Everybody have a great weekend and try to stay just a little cool.
Friday Open Comments
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89 responses to “Friday Open Comments”
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Yup, it’s Friday!
On the road again,….
Mornin’ Gang -
This is a great story.
For several days, Delphine Twese Hamwe’s 2-year-old daughter Ghislane had been screeching in pain as fever wracked her tiny body. A nurse at the local clinic in central Rwanda told her that an acute form of malaria was attacking her daughter’s red blood cells. There was nothing the clinic could do to save her life, so they called an ambulance. But by the time mother and child arrived at the district hospital in Kabgayi, Ghislane had stopped moving. “We arrived too late,” Hamwe says. “There was no sign of life. I thought she was dead.” The nurses offered a blood transfusion as a last resort. Hamwe, numb and distracted, agreed. She was already on her phone, messaging the bad news to family back in the village.
Meanwhile, a technician at the hospital laboratory was typing out his own message, a request for two units of pediatric red blood cells, O+. Normally, he would have dispatched a car and driver to the central blood bank in the capital, Kigali, a three-hour round-trip. But the urgency of the case forced him to try something new. His phone flashed a confirmation message: the blood was on its way, with an estimated delivery time of just six minutes.
Before long the high-pitched whine of a drone could be heard circling the hospital grounds. As it passed over the lab’s parking lot, it released a red cardboard box attached to a paper parachute. Inside the box were two packets of blood, wrapped in insulating paper and still chilled from refrigeration.
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The most heartwarming story you will read all day.
“Sometimes my dad would listen to Rush Limbaugh and he would kind of argue with him,” recalls Rice-Cameron, 20, a sophomore at Stanford University. “I just found myself agreeing with basically everything Rush Limbaugh was saying.”
Rice-Cameron’s parents are Democrats. His mother, Susan Rice, served in the Obama administration, first as U.N. ambassador, then as National Security Advisor. But despite his parents’ political leanings, “they believe extensively in debate and engaging the other side and exposing people to different viewpoints,” he said.
Rice-Cameron started listening to talk radio on his own. That’s when he discovered Mark Levin, saying the firebrand pundit became his “ultimate political hero.”
“He’d talk about John Locke, and so I’d go and read some John Locke. He’d talk about John Smith, so I’d go and read John Smith. He’d talk about the Federalist Papers, and so I read those,” Rice-Cameron said. “I discovered the intellectual roots of liberty.”
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I have to post this powerful video.
John McGuirk of the failed Save the 8th Campaign in Ireland.
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OC pic.
“Try to stay just a little cool.”
Like the young lady, pants-free always works for me.
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Heh.
Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrumpMove slowly, carefully — and then strike like the fastest animal on the planet!
1:11 AM – Sep 20, 2013
11.4K
7,074 people are talking about this -
7 Shannon
I’m so partial to brunettes I decided I had to allow one Friday for blondes.
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Danger lurking at the Bend General Store just outside the entrance to the Colorado Bend State Park. Proceed with caution.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2086478518341835&set=a.1584070645249294.1073741827.100009391218822&type=3 -
#10
Lol. In that order.
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Good morning Hamsters. Another 73 at 6, up to 76 now, barely a breath of breeze, and 99% humidity. More like the dead of August than June 1st.
#2 Texpat
What a wonderful story. And what a wonderful use of a drone. No longer merely a toy. -
The bird family in the box atop a cabinet in our garage has grown some, babies now have feathers and are getting out of the nest more. From the almost constant chatter of the adults just outside in the back yard trees we’re guessing they are teaching the kids how to fly and be birds.
Spouse saw two of the three babies perched on a cable hung from the garage ceiling last night, learning how to balance on a thin and wobbly surface. They’re all fluffy and round with new down coats and big feet. I saw one parked outside the nesting box on top of the cabinet this morning, staring seriously at me and not moving at all. Meanwhile the adults were carrying on chatter outside. Presume this little one already knows to be absolutely still if something strange appears, and maybe it won’t see you. That would be true if it happened to be in a tree, but not so much on a white cabinet top.
