Friday, 2 September 2016

By on September 2nd, 2016 in personal

09:25 – Barbara left about 0755 to drive to Winston for a doctor appointment and to run errands. It’ll be wild women and parties for Colin and me until she returns this afternoon.

Yesterday, I noticed belatedly that September is officially National Prepping Month. Even Obama, that asshole, got involved, issuing a statement that encouraged all US citizens to stockpile a year’s supply of food and an AR-15 with 1,000 rounds. Or something like that. Apparently, we’re going to need those AR-15s to combat Climate Change, which is the biggest threat to our way of life.

Barbara and I have one episode left to watch in Heartland season six. Just in time, Netflix streaming added Heartland season seven yesterday. Last night, I also started re-reading Pat Frank’s 1959 PA novel Alas, Babylon, which I last read probably 40 years ago. I got only about 10% into the book, but so far it holds up pretty well. Historical novels that actually date from the period in which they’re set are always better than efforts by contemporary authors to write something set in a period that they never actually lived in. That’s why Conan Doyle’s Victorian novels are better than Anne Perry’s, for example. Well, that and Conan Doyle is a better writer.

There’s been a lot of discussion in the comments on the alt-right movement. My impression is that alt-right is a bunch of racist, anti-Jewish, neo-Nazi, skinhead thugs, and I doubt that impression will change anytime soon.

I don’t believe that groups are important, particularly groups defined by trivialities like skin color. Individuals are what counts, and individual rights are the only rights that matter or indeed even exist. There is not and never has been any such thing as group rights.

The whole idea of groups being important seems to be part of the human DNA, although I’m apparently missing that gene. We see it constantly as groups form in opposition to other groups. Sometimes it’s relatively harmless, such as when an arbitrarily-defined group of football fans opposes another arbitrarily-defined group of other football fans. They’re all passive participants. It’s not like they’re running patterns down on the field or sacking the opposing quarterback themselves. They’re just watching, but the important part is that they’re accepted members of a group. It becomes less harmless when it’s armies instead of football teams. Instead of a football score of “Germany 17/France 14”, it ends up “Germany 600,000 dead/France 750,000 dead”. And it’s all because for some reason most humans want desperately to belong to a group. I blame it on evolution. In the distant past, a lone human was a soon-to-be-dead human, so humans gathered in family groups and clans and tribes and eventually nations for mutual protection.

The important thing–and what differentiates us Normals from progs–is to focus on individual character. If someone is friendly, honest, and a hard worker, no decent human cares what color that person’s skin is, whether that person’s chromosomes are XX or XY, and so on. If someone is not friendly, honest, and a hard worker, no decent human cares what group that person identifies with. We Normals judge people on their merits; progs judge people according to their group membership, which is simply evil.


51 Comments and discussion on "Friday, 2 September 2016"

  1. H. Combs says:

    But isn’t dividing us into groups like “NORMALS” and “PROGS” the sort of thing you are railing against. Just saying … 🙂

  2. nick says:

    Wow, here’s something you don’t see every day.

    A front page retraction.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3769798/Melania-Trump-retraction.html

    ‘course you can’t undo any damage done, but nice to see anyway.

    n

  3. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I’m not railing about groups. I’m railing about the evil concept of “group rights”. Progs place no importance on individuals, except to the extent that they’re members of a certain group or groups. Normals place no importance on group memberships, but only on individuals.

  4. Dave Hardy says:

    “Even Obama, that asshole, got involved, issuing a statement that encouraged all US citizens to stockpile a year’s supply of food and an AR-15 with 1,000 rounds.”

    Well, so far I can find stuff on September being national prepping month, and I can find one reference/reaction to whatever Obola said, but I haven’t been able to locate the actual quote anywhere.

    I’d be interested to know what he might have meant by specifying a year’s worth of food and an AR w/1,000 rounds. WTF? As it is, I suspect only a small minority of Murkans have that or the ability to go ahead with it and make it work in the face of SHTF. Does he also mean the inner-city underclass elements? Cankles and Bernie voters? The 50 million illegal immigrants?

  5. nick says:

    Or maybe our host needed to use the /sarc tag?

