I was only peripherally aware of the Ryan Lochte story until reading Sven and Mac’s discussion last night. I agree it’s a shame he wasn’t arrested and charged…even in a semi third-world carphole.
…but I described it so much that when she sees me looking intently at something that caught my eye I hear her say softly, “Ooooooo.”
Heh.
Read this morning that the Trump statue in Cleveland Heights was nabbed by the city before the glue applied to its base dried; it can be claimed within 30 days at the CHPD station.
Recovering it might come with a fine for the minor misdemeanor of leaving articles or equipment on public property.
Turns out the alleged artist is a native of Cleveland living in Vegas.
Hi Fatwa. The problem with Lochte is that he lied from the beginning and for no good reason except to portray himself as sympathetic victim who survived a harrowing experience in a corrupt and dangerous country. I imagine that he was quite surprised to learn that a foreign country where English isn’t the native language, actually had video cameras and a police department capable of conducting an investigation.
I was making fun of our transient cat the other day, mocking his hunting and stalking abilities as he missed bird after bird in a rather clumsy fashion. I guess he took my comments to heart and in typical cat fashion, paid me back.
First off, he killed a small, foot-long snake on the back porch and had a grand time flinging the carcass high in the air and all over the yard. I hate snakes. Of any kind.
Then the next day when I returned home from work, I discovered that he had killed a bird--one of the Towhees that hang around the yard. Not only killed it, but somehow managed to get it inside the house where he must have had another grand time as there were feathers, blood, and bird parts in the bathroom, the spare bedroom, the hallway, and my office. Quite the mess that took an hour to clean up.
I’ve learned my lesson. I will keep my mouth shut and tell him “good kitty” no matter what stupid thing he does in the future.
Happy Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Sven!
Sven -- sorry about the cat mishaps, even sorrier for the Towhee. We’ve got a couple that hang around our back yard.
I was really disappointed when the Lochte story started to fall apart. I guess I just expect people placed on pedestals (in this case, literally) to behave to a higher standard, not a lower.
The other day we had an unpleasant run-in with the busybody government of this state. On Thursday, the building inspector came by to inspect the roof sheathing. It wasn’t ready for inspection, so he knocked on the (open) front door to let me know. He also asked if we were ready for final inspection on the windows we had replaced. Our contractor was in the house, so I let the inspector in so the two could talk. He noticed the work we were doing on the bathroom and said we needed a permit, even though there is nothing structural and we aren’t moving any plumbing. Great. So here’s the list of things we have to do, that we weren’t planning on doing, just because California says we have to:
1. Install a ventilation fan with a humidity sensor. The new window provides plenty of ventilation, but that doesn’t matter.
2. Install a dedicated 20-amp circuit for that bathroom (both bathrooms are currently served by the same 20-amp circuit).
3. Install a GFCI outlet in the bathroom (the entire circuit is presently protected by a GFCI, but it’s not an outlet in the bathroom).
4. Install at least one “high-efficiency luminary” or install an occupancy sensor. We can’t just put LED bulbs in the planned lighting fixture, because a GAIA-hating person could replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.
5. Install a separate switch for said “high-efficiency luminary”.
6. Install a separate switch for the vent fan. In the master bath, I put the fan on the same switch as the light. You can’t do that, anymore -- you might not run the fan long enough.
So, instead of having a two-gang electrical box with one switch and one duplex receptacle, like we presently have, we’ll have either a four-gang with three switches and an outlet, or a three-gang with a stacked switch, a regular switch, and an outlet. Then there’s the added cost. The required humidity sensor on the fan adds about $200 to the cost. Then there’s the permit fee, plus paying my contractor to create a floor plan of my house, with a separate, enlarged, measured drawing of the bathroom (pen and pencil drawings not accepted), plus the additional electrical work and the added delays.
Oh, and the best part? Some of these requirements, like the vent fan, are due to problems caused by previous building code changes mandating energy efficiency. So now, instead of opening a window to vent moisture from the bathroom, I have to use a device that runs on electricity. Why? Because we’re saving energy! Brilliant!
Among the many delights of dealing with L.A. Building and Safety is that their inspectors provide a two-hour window. But what they don’t tell you is there’s a double-secret extra hour that’s part of that window.
With flat roofs, it’s very rare the inspector will actually look at them, as most inspectors are literally too fookin’ fat to climb the ladder. (They might have a look if there’s a stairwell to the roof…so long as they can take an elevator to the floor immediately below the roof.)
