I am still in a crappy mood, pretty much irritated by everything, but on the upside I have a new furnace that is super quiet and has a nice thermostat that I can change shit on my phone, which sounds like something good until I will inevitably butt dial the god damned thing up to 100 degrees. The downside is it cost five grand and that means I am not going anywhere this winter on vacation, and I didn’t go last year on vacation because I bought a new fucking air conditioner. America, fuck yeah.
Manchin can still go fuck himself.
In other news the dogs and Steve have finally broken me down and I have given up on normal means, and am now the proud owner of this fucking thing:
Normal cleaning devices were not up to the challenge and I am tired of half measures.
Did I mention Joe Manchin can go fuck himself?
Also, the old redneck twitter guy on the way to Wellsburg must have died because his lawn is now manicured and no longer has his signage, but fear not, people, some jackass in Weirton flies one of those monstrous Trump 2024 flags on the front of his house and has his own redneck twitter feed:
Every time I drive by that house I yell FUCK TRUMP or TRUMP LOST because I am a mature functioning adult in the year 2021.
Lapassionara
Thank you, John. Love the mop bucket. This is the stuff of daily life, and it rocks.
WaterGirl
Do they make those buckets in a nice blue to match the lovely color of your wall?
laura
Did I mention Joe Manchin can go fuck himself?
It bears repeating. Why should it be a seemingly insurmountable hurdle to access the riches that we’ve built in the Community Chest?
cmorenc
Joe Manchin needs to do some nude mopping on his yacht, the decks are filthy from accumulated fossil-fuel money.
WaterGirl
Can I put in a plug for the BJ Pet Calendar? We are ready for you to send your photos. Details here in yesterday’s post.
Mike in Pasadena
What happened with the 10 Rethuglican Senators that Manchin promised he had in his back pocket to vote for the watered down voting rights act?
No show eh? Mark me down as unsurprised.
RaflW
I got our $50 Kenmore Elite front-loading washer, bought used from some folks across the lake from our family cabin, hooked up on Sunday and test-run with some rags.
Just now did the first regular load of sheets that I didn’t have to drive back home or over to the sis-in-laws. I’m still turning the water supply valves off after each load because I am not sure why someone would unload a seven hundred dollar (?) washing machine for fifty bucks (it is probably ~8 years old, but appears to be in really good shape and has a lot of wash options).
Small things make me happy. Even as all the big things wear me down
Also put the pontoon in storage. Thought that would bum me out but getting to joyride yesterday when it was 72deg in southern WI on Oct 19 was a decent cabin-close treat.
WaterGirl
I am bummed because I got a phone call tonight telling me that an old friend and college roommate died last week. It’s surreal.
NotMax
A collective shudder runs through insurance adjusters in WV.
:)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Who is going to put down the “caution when wet” markers?
raven
The first thing we bought when we acquired this old house was a mop bucket just like that. We have never used it in 22 years.
Mary G
@WaterGirl: I’m sorry, sounds like a shock. RIP.
HumboldtBlue
I’ll take the Sixers home opener and playoff baseball over Manchin today.
RaflW
@laura: Definitely in the rumor category so far, but it has been leaked from a Manchin WH visit that he’s threatening to go Independent. And not in a good, Angus King sort of way.
Sombich.
raven
@WaterGirl: Sorry to hear this. What’s really bad is when it’s not surreal because it happens so often.
Starfish
Did you put a widget on the home screen of your phone? I am deeply curious about how you are butt dialing your thermostat up to 100 degrees.
I am going to save the planet by keeping John Cole from butt dialing his thermostat.
raven
@RaflW: It was discussed for hours here earlier. He is shown on the box saying it is bullshit.
DRickard
Fixed that for you, Cole. /s
RaflW
@WaterGirl: Who around here is a graphic designer who can make John a “Caution: Nude Mopping!” folding floor sign?
I’d chip in big for a etsy that would ship to him.
Lapassionara
@WaterGirl: oh my. What sad news. My condolences.
RaflW
@raven: Aha. I was in seasonal chore mode all day and didn’t dip my toe in the 300+ comment thread tonight. Thanks.
raven
@RaflW: That was the thread!!!
raven
Just a furnace for 5K??? We got a hybrid heat pump-gas furnace for that much.