    FEMA Newsletter–

    In this issue

    It’s National Preparedness Month
    2016 ICP Award Winners Announced
    New Resource: How to Prepare for an Active Shooter Scenario
    Updated Hurricane Forecast
    Upcoming Preparedness Events
    Dates for Your Calendar

    https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/bulletins/1611a18?reqfrom=share

    nick

  6. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I was kidding. I think what he actually suggested was stockpiling eight hours’ worth of food and turning in all our evil guns and ammunition.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    The combination of friendly, honest, and hard working doesn’t seem to be getting people very far anymore. I think that’s the core of the problem.

    Companies seem to want slave-level subservience so they financially support Cankles and the various immigration schemes to import manual labor and tech workers who will be beholden to their masters to remain in the country.

  8. DadCooks says:

    Just the sort of thing you would expect in Californication:
    http://www.eastbaytimes.com/my-town/ci_30317048/alameda-county-chabot-gun-club-close-shooting-range
    Look a few paragraphs down for the cost of the “environmental cleanup”. Who is going to pay for that (I ask sarcastically).

    On a lighter note, there are actually some prepper points in these old adages:
    http://countrysidenetwork.com/daily/homesteading/homesteading-homesteading/old-adages-from-our-homestead-heritage/

    Edit:
    And finally, do you really think that wherever those seized assets are supposed to be will really contain those assets, I bet not (like so many seized assets that mysteriously disappear).
    http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/exclusive-trump-camp-mulls-using-seized-cartel-assets-pay-wall/

  9. Dave Hardy says:

    “Companies seem to want slave-level subservience…”

    That’s it, right there. Saw it first-hand over the past few years, getting worse by the year. And you’d better be very P.C. throughout your servitude, too.

    I’ve been sort of watching the various job leads and descriptions and postings (in my former (IT) field) fly across my email screen since my departure from Big Blue three years ago and it’s pretty funny. For what we used to consider entry-level operator and help desk stuff they want multiple certifications and and a long list of alphabet-soup acronyms. The word I get from others still on the plantation is that the staff peons have been cut to the bone and expected to each do the work of two or three others and they’re still nasty about paying overtime. If you don’t like it, they make haste to inform you that a hundred others are lined up waiting to take the job.

    Hell, they even say that to Mrs. OFD where she works. “Oh, there are simply mobs of people who’d like your job.” And she’s been busting her tookus for them for seven or eight years now, saving them money, bringing in millions for them in revenue, etc. They treat her like one of the noob peons now.

    The more you do, the more they pile it on, while cutting benefits and making your everyday work life miserable.

  10. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Why isn’t Mrs. OFD in business for herself?

  11. DadCooks says:

    @Dave Hardy: Hell, they even say that to Mrs. OFD where she works. “Oh, there are simply mobs of people who’d like your job.”

    Sure lots of people may like to have a job, but they are in no way qualified and/or have the experience. Warm bodies are a dime a dozen, for ones that will work you will pay a bit more if you can find them.

  12. Miles_Teg says:

    This maggot got out after three months. I would have given him 20 years, then emasculated him to make sure he never did it again.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-03/brock-turner-released-from-jail/7811224

  13. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Sacre bleu! He thought she was an American girl. *

    * Reference to an old joke about a French guy who was arrested for having sex with a naked corpse he’d happened upon on a beach.

  14. paul says:

    My prepping this week:

    Hauled 6 BBQ grill tanks to the local propane joint. $11 per and they are heavier than the tank from the grocery store. Saved about $30 too.

    I hit Wal-Mart for some Auguson cans. 2x Potato Shreds. 2x Cheese powder. 2x Butter powder. 1x Honey coated bannana slices. 1x fake Bacon bits. 1x sliced strawberries. 3x potato slices. Twelve cans, $170.66, and it’s stuff we’ll eat.

    The butter and cheese powders will need re-packaging after opening. I have one of each now, the butter is turning while the cheese is turning and has formed into a brick. The potato slices are just fine. All are in the same cupboard.

  15. Dave Hardy says:

    “Why isn’t Mrs. OFD in business for herself?”

