Veterans Day

 Veterans Day.  Yippee.  Originally Armistice Day, to commemorate the end of the Great War, it morphed over the years as a time to celebrate living veterans.  Not to be confused with Memorial Day, which celebrates deceased veterans.

As for myself, I intend to celebrate Veterans Day by staying on my own acre, tending to daily chores.

I am watching the news, and it seems that the newly elected Democrats in Congress want to follow an agenda of retribution rather than the agenda of affordability that they ran on.  Retribution is a poor political motive because the pendulum tends to swing and those in the majority inevitably  find themselves in the minority. What goes around, comes around. I simply believe that the next year will be interesting.

As for myself, I intend to purchase a rifle suppressor fairly quickly.  The window of opportunity has presented itself and may soon close under the new political landscape. Reasonable people may reach the same conclusion.  I may not speak of this again, as silence may help me avoid a tragic boating accident in coming years.

Y'all have a happy Veterans Day.

Battery

 Today Belle's sister came over with her husband and we went to lunch.  We took them to a Mongolian Grill in town and had a nice lunch.  We were in my Honda Odyssey.

My Odyssey is a 2020 model.  It has more bells, whistles and gee-gaws than any vehicle needs.  We got through with lunch and headed for the vehicle.  Climbed aboard, the ladies in the middle row seats.  They  pressed the buttons to close the sliding doors.  The doors closed halfway and stopped.  I got a waring light on the dashboard and then everything went dark.  Deader than Het.

We tried jumping it with a jump-pack and with jumper cables.  Two deputies from a sister parish tried to help to no avail.  Luckily, Grandson Zach was at home, so we called him to come pick up his grandmother while I assessed the situation.  He took his grandma and his aunt home, then returned with tools.  We snatched the battery, went to a parts house, paid the toll and installed the new battery.

I'm home now, poorer, but I have a ne battery in the Odyssey, so I should be good for this winter.  I bought that vehicle in April 2020 and this is the first battery I put in it.

Once the new battery was installed and the car started, I did have to go through some opening ceremonies. For example, it wanted to know if I wanted miles per hour or kilometers per hour.  I opted for mph, because that is consistent with my experience.  One thing that I did learn is that when the battery dies, nothing, absolutely nothing n the car works.  Not the sliding doors, not the tailgate. Those locks are electric. You can't put the vehicle in neutral, the transmission is electric.

That's how I spent my Tuesday afternoon.  How was y'all's?

Water Heater, Redux

 Y'all might recall a couple of weeks ago, the water heater in the shop went out.  It was a small 4-gallon tank heater.  White I was cussing and fretting, Belle went to Amazon and started searching.  We went with a small on demand heater.  I admit that I didn't do the research.  After it was installed, it gave hot water, but it would trip te breaker when I pulled on it hard.  After a couple or resets, I pulled out the specs and learned that it needed a 30-amp breaker.  The circuit it wired with a 20-amp breaker.  Well hell.

I checked with my electrician, and he wasn't sure if we had installed 10-gauge or 12-gauge wiring on that circuit.  So, not wanting to burn the shop down I did some more research.  I spent the money and bought another 4-gallon thank heater from Amazon.  This one.  It will give me four gallons of hot water and only draws 12 amps., which is okay on a 20-amp circuit.

Installation was easy.  It took me 45 minutes, but a good plumber could have done it in 10.  It sits under the sin, plugs into a 120v outlet and gives me hot water for the dishes. If it lasts as long as the first one, it will be a win.

Running Errandds

 I went to Holloway this morning.  Holloway is and unincorporated crossroads down the road from the house.  There is a barber shop there.  An old style, single chair barber shop.  A haircut is $20.  This morning, the conversation was politics, weather, and Houston, TX.  Go figure.  They were trying to figure out if Houston was the 4th largest metro in the US, or if it had been surpassed by DFW?

No one brought out a cell phone, no one tried to Google.  No one in there was under 65 years old.  Just a bunch of old men on a sunny Thursday morning.

After the barber sup, into town to the grocers to try and figure out what we're doing or lunch.  I'll fry a mixed bag for lunch, some taquitos, some chicken strips and some egg rolls.  This time of year is my favorite for cooking.  The cool temps let me do things that the hot August weather forbids.  Tomorrow it will be a beef stew.  Basic, with potatoes and carrots.

The politics of the midterms don't bother me, as most Presidents get a shellacking during the midterms.  I've seen this before.  The pendulum is always swinging.  Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, but always moving.  Life goes on.

Wow

 Congress changed hands last night, and not by a small margin.  Come January, the Democrats will be fully in charge.  Michigan elected a socialist and Texas turned purple.  That seems to be the over-arching result.

Louisiana elected Julia Letlow to replace Bill Cassidy.  It was not a forgone conclusion as Democrat Jamie Davis ran a credible race, getting within two points of Letlow. It was a near thing.

The House races are another thing entirely.  Predictably, Democrat Troy Carter won his race out of New Orleans.  That was no surprise.  Republicans Mike Hohnson, Steve Scalise, and Cla y Higgins won easily.  Two House districts are in a runoff situation.  Both the 5th and 6th districts will have final elections in December.  I live in the 5th District, which is trying to flip from D to R.  Generally, December elections in Louisiana are low turnout, so the candidates will have to have a good ground game to get their voters to the polls.  

The next two years are going to be interesting and the 2028 Presidential race starts today.

Election Time

 Tomorrow is a state holiday in Louisiana.  The schools are closed and the mail won't run. The polls will be open, though. Tomorrow is the last day for voting in Louisiana.  Early voting was several weeks ago and mail-in ballots are due no later than COB today.  

The Democrats are hoping for a blue wave that will flip the House and the Senate.  We'll see. They have the history of the midterms, but several of their candidates are batshit crazy.  Here in Louisiana we have a machine Republican that not a lot of people are happy with, versus an old-style Democrat.  The Democrat is a farmer from North Louisiana.  The Republican is a white woman; the Democrat is a black man. It is an interesting conjunction, and many people say that the race is close. 

I voted early, which is a lot easier than going to the poll on voting day. I'll be watching tomorrow, paying attention to Michigan, Texas, Alaska and Louisiana. Will Congress change hands tomorrow?

Opening Day

 Hereabouts it is opening day for the rifle season for whitetail deer.  Most deer clubs have one iron-clad rule.  If you see a hog, you put it down.  Feral hogs are an invasive species that we have to control.  Grandson Lucas was on the stand this morning and had a hog walk out on him.  Bang, flop.

Hid Dad tells me that it is 135 pounds.  It will be used, mainly as filler for ground venison unless the hog has been eating pinecones.  Hogs that eat pinecones taste like turpentine.  If the meat is edible, they will use it.

For the record, the rifle is a commercial Mauser 98 that I picked up in 2024.  This is his third season with it, and it has accounted for several whitetail deer.  Today, it accounted for pork.  The caliber?  6.5 Swede, of course.