Just a reminder to keep Thor in Thursday:
It’s been a shitty week, and I’m glad the productive portion of it is almost over. Do you have tomorrow off, if you’re in the USA? Any plans?
Just got a mobile news alert that Jim Webb has officially thrown his hat into the ring. (Rummages through desk.) Nope, not a single fuck to give.
Open thread!
ET
Just shifted my Balloon Juice calendar to July and low and behold, there is my BEAN! Life is better all of a sudden.
trollhattan
Mjolnir!
Good news: per Chevron, based on Chevron’s lab analysis, the processed fracking water they’re delivering to San Joaquin Valley farmers is so too totally clean!
I’m still going to check where those table grapes are from.
srv
Well at least Jim gets a mention.
That other guy, filling stadiums, yawn.
trollhattan
@efgoldman:
Dang, what does that feel like? Still have a kid to get to college, so no such thoughts allowed.
Also, too, no closed office for the 4th but IIRC we’ll get a floating holiday for compensation, so that’s okay. Too damn hot to be outside anyway.
Villago Delenda Est
Anyone who considers the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia to NOT be an emblem of white supremacy, of racism, of segregation, since it was with malice aforethought adopted specifically as that by white supremacists, racists, and segregationists in the late 50’s/early 60’s in opposition to civil rights has no fucking business running for President as a Democrat.
MattF
Tomorrow off, taking Monday also– get car maintenance done. Seeing old friend for 4 July.
ETA: Fireworks on the Mall!
WaterGirl
My plans for the 4th just got cancelled. My friend’s mom is in the hospital so she left town to be with her. I am a big fireworks fan so I’m bummed about my plans, but it’s good to remember that some things are not about you. (meaning me)
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: Congrats on the retirement!
Odd that the neighboring chickens ventured out after dark. Did something chase them out? I let my hens free range in the evening, and they go back into the coop of their own accord and roost in the hen house voluntarily. You could leave the coop door wide open all night, and they wouldn’t venture out until the sun rose.
When it’s very hot (like this month), sometimes they’ll roost on the hen house roof instead of inside, and a couple of times, we’ve found hens who’ve gone to roost on the edge of the composting bin outside the coop. But once it’s dark, it’s super easy to scoop them up and return them to where they belong as they’re somnolent…kinda like zombie chickens.
Randy Khan
As I said on Facebook, Webb’s entry into the race means that I no longer can tell my Republican friends that at least all of the Democratic candidates deserve to be taken seriously.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Holy fuck, they are using fracking water for fruit they are growing in CA?
raven
Got off on a youtube musical journey and just hit Kate Wolf Across the Great Divide. The framers were crankin, subfloor in and most of the outside walls up. They started working at 6:30 and at 8 realized they thought the general had ordered more lumber. He thought they had so it got here at one and they were long gone. The big question for us is if they will work tomorrow. Guess it don’t matter.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: Am I wrong in thinking you had nearly a year to go in your countdown to retirement? Or has the time passed that quickly?
Either way, congratulations!!!
Josie
@efgoldman: I saw your good news from yesterday too late to comment – congratulations on joining us old folks. I also saw that you are planning a move to be near your granddaughter and I think that is a grand plan. I am welcoming my first grandbaby in August. Since my daughter-in-law has a fabulously high paying job to which she will return after two or three months, her mother and I will share nanny duties. I am so excited, I can hardly wait.
raven
@efgoldman: Way to go dawg! And yes, we knew the 30’s were bolted down and, if you didn’t stand up, you wouldn’t get shot.
lowercase steve
@Villago Delenda Est:
Thanks you! We don’t need a Democrat running to the right of Hillary Clinton let alone one who can’t even bring himself to condemn the flying of the flag of treason in defense of slavery on public property.
danielx
Didn’t even look at who put up the post, but I KNEW it was a Betty Cracker post when I saw the Thor cover.
MattF
@Randy Khan: Webb seems to qualify as both a RINO and a DINO. It’s… a distinction.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
My kid (avec ancillary parents) just watched friends’ five city chickens for a week while they were traveling. Among the duties is releasing them from their backyard chicken mansion in the morning then herding them back inside at sundown. Failure to do that second bit leaves them prey to the racoons, which have already taken one of them. Skunks lurk, too, but I suspect are more after eggs and food.
This is in the middle of what we tell ourselves is a big city. Frankly, five eggs in a week ain’t much of a harvest (three are still young, though) but they do have their clucky charms. The biggest is a bully, always abusing the young’ns. Who knew chicken drama was a thing?
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Yup. Comforting, no? I wouldn’t have such a conniption of they were growing, say, cotton, but fruit and row crops? Yeesh.