    She’s 61 and doesn’t wanna hassle with basically kicking what she does now off from scratch; the organization has proprietary rights over its training curriculum and they scout out and set up all the contracts around the country. She DOES wanna run her own biz involving the sea glass and other types of jewelry from here at home and has spent a lotta free time working on it and setting up her shop out there. Which is why the priority for getting better and bigger windows installed on it. Maybe if she knew eight years ago what she knows now, she could have made it work on her own, but at present, it would take more time than she is willing to spend doing that same gig, and there’s also the burnout factor; it’s INTENSE.

    “Sure lots of people may like to have a job, but they are in no way qualified and/or have the experience.”

    As I’m sure you know, that chit don’t count for much anymore. They’ve hired instructors where my wife works who are no more qualified to do that job than I am but they’re friends with someone in management or it’s yet another Diversity hire. So despite wife’s thirty-plus years in public health, a science BA from McGill, an MA from Columbia and an ABD PhD from Dartmouth, they’d replace her in a heartbeat with one of the management cronies or some affirmative-action drone who will do the absolute minimum at their lowest level of competence and never be fired.

    “I would have given him 20 years, then emasculated him to make sure he never did it again.”

    To be fair, you’d actually remove a finger not his junk. I’d hand out ten years at hard labor and a public flogging. Actual rapists get death.

  16. Dave Hardy says:

    Showed up for my 1PM appointment to get the RAV4 windshield replaced and the store was locked up tight with no one in sight. Waited fifteen, as it coulda been somebody coming back late from lunch and I’m a reasonable fummamucker, but no dice. Called the 800 number on the door and got hold of somebody in pretty good time and they checked into it immediately. Turns out a technician had gotten hurt somehow, so they’ll re-schedule me for next Wednesday morning and take some money off the bill.

    Back to outside yard work as long as I can stand it; earlier, on leaving the house, I fell on my ass on the back steps. My right leg, which is the problem leg, kinda went out from under me and blammo! The Kindle I had under my left arm went flying but no damage to either one of us, all is good. I haven’t fallen down in a very long time, not even during our icy winters up here.

    How did that song go…I hope I die before I get old??? Shit.

  17. Dave Hardy says:

    From the Smile for the Camera Department:

    https://theintercept.com/2016/09/01/leaked-catalogue-reveals-a-vast-array-of-military-spy-gear-offered-to-u-s-police/

    I mean, sure, we can spy back on them but they got way better gear.

    https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3038285/2014-Cobham-TCS-Catalog.pdf

    I’m making out my Xmas list right now!

  18. Miles_Teg says:

    “* Reference to an old joke about a French guy who was arrested for having sex with a naked corpse he’d happened upon on a beach.”

    No, you’ve got it wrong. It goes like this:

    Observer: “You filthy swine! You’re making love to a dead girl!”

    Guy: “Oh no! I thought she was English.”

  19. SteveF says:

    Actual rapists get death.

    That’s fine, so long as the same penalty applies to false accusations.

    As I’m sure you know, that chit don’t count for much anymore.

    A couple of acquaintances, some years older than I and involved as business consultants, blame the breakdown of the “contract” between corporations and workers on the corporations, and blame that in turn on the rise of the Harvard MBAs taking over company operations. I wouldn’t know; by their reckoning, this began in earnest about the time I entered the corporate workforce, so I’ve never known anything else. Some of the privately held companies I’ve worked for have looked beyond the next quarter, but even that’s not the way to bet.

  20. lynn says:

    Houston, there is no place in the world like it:
    http://www.chron.com/life/mom-houston/article/Pre-Labor-Day-bikini-pageant-brings-out-pregnant-9197744.php

    We live large down here in the deep South.

  21. lynn says:

    The combination of friendly, honest, and hard working doesn’t seem to be getting people very far anymore. I think that’s the core of the problem.

    Companies seem to want slave-level subservience so they financially support Cankles and the various immigration schemes to import manual labor and tech workers who will be beholden to their masters to remain in the country.

