analog_kidd

My 2001 Frontier has a leaky rear main seal. I asked my mechanic about it and he said to just keep an eye on the oil level and leave it alone. Sometimes "fixing" it makes it worse. I put a piece of plywood down in my carport to catch the drips and stopped worrying about it.

Years ago, I knew a guy that would keep a porno tape at the ready. Whenever a solicitor came to the door, he'd pop in the tape, answer the door and invite them in. Most of the time they would not be able to concentrate and do their spiel, and just leave all offended. He told the story of one church lady that persevered all the way through.

  Very nice. I had never heard that one before. Interesting to see Gilmour playing the drums in that last session.

I had a nest of yellow jackets form in our barn last year. I ignored them for a while, but then it got to where you couldn't walk by without getting stung. I keep bees, so I have a suit like the guy in the video. I donned it and went to work. It was freaky getting covered in them, and they viciously were attacking me. My bees will buzz around me and maybe one or two get aggressive, but I literally had hundreds of yellow jackets all over me, trying to sting me. They were very persistent and got through the suit and I got stung about dozen times, but in the end I was victorious. 

The Tellico is my favorite, I rarely pass up an opportunity to paddle that. I also like the Little River, and just about everything that flows into the Emory (Clear Creek, Obed, Island, Crooked Fork). I'm usually up for anything in the class III-IV range.   I take it you are a boater too? What do you like to get on? Where are you from?

  Yeah, I am. And true to my eternally bad whitewater luck I won't be able to go. Whenever we have these out of season rain events something always happens that prevents me from going. This time I have extensive remodeling work to do on a rental house that just went vacant, and I have to get the work done before teh next tenant shows up the middle ofthe month.   This is an epic rain event. In fact many rivers are just too high to paddle right now. They'll come down by the weekend and it will be perfect. The hard part will be deciding which river everyone wants to paddle.   We usually get more rain in the Winter time when it's 40 degrees out, so having a weekend of rivers flowing and it's still going to be warm enough to not be miserable is going to be quite nice.

A few years ago we started the family tradition of going to the movies on Christmas day. We'll probably go see Star Wars that day.   I wouldn't go to the opening of this movie, not because I'm fearful of some crazy, but I find all the costume wearing and nerdiness to be silly, and I'd just rather not be a part of that.

We have two Guinea fowl. Ours are very finnicky about laying eggs. They only do it for a couple of months in the summer. They are very tasty, and almost all yolk, but about half the size of a chicken egg. We keep ours penned with the chickens, so they don't roam the yard and alert us to any thing, but they never miss an opportunity to squawk. When we first got them they did not stop for about three days. I still think a good porch hound would be better for alerting us to strangers.

I don't get the thousands of Walkers piling up against the wall. I could see it at the prison with a fence where the walkers could see through, but on a tall wall like that, it seems like if everyone was just quiet for a day or two, the walkers would all lose interest and mosey off.   And I don't think Glenn is going anywhere soon. On The Talking Dead, during his interview, it was mentioned that he was finishing up the season. Since this week is the mid-season finale, I took that to mean the actual end of the season episodes. I suspect he'll live long enough to see his baby. Could make for some interesting story lines protecting his preggers wife.

I have the same kind of hole in my back 40. Mostly they are about 2" in diameter and maybe 2' deep, and there are dozens of them. Ours don't really have much of a dirt pile on the ground. I've covered them with twigs and leaves to see if anything moves them, but every time I go back, the twigs are right where I left them. We have a small creek back there, and the holes are all within about 20' from the creek. I've had a couple people tell me that it is craw-dads (somebody said mud-puppies, but I have no idea what that is). My gut tells me that it's not, but I don't have any other theory, and with the creek so close, it almost sounds plausible.   The thing I hate about them is some of them over time have gotten bigger. I think from erosion. Some of the bigger ones I've probed seem to go straight down a couple feet and then turn toward the creek. These larger ones are just big enough to get a foot caught in, and the smaller ones are about the size of a dog paw. We have family that come out there all the time to camp, and it doubles as my shooting range. I'm afraid that someone will break a leg.   I've thought about hiring someone with a tractor to come out and till the ground up and regrade it.   Also, we have been told that the UT Agriculture Department will come out and offer a theory. We've called a couple of times but never reached the person who comes out.

