Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[bigbill]

My grump: My generation is fucked six ways from Sunday. I joined one of the classic learned professions and make more money than I ever have in my life and it's still not really enough to raise a family in California. Until my wife can go back to work when the kids are older or I make partner, we'll be treading water instead of saving for retirement, putting money in our kids' 529 accounts, having a cushion in case we get sick, or saving for a down payment. We are renters with little in the way of assets. In comparison, my father did not graduate college, started a business, and owned a home and commercial properties by the time he was at an equivalent point in his life. I had to become an attorney just to have a shot at what I think of as a middle-class lifestyle, and I still feel like we are at risk of being downwardly mobile and precarious. We'll be OK, but thinking of my friends who will be hobbled by student debt for the rest of their lives and just had to opt not to have kids makes me so sad. And people wonder why young people are skeptical of capitalism!

Further grump: the Democratic Party, which was once the natural home in mainstream American politics for those who wanted to improve the material conditions of life for regular people, is blowing it on this. It makes me sick to see the party go all in on cultural signification and actively ignore the ever-growing pool of those who suffer from economic precarity.

When I retired from the Navy, I took an engineering job in Paris, TX. Not the most desirable place to live, but it was a good place for my son to finish school and had a low cost of living. Two years ago after he graduated HS and headed to college, I quit my job in Paris and my headhunter found me another job in Kingman, AZ. Kingman is a shithole compared to Paris, TX, but they paid me a lot of money to come here. I would have never moved here with kids. I've been through Humboldt County and other parts nearby, it is a beautiful place to live. I would love to live in San Diego, but California is putting basic living out of reach for so many. Kingman is 45 minutes from California, Californians are buying houses as fast as they can be built. The newer neighborhoods have fiber optic internet, perfect for home office work.

[johnmdesigner]

All things aside, I hope fashion is not returning to this.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/di...gbr/index.html

[72gmc]

I always thought Di did just fine. We all have to work with the times we live in ...

My 15-year-old is pursuing a late 60s/70s vibe through Etsy and thrifting. Things I thought I'd never want to see again are adorable on that kid.

[marley]

All things aside, I hope fashion is not returning to this.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/di...gbr/index.html

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[johnmdesigner]

I always thought Di did just fine. We all have to work with the times we live in ...

My 15-year-old is pursuing a late 60s/70s vibe through Etsy and thrifting. Things I thought I'd never want to see again are adorable on that kid.

Never mind. It's too late.

[Gattonero]

It's not thursday but I'm f***in' fuming because my travel card has just decided to stop working. And the TFL (allegedly, "transport for London") website does not show the balance of my card, in fact does not show my card at all. So walking 20 minutes to the Tube station with a suitcase meant the train would be long gone, and the meeting planned has now gone down the drain.
Was meant to pick up a Rega P3 and an amplifier. The problem is not the 40 bucks for a Cab, but the time lost on the only free day of the week, me and the other guy. And it's not my fault, because I was actually 5 minutes early at the bus stop. Bummer, absolutely a bummer

[ides1056]

My beef this week:

A juvenile Bobcat dead on Rt 2 Wednesday morning.

An eight-point buck stretched out on Rt 9 that evening. Huge animal.

Cars...

[johnmdesigner]

I took a walk on 125th street in Harlem yesterday.
The Foot Locker was giving out free lunches and had a DJ on the street entertaining. Lots of older people on line.
On 123rd Street the line for free food wrapped around the block and extended down 2 more.
They had turkeys, potatoes, vegetables, fruit but you had to cook it yourself. I wonder how many of those waiting had the means to prepare the food?
I stopped to talk to a Chinese lady in line who had been there for 3 hours and was very far from the end. She and her neighbors were going to prepare a meal with their scant resources. Yes, people of all ages, creeds and colors coming together to help support each other.
I made a donation with what cash I had to those in line but I left crying. How did we as a nation end up like this?
I personally have nothing to grump about. I am happy that SOMEONE is helping these people out and I have contributed what I can in these difficult times.
I know the members of this exceptional community are generous with their time and money and care about our country very much.
I only ask that on this day you think about your good fortune in life and try to help those who are in need of food or just a few words of comfort.
Happy Thanksgiving from the head Grump!