    This is bothering me very much nowadays. Seems like any financial analyst with a spreadsheet is viewed as Moses with the stone tablets. Their assumptions are never questioned nor is their lack of business experience. Most of these people do not understand that after the second layoff, any loyalty to the company by the remaining “unwashed” is non-existent. In fact, several of the unwashed will become Luddites and will actively try to trash the company.

  22. Dave Hardy says:

    “That’s fine, so long as the same penalty applies to false accusations.”

    Absolutely. And that goes for child molesters and FALSE accusations of same. Retroactive in both cases.

    “…blame that in turn on the rise of the Harvard MBAs taking over company operations.”

    I tend to agree with them; I saw that up close and personal when the MBA suits began arriving at DEC in the late 80s and what had been a solid engineering and research firm in high tech was ruined. Ditto again at EDS and IBM. Though she’s allegedly a real engineer, the current CEO at the latter, she’s adopted the same strategies.

    “Seems like any financial analyst with a spreadsheet is viewed as Moses with the stone tablets. Their assumptions are never questioned nor is their lack of business experience. Most of these people do not understand that after the second layoff, any loyalty to the company by the remaining “unwashed” is non-existent.”

    There it is.

    And I’d advise any yoots coming into the IT and biz worlds right now accordingly, although our son still seems to be doing swell out there in Kalifornia with Salesforce.com, but of course he’s only 31. We’ll see when he hits 40 and up.

    “Here’s a good one…”

    Saw it a few days ago and I could only listen to that bitch’s voice for three or four minutes and then I gave up; it was exciting murderous impulses in me again, which I don’t need right now. That’s the kind of person running the colleges and universities nowadays. Look at them cross-eyed and they’ll screech like banshees but they are allowed to call you every obscenity in the book and threaten all kinds of shit.

  23. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    As I’ve said many times, if all of us Normals would just shoot one prog a day, the prolem would quickly disappear.

  24. Dave Hardy says:

    That one in that video should be near the top of the list. It is the responsibility of the closest Normal, which would have been the Uber driver but he took off, with the other Normal. But we have her name, and I’m sure other ID and address info can be readily found.

    Start making lists, folks. Start especially with your local judges, DA’s, ADA’s, and various bureaucrats and officials. Maybe not all of them, but some of them are busily shitting on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and this country and its people.

  25. lynn says:

    That one in that video should be near the top of the list. It is the responsibility of the closest Normal, which would have been the Uber driver but he took off, with the other Normal. But we have her name, and I’m sure other ID and address info can be readily found.

    I still have nightmares about the black girl trying to get the white guy with dreadlocks to go “meet” her friends. That was not going to end well and he knew it. I would have filed assault charges on her.
    http://nypost.com/2016/03/31/black-woman-goes-off-on-white-guy-with-dreads/

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    Went to the court appearance for the cretin that caused my accident. The change in court became very clear why his attorney got the changed.

    His total sentence was 48 hours in jail. He had spent 42 hours in jail and only needed to complete six more. Sentence was 11 months 29 days but all was suspended except for the 48 hours. Must pay $350 in court costs. Must go to drug treatment (such programs are a joke). License suspended for one year. BFD. He will still be driving if I was a betting man.

    The charges were changed from traffic court to criminal because traffic court knew about his four prior DUI’s. Criminal court apparently does not talk with traffic court and the DA’s assistant is an idiot. Fifth DUI is mandatory 15 years in prison but since the criminal court had no knowledge of the prior DUI’s the court considered this his first DUI.

    Reckless endangerment, a felony, and a slew of other charges were dropped in exchange for a guilty plea of misdemeanor DUI.

    I don’t know how much he had to pay his attorney but I sincerely hope it was a lot of money. Seems the slickster of an attorney may have earned his money because his client got off with basically nothing.

    Personally I would have cut his nuts off and stuffed them in his mouth and sewed it shut for a couple of days. Then made him look at naked leg spread shots of Cankles so the subsequent barfing would cause him to choke to death.

