W
Problems & Opportunities.
Pesto Factory.
Bullshit Abounds.
Littleton Residue.
Eliminate The Criminals.
"Phantom Menace".
Beware.
Diners, Dives & Dumps.
ecce!
Friday, May 21, 1999
It almost seems that as soon as I get one problem under control, another crops up and bites me in the ass.
Both the John Deere 675B SkidLoader ($22,500) and John Deere 955-40A Tractor ($17,500) have had minor mechanical problems over the years, which we've had repaired at minor cost of downtime and lost productivity. The SkidLoader is nine years old and is due to be replaced within 2 years. The Tractor is only 4 years old but bears the brunt of onsite mulch and dirt loading for customers. The SkidLoader is most frequently used on large landscape projects and around the Garden Center to dig and remove trees, dig ditches with it's backhoe attachment ($7,500), load mulch, soil and gravel, so it's invaluable. Both have paid for themselves many times over.
Now my trucks are feeling the wear and tear. The original '85 Ford F350 ($4,000), ex-Ryder fleet, 17ft box truck with 120k+ miles has had constant mechanical problems for the past 4 years; it's now time to search for another de-fleeted unit this Summer and retire the older unit. My '94 Ford S-Heavy Duty 450 5-Ton Dump ($32,000) is doing just fine and is a real workhorse. The other unit, a '87 GMC ($6,500) 1.5-Ton Dump, continues to plod along and has earned its keep, though cooling and possible transmission problems are becoming evident.
The wear and tear on all these machines and vehicles is considerable. Many different people use and drive them, subjecting them to unusual and irregular usage.
Fortunately, a John Deere Dealer is only a few miles north for the SkidLoader and Tractor, and another mechanical repair shop is a few miles south for the trucks.
I'm now scanning the papers and car sales lots for several new, worthy replacements.
Last Sunday, I converted only 4 of 13lbs of freshly-picked, basil leaves to 9lbs of pesto paste.
The leaves were the first picking and, due to the unusually cool nights we've had for the past few weeks, weren't as well-formed and stable as during the hot weather. Many of the plants were trying to flower and set seed prematurely, due to the coolness.
I lost most of the first batch; it turned black after 2 days in the 'fridge. It won't happen again.
The Lying Rapist In Chief has once again descended to the Hollywood liberal slime's den of filth and again begged for their dirty dollars to aid the lowlife Democrats. The pretext of modifying on screen violence was just that: Clinton needs cash for the dirty DNC to survive. That they would even be seen in public or private with the Clinton scumbag speaks volumes about their lack of morals and ethics. shit attracts shit.
Too bad, we almost got rid of Clinton. Next time, they should use a shoulder-held, Stinger Missile, like the one that brought down TWA 800.
Even Jimmah Carter thinks Bubba's non-Foreign Policy toward China is a disaster. Scary, isn't it? Coming from a man who was malaise as a national politician, but was a real international statesman. Camp David Accord and all that.
It'll be happening for many years to come. Anywhere and everywhere.
f*ck it: arm the liberal, shit-for-brains teachers. Teach the wimps how to defend themselves and their students. OR, put an armed cop in every school.
There are a lot of unbalanced, f*cked up kids out there who may suddenly and violently take their own lives and as many others with them as they can. It'd be nice if they'd just go hang themselves quietly.
Ignorant, distressed parents are blaming others when it's their kids who are f*cked up and severely unbalanced. As much as I detest the Hollywood liberal filth, it's not their fault. Just like it's not the cigarette companies fault that people get cancer and die from their products. No one from Marlboro (Philip Morris) held a gun to my head in '63 when I took my first smoke, at 13. When I die from lung cancer, I won't sue, because I made the choice, and I take the responsibility for my own actions.
It's about time others did too.
Okay, okay I eat inordinate amounts of garlic and decant copious amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon — based upon credible studies — to ward off the evil spirits.
And on and on and on and on it goes.
Why do stories like this even appear in the media? A two time whacker sentenced to a low security prison and allowed outside visits? He should have been executed after the first murder; then the second victim would still be alive.
Called simply, John Shelley's Law: It's an inarguable, irrefutable fact that dead murderers, rapists, child molesters and spies don't commit any more crimes. Period.
'Twas a rather sparse week for Justice in America.
Who really gives a flying rat's ass? Yawn.
How can something so small cause so much damage to trees worldwide?
Remember the Elm Beetle of the 60s and 70s? A beetle less than 1/2" long — erroneously call the Dutch Elm Beetle — almost completely decimated the American Elm (Ulmus americana), though a few survive today. The beetle itself had nothing to do with the Dutch; they were some of the leading pioneers in its detection and eventual eradication. But someone named the beetle after them.
I haven't seen or heard of any damage yet from the Pine Shoot Beetle (Tomicus piniperda) in either southern pennsylvania or northern Maryland, but it'll happen someday soon unless they too can be found and eradicated. Much tighter controls need to be implemented on imports containing eggs and larvae of such non-native insects, who also have no known predators for controlling them.
Here we go again.