John

[cny rider]

John when you are ready to trade urban poverty for rural poverty this is your ticket out.
Your favorite neighborhood even:

http://ashleyconnorrealty.com/proper...amily-retreat/

[Moke]

You are a good man John. I hope we all can find some kindness in our hearts and coins in our pockets to give a little or a lot to the local Food Bank. As a pensioner my income hasn't changed a bit and I am actually prolly better off now than before the pandemic as we don't drop money eating out a couple times a week or going to the pub. Please also think of tipping your food service industry friends very generously as a 25% capacity business does not help in the tip department very much. Even though the stock market is at record highs, so are the lines for food at the Food Bank. Be safe out there ,Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[bigbill]

My favorite coffee mug that has done ten deployments and been to the North Pole several times cracked this morning. Not sure what else has happened this week that was worse than that. It is a Lucite Dresser-Rand Industries (air compressors) mug, not sure I can repair it without ruining the aesthetics.

[j44ke]

My favorite coffee mug that has done ten deployments and been to the North Pole several times cracked this morning. Not sure what else has happened this week that was worse than that. It is a Lucite Dresser-Rand Industries (air compressors) mug, not sure I can repair it without ruining the aesthetics.

Japanese don't through away broken ceramics if they are treasured. They do an epoxy & gold repair called Kintsukuroi. You can get kits for doing it at home.

[bigbill]

Japanese don't through away broken ceramics if they are treasured. They do an epoxy & gold repair called Kintsukuroi. You can get kits for doing it at home.

I wish it was ceramic. I have access to a kiln and all kinds of materials. My Lucite mug is clear, the engineering part of me wants to drill a hole to stop crack propagation, but the historian in me wants to preserve its historical significance.

[j44ke]

I wish it was ceramic. I have access to a kiln and all kinds of materials. My Lucite mug is clear, the engineering part of me wants to drill a hole to stop crack propagation, but the historian in me wants to preserve its historical significance.

Check fountain pen or similar repair forums. Lots of conversations about lucite or aged plastic repairs. There are some very thin - and toxic - liquids that bond these plastics together. Have to figure out which would be food safe though. Might be a challenge there.

Frame it in a box with an LED illuminator?

[bigbill]

Framing it is a nice solution. My fiancé is an artist in clay, pastels, oils, and metals. We're going to build a workshop/studio behind the house this summer to hold my bikes and tools on one side, and on her side, a kiln, work tables, and the electric heating element to make lye for her soap business. I could throw a new mug in the same shape and size as a memorial.

[ides1056]

Japanese don't through away broken ceramics if they are treasured. They do an epoxy & gold repair called Kintsukuroi. You can get kits for doing it at home.

My sister has a set of Japanese bowls handed down over several generations, and one of the set it elaborately broken. Seen from above this is almost invisible. Seen from below there are elaborate gold staples holding the bowl together. I'd be happy with the one bowl, never mind the set.

[Tom]

The spam phone calls that spoof their numbers so when you block one incoming number they just go to another. Though I do find it amusing when they tell me that my car's extended warranty is about to expire. I took delivery of it on March 17. Seems awfully quick.

[johnmdesigner]

I started walking with my wife to the subway stop several years ago after some bad things happened in the neighborhood. I started saying "hello" to those I would see every day. One afternoon a group of teenagers surrounded me. I stood my ground and one of them put out his hand. I shook it. After that we all said "hello".

I didn't know Roy. He was one of the neighborhood people I said "hello" to. Roy smoked a pipe with wonderful aromatic tobacco. In a neighborhood where the predominate smells were garbage and Ganja weed this was something to be remembered.

Roy had a nice old Harley and sometimes I would see him from my window tinkering with it just before taking a ride.
I never became friends with Roy. We would just pass and ask each other how we were and talk about a few mundane things and then move on. But that little part of your day becomes important to you in ways you didn't understand at the time.

I hadn't seen Roy in awhile. I figured it was too cold and he wouldn't ride his bike in the winter. Then I saw the notice in the lobby that he had passed away from 19.
I didn't realize how much Roy meant to me until I saw that notice. I have lived most of my life in an urban setting. Those daily markers mean so much to you in ways you don't fully understand.

I went out last night on the corner where I used to see Roy. That wonderful smell was gone, just replaced by garbage and the sounds of traffic.

Thanks Roy for being there every day and saying "hello". The neighborhood won't be the same without you.

[j44ke]

TICKS! Already. Okay so we were digging and cutting vines and brush, but geez that was fast.

[SlowPokePete]

TICKS! Already. Okay so we were digging and cutting vines and brush, but geez that was fast.

Yup...took the first one off a dog yesterday.

Little bastards...

SPP