  27. pcb_duffer says:

    [snip] That’s fine, so long as the same penalty applies to false accusations. [snip]

    And the cops who plant evidence. And the cops who smack around handcuffed suspects. And the prosecutors who ignore those cops, or who suppress exculpatory evidence, or who don’t turn over all the evidence as part of discovery. Or the ones who are perfectly happy to allow inadequate defense counsel. (Basically, all the various ways that people on death row have been exonerated over the last 20 years. There was just a story in our paper a day or two ago; yet another innocent man who was unjustly convicted.)

  28. lynn says:

    Went to the court appearance for the cretin that caused my accident. The change in court became very clear why his attorney got the changed.

    Did you file a civil lawsuit yet ? Now that the criminal case is resolved, the civil case will be able to move forward. I cannot believe that his insurance ??? made you whole.

  29. Dave Hardy says:

    “And the cops who plant evidence…..etc….”

    Agreed but with stiffer penalties for them, being in positions of (limited) trust and armed authority.

    “…so the subsequent barfing would cause him to choke to death.”

    And the same for the court personnel who put you through all that chit for basically nothing and who only count that as the scumbag’s first DUI.

  30. Ray Thompson says:

    Did you file a civil lawsuit yet

    No. Research seems to indicate that I cannot because it is a misdemeanor violation. His insurance did not make me whole, but he was required by the court to make up the difference. Apparently in a DUI case what insurance does not cover the person charged must pay. I got hand written checks from his attorney which was odd. What reputable business produces hand written checks. Checks were always late. First check was 10 days late and I called the DA. Next day there was a check in the mail. Other checks were always late by a couple of days.

    His insurance company was extremely difficult to deal with. Would not return calls, constant delays. They even said I was 15% at fault knowing full well that for me to hire an attorney would have taken more than that 15% from any judgement. The company was a really lousy company that is only used by the bottom feeder drivers, minimum coverage, etc.

    The first judge told me I would be victimized twice, one by the accident, the other by the court system. Two years later she was indeed correct.

  31. Dave Hardy says:

    Indeed. And very nice. You were treated worse and punished more severely than the fucking perp. That’s where our system is these days.

    From the Ongoing Situation Department:

    https://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2016/08/this-is-not-your-government.html

  32. Spook says:

    Regarding automotive light bulb changes…

    A lot of modern vehicles have easy to remove headlamp assemblies
    so that bulb changes are designed to be done by removing the big
    plastic headlamp module thing instead of removing assorted stuff
    behind it.

    I have seen GM cars (possibly including SAAB) with wing nuts so
    no tools were required, even.

    Look for bolts on top of the headlamp module. Good bet there’s a
    reasonably assessible bolt into the back of the headlamp, too, but it’s
    all easier than removing a bunch of irrelevant parts to get your hand
    behind the headlamp socket (where there’s no room to remove the
    bulb anyway).

    Before the sloped aerodynamic headlamp units became common,
    some vehicles had headlamp units that made bulb changes easier than
    removing the battery or radiator or whatever, even if the grill had to be
    removed to get the headlamp unit out (older Ford trucks with non-
    sloped headlamp units might have this “feature”)…

    There’s much less risk to the bulb itself if you don’t have to wiggle it
    into a small space, too, especially if it won’t go in anyway.
    Obviously, the glass surfaces of all bulbs should not be touched.

    In any case, once you get all that front fascia stuff off, you can clean
    out debris like bugs, do a little cosmetic shine-up, and so on.

    Step one: See how the overall headlamp unit is mounted. It probably
    includes three or four bulbs and it’s easier just to pop it out…

    I have made this too complicated, but, duh, I have seen “pro” technicians
    remove tons of hardware (on a Pontiac G6 as I recall) when it had wingnuts
    that made removal of the headlamp unit all too too easy.

  33. nick says:

    On the 2008 Cadillac SRX, the front right turn signal lamp replacement was a dealer service item only. Half the stuff under the hood had to come out to get to it.

    It was covered under warranty.

    I’ve seen several on the road with that one light out.

    n

  34. Spook says:

    “”On the 2008 Cadillac SRX, the front right turn signal lamp replacement was a dealer service item only. Half the stuff under the hood had to come out to get to it.

    It was covered under warranty.

    I’ve seen several on the road with that one light out.

    n””

    Yeah, no surprise about plenty of exceptions to my rant.

