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Monday, December 28, 2020

Is Vitamin D a magic Covid bullet?

 

Is Vitamin D a magic Covid bullet?



I constantly hear and or read, “follow the science.”  This is good advice, except with regard to Covid-19 the science keeps changing.  There is a lot of “thinks” and “expects” but very little “definitive.”

Wear a mask, wash your hands and keep six feet from people is the current advise.  Now it is pretty simple and not all that annoying to wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance, so this is advise that I choose to follow.

I will follow this advice, but I am not all that sure it is as protective as advertised.  The recent rise in Covid cases has been blamed on those hard headed, backward thinking cretins that refuse to wear a mask.  While I am sure there are a few idiots that might be contributing to a rise in Covid cases, this can’t be the main issue.

In New Jersey, EVERYONE wears a mask.  I have not left the house in the last six months and seen anyone indoors or around people not wearing a mask.  NOT ONE!  Still, cases in New Jersey have recently risen dramatically.

So, while we must follow the scientists, which ones do we follow? 

What do we know about Covid?

It tends to effect old people, African Americans and obese people the most.  It peeked in this country in the spring and dipped considerably in the summer.  Is their any commonality in these facts.  This article is interesting. 

https://www.fox26houston.com/news/studies-suggest-4-vitamins-to-prevent-severe-cases-of-covid-19

I found this article on Fox, so many of you will stop reading now, but I still find it interesting.

 

The study which is buried in most media, suggests vitamin C, D and zinc can help protect from Covid and is an effective treatment to reduce Covid symptoms.  It especially finds vitamin D to be effective.

What is interesting to me is that vitamin D deficiency is very common.

Vitamin D is produced by the body when skin is exposed to sunlight.

Some groups, it turns out are especially deficient in vitamin D…old people, obese people, and dark skin people.  It fits a pattern.

Covid in this country was introduced around late January 2020 and exploded through the spring.  Cases started to decline as daylight increased in the summer and cases started to explode again after the summer when days became shorter.  It fits a pattern.

Perhaps having people stay in their dark basements and wait out the virus was a bad idea.  Closing the beaches may not have been a great idea.

Protesting in large groups outdoors in the sun did not seem to cause the virus to spread…Hmmm, outdoors good, inside bad.

Vitamin D, C and zinc is inexpensive; far cheaper than ventilators.  It takes huge quantities of D, C and zinc to cause any ill effects.  In short, much like washing your hands and wearing a mask, it couldn’t hurt!

I will continue to wash my hands, wear a mask, avoid strangers in enclosed poorly ventilated spaces, and I am now taking supplements of vitamin D, C, and zinc. 

When they say I can get a vaccine, I will not waste any time getting it.

Stay safe everyone.

 

 

  

Sunday, December 20, 2020

FRUITCAKE

                                                                                 FRUITCAKE

Rerun from 2011 

Bullying is on everyone’s minds these days.  I read newspaper articles about bullying on a daily basis.  One victim of bullying has not been talked about.  A victim I loved.  An American Holiday tradition is gone as a result of relentless bullying. 

The Christmas Fruitcake is no more.

I loved the Christmas fruitcake.  This was a tradition, baked yearly in-mass by elderly grandmas, aunts, cousins or neighbors.  Women who could not afford gifts to their many acquaintances could pull out a generations handed down recipe and bake bricks of fruity rum infused deserts to be given as presents.

It is true that sometimes you received multiple fruitcakes over the Holidays.  It is also true that the fruitcake had a long, almost forever, shelf life.  The result was some fruitcakes went un-eaten, some were re-gifted. 

There are legends (myths) of the same fruitcake being re-gifted over multiple Christmas Holidays.  It became a joke that the re-gifting of the fruitcake was a Holiday tradition.  Not true, oh it happened, but the re-gifted treat generally ended up with a fruitcake lover.

Legends such as these are fodder for late night comedians and it became a Holiday tradition for these low life bullies to make the traditional Christmas fruitcake joke.  The Tonight Show’s Johnny Carson was particularly brutal in his treatment of fruitcake.   

I loved fruitcake.  My family loved fruitcake, and yet we sat quietly, even laughed uncomfortably when these fruitcake jokes were told.