We don’t know if all three babies have survived as we’ve only seen two at once. However it looks as though they might be ready soon the leave the nest, and we can have the garage back.
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Formerly white cabinet?
🙂
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From the Twitter account of Richard Fernandez of PJMedia.
wretchardthecat
@wretchardthecatFollow Follow @wretchardthecat
MoreA media that taught us to mock authority and culture was unprepared for the day when the audience would mock their authority and their culture.
5:46 PM – 28 May 2018
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Well, I’m leaving the Waffle House in Breaux Bridge, 380 miles to go.
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Last night our youngest (not smallest anymore), White Fang, graduated High School.
thatisall
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#2
I noticed the story about drone delivery in Ruanda omits any mention of how this high tech service gets paid for. Bill Gates? He has funded lots of innovation in Africa. -
#17
Congratulations, Chief Pyro Maniac. Next milestone: 1st grandchild. -
Empty nest party time!
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I hope Wagonburner trained his kids to get good jobs so they can support their parents in their retirement in the style to which they’ve become accustomed.
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John Prine has a new album out and it inspired a fascinating review at The Federalist by Mike Morrison.
This is among the reflections I have as I obsessively pour through the latest John Prine album, “The Tree of Forgiveness.”
His name alone reminds the listener of a near forgotten time when the proper imperfections of sound would effectively immortalize an artist’s work. Prine is this type of perfectly imperfect musician who entered the scene before technology allowed the music industry to polish its artists into mundanity. He belts out a Bob Dylanesque vocal with a twangy finish, creating songs that highlight the wordplay of a country western Koan capitalized by acoustic guitars.
plus,
Prine prophetically reminds us that while the technological man is wrapped up in the endless cycle of predicting catastrophe and manipulating the universe there is another path, and it is here — we are told — that Pluto is still a planet and weather updates come from the family dog. The song plays as an emphatic rejection of the Nietzschean anti-culture which clarifies our current moment.
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I’ve been wondering for a while what the hell is wrong with Trey Gowdy. He’s made bizarre statements defending Mueller, DOJ and the FBI.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) recently suggested the FBI did nothing wrong when it used at least one government informant to secretly collect information on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Public reports indicate, however, that Gowdy never even reviewed the relevant documents on the matter subpoenaed by Congress. In fact, a spokeswoman for Gowdy told The Federalist that the congressman doesn’t even know what documents and records were subpoenaed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
and,
When asked by The Federalist whether Gowdy had seen all the documents Congress requested, a spokeswoman for Gowdy repeatedly declined to say what, if any, subpoenaed records Gowdy had reviewed during the roughly hour-long briefing.
Activists and journalists were thrilled with Gowdy’s comments exonerating the FBI, claiming they “debunked” any concerns that people have about FBI behavior. CNN’s Manu Raju claimed, without providing evidence, that Gowdy had “seen the intel.”
Gowdy is a former prosecutor and, in my experience, they stick together even when there’s a lot of reason to doubt them.
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It’s day 11 of a nationwide truckers’ strike in Iran. Stores closed, businesses idle and ports closing unable to offload freight. Teachers have been on strike for months, farmers’ protesting, but the trucking strike has totally paralyzed the nation.
On Twitter with this news correspondent:
Natalie Amiri
✔
@NatalieAmiriI have never seen more protests in #Iran than in these recent times. Truck drivers are on strike. Teachers have been already for a long time. Minorities protest. Farmers go to the barricades. There’s tension everywhere. Through social media, protests gain publicity. Instantly.
3:28 AM – May 30, 2018
229 147 people are talking about thisUnlike the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration is boldly standing up for human rights in Iran. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury blacklisted an Iranian firm that created an App that secretly monitors dissidents who oppose the Iranian theocratic and despotic government, as well as two other entities working on behalf of the Iranian government.
Everyone who saw this news featured on any American mainstream news outlet, raise your hand.
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Gowdy is a former prosecutor and, in my experience, they stick together
My exact conclusion.
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Irony alert: woman who climbed Mt. Everest, and two other peaks higher than 8000 meters falls down her stairs and dies.
