Webster

The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)


Showing posts with label Casa De Garabaldi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Casa De Garabaldi. Show all posts

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Goings on at Casa De Garabaldi

 It has been a while since I did a post of things going on here at Casa De Garabaldi, it took me 2 days to squeeze this post out between life getting in the way.

I had found my old compass from when I was in the Army and took to the desert in 1990/1991.  We didn't have GPS, it wasn't common back then so it was "old school" and I was actually pretty good with the land navigation stuff.  I was a Boy Scout for many years then going through the Army Land Nav wasn't a super big deal since I already was pretty good with a compass from before.  But in the desert there are no real landmarks so paying attention to azimuth and distance was a bigger deal than normal.  

    This is the compass at work, I had noticed that all the "liquid" inside was gone so it didn't "compass" anymore.  I had thought about replacing it, but I figured I would try to repair it, I had nothing to lose, it either worked, or it didn't.  I kinda figured if I went to the Army/Navy store, all I would find is "Chineseium" versions of it.


I had started taking it apart , I had to strip part of the rubber off the bowl to get the compass out of the case, should I have, don't know but I did.  I kept the rest of the compass segregated so it wouldn't get lost or mixed with any of my regular parts.  

I was testing this part to make sure that it was still magnetized and you had to use a magnet to do that(that was the stick thing in the picture, I had that to go fishing for hardware when I worked hanger maintenance. ;) )  It was still magnetized.


According to my "Google-fu" the solution inside the compass is 2 parts water to one part alcohol,  so I did that and then used the syringe to put a bead of sealer around the rim of the compass bowl then gently placed the marked "glass" on the orientation points, one shot to get it right or I will smear the sealer all over the place.  Well I was successful(I was surprised, I ain't the paragon of steady hands, LOL )

Here is the compass fixing to go back together, you can still see the middle east dirt on it.

   There it is back together, It works ok, not flawlessly but it does work, so I will take the win.  

I also completed a project, a couple of years ago "I replaced a light " well it was hit or miss..well mostly miss.  The light didn't come on when I came outside in the morning to go to work, and walking to my truck in darkness was disconcerting.  
     So I backed up my Stepladder(looks like an F150)

   Yeah it is a later pic but same thing, I moved my *Stepladder* put my new light on the back of the truck and all my assorted tools to change the light.

                                                          New Light

        My assorted tools, and I would stand on the tailgate and use the tonneau cover to do the job.
I made sure the power was *off*, then removed the old light, then matched the colors of the wires, and then used zip ties to ensure that the wires don't move, I wrapped the wires together  then I used the wingnuts to make sure the connection was good, I also used a pair of dykes to cut the excess off the zip ties.


                                                            A look farther away.

      I then secured the light to the fixture after tucking the wires inside the junction box.
  I then tested it...YES   Success, I didn't screw something up, LOL. And yes the light has worked well since.

    And speaking of  my Stepladder, Er my F150, I decided to upgrade the seats, the truck came with cloth seats and I always wanted leather seats because for starters, I am a mechanic by trade, and grease cleans off leather and will soak into cloth.    And yes that is a leather cover on the seat.

    I decided to go with Katzskin, and I went to their website and custom ordered my seat covers.  It took 3 weeks, and the seat leathers came in and I took the truck to get them installed.
  This is what they looked like in the box(es)

  And the back seats


They did the front and back, the leather looks a bit wrinkled, but it will dewrinkle? in a few days, and it did.  I highly recommend it, it cost me about $2100 out the door and it really made the interior *pop*.  it totally dressed up the truck.
   I had gone to my happy place to run a shooting range

  it was an all girl Boy Scout Troop, and they were going for merit badge qualifications,  So I started early, and taught the book stuff, and then we went shooting, there were 7 scouts plus several adult leaders,  and a boy scout from another troop.

   We fired about 1400 rounds of ammunition, and several of the girls never fired before, but the time we were done, any anxiety they had was gone, all the scouts qualified and got the merit badge.  I was impressed, all of them had an excellent attitude and I actually enjoyed this immensely,  I got a little but of shooting in also. 

    I then went to the Blackbird Cafe, 

                                          It was a good day...

    







Sunday, April 14, 2024

Some goings on at Casa De Garabaldi and of course a rant or 3.