I should have spoken up.  I should have stood and yelled “Stop! I love fruitcake, and there are many others just like me!”  I did not.  Bullied by the jokes and the head nodding giggling responses of the masses to these jokes, I remained silent.  I allowed the fruitcake to be bullied.

The last ten years there have been no Holiday fruitcakes in my home.  This year there will also be none.  The grandmas, aunts, cousins and neighbors that used to bake and hand them out have all passed-on.  Their recipes have been filed away and forgotten.  Their protégés will not bake and hand them out.  They have been shamed and mocked by the fruitcake bullies; they will be shamed and mocked no more.
 

Few people will ever again know the joy of receiving and enjoying this Holiday desert treat.  History will tell of the much maligned once traditional Holiday fruitcake which disappeared from the American landscape due to scorn and indifference.

The truth is that a treat baked with love and enjoyed by millions is gone.  Gone as the result of relentless jokes and bullying which was silently allowed by a gutless audience of people such as me.  We quietly allowed a Holiday tradition to be maligned.  We sat back and allowed the fruitcake to be bullied until the fruitcake is no more!

When will we learn?  

Friday, December 18, 2020

MAPS

 

MAPS



On a recent post involving my issues with Siri and directions, one person commented how she still uses a map.

This had me thinking nostalgically. 

Many young people today will never experience the trials and tribulations of road maps. 

Every service station used to sell road maps.  Local maps and maps for all the states.  They fit neatly into your car’s glove compartment.  I never understood why it was a glove compartment, it always just held maps.  Should have been called a map compartment.

Anyway.

Those maps were great; if you could read them.  I could never read them worth a damn.  Read them, Hell, I couldn’t even fold them.  My maps were jammed into the glove compartment folded all inside-out and backwards. 

Skilled people could follow the roads from fold to fold, and they knew their north from south along with distances based on the map scale.  I was helpless with a map. 

I probably inherited my ability from my Mom.

My Dad’s job had him relocated twice in the fifties from New York, to California and then back.  We made both trips by car, a 1951 Buick. 

We found our way following multiple state maps crammed into our glove compartment.  Mom was the chief map reader while Dad did most of the driving.  We often took back roads to visit various parks and must-see landmarks along the way.

Mom was not great at map reading.  The result was never pretty.

“Peg, does I 76 run into Bolderdash Drive.”

“I think so.”

“What think so? It either does or it doesn’t.”

“Well, Bolderdash Drive is kind of skinny and I 76 is this big thick thingy and it may go over Bolderdash because it looks like there is a bridge or something.”

“A bridge? Does it say ‘bridge’?”

“No but it is hard to tell, as it gets close, the fold in the map makes it confusing.”

This went on for several miles before Pop would finally pull to the side of the road and snatch the map away from Mom. 

There may have been cursing.

Why he never just pulled off the road every time in the first place I’ll never know.

Tradition, I guess.

Pop could read a map upside-down and backwards.  He could then flip the thing in the air and after a rhythmic “flap, flap, flap, hand it neatly folded back to Mom.

 

Years ago, before GPS was common, I used to participate on flyfish trips with friends Frog and Catfish out in Western Maryland. 

Frog always carried a huge book of maps of the area.  It was very detailed and a trip would require flipping the pages several times.  Frog and Catfish had been fishing in this part of Western Maryland several times and they knew the area like the back of their hands.  Still, they had to rely on the book and figure out the best route.

They passed the book back and forth all during the trip and argued.

“I’m pretty sure we can take a left at Possum Bluff and save a few miles to the cabin.”

“Yes, but that road is a bit rough after a rain.”

“It hasn’t rained in days.”

“Maybe not at home, but from the looks of the leaves on the persimmons trees it rained here recently.”

(Needless to say, Catfish was an expert at reading nature.)

“Oh yeah, plus that road does not pass the fly shop by Snot Grass Pass.”

“So, we should take the Old Dickweed Road?”

“That’s what I think.  What do you think Hagy?”

“What? I’m still trying to figure out what a persimmons tree is and how the hell you can judge rainfall by the leaves!”

Sometimes I think Frog and Catfish loved discussing maps more than they loved fishing.

 

Anyway, that is all I have on maps.  Young people are lucky to be born in a GPS world.

I can’t read a map, but I’m pretty good at listening to and following Siri’s directions. I hardly ever have to pull over and yell at Siri. 

Plus, there is now room for gloves in my glove compartment.

