Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...

This is not an environmental activism post.

This post is about hot water.

Specifically hot water from a heater of hot water that delivers said hot water directly into one's bathtub. Or shower. As JRR Tolkien tells us:

Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.

O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.

O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!

So Friday I discover that my water heater has stopped heating water. There is nothing for it, I will have to call a plumber - but! The hell if I'm going to call a plumber on Friday night - because there's no way I want to spend "emergency call" type money on what is probably a simple repair.

So I would have called on Monday, but the CPA was in, so I called on Tuesday and the guy came out yesterday. No. I did not go from Friday to Wednesday without washing, you gits. I hotted up water on my stove, poured it into a bucket and took it up to the bathtub. It was soooooo very 18th century...

No wonder they had servants back then.

Anyhow - the hot water heater is again working (something about a clogged filter and some other plumbery-talk stuff I didn't understand) - and I had a lovely, lovely long hot shower last night - and another this morning - and will probably do again tonite just because I CAN!!!

O! Water Hot is a noble thing!

OMG!! WTF??? BBQ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111ELEVENTYONE!!!!

What is that STRANGE - UNEARTHLY GLOW IN THE SKY?????????????????


Oh. Yeah. Sunshine. Forgot about that. Heh.

So, I took Kili to the vet on Thursday to get her vacinations caught up so she can be boarded at their facility while I am in Florida. ($$$!!) Someone was decidedly NOT HAPPY at travelling yet again to the V-E-T in the cat-carry-box-of-DOOM. She peed on the towel I have on the bottom to keep it warmer. *grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Anyhow, vet tells me that for a 17 yr old, almost 18 yr old cat, she's pretty healthy, the only bad thing is that her kidneys are starting to lose mass, which means they are starting to "go". *sigh*. I have a feeling I won't have a cat in the house anymore much longer. Still and all, the vet says I take good care of her, and that most cats don't make it this far, so I'm glad we've had as much time together as we have had.

All this advance planning for the trip is making me stress out some (I haven't flown in YEARS) - and so work on things like the quilt for Kal and my diningroom makeover are kind of falling by the wayside. I need to finish all the arrangements for Florida so I can get back to being happily busy on house stuff.

Channelling my Inner Martha Stewart, as it were.

I'm feeling good, though - a bit on the sleepy side still, but otherwise fine and happy. Makes for boring blog posts, though.

Sorry.

Crawling out of my hole for a bit..

So I've been cranky and unable to post or do much of anything for a couple 3 weeks here. I had a Dr. appointment coming up, and I was not doing so well and I was all kinds of stressing over it.

Well, it turns out things were not as bad as all that, and the Dr. changed my medicine (again!) and it seems to be easier for me to tolerate, so maybe I can get back onto track again.

The downstairs bathroom is acting up again, but I think I know what is the problem, so I should be able to fix it maybe. I started in by turning off the water to the faucet, so now I just have to get up the courage to get in there with a wrench and see if I can fiddle with the guts.

I am not fond of plumbing.

Gonna go visit Dad next month. Should be nice, going to Florida in February. I get to miss out on a bunch of cold days, I hope.

Rush LimpBalls taken to hospital with "chest pains"

Everyone over at Huffpo is falling all over themselves trying to out "classy" the WrongWing nuts by "wishing him well".

I'm not that classy.

My personal take is that this couldn't have happened to a more deserving individual, and my supreme hope is that he is incapacitated for the rest of his life and unable to spew his hate-filled venom at his fellow Americans in any way, shape, form or fashion. I wish him all the worst.

"But Sewmouse" I hear you say "Wasn't that last post rather vitriolic and hate-filled? How can you criticize El Rushbo for something you have done too?"

True.

However. I challenge you all to find me one. ONE. O-N-E American Liberal Female Progressive person who has ever tried to detonate a bomb on an airliner for "Allah". You do that, and I'll STFU about religous extremeism. Hell, I will shut up about Rush limpballs too - maybe.