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I’ve never even been called to jury duty.
I figure Big Brother already knows how I feel about prosecutors.
That they will do anything to get a conviction.
That they invented State corruption.
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Never been a Gowdy fan. Talks big when there are no consequences.
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Congratulations WB and clan!
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Gowdy is a swamp critter
A bulldog with lots of ruff ruff ruff and no teeth
0 for 4 at the plate
The Bengahzi bungler let the BillHilly skate
A mayo stain on Schumer’s trousersA loser.
Never liked him. -
Whoopi all over the house now! Oh wait, they’re not gone yet.
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And even if Gowdy isn’t simply helping circle the wagons, The Federalist piece proves how out of touch our supposed front line fighters are.
They live in their own little bubble.
I swear the only informed Americans are we, the 20%, the politics geeks who pay close attention daily.
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One of the more frustrating things in life is a pair of blue jeans reaches the perfect state of comfort right before they fall apart.
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Buy a larger size?
(You’re welcome.) -
HEADLINE: Disney Under Fire for Hiring Convicted Pedophiles to Work on Kids Shows
The article mentions two specifically, my belief is that it has likely happened/is happening even more right now. ABC/Disney is EVIL.
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I have been slowly replacing the plumbing fixtures in this twenty-three year old mobile home. Today’s work completes that project except for one bathtub faucet that is rarely used.
I have replaced the water heater a couple of times myself, but the under sink plumbing is Pex and I have hired a plumber to replace the faucets and supply valves.
Bellville hasn’t had a local plumber in about twenty years. Now we have a young guy who has opened a shop. I’ve always felt like the Brenham plumbers have viewed us as ducks in a barrel down here.
Anyway, he did a good job on the kitchen faucet and one bathroom faucet.
But it still hurt writing the check.
I bought the faucets at Moore Supply. A plumber friend from Brenham told me that the Delta faucets at the box stores are not as good a quality as the ones you get from the supply house.
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In case you were wondering, my friend the plumber won’t do work in mobile homes.
He can afford to be picky.Especially since he got remarried.
To a pediatrician.
🙂
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I’ve been delaying this work as long as I could, but both faucets went from dripping to a running stream within a week of each other.
A pencil lead-sized stream can be four thousand gallons in a month.
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Beto! Beto! He’s our man! If he can’t do it…
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Hey. You with the water leak.
Read it and weep:
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/U7Zoteskz7TIdcG96zMkox6lun0kk8Z5GCc1wJi1oyw
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36 Shannon
I use the Sharkbite push/connect fittings for the plastic plumbing supply lines all the time. You can use them with copper lines also. They also make the shutoff valves in Sharkbite. Those fittings have been a lifesaver in tight spaces, especially in spots where I couldn’t solder copper pipe safely.
I never used copper pipe in Texas, but that’s all they use up here because of the high water pressures. I never learned to solder copper until one Thanksgiving weekend when the water heater failed in the elderly aunt’s damp, wet basement. When I got down there and realized how many little leaks there were, I went out and bought everything I needed and taught myself how to do it. I soldered 39 fittings and only 2 leaked and had to be redone. That’s over 100 soldered connections with tees, elbows, unions, couplings and valves. Not bad for a rookie.
NB: I always go to the supply house for my plumbing fixtures. The same identical Delta faucet will have a different model number at Home Depot or Lowes from the supply house unit. Same thing for exhaust fans, etc.
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We are starting to see the effects of Trump’s tariffs. For some particular types of steel and aluminum the import quota has already been met this year and no imports under these Harmonized Tariff Schedules will be allowed. We’re having steel specimens from South Korea for mechanical/metallurgical testing being stopped and rejected in Customs. I expect it to get worse.
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Hamous
I expect it to get worse.
Now that the reality sets in, manufacturing will be raining misery on the White House and Congress. This won’t last. Trump better wake up. There are more Rust Belt manufacturing workers dependent on imported materials than there are steel and aluminum makers.
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I’m getting tired of waiting on you people to get to work and start shipping watermelons up here. All I can find are Florida melons and the soil there is not made for growing melons. No flavor.
