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Praetorium Honoris

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Isaac Barré

Colonel Isaac Barré, 1785, by Gilbert Stuart(Source)
Whilst awaiting the verdict on the results of the state inspection of my automotive conveyance (which I call Big Girl), I ran across a reference to this chap, Isaac Barré, late of His Majesty's Royal Army, Member of Parliament and the namesake of the town of Barre (pronounced the same as the name Barry) in my home state of Vermont. A town which I have visited on a couple of occasions and, to be quite honest, got quite drunk in, once upon a time.

The reference was in the most excellent book, Almost A Miracle by John Ferling, a history of the American Revolution. An event unique in human history for the fact that those who nurtured revolution against the mother country, and those who led it, were not later overthrown by others. Robespierre was a light of the French Revolution, he died by its hand. The original Russian Revolution was co-opted by Lenin and others and doomed the Russian people to some seventy-odd years of agony. (Not saying they've got it good now, but no one can argue that Putin is not an improvement over Stalin.)

Anyhoo, Colonel Barré coined the term Sons of Liberty and was emphatically against the Crown waging war upon the 13 Colonies. One of my favorite things about the good colonel is that some in Parliament bemoaned the ingratitude of the colonists as England had planted them in North America, nurtured them, protected them, blah, blah, blah, - the good colonel threw the bovine excrement flag on that one. He pointed out that stupid British policies had driven most colonists to leave England and head to the New World. They had planted, nurtured, and protected themselves with no help at all from Jolly Olde England. In fact, as the colonel pointed out, all the Mother Country had done was involve North America in her interminable wars with France.
After studying at Trinity College, he joined the 32nd regiment of foot as an ensign in 1746, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1755, and captain in 1756. He served under his patron General James Wolfe on the Rochefort expedition of 1757, when he first met Lord Shelburne, and afterwards in Canada where he was appointed adjutant-general, fighting at both Louisbourg (1758) and Quebec (1759). In the Quebec expedition, in which Wolfe was killed, Barré was severely wounded by a bullet in the cheek and lost the use of his right eye, and was among the group gathered around the dying Wolfe, immortalised in Benjamin West's celebrated picture.

Returning to England in September 1760, despite many years of commendable service, Barré was denied a promotion by William Pitt the Elder and turned to Shelburne for help. After undertaking a tour of Shelburne's Irish estates, he was advanced to lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of 106th Foot at Shelburne's instigation, and in 1763 was appointed to the lucrative posts of adjutant-general to the British army and Governor of Stirling Castle. (Source)
The painting mentioned above is this one -

The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West(Source)
However, I can find no reference as to which person in the painting is the good colonel. Many sources indicate that of the number of historical figures allegedly in the painting, only four were actually present at the battle. Colonel Barré was most definitely at the battle on the Plains of Abraham, but as he had taken a musket ball to the face prior to Wolfe's death, and I don't see anyone in the painting around Wolfe bleeding from a head wound (which would be very noticeable as head wounds bleed like a sumbitch), I have my doubts. So my guess is that the Wikipedia mention of the colonel being in the painting is unsubstantiated and just plain wrong. (Wikipedia, wrong? Yes, yes, hard to believe but in truth, most of their historical articles are generally spot on.)

Bottom line of this tale is that I had no idea the town of Barre, Vermont was named after a British colonel. Now I do, and so do you.

Good lad that Colonel Barré.


In other news, Big Girl failed her state inspection and the repairs (which involve the exhaust system, catalytic converters, oxygen sensors and other crap mandated by idiot bureaucrats) are going to cost me a pretty penny. More than she's valued at actually, but far less than a new car. Other than the exhaust, she still runs very well, thank you, and I intend to keep her around for another ten years, five at the least. But dang, any more repairs of this magnitude and I might have to rethink two things: keeping this vehicle and retiring. Both of which I sincerely want to do. But can I afford it? We shall see.


Visit to the surgeon's office on Friday. Signing consent forms, getting briefed on when I can have my last meal before surgery, learned that the surgery involves the same sort of anesthesia as a colonoscopy (oh boy). They call it "twilight anesthesia," you're not really out but not really conscious either. The nurse said, you won't remember anything. I told her that I did "awaken" from the colonoscopy with vivid memories of parts of that procedure.

That got a raised eyebrow and hopefully a note in the chart.


I like to keep track of the commenters here at The Chant and have not seen hide nor hair of Paul Quandt recently. Anybody know him? Where he's at?

I do so worry about all y'all.

Anyhoo, one more post before Götterdämmerung, er, I mean the surgery with its twilight anesthesia and all. I have been told that I will need to wear an eye patch for a few days afterwards. Got a funny look when I asked if I had to provide my own parrot.

Arrr matey!



70 comments:

  1. Stan Rogers song about the Heights of Abraham. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_zvuPw8xU

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    1. Nice. I hadn't heard of this artist before this.

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  2. I was in Los Angeles between 1966 & 1970. Smog was a big thing then every day, there was a large building across the valley and I'd judge the smog on if I cold see the building or not & 'not' was becoming the norm. My dad was transferred and I was out of that.
    Bring in the cleaner running cars with O2 sensors & catalytic converters and give it some time... then come back and find out that there are actual mountains all around LA! Son of a gun! Who knew?
    About your inspection problems, you could always move to someplace that doesn't require inspections..

    That was an interesting story about Colonel Barré.

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    1. So that stuff does have an effect? I kinda knew that but wanted to bitch about it anyway.

      Lived in Mississippi back in the 80s, no inspections required. Lots and lots of barely functional vehicles on the road.