Because really, when it comes right down to it, political "conservatism" is really a religion. They BELIEVE in their Corporate Deity, and worship the almighty Dollar.

So - Here's to an extended, hideously painful & expensive hospitalization, Rush. Don't get well soon.

To All the Al-Queda wannabes and friends

It is my understanding - and I may in fact be wrong - that your major complaint is that we aren't like you. We don't follow Islam, or Islamic law. We don't make our women hide themselves in unsightly tents because you can't keep your peckers in line. For the most part, we don't go around wasting our time worrying about other people's religious beliefs or "morals". We leave those kind of things between each individual and his/her deity.

We don't cower in fear and give in to fucktards like you. We don't go the appeasement route. We will hunt you down. We will bomb your countries back to the stone age you seem to prefer to live in. Your once-proud civilizations will never again rise, because you refuse to fix your OWN problems, but choose to try and inflict them on US. DIE IN A FIRE - and if that fire has to be the fire from nuclear missiles - then so be it, you will have chosen your own fate, Swine.

It seems you've tried again to blow up an airplane. Tried. You're not going to succeed, fuckers, because we are aware now. We are alert. We aren't going to let your fucktard murderers get away with it. We won't sit like sheep in the plane and not fight back. You fucked up on 9/11/01 - and we don't forget easily - and we forgive grudgingly - if ever. For my part - I will never forget, and I will NEVER forgive.

You fucked up again with this Nigerian boy. You seem to not get it - the more you try to force your despicable "Allah" on us - the less inclined we will be to acquiese to your desire. Allahu ain't akbar enough to cut through MY stubbornness. I would rather spend eternity in hell than even a fleeting moment in "paradise" with the likes of you misogynist pigs. I will purchase a gun and learn to shoot it if that is what it takes to keep you from forcing me into one of your shapeless "Abaya" or "Hijab" or "Burka". And if you think I'm going to take off my bra, lift my shirt and shake my tits at you - you've got several MILLION "thinks" coming, Asswipes.

I spit on your Quran.

Relativity

The extent to which you NEED your car is directly dis-proportional to the availability of said vehicle.

When deprived of your transport, 10,000 reasons why you simply MUST get your ass to Walgreens come to mind. Sweats, chills, shaking et al may accompany the feelings of entrapment.

Once said vehicle has been returned.... it will doubtless sit for the better part of the 4-day weekend in the driveway gathering copious amounts of sn*w.

Silly, really.

Merry Christmas!!

Chappy Channukah!
Happy Kwanzaa!
Blessed Yule!!
FESTIVE FESTIVUS!!!

I got my car back - can you tell??? *grin*

May your winter holiday of light be warm and cozy, may you enjoy the comfort of family, friends and awesome food. Be well, Internet Friends.

Day 3 - No Wheels

My hands become sweaty. My heart races. Tremors of fear wrack my frame. Paranoia begins to rear it's ugly head in the most dire imaginings.

If I don't get the car back today, I will be 4 days more without wheels, as the shop is closed for the 4-day holiday weekend. If I don't get the car back today, I will run out of cat food and Kili will start to gnaw on ME, like those pug dogs did to their dead owner, except I will be alive. EATEN ALIVE BY OWN CATS - film at 11.

(actually, I am hopeful that the mini-mart at the Shell station has cat food and I might could walk up there for some.)

I hate being car-less. I hate having to impose on co-worker D for a ride to and from the office. It's out of his way, and I feel like a terrible, terrible leech.

And there is a blizzard due.

Good thing I don't have a dog, I'm probably broadcasting fear pheremones like crazy.

Questions I ask and expect no answer

Driving home from work - or driving to work - questions fill my head.

What exactly is the attraction of a "Low-Rider" vehicle? The Chevy S-10 that had been spraypainted dull blue looked like a bar of soap with clown-car wheels going down the road in front of me.

