I Think

Is it a coincidence that Schwartzenegger's new film trailer has him shooting military grade weapons from a school bus?

Holmes last night was a hoot. "This man was murdered before the plane crashed. He was stuffed in the cargo space. The plane itself was sabotaged -" All as the experts look on, clueless.

The weather will be nice today. I plan to spend as much of the weekend as possible working outside.

A piece of fluff, Edgar, that I so thoroughly enjoy I was pissed last night when I realized it was a re-run.

But...it was one of the most entertaining episodes this year, so I enjoyed the re-run almost as much as if it had been a new episode.

All of which reminds me...this "forgetting stuff" that I am doing because of advancing age does have its benefits. I find I enjoy re-runs more these days...and often we are almost to the end of the episode before I figure out who done it.

And of course, I meet new people all the time.

Hell, I watch reruns of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and usually don't recall the episode or at least not the punchline. Tall about bad memory.

Well - I got more squirrels in the yard. These are too smart to get in the trap. Must be recycled ones. I don't want to hurt them. Hmm.

Going to be busy in the yard today, working on both storage and house.

I kept loading the trap with new goodies until the squirrel lost its restraint and went in. This time I will be taking it a few miles further, to a different park. At least thirteen miles. These scamps don't realize how much in gas money it costs me just to let them live.

Got my shed partially painted. Hunter Green roof, bright yellow walls. I may paint the gable and door other colors. Paint is expensive. I fixed a few leaks with plastic cement, after putting rust disolver on spots and washing the metal down with white vinegar, first.

One of my inlaws has a toilet leaking at the floor. They have more than one toilet. I told them if they could wait until the coming Sunday after this one I would change the wax seal. Hopefully, the flange will not be corroded. A plumber gave them a cost of $235-$350, depending on the extent of work needed. Bad as I hate to do plumbing, it is hard to condemn them for charging so much.

Play loud music or put something on a TV like old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons for them. They hate that!

Will that keep the in-laws from asking Ed to fix the toilet?

I know for certain there is at least one more squirrel. I will try the same tactic. They don't seem incredibly smart. - As I returned from Spring Creek Park, I got a call, from the wife. She's at the VA cemetery and the car won't start. Happily it was just a dirty battery cable.

How handy is that squirrel with the tools?

I think the squirrels messed up my dryer vent line. The line hangs down under the dryer, into the space beneath the house. It is the sort of material that telescopes out in case you need it to reach farther. Something, which I assume to be a climbing squirrel, stretched it to the ground, cutting off all air flow. I cut off about a foot of it and now it is fine.

I hear ya! I gave Hulu+, and I am watching all the Hitchcock shows. Some look vaguely familiar, but I really don't remember them. Except, (drumroll):

Lamb to the Slaughter- I remembered each scene as if I had watched it today, instead of in the fifties. Sorta says something about, "selective memory".

Certain shows I remember most episodes. Must be they were more personal to me.

My storage building now has a green roof and bright yellow walls. Before dark tonight it will have a cherry red door. I have owned the corrugated metal for twenty years and it came to me free of charge. I paid more for the paint and nails than the entire building. Let me make a confession. I chose such colors because I truly like them. But my neighbors figured in the decision to use them. They seemed to be looking down on me for using scrap material in the construction of it. You might consider this an act of spite, at least fifty percent.

Thank goodness football season is over. That frees up many hours for other activities, since I rarely watch other sports.

The only TV I watched last night was The Big Bang Theory. It's not really a good show.

The reason the storage building is such a big deal to me is, I need to get my stuff organized if I am to start making items to peddle to the public. After all, I can't expect to keep my job forever and I will need extra cash to survive on. I used to work in my garage, in a distant past, where I made mostly Christmas plywood figures, but also made signs, shelves and other, assorted, items. A huge difference these days will be the cost of raw materials. Plywood is out of sight.

One of the moringa trees has lost all its leaves. It is situated to get the most beneficial weather in the summer, but is most vulnerable to the cold. In a month or so the winter should moderate and spring come early. I think the trees will survive.

Have you ever bought mill "blows", Ed?

As a fairly experienced timber merchant in the retail trade, the slime-ball end of the industry, the whole retail trade is slime-ball through and through and tricky with it, I have dealt with a large number, perhaps too large, of elderly gentlemen at a loose end who take to making things in their garage to sell to the public.

The most popular choices are bird-tables, rabbit hutches, dog kennels, trellis, wishing wells, cod wheelbarrows, the wishing wells are cod as well, model windmills and basically anything that can be made by a skilled craftsman out of off-cuts, pieces of timber covered in dust or having fallen off a stack or become warped and any other odds-and-sods they can cadge out of a sympathetic timber merchant for next to nothing and thus forcing us in these hard pressed time when we are all making sacrifices for the common good, the fat cats I mean, to make up our income by selling such things as decking and gazebo necessities to blokes whose wives have told them they want one or other of those items or, and it is not unusual, both. They don't haggle and whinge. They are gentlemen.

But be warned ed. The public is a tough taskmistress. It hasn't even got the decency to admit that the politicians were and are doing what it bid them to do on pain of being excluded from the corridors of power. From watching Mr Boehner walk down one of those corridors on his way from the massage suite to the dining room, it is easy to see it's as good as a joint. Acapulco Gold.

The Public is relentless when it's buying. Not at other times though. You really do have to build a better mousetrap. One with a titanium trap mechanism say. A posh mousetrap.

How about air conditioned dog kennels?

Best of luck mate.

Years back, I made some fair money at this. Of course, I am old and some things are different with the public. At one time, I could sell as many plywood Christmas cutouts as I could make. These days people about Houston don't use them very much.

How about flesh colored Christs that glow in the dark?

Warhol beat me to the punch with his Campbell's Soup cans. Christo got the concept first to drape the Arkansas river. I need to come up with something equally as useless if I am to be at all successful.

What about taxidermy? Surely all the hunters would like a head and shoulders of one of their victims on the wall above the fireplace.