 I have been busy...Yep..."Meatspace" has sunk its claws into me...So I have found it difficult to find time to blog.   I am working a lot, To those that don't know, I am a commercial Chemtrail Technician, and right now it is busy, unless it is broke, or out of time or scheduled maintenance...it is flying.  Commercial aviation uses a rolling maintenance schedule to maintain its "Airworthiness" on the airframe and powerplant.  Unlike a private plane that gets an annual every year than an occasional overhaul, Commercial planes have a rigid schedule for maintenance checks, they are called "service", Transit" or a variation of a "Letter" check all the way to overhaul.  And a lot of the parts are governed by hours and cycles.  My employer uses "predictive Maintenance" to schedule parts changes especially on parts that have a cycle life.  A cycle is one takeoff and landing.  Aviation parts are built to such a high tolerance and bench marked to work statistically past a certain point.  My employer knows this and schedules parts changes before the part is "scheduled to fail" so we get the plane in and handled before it breaks, swap out the part, and check out anything else then turn the plane loose again.  This is why our reliability is so high in the industry.  This is expensive to do and a lot of carriers don't do this because this entails having a vendor supply chain and a logistics support for the parts.  We charge more than some because of the reliability factor.  Unless the"Extenuating Factors like the FAA NOTAM System or something like that....." If we have any say, the plane lands when it is suppose to and leaves when it is supposed to with no deviation, Maintenance delays are no excuse.   I say all that to say that I have been very busy, and to keep my anonymity I don't announce my employer on my blog, back in 2016 and 2020, I had some of my former Ford Peeps, they were suffering with TDS try to get me fired from my employer because I being a former union rep strayed off the reservation and wouldn't support the donk candidates.  The hate is real so I wish to keep my job, I hope y'all understand.

      Some goings on here at Casa De Garabaldi, I have been busy and finally had a bit of downtime after coming home from work, the weather was cooperative and my truck was dirty, so after doing some yard work, I washed er performed the raindance of the southern people, LOL,


   The ladder is for us vertically challenged people, the new F150 sits a bit higher than "the Precious" was. 

She is clean until the trees continue shedding their pollen and the cars develop their protective yellow coating.
     
        Remember ""Back In October 2020" I had installed a battery powered light over my trash can and I finally noticed that the lights were getting dim so it was time to change it.



Well I removed it, popped the cover off and access the battery cover,


Yep "4 D-batteries from back in 2020", replaced them, and reinstalled the light.


   Yes it works, and for a gizmo I put up almost 4 years ago, I ain't complaining.
     
      I had also gone to Home depot to pick up some dirt, I had some plants to transplant and we had gotten some new tomato plants plus I still had my tomato plants from last year, yes they survived because I moved them into the garage when there was a cold snap so the frost never got them.

   How they were before I transplanted them.

   Afterwards, they got the much larger "Homer" Buckets. Plus the new plants went to the "Homer"
buckets.  The 'mater plants will have more room.
     I also have what I call a "Mature Spider Plant" or "Senior Spider"

    Yep there he is, and the big thing on the tailgate is what he is going into, he had way outgrown the pot he was in.  When I finally moved him and repotted him, he looked much happier.

   This was the plant right after I removed him from the pot, you can see how compacted he was by looking at the root system..

    I saw this coming home from Griffin Georgia, that is where I went to the Home Depot, to get the stuff for the plants,  You know that you are in middle Georgia when you see stuff like that., LOL   I prefer that home depot to my local home depot because of the location, my local home depot is located in a shopping center with target and a bunch of other shops and unless you go early in the morning, you have a hell of a time getting out because of the gridlock traffic.   I had gone to Home Depot because I had gotten giftcards and were using them.
    I had gone to Lowes the past weekend on a Sunday and worked on a quick project, I no longer have a truckbox and a plastic tote I have was just sliding around the back, so I had an idea for a quick project. 

      I made a "T" there is a notch in my bedliner where you can put a "2x4", well I divided it in half, and the tote, you can see it in the background of this picture sits on one part, and it no longer slides all over the bed, and my doing it this way also keeps it near the tailgate.

        You can see it there, it works good for the tote, but not so well for all the bags of dirt I bought, LOL.
         Now on to some rants.