Belafon
So the Democratic campaign has a Socialist, a Democrat, a Dixicrat, and a Republican. Why do we need to pay attention to the Republican primary, unless it’s for laughs?
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: That explains it then!
@trollhattan: Chicken drama is SUCH a thing! The pecking order isn’t static either, so there’s plenty of intrigue as long as you have more than one chicken.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: Time really did fly, then. :-) So happy for you!
Betty Cracker
@danielx: I have always had a crush on Thor!
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Unbelievable. Except, sadly, I believe it. Pretty soon we’re all going to have to grow everything ourselves again.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Congratulations, and welcome to the club! Enjoy every moment.
If I weren’t retired, I would have had yesterday off. Once I built up a little seniority at the Consulate, and more vacation days than I could handle, I usually did the faire le pont thing, and took off whatever days bridged the Canada Day and Independence Day holidays. And if the holidays happened to fall on a Monday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday configuration, I’d just take off the entire week. What the hey.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I see all the BJ threads first through Leaf, and it doesn’t tell me who posted the thread. So I always try to guess the front-pager, and I am never wrong about you. Almost never wrong about John Cole. Tom Levenson is an easy guess, too, as is Richard Mayhew.
My records for guessing the others correctly is not what one might hope for. And I miss Kay front-paging, though at least she is in the other threads.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
Congratulations on the retirement!
Mandalay
Some Thursday afternoon schadenfreude:
Sweet.
Amir Khalid
In case you guys ever come to KL, be warned.
raven
On Tom Petty and the confederate flag
http://blurtonline.com/feature/that-southern-accent-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers-2/
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
They should remake “Mean Girls” with chickens. I’d so watch.
First evening I accompanied the kid for lockdown the three little ones were already inside before she rounded up the big ones. The largest headed to the anteroom where the little ones were hiding and my kid says, “Oh no, get out babies, here comes the mean one!” What follows is straight from the cartoons, hidden from view there’s fierce squawking and a cloud of feathers flying out of the doorway, followed by the little ones themselves, La Gorda behind, literally strutting as she heads down the ramp. The only thing missing was cartoon stars to circulate with the feather cloud.
Mr. Michael Shersby
Oasis the greatest British band since the Beatles!
WaterGirl
@Mandalay: Misdemeanors!?!??!!!!!
catclub
I read bloomberg view, and was surprised and pleased by the comments to an editorial saying the Greeks had to vote yes on sunday. Most comments took the no side.
I think if I were a 65 y.o Greek I would worry about the future and be biased to yes, but austerity is NOT working. Keeping it longer will never improve the situation.
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: Um, they claim the absence of a single chlorinated solvent (dichloromethane). I wouldn’t infer “clean” from that for all the Kochbucks you could throw at me. Not terribly surprising since it seems to biodegrade in ground water.
Ref: WHO International p.7
There are doubtless plenty of other organic residues from the fracking process that one needs to be mindful of.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Well done, Gainesville boy! (Tom Petty, I mean.)
@trollhattan: La Gorda — good name!
raven
@Betty Cracker: Except that the purity police won’t go for it.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@WaterGirl:
Depending on department policies, a misdemeanor conviction might be enough to get them fired. Not enough, but better than nothing.
Randy Khan
@MattF:
“Webb seems to qualify as both a RINO and a DINO. It’s… a distinction.”
That it is.
JustRuss
My week’s been on the crappy side too, and the 4th has been ruined for our family since it marks the day my daughter woke up to find her roommate dead on the floor. I say we all celebrate Thor’s day by tossing a hammer at something, or possibly someone.
Betty Cracker
@raven: The Boner of Righteousness can divert bloodflow from the brain. It’s a sad but all too common phenomenon.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: I agree, I don’t see how continuing austerity is helpful at all. All it does is kick the can down the road. Its a no-win situation in the near term for Greece, no matter what option they choose. A monetary union without a fiscal and political union doesn’t make much sense and is not sustainable.
Germy Shoemangler
J R in WV
Chickens! We had chickens for years.
More seriously at first, later on they were just part of the farm environment. So here are some chicken stories…
We had a really big cat who learned that he could get his claws into the rubber gasket around the slider door in the kitchen. He would grab hold, and get down and pull as hard as he could, and it would slide open. This would have been fine, but he wasn’t interested in closing the door behind himself.
We learned about his new skillz one night when we got home at nearly dark, past time for the birds to be roosted. They were standing around in the kitchen, mostly, where the pet food was available for their repast. They loved that stuff!
So we rounded up everyone, and led them to the coop with bright lights.
The next morning when I came down from the upstairs bedroom, there were two big girls roosted on top of a bookcase in the living room. I guess they had roosted before we got home, and were quiet enough we never noticed them before bedtime. They each left a rich little pile of fertilizer, fortunately they were standing on a plastic game board, which wiped clean, after I escorted the girls out after their all night adventure.