 

 

Shopping the Old Fashion Way

 

Shopping the Old Fashion Way



 It seems like everyday there is a package dropped by our front door.  Mrs. C does her shopping on-line.  It is not just Christmas time, there are packages delivered year-round.  Half the time Mrs. C does not even remember what she ordered.  It is like Christmas all year long.

Me…I’m not that much at ordering on-line.  When I do, Mrs. C helps me with it.  Otherwise, I am a go-to-the-store shopper. 

I shop the old fashion way.

This year Mrs. C asked for a particular item for her Christmas present.  She gave me a picture of the item from a catalogue and even a $10 off coupon from “Best Buy.”  At another time she pointed out a store where I could make the purchase and use the coupon.

I remember her pointing it out, I do not remember the store or where it was.  Obviously, it was “Best Buy” as that was where the coupon was from.

The other day I decided to go and buy her present. 

Now of course I will buy other things, but this present she will like, the others will probably miss the mark.

It is the trying that counts…Right?

Anyway

I checked Siri for the nearest “Best Buy.”  There were three. I saw one was Woodridge Avenue and asked for directions.  I asked for Woodridge Center Mall.

Siri sent me to the center of Woodridge Township.

About 30 minutes later I figured out how to get to the mall.

Once in the Mall I looked for the store.  There was a “Best Somethingorother” store, but not a “Best Buy.”

I got back to my car and asked once again for directions to the nearest “Best Buy.” It was only one mile away.  Siri provided directions, but for some reason she was not talking.  Driving and watching a map on a phone is not one of my skill sets.

At rt. 1 the map said turn left.  At 100 feet from the store without a “Turn right now” instruction from Siri, and multiple entrances from multiple stores, I drove by the “Best Buy” store.  It took me a half hour to negotiate a U-turn on rt 1.  It was the middle of the week during a pandemic and traffic still screamed Christmas.

In reversing direction on rt. 1 to get to the store I missed the proper U-turn and out of frustration made an illegal turn which based on a cacophony of honking led me to believe that many shoppers were not feeling the Christmas spirit.

Screw them, I was now on a mission to buy Mrs. C’s present at “Best Buy.”

As I was making the left turn again, I saw a huge sign on a building across the street, BEST BUY.

What the heck, there are two stores within a mile radius?

As I was pondering this, I managed to once again miss the “Best Buy” store that Siri wanted to send me to.

“CRAP!!”

This time traffic was even worse and it took me almost an hour to be able to make another U-turn.

I once again found myself at a light with Siri insisting, I turn left and proceed to the entrance that was disguised by a zillion other entrances to the wrong stores. 

No way; right ahead was the store with the giant “BEST BUY” sign.  I was going to the sure thing store.

Well, Siri did not like that store because it was the OLD BEST BUY store and now being demolished.

Fifteen minutes later I finally found the correct “Best Buy” entrance.  “Best Buy” is a pretty big store.  The item I was looking for was a tiny item.  Best Buy employees were as hard to find as the item.  I finally did find someone and after another 1/2 hour of shopping, Mrs. C’s present was in my hand.

It then was a 30-minute wait to make my purchase.  Seems the pandemic has not stopped shoppers, but it has put a crimp in people willing to work checkout for minimum wage.

On the way home I got a call from Mrs. C

“Where are you it’s been over four hours!”

You don’t want to know; but never send me to Woodbridge to shop again, traffic is a zoo and the roads are confusing as heck.”

“Woodbridge?  Why Woodbridge?”

“Because that is where the nearest ‘Best Buy’ store is.”

“Best Buy?  I told you ‘Hand and Stone’, it is only 5 minutes away.  I pointed it out to you.”

“Well, I didn’t remember where we were, and the coupon says ‘Best Buy’.”

“Hand and Stone accepts Best Buy coupons.”

“Like I’m going to know that?”

“Did you at least get what I asked for?”

“What? And spoil the surprise?”

 

Next year I am going to only shop on-line and let Mrs. C walk me through it.  What the heck, she’s never surprised anyway.

Shopping the old fashion way sucks!

 

 

 

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Cranky Mr. Fixit

 

Cranky Mr. Fixit



 

As an owner of a townhome with HOA restrictions, (yes “Cynthia” from that commercial does exist) I have little to say about anything outside of our unit.  This is a bit annoying, but on the plus side I am not particularly handy with stuff so the association does take care of most issues.