      Now onto a couple of minor rants, first off "Brandon" decided to "Forgive" another round  in student loans.  This really ticked me off, first off it leaves the root problem unsolved, that the colleges push these worthless degrees on these kids, and these same colleges have billions in endowments but the word on the street is that they will raise tuition by 20,000 or more because they know that there is more "Forgiveness" in the pipeline.  So these same kids go to college, they go for a semester or 2 drop out, and they got this nut they have to deal with, and they have to get a job to pay the nut off and they cannot bankrupt it.  Or the kid stays in and graduates and the degree is worthless and they have a bigger nut to deal with.  The cost of tuition has increased 3 times the rate of inflation, even in the times of Xiden, then they have to get a job to service the larger nut. and if they choose poorly, they can't get a job and in many cases they are indoctrinated in school.  Also on top of it a lot of the kids finance their lifestyle in school on student loan debt.  I know this because some of my kin did this while in school and stayed past the 4 years because of changing majors.  But this is a big "screw you" to the working class because it makes us pay for the debt of mostly democrat supporters.  Those of us that either didn't go to school, or paid for school ourselves with the G.I Bill or paid off our loans or found other ways to get our certified smarts to make it in this world.  I see more of this coming down in the future as the Donks try to buy more supporters and gin up the votes for the 2024 election to prevent the bloodbath that Xiden is expecting.

          Besides thumbing his nose at the Supreme court over this issues, all he is doing is paying off the debt of a bunch of rich democrats and their kids and leaving the rest of us on the hook, and I am hearing that some of them are talking about going back to school for overseas studies, or grad programs so they can go back into debt again and hopefully Xiden or some other donk will have the tax payers pay it off again, so they can climb higher on the social class on the back of the middle class that has to pay their bills and get taxed more because Xiden is hustling for more votes trying to keep from getting steamrolled by Trump in 2024. unless they can get the illegals on the hook to vote...or they can arrange the steal like they did in 2020.
      And speaking of Xiden, our vegetable in chief has declared war on the car, he wants to totally phase out the internal combustion engine and have the automakers make nothing but EV's in 2032.  I have a lot of issues with this.  For starters, our electrical grid can't handle that many electrical cars.  Also something else to think about, EV's don't like the cold or excessive heat, the batteries don't produce a charge.  You want to see a disaster, see somebody's Tesla blocking the interstate when people are trying to evacuate during a hurricane and the EV croaks because they have been idleing for hours and the battery is dead...and there are no charging stations around, you can't just dump a 5 gallons of battery juice into it and expect it to run.  Also, extreme cold makes them not happy, ask those folks in Chicago and New York how their cars worked during the extreme cold snaps. 
      There is another angle to his war on the gas cars, he and the other elitist want you and me to be stuck in battery powered econoboxes...Imagine the modern version of this...

      But with batteries......and limited range.  and you can't go far because they will not be designed to.
        Remember in the past, I and others have blogged about "15 Minute City" and all you would need is a golf cart where our betters would keep us trapped where we would need our papers to travel outside, because they want a modern age feudalism where we tug on our forelocks when our "betters" walk by by dint of their education, politics, or family connection they are destined to rule us because they know what is best for us "dirt people.   and to continue on my rant.  We will be consigned to the EV econo'box, you think "Uncle Joe" and his kind will give up their classic cars?

Hell no, they will become status symbols of the rich and connected.  Cost isn't an issue for them, they have a totally separate outlook than we do. in the future, you want to know who is a mover and shaker? if they show up in a gas powered car, they are connected the inner party,


 
     It is all about consumption, you have already seen the articles on "the Atlantic" and other leftie magazines, saying that we need to cut our consumption, but this doesn't pertain to the "cloud people" just us "Dirt People".  We have to cut back, we have to eat the cricket burgers er "Fake Meat" and overprocessed food, whereas the cloud people will get the real meat and veggies.  We will be expected to suck it up for the sake of the planet, but they won't.  It is all about consumption, they want to consume and they don't want us to, they hate that the regular people live almost as good as they do unlike the old days, there was a real dichotomy between the poor and the rich, the technology has closed the gap massively and the cloud people hate it.  what happened to the new age of neo-feudalism if the dirt people live almost as good as they do and tell them to pound sand...the disrespect!, the Horror!, this can't be, the dirt people must be put in their place. to be used as resources then cast away when their use is at an end.
     