    Provoked somewhat by my neighbor who panicked about no signal lamp
    and Autozone or Advance Auto Parts would not install…
    She had her hubby meet her soon to install, and he did it quick-like.
    Uh… Try to imagine somebody who even notices that a turn signal
    does not work, but there are a few of us out there!

  35. Spook says:

    Pro tip:
    When a big SUV with lots of chrome pulls up behind you at a stop,
    use that chrome (and your mirrors) to check your rear lights !!

  36. Spook says:

    “”I’ve seen several on the road with that one light out.””

    That is a good argument for LEDs !
    At least for factory installed DOT or whatever approved gear…

  37. Spook says:

    This is a newer Pontiac, not the one from my tall tale,
    but it’s a pretty good video… involving popping loose
    part of the bumper cover and grill surround (with those
    horrible plastic rivet things). Still beats removing the
    battery, air cleaner, engine mount, and so on…

    Note that there is just one big electrical connector for the
    whole headlamp unit (at least on this Pontiac), including
    parking and turn lamps.
    Unplug, then swap bulbs into the big sorta clear plastic
    box…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_I5OzuoeyI

  38. Miles_Teg says:

    RBT wrote:

    “As I’ve said many times, if all of us Normals would just shoot one prog a day, the prolem would quickly disappear.”

    You have to stop losing your guns in deep lakes and rivers for that to be feasable.

  39. Spook says:

    No way I’m gonna over-generalize, but to, uh, over-generalize,
    it might be easier to take off the bumper cover and grill surround
    to get at the headlight unit…
    I watched a video or three…

    Warranty issues cover disassembly of running gear (half the transmission
    to get at a headlamp?) better than some of the shade-tree guy stuff that
    might make it functional, if a bit scratched up? Gotta bet that dealers
    will do horrors under the hood, where most customers will never look,
    before they will scratch a bumper cover, where it shows.

  40. Dave says:

    On the 2008 Cadillac SRX, the front right turn signal lamp replacement was a dealer service item only. Half the stuff under the hood had to come out to get to it.

    Which reminds me I need to replace the dome light on my 2013 Dodge Avenger. I drive about as often as our host, and on those rare instances when I get into the car at night, it would be nice to have a light.

  41. Ray Thompson says:

    it would be nice to have a light.

    Did you check the dome light switch? Many have a switch to turn the light off, on, or based on a door being opened.

  42. SteveF says:

    The dome light in one of our cars has been out a couple years. The bulb is not the problem, nor the switch. The problem is the computer module which slowly dims the light when it’s going off. Having a dome light is not worth $150 (if I do the work; I think $350 if I have the shop do it).

  43. nick says:

    @steveF, I used to remove the dome light anyway to prevent silhouetting myself when opening the door at night. Then they started including a way to shut off the dome light.

    Been a while since I worried about that though.

    Can you just short around the dimmer module? Or get one at the junk yard?

    Led replacements are a very popular upgrade, and there are whole kits available for specific vehicles on ebay.

    Funny though, that even from Ford, you can’t get certain bulbs. I tried to replace the ‘puddle lights’ in my mirrors, and they aren’t available from anyone. That must be a sealed module from a subcontractor with no spares or service parts. You have to buy the whole mirror assembly. Not gonna happen for me.

    n

  44. SteveF says:

    to prevent silhouetting myself when opening the door at night

    That’s the other reason I haven’t bothered with fixing it. However, it would be nice to have the option of having a light, rather than not being given the choice because the piece of crap computer didn’t last as long as the stinkin’ bulb.

  45. lynn says:

    His insurance company was extremely difficult to deal with. Would not return calls, constant delays. They even said I was 15% at fault knowing full well that for me to hire an attorney would have taken more than that 15% from any judgement. The company was a really lousy company that is only used by the bottom feeder drivers, minimum coverage, etc.

    I do not know where this concept of fractional fault came from. My brother in law had a wreck 20 years in which a guy backed out in front of him while he was going down the street. My BIL hit him as he appeared from behind a parked car. The dude’s insurance company said my BIL was 50% at fault and refused to pay more than 50% of the damage.