And don’t get me started on the paperwork for condos which has bupkis to do with the roof but everything to do with mandates from the filth in Sacramento re the interiors of every single unit.
I’ve reached the point where this is no longer “online performance art”.
Apparently, legislators don’t understand how such over-regulation provides both a disincentive for property owners to maintain or improve their properties and encourages disrespect for the law. (I approve of the latter, BTW.)
A petty officials dream and a citizen’s nightmare.
When I first read Hamlet I did not fully appreciate why he referenced petty officials as a reason for a man to give up on life but as I get older I have flashed back on that so many times and am amazed at Shakespeare’s sight. Operating and managing small businesses I came to know it too well but did not realize how much it had invaded home ownership until years later.
And don’t get me started on the paperwork for condos which has bupkis to do with the roof but everything to do with mandates from the filth in Sacramento re the interiors of every single unit.
Every permit (roof, windows, now bathroom) has come with a form asking us to attest to the presence of a working smoke detector in every bedroom and an additional smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in the hallway the bedrooms open on to. We already had the latter two items, but I thought, what the heck, might as well pick up a three-pack of smoke detectors and put them in the bedrooms. They’re cheap insurance. Imagine my surprise at finding that the only kind of smoke detectors you can now get in California are the kind that are either hard-wired in (120VAC) or that have non-replaceable 10-year lithium batteries.
Mrs. Paddy and I just got back from a memorial service for a former youth pastor of ours. He was at our church for two years, then he and his wife moved up to Alaska to serve several churches on the Kenai Peninsula. As a result, I haven’t seen him since 1980. Hearing the stories from his sons and colleagues, he remained the man I knew back then -- in love with life and always finding the good in every person and situation.
In Soviet America, you really don’t own anything. The government can seize your property without even charging you with anything via civil asset forfeiture or other caprices. And due to bureaucracies like the FDA and DEA, you effectively don’t even own your own body.
It’s asinine that in places like CA, if you choose to drink unpasteurized milk, you may well be confronted by men with guns and dogs. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest of the Department of Agriculture has a SWAT team, since we know that the Department of Education does.
If we pull a roofing permit to do a condo gig, every single homeowner in the building(s) we do must sign a form not only swearing they have properly placed and functional smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; they also must attest to their low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads.
Building and Safety will not sign off on the final inspection without the signed forms. (The permits in L.A. are good for 180 days from date of issuance.)
Needless to say, Jim’s company places the onus of gathering those forms on the HOA. And if it’s an apartment style condo, that could be four or five dozen forms / signatures. (Of which the gummint only gives you one; you must copy them on your own dime, too.)
Plus, permit fees are based on the job price, making it nothing more than a tax. (We pass the permit fee directly on to the HOA, since the percentage keeps changing.)
More and more HOAs and property managers are getting hip to this bullshit; more and more often, they’ll skip the permitting process entirely. (With the agreement that they’ll pay the fee plus our fine if we collectively get busted.)
As I said earlier, this sort of carp really does encourage disrespect for the law. Good! 👿
I finally got around to reading about the Cajun Navy that Fatwa(?) posted on a while back and started reading up on the floods and recovery efforts. Amazing devastation, but hardly a peep on the cable news. Some tough people down there.
Mac’s reading of Hamlet reminded me to mention that I’m wading through Dante’s Divine Comedy. I wish I had read it when I was younger and in a classroom as I’m having a tough time of it. I have an audio CD version, a hard copy, and started watching a series of lectures on it that are available on Amazon Prime.
Literature shouldn’t be this hard.
I also started re-reading Ed Abbey’s last novel: The Fool’s Progress. It gets my vote for the Great American Novel.
I have only read The Inferno. That was hard enough. The references to mythology made it hard for me and I loved Greek mythology at the time. I have copies of the Odyssey and the Iliad, and Virgil’s Aeneid, from 1963 that my parents got me for Christmas and Birthday because I wanted my own copies after reading them from the library in Jr High School. A hardbound copy of the Iliad was $2.45 at the time. I feel old.
Good luck, Sven. I hope you find it worth the trouble. It did help me at times, later.
Happy Saturday, Wheelizens!
I was only peripherally aware of the Ryan Lochte story until reading Sven and Mac’s discussion last night. I agree it’s a shame he wasn’t arrested and charged…even in a semi third-world carphole.
Heh.
Read this morning that the Trump statue in Cleveland Heights was nabbed by the city before the glue applied to its base dried; it can be claimed within 30 days at the CHPD station.