Bupalos
Joe manchin can go fuck himself BUT sounds like that’s probably a brand new fossil fuel furnace. Which will last for 20 years and run off manchin-sauce the whole time. So jokes on you.
Tony Gerace
@Mike in Pasadena: The 10 Republican Senators are hanging out with my Canadian girlfriend from when I was in high school.
debbie
Gabby Petito’s in-laws found their son’s belongings 30 minutes after entering the reopened nature preserve. Twitter is convinced they planted the stuff.
M. Bouffant
Interesting juxtaposition of the plastic cemetery & “medical tyranny”.
Leto
@RaflW: “Mopping and Mustard” make it a catchy logo.
@WaterGirl: that really sucks WG; so sorry.
@RaflW: when we moved to Italy in 2011, we had just bought a matching top of the line front loading Samsung washer/dryer. We’d bought our house in 2008, purchased those, absolutely loved them, and then were told we had to move. So we followed the storage procedures and had the military store them for almost 7 years. Then we moved back to the states in 2017 and a month ago we closed on our new home. We brought our machines with us, hooked them up, did the careful start up/warm up procedures, and have been absolutely ecstatic that they have no issues. Just like you, it’s the small things. Biggest thing you can do to help the front loading washer is keep a small wash rag handy, so once you pull the load out, put the rag between the door and body to help fully dry out the seal. Otherwise it stays permanently wet and can become moldy/breaks down faster. Hope you get years of use out your new buddies :)
caphilldcne
I like that your right winger anti-vax neighbor has festive Halloween decorations. I haven’t decorated yet. Because I’m behind on everything, work, bills, mopping, you name it.
watergirl, so sorry to hear about your friend. I’ve had two older colleagues/friends pass away in the last two weeks. Both accomplished advocates to end HIV and it’s both sad and a bit unnerving.
MagdaInBlack
@debbie: Funny, isn’t it, that the dogs never found the stuff, but now *poof* there it is.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
You know it, I’d describe ours as tropical Pacific in color. A bucket among buckets.
TheOtherHank
@raven:
It’s West Virginia, those coal-fired furnaces are pricey. And we can’t forget that there’s a little off the top for Joe Manchin.
Leto
@raven: David Corn, the reporter for the Mother Jones piece, was on Joy Reid’s show earlier tonight and basically called him a liar. He stands by his sources who gave him the info. Honestly I trust Corn more, but that’s only because he’s shown to be a person of principal and integrity. It’s the little things, you know?
Edit: Sen. Angus King is now open to changing the filibuster.
raven
@Leto: Yea, I saw that too. Manchin is a fucking asshole either way.
caphilldcne
@debbie: I think they just went to a trail they knew he liked. It’s odd tho.
trollhattan
“I’m-a keep doing this until it works, and people start sending me money.”
Did the Human Thumb “develop” this one as well?
trollhattan
@Leto: Corn is at least useful. Are any Manchins useful? Can you make bourbon from Manchins? Tortillas? Fritos?
debbie
@caphilldcne:
A trail that no one, not even Dog, would have checked? ???
(Psst. Wanna buy a bridge?…)
Benw
Let’s GOOOOOOO Braves
RaflW
@Leto: Thanks, yeah the Kenmore actually had instructions on how to use its magnetic catch-bumper-thingy to keep the door open about 1/2 an inch between loads.
We’re fans of our LG at home (after enduring Maytag commercial frontloaders at our prev. condo’s shared laundry – no quarters thankfully as it was owners-only, but those machines couldn’t balance before spin cycle to save their gd lives – making the time estimates useless and the cycle sooo loooong). Ltd experience so far but the Kenmore purred along tonight.
mrmoshpotato
“medical tyranny”
Well past time for these plague rats to put their own health on the line and stop taking any and all OTC and prescription drugs, and stop going to the doctor.
Chetan Murthy
@debbie: One presumes the po-po have subpoenaed the cellphone location tracking records of everybody involved. I mean maybe the murderer husband’s parents have great opsec. But that’s typically not the case: it takes training and skill to do that.
