I Just Saw This Gem

LG Washer & Dryer

Home Depot's contractor showed up to install our LG stacking washer and dryer.  Watching these two guys carry these two very heavy appliances rather than use a dolly through door frames not wide enough to hold the side was scary.  The washer at least had handles; the dryer did not.  Listening to them counting 1-2-3-LIFT reminded me of why hold this nation's elites in so much contempt.  These are people they work very hard and have to listen to themselves described as deplorables.

Then they stacked the dryer on the washer and at first attempted to carry it while making a 90 degree turn into the room where these were going to go.  The rotation perpendicular to their control positions persuaded them to walk across the tile floor instead.  The young Hispanic man pulled it back into position and briefly, I feared we were going to have to take over feeding for life but somehow he slid out of gap that seemed impossible.

You may have seen the "Honor Labor" bumper stickers.  I think labor unions are the source.  I do not particularly honor labor unions but people that work this hard to make $250-300/day (I asked) deserve honor and respect, not contempt.

The washer and dryer start up with a lighting and sounds collection that makes me suspect a cousin relationship to machines in Las Vegas.  

The instruction manual suggests a college course to fully control them. 

Of course, there is an app to control them.  My wife considers such an app useless unless it includes gathering, loading, transfer to dryer, fold, and sort.  I agree.  Robotic laundry needs to happen soon!

And the cutest noises when done!

I Guess I Should Not Be Surprised

I have long been enamored of the Walther PPK design.  Yes, there are more modern pistols but the fixed barrel makes them very accurate and disassembly for cleaning is elegantly simple.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 attempted to ban "Saturday Night Specials" so that poor people (let's be honest, black people) could not afford to buy pistols.  Because of the convoluted system of points used to exclude SNSs, even high quality compact pistols such as the Walther PPK were banned from import.  Also imported the PPK/S, a PPK with a longer grip to get around the compact dimensions sustrm.  Walther made PP and PPK pistols in the U.S. in partnership with Interarms and S&W at various times.  American Arms made a licensed copy of the PPK called the PX22 briefly.  I bought one at some point because it was inexpensive and I like the PPK design.  My wife used it on a couple of occasions to discourage coyotes inviting our dog over for dinner.  The table was set only for the coyote and his family.

More recently, I bought a U.S. made PPK/S (which has a slightly longer grip to accommode more rounds and make it GCA68 compliant) in .22LR.  it is a very nice piece of firearms art.  It is also very accurate and great fun at the firing range: minimal recoil and cheap to feed.  It is also very reliable so far.  I found an American Arms PX22 magazine in the back caverns of the gun safe and wondered if it would fit the PPK/S. 

I should not have wondered.  The PPK magazine is short enough to not function or even seat in the PPK/S.  The PX22 also had a heel magazine catch (the original design, not intended for rapid reloading for competition or defensive shooting) unlike the PPK/S which has a more modern magazine release and a notch in the magazine for retention.

I love my PPK/S but if you get a chance to get a PX22 at a not to silly price (they were less than $100 dealer cost when I bought mine), you might enjoy it.  It is very compact, adequately accurate for self-defense at conversational distances and as week as .22LR is, it would, I think, make most rapists and robbers remember an urgent appointment at the ER if your first two shots connected.

Let Us Now Praise Great Practioners

This move has led us to two great providers of services.  Two Men and a Truck packed, loaded, and moved us Saturday.  Actually four young men (the only age to be doing this sort of work) and two trucks did this and we paid about $4100.  There was one casualty (the plastic sheeting on a poster cracked) and one temporary loss (an LG monitor arrived Tuesday after they found it in the pads). Compared to imposing on friends and family, this was a bargain.

Another person you will want to call if you are in the Boise area is John Aultman (208) 890-8388. (Also an NRA member.)  We needed a dog run for our two English Springer Spaniels in need of sedatives.  The first guy gave us a pretty high estimate for the area we marked out.  John suggested a configuration that we had not considered and at a much lower price.  He put in a vinyl fence and matched the color to the house.  He needed to make two wooden gates for the porch and they match so well that they look like part of the original design.

As I mentioned, the crazier of the two, Lillie Belle, managed to leap through a gap between rabbit wire and top beam of the fence. We got John out the next day, and he added rabbit wire at a higher elevation and raised one of the gates.  Lillie Belle ran around the yard looking for escape paths and finally accepted that she was going to need to build a ladder or do a Stalag 17 operation to get out.

Who Knew They Were Invisible?

Biden declaring Easter Sunday Transgender Visibility Day had me asking, "They were Invisible.  I sure seem to see them a lot in news reports and not just in mass shootings."

I see in 4/2/24 Newsmax that Trump has declared November 5th "Christian Visibility Day.". Yes, that is election day.

People Who Do Not Understand How Poor People Live

4/2/24 Newsweek article about the CEO of a company that put up the $175 million bond so that Trump could appeal the banana republic court decision.

They mention a number of accusations against Hankey's company with no evidence that the accusations are valid.  Worse, he is a "subprime auto lender."

For the top 10% of earners, they will never be in a position of needing to be a subprime auto borrower.  

A hypothetical: you work at a blue collar job.  You get paid not terribly well.  You have made a few financial mistakes along the way and you have a lousy credit score.  You may just be starting out in life and have no credit history.  (Been there, done that.)

You need a car to get to work.  Your 20-year-old beater has given up the ghost.  You can afford $150/month for a car loan. You really need a car to get to work, the grocery store, doctor for you and your family.  

You go to a bank or a car dealer selling nice cars.  They run your credit report and decide you are too risky a borrower.  

Shady Al's Fairly Reliable Rides has a $1500 best up but functional car for sale.  They go to a subprime lender who looks at your poor or non-existent credit history.  In exchange for the risk that you will fail to make payments, disappear with the car, leave it an unsaleable wreck, they charge a high interest rate.  If you manage to pay that loan each month, your credit history will improve or come into existence.  You are paying a high interest rate for the risk of default and because it will improve your score.

People born with a silver spoon in their mouth will never be in that situation.  They can hold in contempt the lender who is providing a needed service.

Flying Dog

Lillie, who has unlimited energy, and Rosie, who considers rodents to be in the candy section of the Springer diet plan, escaped the garage yesterday.  (The garage door did not completely close before I opened the door from garage to house.)

Lillie started running expecting us to play fetch with her to return.  But where is the Chuck-It and balls in the chaos of the move.  At times, she ran far enough away to disappear.

Rosie ran the opposite direction because she can smell the marmots.  She also disappeared over the hill to a slightly busy road. I caught up with her engaged in Rosie Heaven digging madly as she got dangerously close to a road that might well lead her to Doggie Heaven.

We briefly got Lillie back into the dog run, where all the pent-up energy led to a flying leap over a three foot gate and the chase resumed.  Both were eventually persuaded to return, but it was scary.  The gate needs another foot in height.  And we call Lillie "Stubby" because she has fairly short legs.

Not over the gate.  There was about a foot between the top of the rabbit wire and the bottom rail of the fence.  She threw herself through (homonym test) the gap bending the rabbit wire enough to escape.  This time I saw the escape.