There are exceptions.

We do not have direct access to our garage.  It is attached but not to our unit…anyway we need to go outside in order to get to our garage.  The lock on the garage side-door is difficult to operate in the dark so I leave the garage light on at all times.

Mrs. C does not like that.

So…I bought a gadget with a motion detector that turns the light on at night when it is approached.  End of problem.

Except that the gadget crapped out after a few months.

I know; I could get a good spotlight with a motion detector for a reasonable price, but that would not pass muster with our local “Cynthia.” 

All outside fixtures must be of a certain specification. 

So…we bought another gadget that is activated by darkness to turn the light on for three hours.  Three hours after dusk is as much time as we may typically need.

After about a week this gadget stopped working.

“Dang it!  We keep buying cheap gadgets to fix our garage light issue and they keep crapping out.  I’m going to get one of those spotlight motion detector things at Lowes.  I’ve installed them before and I know they will work and not crap out.”

“You can’t, the HOA will object and you’ll have to take it down.”

“So, I can’t get in the garage at night without remembering a flashlight?”

“We could get another of those cheap gadgets.”

“No, 0 for 2 is enough, the cheap things just don’t work.”

“This one was working so well, it’s bizarre that it stopped.”

“Well, it did, I’m going to chuck it in the garbage.”

“Before you do, maybe the bulb just burned out.”

That turned out to be a good suggestion.

Like I said, I am not particularly handy with stuff.

Another example:

There was recently some irrigation work done in our yard.  The workers managed to lower a pipe that our sump emptied into.  This caused the sump discharge to splatter against the house.

Not a big problem, but one I was directed to fix.

The solution was to simply extend the discharge pipe the inch that the drain pipe was dropped.  Not worth explaining, suffice to say I needed to attach one section of PVC pipe to another with a PVC coupler.

Simple enough except I could not believe how tight the fit was.  I could not insert the pipe to the coupler more than a quarter inch.  With the required PVC cement, which sets up almost instantly, I would never get the pieces together.  I spent an hour trying to sandpaper the joints down to make the fit easier. 

It seemed to make almost no difference.

I figured that I could use a rubber mallet to quick join the pieces together. 

I slathered on the PVC cement, fit the pieces together and before I could slam them with the mallet discovered that the PVC cement allows the pieces to easily slide together before it set up.

No sanding needed; no mallet needed.  The pieces slide together easy- peasy.

It might just be a good thing that the association is responsible for  most outside maintenance.   

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Like Father Like Son

 

Like Father Like Son




 

It’s a football story, ladies, nothing to see here.  Except, who knows, you might like it. Naw, probably not…but maybe

Have you ever wondered what goes on in a football pile up after a fumble? 

Well, I will tell you anyway.

When the football is loose, everyone dives on the pile to recover it.  The referee can in no way know who has possession of the ball until he removes players from the pile one by one until he can see who has the ball.   While this is going on, players in the pile are trying to rip the ball away from whoever actually recovered the fumble.

About one hundred years ago, while a young Cranky was in Jr. High School, eighth grade for those keeping track, I was involved in one of those fumble recovery pileups.

Actually, I was not initially in the pile up.  I was standing by while the referee was removing players one by one.  While he was doing this, I could see who had the ball, and his jersey color was different from the one I was wearing.

I got down on one knee and slowly worked my way into the pile from the opposite side as the ref.  I managed to slip a hand on the ball, and then another and by the time the referee pulled everyone off I had stollen the ball from its rightful owner.

Possession goes to Cranky’s team!

Many years later, I was telling my eight-year-old son, who was in his first year of Pop Warner Football, about my years ago gridiron robbery.

“Isn’t that cheating?”

“Only if you get caught, and then there is no penalty, you just don’t get the ball.”

His very next game, there was a fumble and a large pile up over the ball.  As the referee began to remove players from the pile, my son snuck up, got on his knees and wiggled his way into the pile.  By the time the ref removed everyone, my son had wrestled the ball away from its rightful possessor.  He was credited with the recovery and his team got the ball.

I tell you it was one of my proudest moments as a Dad!