    Did I ever mention that I hate lawyers ?

  46. Dave Hardy says:

    “The dude’s insurance company said my BIL was 50% at fault and refused to pay more than 50% of the damage.”

    Dollars to doughnuts some cop or insurance person said he should have had “control of his vehicle.” So you should be able to immediately stop on a dime, of course, when someone just backs out in front of you like that. I’ve had pedestrians do that to me and then they look at me like I’M the asshole.

    In re: lawyers; remember that line from “King Henry VI.”

  47. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    Yeah, but remember why they planned to kill them.

  48. SteveF says:

    For the betterment of society, of course.

    The tricky part, as is usually the case, is who defines “betterment”.

  49. paul says:

    I’m not fond of lawyers myself. I was 19, minding my own beeswax, riding my motorcycle and an old lady (83) turned left in front of me. A perfect excuse to impersonate the Flying Nun. Cracked my helmet when I landed in the gutter… that addled me for a couple of years. So, screw the rest of college or anything that needed a lot of concentration. Bartending worked for a couple of years. I’m still not “right”.

    Yeah, four six inch stainless steel “pins” that look about the size of the nails used to attach gutters to the house later, right where the thigh bone narrows into the socket and it all works. Hurts something fierce sometimes. I have yet to be able to foretell the weather. I do have a working leg. So, win.

    Tried to join the Air Force after almost a year of scooting around on crutches. Hey, in my high school I was #2 on the ASVAB (?) score. Ok, yeah, there were 600 kids in the high school, 120 in my class. I’m not stupid, I pretend when it suits me.

    Nope. Tried the Navy. Nope. And that was that. My dad was a Marine and he always yelled that Marines are cannon fodder, don’t do that @#^%%*^% . I took his advice.

    In high school (yeah, Bicentennial Seniors!!!) I was fixing the school district’s Xerox machine. I’d get pulled from class to fix the beast. Broke my heart, the sadness of missing World History taught by a coach that could hardly read.

    I refuse to use a /sarc tag.

    Yes, the school district had ONE Xerox machine…. right there in the High School Library. I spent a lot of time there. Books, ya know. Shop was /real/ cool but I don’t habla spanish which made it difficult for gringo me to fit in.

    The nearest Xerox dude was in Corpus… and La Joya, TX was not high on his list. Like, I would call the in beast as broken and TWO WEEKS later he shows up… with NO PARTS. Yes, me, in 11th grade calling in the service request. No one wanted to deal with it. One day, three weeks after I had called in the service order, I started at lunchtime and gutted the machine. Cleaned everything with rubbing alcohol and windex. Used a bit of 3in1 oil too. Started to put it back together and who shows up? With a wedgie in his attitude? The Xerox guy. So he got to watch me put it all back together. I plopped a book onto the glass, hit print and it worked. A perfect copy. Of course.

    Then he had to take it all apart again. Being Professional. I watched. He didn’t do a thing I hadn’t figured out. It was, best as I recall, a Xerox 720. Looks like a 914. He did say I did everything exactly right.

    Ok, back to the lawyer thing. Motorcycle wreck. Broken leg. Messed up in the head. Almost two years to get it all sorted. Meanwhile, having to deal with bill collectors from the hospital and etc. Lawyer got a third of everything. And I still don’t see where he did shit. Other than take a third of what the insurance company paid.

  50. nick says:

    I’ve got a long list of insurance and personal injury lawyer stories, some triggered by motorcycles, some cars, some trucks.

    What’s amazing in retrospect is how quick they are to say you’re “fixed.” I had enough of a head injury that a couple of months after the bike accident, my signature changed. Completely and permanently. So I’m fundamentally different on some level due to that accident. But I was “fine” in the head shortly after, and off the crutches in 6 months. I’m STILL not really “fine” although I don’t limp much anymore, most days. No long term therapy, no gait correction, and I screwed up my hip, back, and neck because for years I wasn’t walking on my leg properly. An extra month or two of therapy and coaching would likely have saved me decades of pain, and destruction of my other joints.

    Course the lawyer and the money were long gone by the time I figured all that out.

    F’ em.

    nick

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