendar tells me it is Wednesday.  For some reason this week, my internal calendar is shifted.  It's out of sync.  Weird.  Thankfully, the tropics re quiet.  I've been checking the National Hurricane Center every day. Historically, August and September are the busy months.  I hope it is a quiet season.

Pancakes

 I love pancakes, both the kind you cook on a griddle and the kind you wear on your belt.

Remember that J-frame I got back on June.  Yeah, that one.  I needed a holster to carry it and I've always loved a good pancake holster.  I've worn kydex and the other synthetics, but what I wanted was a nice leather holster that was simple and comfortable.

So, I went over to Simply Rugged and bought a Sourdough pancake holster.  I had it border-stamped to give it a little class. They told me that it would be four weeks and it came in yesterday.

I put it on this morning, and honestly, it fits just like it is supposed to.  As a cop for 37 years I've worn a lot of holsters, either in uniform or plainclothes.  The very best just seem to blend with your attire.  You soon forget that you're wearing it.  It's just there, with no pinching or rubbing. It holds the gun tight to your body with little tension.  Wear a jacket or a large shirt and it just vanishes.

It's simply comfortable.

Pray for Texas

 I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything like that.

I've lived through floods, but I've never seen one like that.

I admit that I am unfamiliar with that part of Texas, and totally ignorant of the hydrology in that area,, but from what I've seen, even long-term residents were surprised.  This thing was way outside the norms.

Pray for Texas.

Colion Chimes IN

Referencing the post below, and the idea that the NFA tax on suppressors and SBRs had been repealed, Colion Noir gives some thoughts on the development.

NFA Items

 With the passage of Frump's Big Beautiful Bill, some provisions are starting to come to light. It appears that the bill eliminated the excise tax on short-barreled rifles and on suppressors.  I'm sure that the provisions will flesh themselves out in the coming weeks, but I admit that I am intrigued.  The items will still have to be regulated, but that $200 tax is gone.

I am intrigued. I have long thought that a rimfire with a 12 inch barrel and a suppressor would be the cats meow for small game and varmints.  And, if what I'm hearing about the tax is true, then the price of such a firearm just dropped by $400.

I happen to own a Ruger 10/22 that would be a perfect candidate for such a project.  I admit freely that I am totally ignorant about the various vendors of suppressors.  I don't think that I am looking for total silence (I know that is a pipe-dream), but a marked decrease in decibels would be a treat.

What do you think?

A Little Math

 President Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill on Friday.  One of the things that bill dies is to reform Medicaid. Medicaid was originally designed for the po'folks, those who live below the poverty level.  So, lets do a little math.

Louisiana has approximately 4.6 million residents.  Approximately 18.9% are under the poverty line. By that metric alone, we should have about 869,000 on Medica.  With the Medicaid expansion under out last governor, we have about 1.5 million currently enrolled.   These are government figures, I didn't make them up, but it shows that Louisiana needs to do a better job getting people out of poverty.  And, it shows that there are a whole lot of people on Medicaid who aren't poverty stricken.

Other states have the same problem.  New Mexico, for example, has about 2.13 million residents, with about 375, 000 at the poverty line.   Their Medicaid enrollment is just over 985,000.  These figures are a quick Google, but probably pretty accurate.  New Mexico is a deep blue state, which might explain some things, but the Medicare enrollment is over twice the poverty rate.

July 4th

 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Big,, Beautiful

 I am sick and tired of hearing about this Big Beautiful bill.  Either pass the sonofabitch or don't.  It's getting to the point where there is too much bullshit in it.

There should be a rule in Congress that any bill considered should be written in 12 font and be no more than two pages in length, written at a fifth-grade reading level.  If it makes sense, (like no tax on tips), everyone could get behind it. This rule would keep legislation focused and easily debated.

The budget may have to be a bit longer, but the vast majority of legislation could be short and sweet.  There is no reason for huge bills.

Grandpa's Fix

 I dropped by to see my Mother today.  I am lucky enough to be able to do that. Mom lives in apartment in my sister's back yard.

When I pulled up a char to visit with her, I noticed an old fix that my Grandpa used  to put on chairs when they started to get loose.  Mom and Dad bought these chairs ... oh... 65 years ago.  I was a kid, and they sat in the dining room and helped raise a huge family.  I have six siblings.

When a chair started to get loose from decades of us, we'd take it to Granpa's and he would tighten it up.  He'd install small metal rods under the rungs of the chair, then cut threads on the rods and install a small nut.

That is the way the old man would tighten a chair that had gotten loose.  Decades later that chair is still as tight as the day it left his shop.

I thought you folks needed to see that.

Alligator Alcatraz

 I'm loving it, and the Dems are losing their minds, which I also love.

One thing about alligators.  They are ubiquitous in some areas.  As one old black woman said, "If you put your hand in the water, and it's wet, there is probably an alligator living there."

On the old England Air Force Base, just west of Alexandria, LA, there was a bayou that ran along the golf course.  It had an alligator hazard, with rules that took care of the times when the gator was on the fairway.

When Belle and I moved into our current abode beside a small lake, there were gators.  We got them out, because grandkids.

Back to Alligator Alcatraz, I understand there are pythons there too.  I've never had to deal with pythons, so you're on your own.

Doldrums

July  2nd, and it is hot out there. Right now, it is 95 with a wind chill of 106.  Too damned hot to be out in the sun. I know that I grew up without air conditioning, but we didn't do much in the afternoon.  Find a shady spot and hope for a breeze.  We worked the garden in the morning and mowed grass in the late afternoon.  We tried to stay out of the midday sun.

These days I still try to stay out of the midday sun. I am convinced that Willis Carrier is one of the most important inventors of the 20th century, and I intend to enjoy his invention every day that I can.