One year, I went down to my local deli/supermarket and they had a big pallet of watermelons with a sign on the side that said “Grown in Hempstead, Texas.” I bought 5 of them and went around and delivered them to friends so they would know what a real watermelon should taste like.
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The (late) watermelon patch up the road -perhaps 70 acres- is just now getting the “vines” going.
And he needs some rain if he’s going to make a crop. -
Watermelon is kinda overrated in any case.
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Watermelon is kinda overrated in any case.
What about Thorton Melon?
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What about Blind Melon?
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All I can find are Florida melons and the soil there is not made for growing melons. No flavor.
I’ve never tasted a Hempstead watermelon any more flavorful than a Newberry watermelon. We even have a festival replete with a Watermelon Queen.
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The flag of Sicily features a treskilion and the Gorgon.
The Gorgon, from Greek mythology, “refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes” and was modeled after Nancy Pelosi.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Sicily#/media/File%3ASicilian_Flag.svg
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Wake up, mama.
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49 Hamous
They’re probably like the Pecos cantaloupe in Texas. The good melons in Florida never make it out of the state. They send the crappy ones to New Jersey because these folks don’t know any better.
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#40
So the 1/2” polybutylene supply line under the trailer that had about an 1 1/2” slit in it that went unnoticed for about a week is gonna hurt huh?
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I will say the Pecos cantaloupe has no competition from Florida. Definitely the best cantaloupe.
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Pelozi says
“May’s jobs report shows that strong employment numbers mean little to the families hit with soaring new costs under the Republicans’ watch.”
In the Alt-left Dystopian States of America
Jobs are Unemployment
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Spying is Privacy
Fascism is Anti fascism
Truth is a lie
A lie is the Truth
The Ministry of Newspeak is God
God is a FableBeware the Savage Jaw
Of 1984. -
Since we began the master bath remodel from hades we’ve had refrigerator go out and water supply line bust. Along the way I said I would remove and replace terlet, went to remove it for sheet rockers coming the following day but shut off valve wouldn’t shut off, back to Home Depot again and replace valve, wife is hollering when water will be back on, decide better change rest of the valves, about 11:00 that night got a shower and bed.
Now we had to fire the sheet rocker…TBC
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56 GJT
I change out shutoff valves every time I replace a faucet, sink, water heater or toilet. I don’t start until I have all the replacement valves on site before I try to turn them off. I’ve had so many frozen up or leaking over the years I just change them out whether they are working or not. I will not wait until they stop working. I have shutoff valves in the basement for all the supply lines and change them out every few years too. I’ve been through too many water disasters over the years.
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Tuba Skinny
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#56 GJT
Ouch, I can sympathize with the frustration. We thankfully just completed the last major repairs to Harvey’s damage and now have the house 95% back to normal. We’ve done three stints of remodeling the house over the past 15 or so years and the recovery from Harvey last fall and this spring that involved some remodeling/repairing.
It is very helpful to have at least one or two rooms that stay normal and are not affected by the remodeling so you have a sane refuge to retreat into. Total Chaos Manor is not good for the nerves, the stomach, the marriage, your pets, your kids of any age, or your ability to make decisions when something planned does not work out and requires an alternate solution (usually rapidly). Murphy and his cousins usually hover around the property at one time or another.
Regrettably, thanks to Harvey’s predations skilled folks who do good work for any kind of house remodeling craft are hard to find and usually booked solid, so it requires getting on a list. The good reliable ones are worth waiting for in the long run, but that can mean more at least partial Chaos Manor time.
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I always replace those stupid compression valves with quarter turn valves.
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And here’s another HouChron/ProPublica story about St Luke’s heart transplant program. I’m glad my friend whose grown son got a heart transplant had it done at Memorial/Hermann.
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Speaking of Beto! — I’ve been sickened to see a few Vote Beto signs in my neighborhood, some in the yards of people I used to have a higher opinion of.
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Mr Haney is going to wipe the barn floor with the Beto.
I predict Haney by 10%tage points.