One summer I was building a new fence around the farmyard while new chicks were hatching and learning how to be chickens from Mom. I noticed a mother chicken standing by an open post hole – sure enough, there were tiny chicks 2 feet down in the post hole. I laid on the ground and hoisted two or three at a time, from each hole with visitors.
I had to put boards over the holes, they kept pecking around the edge where the bare dirt had the possibility of bugs and worms. Good chicken behavior, ‘cept for falling into the holes. The posts were still up in the woods at the time.
Lastly, after we pretty much stopped being farmers, when our careers started being 60 hours a week instead of just work. The old coop was about shot. It wouldn’t keep the birds in, nor the predators out, so we moved the birds out to be yardbirds. We fed them as usual, and they had always used the farmyards for their primary place to hang.
Now they were roosting in a big cedar tree outside the kitchen, like fluffy ornaments. One day, months later, there was a string of feathers from high up in the tree, down to the ground, and across the yard, to a place where the sad death of a yardbird was too evident. Owls, barred owls, were living way up at the head of the holler, on the ridge top where the big twisted line trees lived.
They make the most erie sounds in the evening, and then, after talking stuff about who was the baddest owl around, they would spread out all over the neighborhood to hunt in the dark. And someone was big enough to take a full grown chicken down, and leave, once they had dealt with any struggle issues.
Many would have gone for the owls… but I loved them too, they were part of the natural balance. It took a year or more, but that owl eventually put us out of the fresh eggs for breakfast business. They’re still here. We heard their strange quavering howl just the other night. Our new house (1994) is much closer to their roost than the old farm house was.
Now I go out on the back deck and talk with the owls on many evenings. They answer me back although I’m sure they know I’m not really an owl, and after 3 or 4 of them join in, I shut up, and listen to the strangest conversation between those owls. They have a very standard call: Hoo-hoo, Hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo, Hoo-Hoooooooo. Over and over. But then, after everyone has joined in, they go crazy hooting at each other in the most bizarre thing you ever heard in the deep woods late at night. We love the owls, they’re the wildest critters in our WV forest.
ETA: Hope that isn’t too much chicken scratchin’ for you all. Don’t care about the typos, it’s nary politics, just story tellin’.
@efgoldman:
Efgoldman, I’m retired. Congratulations on gaining your restful time, crossing the finish line of work!!!
Every day is Saturday. I didn’t go to work this morning, and I don’t have to go to work tomorrow either! Only problem is if someone is trying to evaluate my mental condition, they ask “What day is it?” and I don’t know, because it doesn’t matter to me what day of the week it is… but I know who the president is!
Best wishes for your retirement!!
JR
different-church-lady
@MattF: We’re sure he’s running for the Democratic nomination? I mean, did he actually specify?
Scamp Dog
Jack Kirby! He’s still my favorite comic book artist. Yes, digital art reproduces better, and I’m glad comics are no longer printed in the cheapest fashion possible, but I continue to love that classic Marvel look.
different-church-lady
@Belafon:
Bracketology is a fun pastime.
Betty Cracker
@J R in WV: Loved the chicken stories, particularly the roosting on a bookshelf and chicks in the post holes! Too bad about becoming owl food, but circle of life, I guess.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay: Misdemeanors? MISDEMEANORS?!?
ETA: I see you covered this upstream already.
boatboy_srq
Headed home for the long weekend. Thinking about hitting National Harbor for fireworks Saturday (@Elizabelle – hint hint?).
@efgoldman: Congratulations, sir! Well played. I’m looking at retiring sometime in 2099.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, I had a story about a party, and one of the kids told me about noises from the coop after dark. Mr Possum he ware lurkin’ on the roost. Nothing good happens to a possum caught in the chicken coop, obviously. He didn’t move a bit while I went to the house, teachin for the chicken leg.
But I didn’t want to have to put a trigger warning for violence, so I left it off on account of the city folks and kids who might be around sometimes. Circle of life and…
Love your rural Florida stories. Hope the trip to Alabama went well. We went to Key West last September, and it was waay too hot for me, but after it gets cool it’s gonna be so crowded! Maybe our last trip to Florida, unless we pass through on the way to Cuba.
After being on duty there in Key West when there were frictions with Fidel, and being expected to carry a M1911A around the ship in the dark, the idea of going to clubs in Havana kind of appeals. I always was a bit contrary that way.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Fired is not enough when you shoot 137 holes in two people for no good reason.
I call that a massacre, not “in the line of duty” as a police officer.
tybee
@ET: @J R in WV:
barred owls: who cooks for you? who cooks for you ALLLLLLLLLLLL?
really cool calls.