I keep wondering if the actor that plays Glenn is just on hiatus to do a movie or something, and they had to write that into the plot.    I know the guy who plays Darryl did a movie named "Air" a year or so. I just stumbled on it the other day. He plays a technician in a world where the air is contaminated, and the last few people on earth are in these life chambers where they are in a coma state, presumably until the air clears at which point they will all be released to repopulate the world. Every year or so Darryl and a partner get woken up from their chamber and they have one day to do maintenance on all the equipment. It was a pretty bad movie, and I would not recommend it, unless you just have to see Darryl in something else.

Around 8:00 tonight I'll be listening to Joe Bonamassa at his Knoxville concert. I'm so excited.

  :rofl:  LOL. In my head that statement made perfect sense. I meant I have been to Wartburg and driven past the jail, usually on my way to go kayaking. I've got some stories from the Wartburg area  to tell, but they won't be the kind you may have been expecting, and none of them have anything to do with the jail.   Will, I know what you mean about that place being beautiful. One of my all-time favorite beautiful places is somewhere that maybe a few hundred people have ever seen. Island Creek, starts in Catoosa and dumps into the Emory, just below Nemo Rapid. It's a tiny little creek that rarely runs. In the middle of the run there are canyon walls on both sides of the creek. At one point the creek makes an abrupt turn and has carved out a cave into the rock wall. The creek flows into the cave and then out. One of the most amazing rapids I have ever paddled.

Is that on the front of the Wartburg jail? Been past there many times. I recall there being an interesting sign, but couldn't recall the details.   It's been several years since I put in at OBJ, but the last I heard was that the hooligans responsible for the break ins had either been put in prison, died, or moved away. I've not heard of any break ins for a while now.    I know of a few times the park rangers have followed boaters out there. You can drop off gear and people at OBJ, then meet the ranger at Lilly Bridge and park in the safer spot. Then they'll give you a ride back to OBJ. Just stop in at the ranger station in Wartburg and talk to the rangers.

  Like I said, it would have been voluntary. Not good with money? Stay in the current plan. Good with it? Take the self directed approach. The fact of the matter regarding the markets is they go up and down. Sometimes way down, but they have always come back up. I took a huge hit in 2008, but I made it all back and a lot more.    SS tax is 6.2% of your gross. If a person making $50k put in that 6.2% for their entire career into an IRA, they would have almost $1,000,000 (MIllion) dollars saved in their fund. Then, just earning 5% of that on the investment during retirement pays out $50,000 a year, without even touching the nest egg. I got my SS statement a few months ago. they say I'll get about $1200 a month if I don't collect till age 65. By my math that's only $14,000 per year compared to my $50k. Heck, even if I only did half as good as I think I can, I still come out way better. And with my way, I get to pass on a huge chunk of cash to my kids, who can invest it yet again and enjoy an early retirement and pass some more on to their kids. It becomes self sustaining after a while as long as it is managed well.   SS was intended as a savings plan initially. The only reason your current contribution pays current retirees is that Congress dipped into the kitty when they shouldn't have and spent the balance. Now they have dug themselves into a hole and we have to pay their mistake.   So, I don't really care that Congress screwed up. It's my money and I can do better with it than they can. I'm concerned about me and my family. 