Recovering it might come with a fine for the minor misdemeanor of leaving articles or equipment on public property.
Turns out the alleged artist is a native of Cleveland living in Vegas.
Good morning and happy Saturday, GN!
Hi Fatwa. The problem with Lochte is that he lied from the beginning and for no good reason except to portray himself as sympathetic victim who survived a harrowing experience in a corrupt and dangerous country. I imagine that he was quite surprised to learn that a foreign country where English isn’t the native language, actually had video cameras and a police department capable of conducting an investigation.
I was making fun of our transient cat the other day, mocking his hunting and stalking abilities as he missed bird after bird in a rather clumsy fashion. I guess he took my comments to heart and in typical cat fashion, paid me back.
First off, he killed a small, foot-long snake on the back porch and had a grand time flinging the carcass high in the air and all over the yard. I hate snakes. Of any kind.
Then the next day when I returned home from work, I discovered that he had killed a bird--one of the Towhees that hang around the yard. Not only killed it, but somehow managed to get it inside the house where he must have had another grand time as there were feathers, blood, and bird parts in the bathroom, the spare bedroom, the hallway, and my office. Quite the mess that took an hour to clean up.
I’ve learned my lesson. I will keep my mouth shut and tell him “good kitty” no matter what stupid thing he does in the future.
Happy Caturday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Sven!
Sven -- sorry about the cat mishaps, even sorrier for the Towhee. We’ve got a couple that hang around our back yard.
I was really disappointed when the Lochte story started to fall apart. I guess I just expect people placed on pedestals (in this case, literally) to behave to a higher standard, not a lower.
Heya, Sven and Paddy!
Sounds like Transient Kitteh is getting Sven well-trained. (Although it sucks there was such a nasty clean-up job; gaaaaah!)
As re Lochte: Douchebags gonna douche, I s’pose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Once again, Michael Ramirez nails it:
The other day we had an unpleasant run-in with the busybody government of this state. On Thursday, the building inspector came by to inspect the roof sheathing. It wasn’t ready for inspection, so he knocked on the (open) front door to let me know. He also asked if we were ready for final inspection on the windows we had replaced. Our contractor was in the house, so I let the inspector in so the two could talk. He noticed the work we were doing on the bathroom and said we needed a permit, even though there is nothing structural and we aren’t moving any plumbing. Great. So here’s the list of things we have to do, that we weren’t planning on doing, just because California says we have to:
1. Install a ventilation fan with a humidity sensor. The new window provides plenty of ventilation, but that doesn’t matter.
2. Install a dedicated 20-amp circuit for that bathroom (both bathrooms are currently served by the same 20-amp circuit).
3. Install a GFCI outlet in the bathroom (the entire circuit is presently protected by a GFCI, but it’s not an outlet in the bathroom).
4. Install at least one “high-efficiency luminary” or install an occupancy sensor. We can’t just put LED bulbs in the planned lighting fixture, because a GAIA-hating person could replace the LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs.
5. Install a separate switch for said “high-efficiency luminary”.
6. Install a separate switch for the vent fan. In the master bath, I put the fan on the same switch as the light. You can’t do that, anymore -- you might not run the fan long enough.
So, instead of having a two-gang electrical box with one switch and one duplex receptacle, like we presently have, we’ll have either a four-gang with three switches and an outlet, or a three-gang with a stacked switch, a regular switch, and an outlet. Then there’s the added cost. The required humidity sensor on the fan adds about $200 to the cost. Then there’s the permit fee, plus paying my contractor to create a floor plan of my house, with a separate, enlarged, measured drawing of the bathroom (pen and pencil drawings not accepted), plus the additional electrical work and the added delays.
Oh, and the best part? Some of these requirements, like the vent fan, are due to problems caused by previous building code changes mandating energy efficiency. So now, instead of opening a window to vent moisture from the bathroom, I have to use a device that runs on electricity. Why? Because we’re saving energy! Brilliant!
Jeebus, Paddy.
Among the many delights of dealing with L.A. Building and Safety is that their inspectors provide a two-hour window. But what they don’t tell you is there’s a double-secret extra hour that’s part of that window.
With flat roofs, it’s very rare the inspector will actually look at them, as most inspectors are literally too fookin’ fat to climb the ladder. (They might have a look if there’s a stairwell to the roof…so long as they can take an elevator to the floor immediately below the roof.)
And don’t get me started on the paperwork for condos which has bupkis to do with the roof but everything to do with mandates from the filth in Sacramento re the interiors of every single unit.