I can understand the attraction of the jacked-up cars - it is NICE to drive a high vehicle, because you can see over everyone else and be sure you're not going to get surprised by someone braking up ahead.

But the whole concept of "low-rider" entirely escapes me. Just looks STUPID.

Had a "honey-do" 4-day weekend last weekend. I took 2 days off work so I could get things done around the house that just NEVER seem to get done. I'm a big one for making lists and then berating myself for not ever finishing all the stuff on them.

So - on the way to work I was wondering if anyone was SO busy, and SO organized that they'd put "masturbate" on their to-do list.

Ok - it IS a stupid question - but I've got a 30 minute commute, and my brain functions in bizarre ways before it has had enough coffee.

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The horrors of unprovoked war

Written by another:

The man was a teenage apprentice seaman, when he spotted planes coming in over the harbor.

He thought they were military aircraft conducting drills until explosions and flames erupted from stricken ships in the harbor.

Then came screams of sailors; the stench of burning oil and flesh.

Then, he and two other sailors were waiting to ferry passengers on a small boat to and from the a hospital ship that was moored in the harbor.

His motor launcher boat rushed to a large ship, which was hit by several bombs, one of which struck her forward and set off a massive explosion. Already fueled and manned when the attack began, their 30-foot boat was the first rescue vessel to arrive at the scene.

They found the water littered with people — some wounded, some dead, some unharmed. Many were covered in the leaking oil from the ships.

They loaded as many as they could and delivered them to the hospital ship before returning to the another ship for more.

"As we're pulling them out of the water, a lot of times the skin would come right off the arm," The man said. "They would just be black with oil, except maybe you could see the white of their eyes."

The planes kept coming. Dive-bombers plunged out of the sky, dropping bombs and strafing the water and ships with machine gun fire before roaring back up for another round. Torpedo bombers flew in level to drop their submersible weapons for underwater assaults.

The burning, sinking vessels at first lowered men into the makeshift rescue boat. But some sailors started to panic and jump into their small ship, forcing it to pull away so it wouldn't sink too.

"Some of the sailors would be like in shock and some of 'em would be like going out of control, screaming and hollering," He said.

The next morning — after nervously worrying the attacking planes would return — his boat unloaded men from their craft who failed to make it through the night and delivered them to land.

"We had them stacked like cordwood in our boat. The open end where the feet was sticking out was these big brown tags that said 'unknown, unknown,'" He said. Many couldn't be identified.


More than 2,200 were killed.

"We didn't survive by any skill," He said of his boat. "It was just luck, pure luck. Because all we were concentrating on was trying to save people, and not save ourselves."

Horrible. Senseless. Unneeded, and un-warned. The military predators struck again and again.

December 7, 1942. A day that will live in infamy.

Don't tell me we 'Merkans don't know about having our country attacked. Don't tell me we've always just sat back in our Laz-E-Boy recliners and watched in safety from a distance.

Stop your internecine squabbling and foolish tribal posturing and nonsense. Come together as a group, a people, a nation - and set your house in order. Accept that there are people who view "God" differently than you do - and that only GOD can say which way is correct - and He ain't talkin' just now. Quit blaming America for your own failure to organize, build, plant and educate your own countries.

Two generations of Americans have watched planes being used to murder 1000's of our citizens in a mere breath of time - UNPROVOKED. This may seem trivial to those who have lived through terror in places like Ireland and Israel and what WOULD be Palestine if the people who would like to be Palestinians would stop behaving like spoiled children and join the rest of the world in living (moderately) peacefully.

Things like 12/7/42 and 9/11/01 are only going to make things worse in the long run. Had the Japanese not perpetrated the atrocity above, there would have been no Hiroshima, no Nagasaki. Had Al Queda - or whoever it was - not committed the atrocities on 9/11/01, there would have been no Afghan war - and no EXCUSE for Shrub-boy to start the Iraq debacle.

War. What is it good for?

Absolutely. NOTHING.

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