It's genius, really. The .GOV makes it look like they are doing you a favor, when the reality of it is you are buying savings bonds and giving the drunken sailors more money to spend.   This program is for people who are completely clueless. They may think that they are getting a good deal, but they would be far better served opening a ROTH IRA and contributing to that. One of the pages I visited from the link above gave the example of a person putting away $5 every month and having $21,000 for retirement. Seriously? What is $21k going to do for you in 40 years?   If you'll recall, GW Bush wanted to allow people to put a portion of their social security contributions into an IRA type investment. It would allow people to take control of their own retirement if they wanted. They would be able to pick the investment options for that part of their retirement. Or they could continue just the way things are now and let the Gov manage it. Your choice. It was eventually put up for vote to the public during a general election, and the dumb-ass Americans voted it down. I remember there was a big push against it by a lot of politicians (presumably because it would remove that money from their reach), and the option was worded poorly and made confusing on the ballot. GW was made to be an idiot for suggesting it, but now that Obama has an idea, it's amazing. The difference is who gets to control your money.   I've been griping for years about all the stuff they teach you in school that you'll never use, but basic life skills are ignored. How about teaching the simple concept of compound interest, and the value of saving for retirement early? A basic money management class should be a requirement in school. I bet most high school graduates have never been shown how to balance a checkbook. By the time many people figure out they should be saving for retirement, they have missed the most important decade of their savings potential.   I've always thought that a cool idea would be to open an IRA for every newborn. $500 put into an IRA at age 0, if it follows the standard of doubling every 7 years if invested wisely, would grow to about $64k at retirement. That's without ever adding another penny to the account. Families could get together and donate to the fund instead of buying stupid crap the baby doesn't care about.

If you are up for an adventure, try driving through the abandoned train tunnel at Nemo Bridge near Wartburg, TN. The tracks are removed, so no chance of meeting a train, but you could meet another driver. I usually honk a few times before entering, since the tunnel is curved and you can't see all the way through. The "road" leading up to the tunnel is only a road in the sense that at one time it may have had some gravel laid down, and there are no trees in the path where you drive. Calling it a giant collection of potholes might be more fitting. I've seen people drive a street car down there, but I would recommend a truck with good clearance. You'll want the clearance in the tunnel anyway since there are huge dips that fill up with water. In a 4WD truck you'll be fine, but a car won't make it if it has rained recently.   Catoosa Road that leads up to the coordinates below is well paved and very nice. While you are in the area, cross the bridge over to Rock Creek campground and hike up the Cumberland trail. One of my all-time favorite backpacking spots is up that trail to the Alley Ford campsite. At a leisurely pace it takes about 1.5 hours to hike it in, and 1.5 back out.   Here is the location of the start of the dirt road:   https://www.google.com/maps/place/36%C2%B004'06.3%22N+84%C2%B039'34.8%22W/@36.0697601,-84.6587846,990m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en       Here is a video (not mine) of someone driving thru the tunnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIfPhYh4-lg

My setup is a PC in the living room running Kodi, and a Rasberry Pi in the bedroom, running a version of Kodi on the OpenElec distribution of Linux. I use them both to stream content from online. The PC in the living room I use to rip my DVD's to the hard drive, and use Kodi to watch them. Unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting the movies on the PC to play on the R-Pi in the bedroom.   I just installed the Plex Media Server on the LR computer. It is an amazing program that lets you stream local content stored on the hard drive to just about anything. There is an app that you can download for Windows, MAC, Android, IOS, or you can even connect to it from just a browser. I installed the Kodi plug in, and now I can watch all those movies on the BR device, streaming from the LR.   I installed the app on my android phone and tablets, and I can even stream to them from anywhere in the world as long as the device has an Internet connection. It did take a little bit of fiddling with my router to allow the devices to connect from outside my home, but it was pretty easy, and there are plenty of instructions on the web. It's pretty cool to be able to take out your phone and watch video stored on your home PC. 

I saw in the news that there is a guy with a terminal illness and he doesn't think he'll make it to the opening day. His dying wish was to get to see the movie. I heard that the studio had compassion and is letting the guy watch it early.

We were just there a few weekends ago. I knew we would be partaking of adult beverages, so I didn't carry, and so I didn't pay a lot of attention to any postings. For some reason I seem to recall a sign at their entrance that said no guns OR KNIVES. I don't recall if the sign was a legal posting or not. We didn't go there at night since I wanted to visit a few other places, but we went there for breakfast the next morning. They definitely did not do a patdown or wanding.   Speaking of knives, I always carry a pocket knife. I don't even think about it, it's just natural for me to grab keys, wallet and knife no matter where I am going. That weekend we went to the Titans game, and I brought my knife. We get to the entrance and there is a sign that says no guns or knives. I knew they would probably confiscate it and never return it, so I walked out to the parking lot and found a nice little place to drop it. I figured maybe someone would find it, but it was a goner for sure at the gate. To my wife's amazement, it was still there after the game.

