Random thoughts from the moose cave.

So glad you are okay - sorry to hear about all of the damage though...kitties okay?

dink has a mysterious limp.

Bubba shows up nightly for food...

I'm doing a Bob night.

homemade gluten-free pizza.

and a side of moby grape jam...

tomorrow I start a Nissan truck engine replacement.

Awesome!

And for a moment, I thought you had confused a.m with p.m.

busy day today.

gonna go check out a pond sale with mr vw.

then I gotta go pick up some tools I am storing for E, the Sedgwick city worker guy. He's selling his house, and staying out by me in a camper till he finds another one. (long story)

then I hafta take Smoky to see the kid. (I hate the burn unit) he had another round of facial skin grafts yesterday...

E asked me this morning if I ever thought that it mighta been better for him not to save him.





yes...

nah...

you did the right thing.

Second guessing yourself now is easy. Doesn't mean it wasn't the right thing to do.

So --- daughter M got a job delivering sandwiches for a sandwich shop this summer. She's all excited and is looking to make $$$ in tips and a (small) salary delivering to nearby office parks during the workday lunch hours. This gives her her nights free to pal around with her friends and doesn't have her doing late night deliveries to residences the way a pizza job would. She's thrilled. I'm quasi-ok with it. It is my car after all...

But, WAIT, a friend informs me that delivery jobs aren't covered under your regular auto insurance and M is uninsured while on the job. I research online and find everything under the sun from, "Yes, it's covered" to "No way, Jose - make her quit", which is exactly what my friend insisted her son do when she found out about it and checked with their insurance agent (same insurance co as mine).

I call my agent. "No - it's not covered under the regular policy. Give me a day and I'll see what we can offer for additional riders or endorsements." That was yesterday. I'm thinking anything is insurable at some $ or $$$$$$, but I'm not going to pay more for insurance upgrades than she's going to earn for the summer. So long as it's $ and she can pay for the increased premium then it's a go.

Today - Sorry, no can do. Nothing available and delivery jobs are explicitly not covered under your policy. WTH? How can there be millions of uninsured delivery drivers on the road? Are they simply clueless and assume that their insurance covers them while hauling pizza or sandwiches? That's the upshot of what I learned online. I pose that ??? to my agent along with, "And, how can they be uninsured and un-insurable when liability insurance is required by law? There's a huge gap here somewhere... What do you suggest we do? Is the state legislature aware of this?"

He asks me to hold on and I start looking for the phone number of my state representative. Not that I want to make a federal case over it, but I guess I'm willing to make a state case out of it as it simply doesn't make sense. I fully expect my agent to come back with a Lloyds of London ($$$$$) type suggestion but he says, "Sorry for the misunderstanding. She's fully covered unless more than 50% of the use of the vehicle is used for delivery purposes, in which case she'll need a business rider that will cost you about $40. He assures me it's been documented in my file.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anyway... that's been my last 24 hours.

How was your pizza?

Almost all the food delivery in my neck of the woods is done on bicycle. Food for thought?

I see that a lot in the city but we're in the 'burbs where "nearby office parks" means a 15-20 mile radius mostly along 4-lane major arteries without sidewalks. I've seen some of those delivery riders looking like they have a death wish (or a lot of faith in crazy taxi drivers buzzing by them) as they swerve in and out of city traffic. I think I'm less anxious with her in my car than having her on a bike.

You're right, j. Not a good environment for a bike. Not great for a car, either.

There was a documentary on cable about bike messengers in NYC. Daredevils and maniacs. Don't wanna set this thread off course with more on this. Great stuff, though.

RH, I agree with JPB. Not better to let him burn and die. You did the right thing for sure.

mebbe.

but he looks a lot like doctor evil now.

I keep waiting for him to put his pinky in his mouth...

we stopped on the way back and picked up a bushel basket full of free canna roots.

and I got a used spa pump this morning to make my waterfall work..

now I gotta go do a brake job to pay for it. towed in smoking on the right rear.

gonna break out the big hammer and find some crusty trouble inside...

****.

I gotta go roll my windows up, there is a thundering red and purple wall coming my way.

Gotta wonder how the settlers handled nighttime monster storms...

We just had it here, wasn't bad, got quite a bit of much needed rain.

we got 2 1/2 inches in less than an hour last time.

I'd rather wait till I needed some more.

at least I got the yard cut tonight before I quit.

I'll prolly stay up and watch it come through.

just a bit spooked after the last one...

Yeah, your last one was a doozy.
We havn't had any bad ones yet, been pretty dry.

I planted some new tomatoes today.

and filled 4 inch craters in the soft earth.

looked like a meteorite strike hit my peas.

I wish I had a capable camera.

the lightning show coming across the giant wheat field west of me is firkin incredible.

first wall of rain is coming, I can smell it...

Yeah the lightning was pretty cool here too, I think we're done for the night here.
I've never been through hail like that, gotta be scary.

Crikey, you're certainly in the wars, Rocky.
How are your cats coping with all this?
I think you said yesterday that one of them had a limp?

Stinky seems better. he ran to get fed last night...

Bubba broke in last night. I felt badly about it, but put her back outside with some fresh dry food.

In or out, them's the rules...

got a problem...

the spa pump I picked up is too big for what I wanted to do.

Now I gotta split the flow and design a second water feature.

I'm leaning toward a water wheel and using it to drive something using pulleys chains and gears...

you've just given me a brain worm of an old poster with a family eating at a table with a pulley system overhead delivering the food

I used to do a lot of puttputt. (I always peeked at the mechanisms)

we will come up with something interesting before I'm done.

I'm open to suggestions for it, however...