 

 

 

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Ode To Mrs. Cranky

 

Ode To Mrs. Cranky

12-11-10 

the date,

easy to remember 

for your mate


This Friday makes 

10 years I know

I expect 

many more to go

 

We met after 

I ended work

Plenty time 

to be just a jerk


Lots of time 

for us to grow

Lots to love 

don’t I know

 

You may not be perfect

I say with a smirk

How could perfection

Love such a jerk


No one is perfect

How could they be

But I must say

You are perfect for me

 

Some women are crazy

No need to discuss

But there is something 

crazy bout us


When it comes to crazy

One thing is true 

The thing that is crazy

is me about you

 

We bicker a lot 

we laugh for sure

Ten years is a lot 

but I want much more


No sense figuring 

why we just work

You with your quirks

 me just a jerk

 

So happy ten

My favorite wife

I expect it to be happy

For the rest of my life.

HAPPY ANNIVERSERY!!

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

The Perfect Game

 

The Perfect Game




I have been bowling since I was nine years old…65 years (boy am I tired!).  My pops used to take me to the lanes after church every Sunday.

I am a good bowler, but definitely not a great bowler.  In our league of mostly seniors there are at least 15 members with a higher average.  Several of the ladies easily out score me.

The thing about bowling is, even an average bowler on any given game, can bowl as well as a professional.

The ultimate in bowling is to bowl a perfect game, twelve strikes in a row, a 300 score.  Monday night I achieved that ultimate. 

Mrs. C says I have been almost impossible to live with since Monday.  I say give me a week, it is for me a once in a lifetime event.

Some of my friends have asked me how it felt to bowl a perfect game.

I don’t know what it is like to win the Super Bowl, the World Series, make it to CEO of a major corporation or win a Pulitzer prize, bowling a perfect game is as close as I will ever come to such an achievement.  So, not as a way of boasting, though I am not above that, I am posting on my one great event. 

To put things in perspective, a top professional averages around 220 a game on lane conditions made more challenging than for regular bowlers  (different oil patterns and stuff, difficult to explain and also boring).  My average is around 175, good, but no great shakes.

Bowling is not a complicated game, and like many sports there is an element of luck involved.  Sometimes you can get a strike (all ten pins in one throw) with a horrible shot.  Sometimes what seems to be a perfect throw, leaves one pin standing.  Bad luck…good luck.  To bowl a perfect game you do need some good luck.

I have in the past bowled 11 strikes in a row, but in overlapping games.  Just this year I threw 10 in a row, then left one pin on what I thought was a perfect throw and then struck again, so I knew I could potentially throw 12 in a row.  Doing it in the same game is a different story.

Monday in my first game I threw three shots where I left one pin on what I thought were certain strikes.  It was a bit frustrating.  I was using a brand new ball and considered using my old ball for the next game, but decided to give it just a few more frames.

The first frame was a good shot.  The six pin flipped from the gutter to just trip the ten pin for the first strike.  That is not uncommon on a slightly off hit, maybe fifty-fifty the ten pin gets tripped.  The second frame the ball was buried in the pocket a perfect strike… “ten in the pit” it is sometimes called.  The third frame was another fifty-fifty ten pin trip.

The fourth through the eighth every shot was as they say “buried in the pocket,” perfect strikes.  After the seventh, I was not thinking about a perfect game.  The other team was bowling well and I was just thinking of our team winning the game.  After eight in a row it dawned on me that a perfect game was possible.

I have been asked about how nervous I was on the twelfth strike.  It was the ninth strike where I was the most nervous.  When a player gets perfect to the tenth frame, everyone in the league takes notice and the tenth frame stirs a lot of attention.  I really wanted to be part of that experience just once, even without getting the perfect game.

The first shot in the tenth was a perfect ten in the pit.  I think someone fist bumped me after that one, something akin to telling a baseball pitcher he was throwing a no-hitter,  definitely not proper protocol, but it did somehow relax me.   

The building was dead silent.  It is eerie having dead silence while bowling.  The eleventh shot was also ten in the pit. 

For the last shot I was feeling the nerves.  I thought of my brother who passed away years ago, and others close to me who were no longer with us, (there may have been prayer involved) it put one last stupid bowling strike into perspective and helped control my heart rate and concentration. 

I had only positive thoughts.

Having about forty people, most just casual bowling acquaintances, rooting for you in complete silence was a great feeling.  I threw the last ball in a semi-trance.  It was a perfect ten in the pit.  The forty other league bowlers yelled, they were as happy for me as I was thrilled.  It was fist bumps all around, a very special feeling.