Shana
We all have our routines Cole. Personally, I give the NRA headquarters the finger, below the level of my window because I don’t want surrounding drivers thinking it’s aimed at them, every time I pass it on I-66 here in NoVA. Which I do at least a couple of times a week.
RaflW
@trollhattan: It sounds like the thing will be publicly listed. No way he will be able to endure the sort of accounting rules and disclosure requirements.
At least Enron was novel. Trump running a media scam? Regulators are gonna have their noses clean and ready to sniff.
Bupalos
@Benw: its gross that they’re the “braves,” but it’s ten times grosser that they’re going to do that “tomahawk chop” thing.
Why not pick a different team until they de-genocide.
Mary G
@Leto: I bought Samsung front loaders in 2010 on an incredible sale – the pedestal bases with the drawer make them the perfect height for a wheelchair user, and I hope they last forever. The dryer spit out a part but still worked for months until it was convinced the door was not properly closed. Fortunately we are hoarders/untidy/lazy people, because the repairman was psyched to find it in the pile of stuff between the washer and dryer, because he said Samsung had already stopped making parts for it and we would have had to buy a new dryer.
Another Scott
Yay! Warmth is good. I hope it treats you and the beasties well.
In other news, ScienceMag:
It’s great how little bits of evidence keep getting combined with other bits and dramatically expanding what we know over time.
“Dino here died 148M years ago. On a Tuesday.”
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Mary G:
I laughed out loud.
jnfr
@WaterGirl:
I am so sorry to hear this. I also lost a good friend recently, everything is so hard right now.
John, I empathize with your crankiness. Fuck Joe Manchin. And I will love you forever for swearing at the stupid people.
Caphilldcne
@debbie: I mean they found human remains nearby. They didn’t sneak in and put their sons body there? Did I misunderstand something about the story?
Leto
@trollhattan: if you get a Manchin in your compost, you gotta throw it all out. Manchin isn’t even fit for pig consumption. Causes hoof and asshole disease. Might be useful as a potapotty absorbent? Even then, wouldn’t risk it.
Kelly
Mrs Kelly and I got our Pfizer booster shots and annual flu shots today. Ran across old friends at the clinic so we had a good visit while waiting to make sure we didn’t have a bad reaction.
On the this fucking old house front my brother and I burned tons of limbs from the 15 trees the Beachie fire killed behind our house and Mom’s next door. The trees were removed in June and sold to a mill but our logger does not clean up. We actually netted a profit on the logs. I had an acceptable estimate from a tree service for clean up but we’ve been waiting a couple months to get the work scheduled. My brother is a man of action and was tired of looking at the mess behind Mom’s house. With both of us in our 60’s I was in favor of waiting for a crew of young folks to do the work.
A big job but we rented a 10,000 lb excavator for a day. My brother has 40 years of experience running equipment and he had most of the tonnage gathered and piled in a few hours. Still we needed two days to gather the remaining smaller sticks and drag stuff down the hill that was too steep for the excavator. A year and a month after the Beachie fire we’re all cleaned up
Scout211
@debbie:
If the twitterers think the parents planted their son’s possessions, what does twitter think about the “partial human remains” that they found by the backpack?
Sometimes I think I may be missing something without a twitter account. Serious crimes are being solved! All on our device screens and though word of mouth. Sounds way cool. Ha! Just kidding.
But thanks to all the juicers who do the twitter thing so the rest of us don’t have to.
ETA: And asked and answered. Caphildcne got there first. But the twitterers think they planted partial human remains?! Oh my.
debbie
@Caphilldcne:
People seem to think they did exactly that.
Benw
@Bupalos: the tomahawk chop sucks ass and I wish the fans would ditch it.
debbie
@Scout211:
I know, those threads go on forever.
They think the parents did both.
Fair Economist
Isn’t it totally normal to have a mop bucket? My mom had one. I have one. Never thought about it much bit always assumed everybody with hard floors had one.
soapdish
Having gotten an HVAC upgrade six years ago I can absolutely attest to how much quieter and energy efficient new units are. It will definitely make a difference in the comfort level of your home.
And fuck Joe Manchin.
Chetan Murthy
@Fair Economist: I have one. It just doesn’t have wheels, and I use a mop with an attached wringer. So yeah, what you said.