I’ve reached the point where this is no longer “online performance art”.
Apparently, legislators don’t understand how such over-regulation provides both a disincentive for property owners to maintain or improve their properties and encourages disrespect for the law. (I approve of the latter, BTW.)
A petty officials dream and a citizen’s nightmare.
When I first read Hamlet I did not fully appreciate why he referenced petty officials as a reason for a man to give up on life but as I get older I have flashed back on that so many times and am amazed at Shakespeare’s sight. Operating and managing small businesses I came to know it too well but did not realize how much it had invaded home ownership until years later.
“…legislators don’t understand how such over-regulation provides both a disincentive for property owners to maintain or improve their properties…”
We just need MORE laws and control to deal with these problems, comrade. Where there is unaccountable authority there is always a way.
Holy carp, Paddy!
Every permit (roof, windows, now bathroom) has come with a form asking us to attest to the presence of a working smoke detector in every bedroom and an additional smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector in the hallway the bedrooms open on to. We already had the latter two items, but I thought, what the heck, might as well pick up a three-pack of smoke detectors and put them in the bedrooms. They’re cheap insurance. Imagine my surprise at finding that the only kind of smoke detectors you can now get in California are the kind that are either hard-wired in (120VAC) or that have non-replaceable 10-year lithium batteries.
Mrs. Paddy and I just got back from a memorial service for a former youth pastor of ours. He was at our church for two years, then he and his wife moved up to Alaska to serve several churches on the Kenai Peninsula. As a result, I haven’t seen him since 1980. Hearing the stories from his sons and colleagues, he remained the man I knew back then -- in love with life and always finding the good in every person and situation.
Hai, Mac!
In Soviet America, you really don’t own anything. The government can seize your property without even charging you with anything via civil asset forfeiture or other caprices. And due to bureaucracies like the FDA and DEA, you effectively don’t even own your own body.
It’s asinine that in places like CA, if you choose to drink unpasteurized milk, you may well be confronted by men with guns and dogs. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest of the Department of Agriculture has a SWAT team, since we know that the Department of Education does.
If we pull a roofing permit to do a condo gig, every single homeowner in the building(s) we do must sign a form not only swearing they have properly placed and functional smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; they also must attest to their low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads.
Building and Safety will not sign off on the final inspection without the signed forms. (The permits in L.A. are good for 180 days from date of issuance.)
Needless to say, Jim’s company places the onus of gathering those forms on the HOA. And if it’s an apartment style condo, that could be four or five dozen forms / signatures. (Of which the gummint only gives you one; you must copy them on your own dime, too.)
Plus, permit fees are based on the job price, making it nothing more than a tax. (We pass the permit fee directly on to the HOA, since the percentage keeps changing.)
More and more HOAs and property managers are getting hip to this bullshit; more and more often, they’ll skip the permitting process entirely. (With the agreement that they’ll pay the fee plus our fine if we collectively get busted.)
As I said earlier, this sort of carp really does encourage disrespect for the law. Good! 👿
Teh Younger just posted a pic of the view from his dorm room. Yep, it’s going to be a tough senior year.
How awful!!1!
That poor, unfortunate young man.
I finally got around to reading about the Cajun Navy that Fatwa(?) posted on a while back and started reading up on the floods and recovery efforts. Amazing devastation, but hardly a peep on the cable news. Some tough people down there.
Mac’s reading of Hamlet reminded me to mention that I’m wading through Dante’s Divine Comedy. I wish I had read it when I was younger and in a classroom as I’m having a tough time of it. I have an audio CD version, a hard copy, and started watching a series of lectures on it that are available on Amazon Prime.
Literature shouldn’t be this hard.
I also started re-reading Ed Abbey’s last novel: The Fool’s Progress. It gets my vote for the Great American Novel.
I have only read The Inferno. That was hard enough. The references to mythology made it hard for me and I loved Greek mythology at the time. I have copies of the Odyssey and the Iliad, and Virgil’s Aeneid, from 1963 that my parents got me for Christmas and Birthday because I wanted my own copies after reading them from the library in Jr High School. A hardbound copy of the Iliad was $2.45 at the time. I feel old.
Good luck, Sven. I hope you find it worth the trouble. It did help me at times, later.
I am trying to get into Moby Dick. I love the movie and think the book should be worth the trouble.
I might have phrased that better.
You don’t need to worry, Mac. We’re very accepting.