I prepared for the next and last game with a double scotch to calm down.  The first frame was one more strike…13 in a row. 

From there I went back to an average once a week bowler.

My fifteen minutes of fame was over,  Mrs. C claims I am still trying to milk it…at least she hasn’t called me a jerk about it.

Yet! 

 

Monday, December 7, 2020

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Cranky is just fine

 A few readers have voiced concern for my wellbeing.  Mrs. C and I are fine.  I am just a bit tired of posting.  Maybe it is politics, maybe this covid thing, but the world is getting too easily offended and I do not want to add to the offense with my sometimes misunderstood commentary.

Still reading the posts of others and occasionally commenting.

Hope to be back to posting in the future.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Good Night Gracie

 

Good Night Gracie



 Mrs. C and I are often on the same page, brain wave wise.  Many times we will both make a strange comment or observation at exactly the same time.

Then there are other times.

Mrs. C is a very intelligent woman.  She has remarkable observation and deductive powers.  Like many intelligent people her mind is not always in the same place where someone in a normal conversation’s mind might be.

For instance.

Yesterday we were contemplating dinner.  Often we just fend for ourselves for dinner.

“What are you going to do for dinner?”

“Something simple tonight, I’m thinking grilled cheese.”

“We have seeded rye bread.  I know you like grilled cheese on seeded rye bread.”

“Where did we get seeded rye bread?  You only buy unseeded because you don’t like seeded.”

“I had lunch with Elaine yesterday at Harrold’s (local deli famous for giant sandwiches).  They gave me several extra pieces of seeded rye and I brought them home.”

“Great, where is it.”

“You know where it is, Raritan Center.”

Good night Gracie!

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

No Dump Sump Pump

 

No Dump Sump Pump

The water table in our Townhome is a bit high.  We have a sump pump that kicks off several times a day even without rainy weather.  

Just this week, the association has spent money to improve the drainage in our back yard.   They have dug a deep trench, laid pipe on gravel, graded down to a large retaining and drainage system.  They are doing a nice job.  Personally I am not sure it will alleviate my need for a basement sump pump, but the association determines how our dues are spent, sort of a mini-government thing probably complete with studies and kickbacks…

The trench showed that under about 8 inches of soil is solid clay as deep as can be seen.  Wonder why we have drainage issues.

Anyway, it can’t hurt and should be some improvement.

They were mostly finished by Sunday.  Out of curiosity, I manually kicked off my sump pump.  It drained the 8 gallon tank quickly.  I wanted to see how fast it would refill.   Hours later the tank was half full, I kicked the pump off again.  It whirred and whirred, but it was not drawing water out of the tank.

WTF?

Coincidence?, or did it have something to do with the outside drainage work?

Now, late at night, I had to manually bail out the tank so the thing would not overflow, and I went to bed flustered just a bit.  Actually I was PISSED with a capital PISSED!

“Why can’t people just leave well enough alone?”

“Relax, check it in the morning” as Mrs. C sent an email to the association people.

“They blocked the underground pipe from the sump…has to be.”

“Check it in the morning.”

“But..”

“Check it in the morning.”

In the morning after about 15 minutes of restless PISSED OFF sleep, Mrs. C woke me up.

“I just checked, the outside pipe from the sump is off kilter, must have been hit during all that work.  The drainage people are outside.”

I went outside to check the pipe.  It was moved maybe an inch from the pipe to the underground drain.  I moved it into place.  Went down into the basement, plugged in the pump and it kicked off like a charm.

The workers confirmed that water went all the way to the catch basin.

Great, but WTF?

Apparently the offset pipe to the outside was at an angle and partially blocked, this caused an air bubble thing that is the same as plugging the pipe. 

This air bubble thing is just one reason why plumbers need a license.  If you do not allow air release in the right place your entire system will be a mess.  Plumbers are more than  guys with a wrench and an exposed crack, these guys know stuff.

A little Google research and I learned that my pipe between the pump and the check valve should have a quarter inch “weep” hole to also prevent an air bubble problem.

WTF? 

What idiot installed the pump without this recommended weep hole…oh wait, I did.

