Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967

Tom, are ya lookin' for what we used to call "Poplin" windbreakers? Check these: London Fog, from Amazon Land's End Or, just Google "Poplin Windbreaker"

Aaaand remember... you can pet a cat, and you can pet a dog, but you can NOT 'pet a luma~!'

Back about '06, I came home from work one afternoon and found the light blinking on my answering machine. Curious, I punched the button, and was surprised to hear a voice announcing itself as one Mister Woods, my son’s eighth grade English teacher. “Mr Curmudgeon, this is Mr Woods, your son’s English teacher. I was wondering if it might be possible to have a discussion with you about your son, at your earliest convenience.” Needless to say, I was beyond intrigued, and the very next morning presented myself at his classroom door about a half-hour before the start of the school day. Mr Woods looked up, and asked, “Can I help you?” “Hi!” I said, and introduced myself. “So you said you needed to speak with me?” “Oh, yes!” he replied with raised eyebrows. “Come on in and please close the door behind you!” Uh oh. This can’t be good. I shut the door, and asked “so what’s goin’ on?” as I settled into a ‘visitor chair’ next to his desk. He offered his hand, and introduced himself. “Well, Mister Curmudgeon, here’s the deal. "The class has an assignment to write an instructional paper before next weeks Open House. And the response has been really fun, and even gratifying. For example, one young man wrote about how to score a baseball game. A young lady wrote on how to prepare a traditional Seder dinner. “But your son has come up with something totally different!” “Uh…” I said with apprehension. “So what did he write about?” “Well!” Mr Woods continued: “Well… your son, Sassparilla, wrote a paper entitled... 'How To Make Moonshine!'” I was stunned. “Oh my Gosh! I had NO idea! I can assure you, he didn’t get the idea from me!” Mr Woods leveled his gaze at me. “Well… due to the adult nature of his topic, I thought it appropriate to involve you. If you approve, I will allow his paper to stand and grade him on it. “But Mr Curmudgeon, I have to tell you: I come from a LONG line of moonshiners, and your kid has it DOWN!” With that, I decided to let the Kid get graded on his project. For the record, he did receive an A+ on the assignment; however, when the papers were displayed for the school’s Open House event, his was suspiciously but not surprisingly absent. One last item: Two or three years later, purely as a scientific experiment (ahem!), the Kid did construct an actual still in his mom’s kitchen. Purely in the name of education, of course! Anyway, he produced about a half-pint of a clear, volatile liquid. I took a sample to Hank's missus (her dad had been the family 'shiner); she examined it and pronounced it to be “About 120 proof.” Subsequently, our beverage production has since been limited to home-made root beer and sarsaparilla.

And weeds. LOTS of weeds.

Innerestin' question!

There is a difference, albeit slight.... Norton the First, Emperor of These United States and Protector of Mexico Newsom the First, Emperor of california and Benefactor of Mexico (With Hearty Thanks to Mr & Mrs Subdeacon Joe)

Not quite forty years ago I was working for a li'l outfit called Bank of America, in San Francisco. One afternoon, on a whim, I walked into a co-worker's office. "Gail," sez I to the startled lady, "Gail, are you the Gail Cain who won the Bulwer-Lytton contest??" She recovered after a moment, grinned at me, and said "Yup!" and then recited her entry - winner of the first B-L award, 1983: Nice gal!

Slightly OT, but tangentially related... Windows 11. MS is going to ceas supporting 10 (and all previous editions) this October. But my computer, which works fine, will not support 11. So... I reckon I - and a few million other folk - will be shopping for a new 'puter. *Grump!*

Very cool photo! But I do hope them front-seaters had ear plugs....

I hope they paid someone well to clean and oil all them salt-water-soaked shotguns.... And THEN slapped somebody plumb silly for comin' up wit' the idea in the first place!

Care to share...? 🙂

I had a '64 1/2, dark green with tan interior. One hundred seventy cubic inch in-line six-cylinder engine, 3-speed manual transmission with non-synchro first gear. Riding the bus to work one warm San Francisco afternoon in 1971. Bus broke down; I couldn't afford to be late (again). Looked out the bus window, and saw this thing sitting on a used car lot. Bailed outta the bus, dashed across the road, wrote a check for five hundred bucks and made it to work with ninety seconds to spare! That thing had a few issues - on a trip to Hank's family ranch, I had to swap out the steering box before we could drive back to the Kappa Phi Delta house in SF. Surely wish I still had it! Traded it in on a '68 Bug. Hank and I drove that bug down to the ranch south of Fresno. His dad walked out, looked at my new ride, and declared "Well, I see you haven't moved up much in the world."

Well done, J-Bar... and a striking family resemblance!

Same two characters... thirty-one years later, sturgeon fishing. Feed 'em and they grow! The kid scored!

Dang... Busted! Hardpan

It does look good ~ fine job! By the way... what caliber? I've only shot 'em in .223/5.56, and never found recoil to be an issue - no "padding" required.

Auxiliary manual starter.

I think Joe nailed it. This guy is a nutcase... Three miles south, on the same road I live on. I'd say 'there goes the neighborhood,' but I'd be a mite late in saying it.

I was literally across the road when this happened... freakin' low-life idiot. He drove something like ninety miles to shoot some young man he didn't know ~ "I don't like big pharma." Walgreens Worker Shot

And that, Sir, is the crux of the issue.

There are a few....

Well heck... I think @Subdeacon Joe's post about "round engines" deserves more than being buried on page 907 of the "Memes" thread ~ those things are plumb cool! Heck... I'll re-post it below. So I followed Joe's post with a comment about sharing it with a retired Navy pilot I know, and did just that yesterday at the Monday Morning Clovis Veteran's gathering. And, as predicted, it brought about a big ol' grin; he indicated that Joe's post is pretty much spot-on. That led to a few stories... and the man does have some stories! Dennis actually just published a book about his adventures ~ a fun read; the premise is that try as he might, he never managed to kill himself flying - written with a good dose of humor. Definitely a good read. On Amazon! I had been a WestAir Airlines first officer for four years. I was landing in Los Angeles flying a nineteen-passenger twin turboprop Jetstream, following a Korean Air 747. The weather was clear. I had three and a half miles separation behind the Korean Air to avoid the wake turbulence, aka cyclonic flow, coming off the 747’s wingtips. The Korean Air landed and turned off the runway. I intended to land beyond where he touched down as per standard operating procedures. Descending below 100’ above the runway I felt a slight yoke movement from the wake turbulence of Korean’s right-wing. I initiated a climb to get back in sequence for another approach. In the next two seconds had full power on the airplane. Too late. I was caught in the 747’s vortices forcing the plane into a descending left turn. I countered the left turn. Two seconds later, I had full power on both engines, all flight controls at their limit for a climbing right turn but continued to descend in a left turn. Less than fifty feet off the pavement and descending, we were still out of control. We were going to hit the ground, uncontrolled. If I lived through the initial impact, I, and everyone else, would die in the fire.... I surprised Dennis during a class a few years ago... the "birthday present" of a Binford Hoist-O-Matic 2000 underwear lifter was a definite hit. @Subdeacon Joe's post: .

Other than a moderate climate and gorgeous secenery...? Lots o' freebies for lots of them folk that keep voting for the cretins generous people in charge ~ paid for by the rest of us state guv'mint, o' course.

And don't forget... california has mandated solar on all new homes since 2020. AND approved reducing the rate electric companies have to pay homeowners for power generated by those installations. AND is also considering allowing the electric companies to actually charge those homeowners a fee for essentially generating their own electricity.