Month: June 2015

We Need a New Fourth of July Tradition

Curmudgeon

The other night I was watching a neighborhood display of pre-fourth-of-July fireworks that were too loud and too close. I never was one much for the pretty “flowers in the sky” this time of year but I’ll be honest, when I was young I used to love this time of year to blow shit up. I’ve destroyed more model cars and spaceships than you could shake a roman candle at. We even blew up the starship Enterprise one year. We called it Star Trek III: The Home Game. […]

Now There Are Two of Them

Curmudgeon

Remember when I mentioned that Snowball was planning on building a DIY backyard foundry to melt down aluminum cans into ingots for her maker friends to use? Well after a cart load of metal and plastic buckets, several bags of plaster and sand, three hack saws plus a couple of huge drill bits it has become a reality. It basically boils down to a large metal bucket with a fireproof lining and a hole drilled in the side where air is forced in by a hairdryer (I mentioned the DIY part, right?) to make a fire hot enough to melt pop cans, singe eyebrows from a distance and Goddess knows what else. […]

Stranger Chat

Curmudgeon

516px-American_outdoor_electrical_outletI recently had a worker put a new electrical outlet in the house. He was one of those guys who just loved to hear himself talk. I finally had to tell him in no uncertain terms that I did not want to hear about the problems in his private life and I did not want his friendly banter about the day or the job. I tried to sum it up to him with: I am not your friend – I am your employer. […]