The pump now works, the weep hole is drilled and I am going back to bed.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

People are Strange

 

People are Strange

Football Coaches are all Buttheads




I was going to name this post “Another reason Why Facebook Sucks” but I know my older readers will immediately jump in and tell me why they hate anything social media…anyway, I hate Facebook but it does allow me to keep up with children and grandchildren.  People who post political stuff I just unfollow.

So, outside of politics and other things, here is another reason why Facebook sucks. 

Facebook commentors. 

Facebook commentors often suck.  Oh, they mean well, but…ok, here is an example:

My son posted a video of my 12-year-old grandson making a nice tackle in a  Pop Warner football game.

I commented “WOW, nice play.”

Several people commented “Yea Cole, you go!”

One apparently ex-football coach (almost all football coaches are buttheads…often really good guys, but buttheads nonetheless) and peripheral friend of my son commented:

Tell him to never step inside when he has the edge. Always work outside shoulder to the sideline. Turn everything in. Great recovery though and nice finish!!

I was a head high school football coach for 20. Years. Retired last season. Our team and coaching staff compiled a 105-5 record over the last 11 seasons.

 

My son was a bit riffed about this critique; he is like me and can not just let stuff go.  He responded basically saying he played 12 years and coached High School for six years and thought his son played everything correctly.

I would have replied

“I played linebacker for 12 years and coached for 6 and I have no idea what you are talking about and pretty sure neither would my son, but thanks for the advice.”

This also got me thinking about my football days and the fact that football coaches are never happy or satisfied with their players until, maybe the end of the season.

We once won a game (it was Jr. High) 40 – 0 and on the bus home we started to celebrate.  The coach stood up and told us,

“I don’t know what you are all happy about, that team was terrible and you all were too.  You should have scored at least twice more!”

That guy was actually a good guy and a good coach, but like I say,

“Football coaches are all buttheads!” 

Hmmm…maybe that should be the title of this post.

 

Monday, October 19, 2020

Where Have All the Lima’s Gone?

 

Where Have All the Lima’s Gone?



There is a major issue in this country that is obviously being covered up.  I know it exists, but I can find no information while searching through all of the main street media.  All I  find are stories about the Election, Covid, Riots, Climate…no information what-so-ever about an issue close to my heart. 

Why the coverup?

“What are you talking about?” you ask…or maybe you don’t, but this is what I am talking about:

LIMA BEANS!

For the past month I have shopped at multiple supermarkets looking for lima beans.  NOTHING!  I have never before gone into a supermarket and NOT found lima beans, now NOTHING.  Not a

“sold out of limas” sign, not an

“ask an employee for lima beans” massage. 

Nothing. 

There is clearly an issue, why is no one talking? 

Why the cover up?

Ok, some of you are saying (that’s right, I can hear you)

“Who cares Cranky, no one eats them anyway?”

I eat them.  I am a lima bean fan.  Hell the stores have an abundance of Brussel sprouts and kale.  You think lima beans are bad, how about Brussel sprouts and kale!  Actually I like Brussel sprouts, but KALE?  WTF?

Kale eaters are the same people who simply have to inform me when ever I pick a head of my favorite Iceberg Lettuce that,

“You know that has zero nutritional value don’t you?”

Yes I do know, it also does not taste disgusting like Romaine lettuce does, and if I am looking to get vitamins and healthy calories I will get out of the lettuce aisle.  I have never heard of a doctor advising a patient who is lacking proper nutrition to “Eat more Romaine lettuce!”

Anyway, back to lima beans.  What is the story?  Where are they?  Am I all of a sudden the only person that eats lima beans? Are the Russians or the Chinese behind the shortage?

Today I actually found two packages of frozen lima beans.  They were the baby lima beans which I usually avoid, as baby lima beans are the veal of the bean world, but beggars cannot be choosy.  I snatched up the only two packages and hid them in my cart under the iceberg lettuce (which has absolutely NO nutritional value) hoping I was not exceeding some government imposed limit on lima bean purchasing.

I made it through the checkout line without incident and now have enough lima beans to last several weeks as long as I strictly ration them.

In the mean time I want to know,

Where have all the Lima’s gone, long time passing

Where have all the Lima’s gone, long time ago.

Your welcome for that Peter, Paul, and Mary ear worm.

Saturday, October 3, 2020

Blog Friend

 

 

Blog Friend



The nice thing about blogging is having friends that you never actually meet. 