I’d bet the Douglas farm on it.
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Some people I have a high opinion of don’t eat greens. Some like KISS. Some don’t like chicken fried steak. Some are from Oklahoma. I can overlook those things. Not sure I could overlook supporting Bay Toe.
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Some like KISS
Double Heh!
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😉
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53 GJT
One of my vendors would bring me a box of those little note pads every year. Best tool I’ve ever had for dealing with skeptical customers, of which there are at least a thousand in Washington County. No matter how you try to explain it, until they see that little chart you might as well be talking to the wall.
Tee hee. Their eyes would get sooo big.
But otherwise, you can be assured that the people in Washington County believe that they are the smartest people on Earth.
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I think most of them are retired engineers from Houston.
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Their is another theory that there is a widespread genetic mutation up there known as Sphincter Colossus.
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Hubby ‘splained a soldering trick he learned from his plumbing mentor…
Stop up the copper pipe with WHITE bread and it’ll hold the water back long enough to get the solder done. After a bit it will dissolve and float out.
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Rather nice looking blond on a sax. She talks a bit, but tis worth a listen.
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Well, I missed the blue beach water in Galveston. Guess I’ll have to go east to mark it off the bucket list.
How far did y’all say? Mobile?
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I could watch her speak German for a long time.
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#70 saw that a long time ago. It worked. Another plumbing trick if using pvc pipe in a ditch is cutting it with nylon string. Bet Hubby knows that.
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RE: Remodeling Drama
We had a firm quote from a real company to do the bathroom job, I’m sure this thing wouldn’t have taken more than a few days, week. But a cuz-in-law who went into remodeling/construction/handyman biz networking deal kind of happened. See, he listed his home to sell thru the wife. House sells quick, remodeling job not going so great. Him and his wife looking to buy property up in Fairfield area. He’s kind of checked out, not much interested in the job anymore. We are looking at ways to fire him, he now wants her to represent him buying a Fairfield property. Crap, can’t fire him now. Ends up his buddy has been doing the work, he’s fired now. Now the job is broke down to such small segments, no one will take it other than a handyman type. I’m just not a good finish guy, and I’ll see every tiny mistake the rest of my days here.
So, it is ongoing. Not a big fan of family networking. Oh BTW, her brother is a commercial drywall guy, he has friends she says! Noooooo….
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I eat enough greens for everybody here.
My eyes are no longer brown. -
#72
How far did y’all say? Mobile?
SD and Hammy would know more than me, but what little we ventured around, across Mobile Bay and down you start getting into white sands.
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I’d say Dauphin Island is where it starts getting good.
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Hmm. Maybe a little farther.
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Is it shallow of me to lose respect for someone SOLELY from seeing that Beto sign in her yard? We weren’t close friends, but I was inclined to view her favorably up until then. Well, there were a few irritants. She is hard of hearing, thus difficult to communicate with; only in her 40s, yet I have never heard her say she is looking into getting medical help or a hearing aid or anything. How is she able to hold a job when she can’t hear what you said to her?
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Heap big tug.
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She is hard of hearing, thus difficult to communicate with;
Hmm. Sounds like someone I know. But I’m moving out if I come home to a Beto sign.
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70 Tedtam
Stop up the copper pipe with WHITE bread and it’ll hold the water back long enough to get the solder done.
I learned that one from an ancient old Italian plumber here. I still see him around town. He’s now about 90 years old and takes care of his mother-in-law who is around 105.
I hired him to do a couple of small jobs for me and he would show up with his propane torch stuck in his work pants spewing gas everywhere. I’d yell at him,” John, turn your damned gas off now !” He is stone deaf. I’m sure he carried around a lot of extra bottles of propane and wondered why he was always using so much.
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That’s funny.
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Ok, maybe Perdido
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We would make fun of a neighbor shunning us for supporting Trump, or conservative agenda. But I’d have a hard time having respect for a neighbor sporting Beto signs. We are just that divided.
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#83 Texpat
Eeekkk, just Eeekkk.
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But do ya…unca Shanny?
You know, in an unca sort of way?:)
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