From the previews last week, it looked to me like it was all flashbacks for Morgan. I have a feeling that they will make us wait another whole week to find out about Glenn.   My gut tells me that Glenn will survive. It is a cheap shot by the writers, but since he is such a fan favorite, I think all will be forgiven by the masses.   I think Rick will end up on top of the RV and wait for the herd to pass. maybe he will keep them herded up there which will allow the others to circle back and lead them away with the car horn. Speaking of the RV, isn't that the same crappy one from the beginning that always had trouble starting? I would have traded that piece of crap in a long time ago.   The thing that keeps bothering me about the last couple of shows is they hear the horn and the gunfire from Alexandria. How far does that sound really carry, especially with a forest in between? Maybe a 1/2 mile? 1 mile, tops, but that would be faint. It's taking them forever to get back.

The only good thing about the time change this time of year is the extra hour of sleep you get on Sunday morning. Wouldn't you know it, I fell asleep on the couch early last night, and then woke up at 5:00am this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  :censored:

Yeah, I keep the Sam Adams bottles too. I do something similar. I soak them for a bit, peel off as much label as I can, then scrape off the rest with this little plastic scraper I have. I clean off the glue and the last of the label by scrubbing with a Brillo pad. Makes them sparkle right up.   I only mentioned the Highland bottles because the plastic label easily comes right off in one piece and there is no residue at all.   Funny, I just tossed out a few Sweetwater bottles because I couldn't easily get the labels off. I started and quickly said it wasn't worth it. I've got a big enough collection now that if I have to put any effort into it, I just toss them.  :)

We need some common sense legislation that will prevent this kind of senseless killing. The majority of Americans already agree with this idea.   I bet you won't hear that statement from Obama or Clinton about this tragedy.

I've made wine for years, but just got started in making beer. I had nearly all the equipment from the wine making, although I did buy a separate primary fermenter just to keep the buckets from imparting off flavors into each other. I just use an ice bath to chill the wort for now, but will probably upgrade to one of those chillers you attach to the sink faucet.   I'm sticking with the kit beers for now. They have everything you need, ingredient-wise, and they are pretty easy to do. If you just follow the directions it will come out fine. I'm doing a whiskey barrel stout right now that looks like it will be awesome when done. I like a dark, heavy beer, so this is right up my alley. Unless you like cheap beer, I'm not so sure there is much of a cost savings to making it from a kit, but the satisfaction of knowing you made a quality beer that tastes great make it worthwhile to me. I get the kits for about $50 and they make about 4 ~ 12 packs of beer. With my go-to beer of Sam Adams being about $13 a 12-pack, it's pretty much break even. Discounting my time of course.   Speaking of time, you do need to plan your time. Expect to burn most of an afternoon making the wort. And, importantly, read the directions and make sure you have time set aside in the future when you are supposed to bottle it. One of my times I got ahead of myself and didn't realize I was going out of town the following weekend when I was supposed to bottle. I ended up having to stay up late one night to get it all done in time.   It's funny, I buy beer from the store now based on what kind of bottle it comes in. I only get them if they can be re-used. I like Sam Adams, and they are pop off bottles so that works, but I find the labels a pain to remove. I'm kinda weird about wanting the bottles to not have old labels on them. I recently found Highland Brewing Co, a company out of Highlands, NC, and their bottles have a plastic label that easily peels right off, especially if you run some hot water over them. Plus the beer is good and about the same price as Sammies, so it all works out.   I have also bought empty bottles from Ferment Station in Knoxville. I think they charge about $12 for a 24 bottle case. I prefer to recycle my own, but I have two batches going on now and needed extra bottles. Walmart also sells 64oz growler bottles that are convenient, They are best for when you have a couple people at once enjoying a frost beverage, as you pretty much need to finish it when you open it.   Speaking of Ferment Station, they are great folks and have anything you need for beer and wine making. Not sure about beer, but they will even help you bottle wine, and have a filter if you want wine cleared up before bottling. They also have a nice room with a grain grinder if you want to make up your own beer recipe from scratch. I highly recommend using them. BTW they moved across the parking lot a few weeks ago, so if you are familiar with them don't freak out when you pull up and they are not in their old location. The new space is a bit larger and set up very nicely.