         The former editor of NPR you know "National Proletariat Radio" er National Public Radio made a comment that the paper had lost their viewers because of the rampant activism of their current staffing and editors, well to the people in the real world, we had known that they had leaned far left many years ago and jumped the shark when President Trump got elected.  

   I guess when you become the deep state run media for the donks and the hard left, credibility issues were sure to happen especially when your regular listeners hear the crap y'all are pumping our and it don't match with their reality when they are going to the grocery store.  But I can understand them being in the tank for Xiden, because they have to try to save his presidency because he is "their" man despite...

    Yeah that pesky crappy fiscal policy is going to bite him in the butt.

     


And finally my friend "Mack" scored me a Hooters mug like he promised he would :) so I was very happy.  We get together when we can and shoot the crap and eat wings at his favorite Hooters.  he is a regular there and he has sold all the girls there their EDC, and they like him, but they love his wife more.  I don't blame them, she is a class act and a sweetheart.


Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Goings on at Casa De Garabaldi.

 



Apologies for not posting for almost a week.  We had some things going on here, besides the ever present Overtime, this is the background.  Remember My wife and I went on the cruise and we had my son stay behind and basically babysit the house and "Goofy" A.K.A  "D.O.G" pronounced DeeYooGee.  Now DeeYooGee is 14 years old and until recently has been in good health and is the quintessence  counter surfer, until recently where he started to have "incontinence" issues so my son took him to the Vet  and they scheduled an ultrasound after our return,   They did do an Xray and it showed something but it was inconclusive. so when we returned we had the ultrasound scheduled for this past Wednesday week.   The Wife dropped him off and I picked him up, when we got off work.  we already had the diagnosis, and it was bad.

     "Goofy" had 4 huge tumors on his spleen, they had metastasized to his lungs and abdomen.    I was given the option of "putting him to sleep right then" by the vet, she also told me that we could do the oncologist route, and he may or may not survive the operation to remove the cancers, and then the treatments would be painful for him and give us only 6 months due to the type of cancers they are and the age of the dog.  I decided to take him home and let us love on him for a few days then return on Saturday and prepare to have him cross the rainbow bridge. and that is what we did.


                                    Sleeping off the the Food Coma, from the eggs.

     I brought him home and we proceeded to spoil that dog on Wednesday, Thursday morning, my son made him 5 eggs and a whole ring of kielbasa for him for breakfast.  Well of course the dog liked that idea, LOL.  I got home from work, spoiled him.  Friday I got off work early, and went home and grabbed him and took him to give him a bath.


     He had that long suffering Lab look, but the amount of hair....I felt bad for whomever had to clean the drains at the pet stores.  


   Goofy trying to leave with the towel while I was trying to dry him off...it always is a game with him.

       We went back home where my son fed him a steak.. Like I said, we went out to spoil him

    Saturday morning arrived, our appointment is at 11:30, so I and my son took :D.O.G to the park for a walk, I went by Chicfila, got us breakfest and goofy got some chicken nuggets.  We went to the park, and D.O.G wasn't doing good, but he was game so we slowly walked the route.






D.O.G  Finally ate his nuggets and we felt better as we were walking.   Finally we got to the end of the route and D.O.G was wore out.  We got home around 11:12 and waited for the spousal unit.  She came downstairs and I took a quick picture of "goofy", as he was asleep by the back door.

   My Last Pic of "Goofy" A.K.A   D.O.G pronounced "DeeYooGee"

      We went to the vet and they were very supportive and the Vet again told us in this case, we were making the right decision.  Man it was hard, I stayed with goody until the end petting him and telling him that he is a good dog.  God it was hard.   The Vet asked us to wait outside for 15 minutes as they prepared the remains and transferred him to a biodegradable box, and they put it in the Wife's Edge.  We then drove goofy home for the last time.   We buried him in the back yard where he liked to roam as is proper.

     It has been strange, the house is soo quiet, no collar jingling, or goofy begging for snacks..or getting into mischief.

    I'm gonna miss him, I do believe that when we cross over and go to heaven, we will see our pets because heaven is perfect, and perfection will have to have our furry friends there to keep us company.  I know it sounds corny, but it is what I believe.







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