Caphilldcne
@debbie: Wow. Uh … Wow. I mean that seems unlikely to me.
jnfr
@Leto:
Ours are LG but also really good, high efficiency laundry machines.
Thanks for the tip about the washcloth in the door! The one thing we have to watch is keeping the door cracked so it doesn’t turn moldy (it is that air-tight), and this will make it much easier.
Caphilldcne
@Another Scott: thanks for this. I’m going to go get lost reading about tree ring dating methods and try to erase the Twitter “death cover up” thing that’s now in my head!
Benw
@WaterGirl: omg so sorry. It’s just insane sometimes
Leto
@Kelly: grats on the clean-up and removal. What type of trees did you sell to the mill? What type of hardwoods are we talking about?
@jnfr: np! That was one thing my wife read on most reviews of the front loading machines. Ensure the seals dry out for longevity. We’re really grateful we didn’t have to plunk down a ton of money for new machines. We have plenty of other expenditures atm, didn’t need that in the mix.
cain
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, I hear you there – my ex-wife’s dog is reported lost. The poor critter is kinda blind and kinda hard of hearing – has some weird fetish to keep escaping. They live on a hill that has a lot of wild life around. I personally lost two cats there thanks to some mother fucking coyote. While I understand dude’s gotta eat, he and I will fight if I see him. Fuck him. Also fuck Joe Machin.
The other sad thing is that one of my besties dog suddenly had heart failure and had to be put sleep. It is the sudden death that really gets you at times. She’s beside herself right now. Feel bad for both em. Her dog used to love when i came over would be over the moon. So it’s a sad event for me as well. :/ See you on the other side, Pancho.
Kayla Rudbek
Open thread. Some good news for tonight: my first mammogram post-surgery was today, and the radiologist said no signs of cancer! And I get my booster shot and flu shot tomorrow.
Leto
@Kayla Rudbek: congratulations!!!
Kelly
@Leto: 10 Douglas firs 20″ to 40″ diameter at the stumps. 120′ to 140′ tall. Mostly clear for the first 40′. Nice trees. Also 5 maples 20″ to 24″ diameter. They ended up firewood because there wasn’t enough to make the trucking pay.
mrmoshpotato
@Kayla Rudbek: Hooray! Good to hear!
Benw
@Kayla Rudbek: hell fucking yeah. Good news
James E Powell
Is anyone in the press/media going to point out that Manchin’s fear of an “entitlement society” is racist dog whistling?
Chetan Murthy
@James E Powell: nopes. Maybe a few commentators on MSNBC will, but that’s it.
Geoduck
The one right wing site I check on occasionally was gloating about the Braves still being in the running, precisely because of their “politically incorrect” name and trappings.
Here in SW WA state, a right-wing crank installed a giant Uncle-Sam changeable billboard along I-5 which has been spewing messages like that one above for 50-odd years now. The original guy died and one of his kids is carrying on.
Anotherlurker
@Bupalos: As a Mets fan, I can’t root for the Braves.
You are right about that tomahawk chop bullshit. It is disgusting, but not surprising, considering the source.
Honus
@Bupalos: so what does your furnace run on?
Dan B
@Geoduck: Haven’t been that far down I5 for decades. Bad to hear the cranky billboard is still up. We miss Portland , and Vancouver, B.C., and central Oregon, etc. Someday we will travel again to the the great and the ugly. It’s been yearly trips to the ocean for those lost decades. Sigh – but the ocean is wonderful!
BretH
@Kayla Rudbek: that’s fantastic!!!
Joe Manchin, Part 12: The Fuckening
On household items am I just really late to a party because I discovered the rug rake last month? I had just vacuumed and after cleaning Golden Retriever hair from the end several times I ran my got foot along the rug and scraped more hair up. Got to thinking and ran to Google where I discovered the rug rake existed.
What an amazing tool! I got the one with thin metal tines and put a wooden paint roller handle on it and pulled just gobs of hair from a small section of rug. As a bonus it fluffed up the footworn areas and made it look years better.
Honus
@Bupalos: they did use to be the Atlanta Crackers. I think they should go back to that, at leadt it’s historically accurate.