The absolutely worst thing about blogging is losing friends you’ve never actually met.

Generally these friends you’ve never met just drop off the blogging scene.  You never really have closure.  My lovely friend who I never met, Lo, dropped of the blog grid several years ago.  She was very old, had trouble with her eyesight, and I can only assume she has passed…it has been several years.

Lo was wonderful, I loved that feisty old lady.  She was strongly liberal versus my conservative bent.  We did not agree on whom to vote for, but we both wanted the same thing for the world, for freedom, for people to get along.  If we had the chance we could have argued politics for hours and still remained great friends.

I had a similar relationship with Craig, a fraternity friend who often visited my blog and always left kind words.  When we met at our annual reunions we would talk politics for some time.  We usually agreed to disagree but left with respect for each other’s views, something that is very uncommon today.

Craig was killed a few years ago.  He was sideswiped on a highway, bike riding with his wife by a careless teenager.  I think the only person I have ever known in my life that would have forgiven that carless teen would be Craig.

I only recently realized I had not seen a blog post from another highly liberal friend who I had never met but reminded me very much of Lo and Craig for his love of life and deep compassion for all things and all people.  Rick Watson of “Life 101.”

Rick would often comment on my posts and I would comment on his.  He was a talented guitar player and composer along with his beautiful wife Jilda.  Theirs was apparently a story book romance, sweethearts from their teens. Rick’s love of Jilda, his nephew, music, bee keeping, dogs, and life itself came through crystal clear in his writing.

It has been months since I saw a post from Rick or had a comment on mine.  Rick posted EVERY day.  I remembered that his wife also had a blog that I had never visited.  With great trepidation I visited her blog today. 

Rick passed suddenly two months ago.  He had mentioned he was a bit under the weather in his last post. 

Covid-19.

I have no definitive belief in an afterlife.  The existence of life itself is too complicated for me. There must be a God or a force that has created life as we know it, and it must be a good force as most of the world has such beauty.  There must be some sort of an afterlife beyond my possible comprehension for life itself to make any sense…or maybe it doesn’t.

I hope there is something beyond where when the time comes I can once again argue politics with my friend Craig, and my friends Lo and Rick who I have never met.

 

Thursday, October 1, 2020

MOTHRA

 

MOTHRA



It was 1 AM.  Mrs. C and I had put away our PC’s.  The TV and cable were set to go off in 90 minutes, and our latest favorite falling asleep in bed show “The Walton’s” was on.

“Good night Mrs. C.”

“Good night Cranky Old Man.”

Before I drifted off to sleep a shadow passed over the light cast by the TV set.  It was huge.

“Wake up!  There is a large bat in the room!”

It passed the set again, just a moth.

“It’s just a moth, it won’t hurt anything, go to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep with that thing in the room.”

I got out of bed, grabbed my electric swatter and with my hobbled bad back gait set off to electrocute the intruder.

Hitting a moth with a swatter is like making contact with a Phil Niekro knuckleball.  It ain’t easy.  I flailed away and several times almost fell over in the attempt.  Finally it flew above then on top the headboard on the bed.

I climbed gingerly up the bed ready to take on Mothra.  He was gone.

“He’s gone, go to sleep.”

I went back to bed.

 

“Not with that creature still in the room…wait; there he is again in front of the TV.”

We both crawled out of bed, Mrs. C now with the electric swatter, I grabbed a magazine.  We were about to pounce when the TV went temporarily blank for a commercial break and Mothra disappeared.

“CRAP!”

“Just wait, he will be back.”

And after a few minutes he did come back to that moth attracting TV light.  I went to swat it against the screen.

“If you break the TV, I will kill you!”

I held up and Mrs. C trapped it resting on the TV stand but blocked so she could not press down to electrocute the beast.

“Get a tissue!”

“Let me smack it.”

“GET A TISSUE!”

I quick grabbed a tissue and as she lifted the trapping swatter I tissued the creature. 

Mothra squished and flushed down the toilet; we went back to bed.

Mrs. C was asleep in about 12 seconds because she can just do that.

I had mass quantities of adrenaline rushing through my veins.  I had to re-adjust the TV and cable timers and was up for two episodes of “The Walton’s” before I finally fell asleep.

It is never dull around the Cranky House.