Dan B
@Honus: Id like to know as well. Our gas, forced air furnace was dying, and promised to kill us with carbon monoxide, twelve years ago. Te ductless heat pumps cost $3,000 and do a great job for about $50 per month on the winter. Plus it cost about a dollar a day for AC twenty days over 80 and humid – lots of 90’s and some 110 – so it was a great relief.
Tehanu
With you all the way on this!
MisterForkbeard
@Mike in Pasadena: I would not be surprised if he blames this on Schumer’s speech where he called Republicans out for trying to fail the debt limit.
Honus
@Dan B: HVAC gets more efficient every year. And even if John’s runs on natural gas, it’s incredibly abundant in that area and far cleaner than electricity from the coal fired Mitchell Plant 20 miles down the Ohio River from his house.
I replaced a couple old heat pumps in my house about seven years ago with mini splits. The heat pumps were on 60 amp breakers. The mini splits are on 20 amp circuits. I could probably get new ones today that would run off my exercise bike.
Soprano2
@WaterGirl: I’m so sorry, that sucks. ? ? I’m getting to be the age that it won’t be surprising when I get news like this.
mvr
@WaterGirl:
Damn, I’m sorry.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: I am so sorry. The shock is… surreal, like you said. It feels like you should be able to reach into your memories of them and pull them back out into the world.
@Dan B: Who did your installation?? I got an estimate on having a ductless heat pump installed, and it was $10K plus (they would have to put in a new circuit panel, as mine has run out of room for more circuits).
MattF
My heat pump has a thermostat app and a phone app that emulates the thermostat app. All connected via WiFi and all connected to the manufacturer. The thermostat app has a visual animated interface, and the inside pages of the apps tell in detail how things are working. And I guess that’s all a good thing. The apps let any service person get detailed information about how the heat pump is working. Also, the thermostat app gets opdated over-the-air every now and then. It makes you rather more explicitly dependent on the manufacturer, but heat pumps are complicated and expensive mechanical objects, so your dependence on the manufacturer was always true anyhow.
billcinsd
@Honus: The Atlanta Braves are not the same team as the Atlanta Crackers. The Braves moved from Milwaukee in 1965 and were in Boston for many years before that. The Crackers were Atlanta’s minor league team until the Braves moved there. Atlanta also had the Black Crackers in the 20s and 30s. The Braves sometimes have worn replica Black Crackers jerseys.
@Honus:
SiubhanDuinne
@Honus:
Nope, completely different team. The Atlanta Braves came here from Milwaukee. Before that, they were the Boston Braves. (I believe they’re the only franchise in MLB history to have won the World Series for three different cities.) The Crackers were our minor league team before the Braves arrived in 1965-66.
ETA: What @billcinsd said.
There go two miscreants
Very late to this probably dead thread, but that is just a beautiful thought, well-phrased.
Bupalos
@Honus: geothermal, with wood supplement.
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
@M. Bouffant:
Ha ha ha ha That’s what I thought! It looks like the “cemetery dwellers” are standing with the anti-vaxxers, and it couldn’t be a more perfect display.
Bupalos
@Honus: im going to disagree if the intimation here is that natural gas is a good or environmentally solid choice. It isn’t and there are a lot of uncounted externalities in the industry literature trying to position it as a responsible “bridge” fuel. That’s even before you get to the realities of fracking…where coal is very likely as good or better
Bupalos
@CaseyL: why ductless? Don’t have existing forced air?
I put in a 4 ton Mr. Cool central system (Mr cool is rebadged Ingram designed for self-install) at my mom’s condo for a total of 2800. Replaced the existing ac and furnace using their electric circuits. 5 hour job total.
Them switched her to a 100% renewable electric contract.
dkinPa
@WaterGirl: I feel for you, WaterGirl. It sucks. I got the news a few months ago that an old roommate had died. At least it wasn’t Covid. She passed away in her sleep. We should all be so lucky, but it came out of the blue & I’m still bummed.
John, congrats on your new purchases! Onward and upward! I always yell LOSER when I see any of those stupid signs, unfortunately still common in western PA. The car windows are always up, however. I’m not suicidal.