      Then again, in Colorado there was NO safety inspection, just an emissions check.

      And yeah, Colonel Barré's story really caught my eye.

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    2. God's Truth Rob. Knew a girl from the LA Times. She was a transplant. After the Northridge earthquake, she high tailed it out of town. Driving to work that last day, she said OMG what are those? The mountains in the 9 she lived here she had never seen them!

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    3. Where The WSO lives you can see the mountains on a clear day.

      Unfortunately, the Central Valley seems to have few clear days, in the many times I've been there, I've seen the mountains once from the ground.

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    4. Originally all the anti-smog stuff did great wonders, cleaning up huge amounts of smog (much of it caused by petroleum companies putting additives into the gas, but what do I know). But the efficiency of anti-smog devices is a reverse logarithmic scale. The first 50% decrease is reached quickly, half of the remaining not so quickly, half of that not so quickly still and so forth. We are at the 95% smog reduction stage, which means any further improvement is just about impossible. And each half-increment of change costs the same, let's say $200. So, by the time you have 87.5% total efficiency (three steps) it costs the consumer at least $600.00. To get to that roughly 95%, which is 5 major steps, that is a cost of $1,000. This is just on the exhaust side.

      Each one of those steps is a hit on the miles-per-gallon, as you're forcing the engine to burn more, work harder, etc. Which adds the need for complex computer controlled air intakes, fuel injection, fuel management, oil management, spark management, etc. Which adds more and more expense on the car. While making it less and less able to be worked on by an average Joe or Jill without rather expensive diagnostic equipment and specialized tools.

      Of course, most of this crap wouldn't be needed if the idiots in California didn't live in giant temperature inversion zones, basically living in their own filth. But, hmmm, that might explain the mass insanity exhibited by those zone dwellers.

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    5. As always, you make a number of good points, Beans.

      Glad your back online!

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    6. I'm gonna "Buck" you here. It should have been "Glad you're back online." Unless, of course, you are glad my back is online, with hopefully the rest of me.

      And I am also very glad to be back. Though I did finish "When Thunder Rolls" by the Rasimus, which was a fantastic book, recommended by y'all. juvat is truly fortunate to have that great man as an IP. And my dad was offered the chance to be one of those short-term training F-105 pilots that Rasimus had not much joy for. Glad my dad turned the offer down. Else, well, most likely might not have had a father after '66.

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    7. Sigh, you're correct. Wrong choice. Sometimes I type faster than I should. Those responsible have been sacked.

      Damned good book that. (I still need to get his other one!)

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    8. Just picked up a teenage favorite of mine, "Fighter in the Sky" by Arch Whitehouse. Excellent collection of aviation fiction written by a real pilot (from WWI, American who flew for the British.)

      And I now also have to track down his, wait, just (type, type) got the Cobra book and the Robin Olds book and got a new copy of "Thud Ridge."

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    9. Wow! That's a whole lot of epic reading goodness!

      I looked up 2Lt Whitehouse, he wrote a LOT of books.

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    10. Yup. Lots of reading goodness, and just added "The Raid" by Benjamin Schemmer about the Son Tay Raid. Another excellent book from my teen years, lost in the past. Now found.

      2Lt Whitehouse pulls no punches. Some of his stories are funny, but the humor is kinda dark. He was an aviator's writer. Gets all the words and action correct. He would have had a good time with Rasimus and Lex, and probably gotten Lex to write the damned books. Like someone else we know should be doing...

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    11. Uh, well, I'm...

      I know, I know.

      2Lt Whitehouse sounds like my kind of guy.

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  3. Colonoscopy anesthesia.
    Our borescoping folks lean to the "out like a light" side of the equation.
    During my last up periscope experience I was oriented so that I could see the video screen, and during the preparations I was treated to a camera view of part of my anatomy that I would never have otherwise seen. Not a pretty picture.
    After the anesthesiologist said the magic, "You're going to feel sleepy" words, I went under and then remembered something of such earth shattering importance that I forced myself awake, noticed the staff had a wide eyed look of, "How the hell is he doing this?" look on their faces, and then I babbled something incoherent and went back to sleep.

    Car repairs.
    And the cost of the repair might be less than the sales tax on something new or newly used.

    History.
    I didn't know that, and I wonder how much history I pass by every day and don't know about.

    Typing "novelty eyepatch" into the Amazon search bar yields some interesting results and depending on when the surgery is scheduled you could get the eyepatch in time to use it.

    Good post.

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    1. Oh I am well aware of the cost of a new vehicle, and the sales tax. Though I feel rather ill-used at the cost of the repair, it beats walking, or saddling myself with six years of monthly car payments.

      I won't lease, all the benefit is to the dealership, none, that I can see, to the operator. Lower monthly cost perhaps, but then the car is NEVER PAID FOR. Argh.

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    2. But you didn't answer him.. Are you going all EYEPATCH and talk like a pirate for a few days? Man, you just skip over all the important stuff, don't you?

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    3. I'll go with the issue eyepatch. As I'll be belly down for that period, no need to be fashionable.

      You want all the answers, what's wrong with a little mystery? (And I sometimes miss things. It's the eye, yeah, that's it...)

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  4. Colonel Isaac Barré was one of those warriors who was very much 'a man of his time'. As with Wolfe, he led from the front and fell with his men, but that's often necessary in kinetic warfare - particularly when it came down to bayonet and musket and an assault on fixed fortifications manned by professional soldiers.

    One of the nice things about moving to Happy Jack, Arizona, is that smog certificates are not required for vehicles registered to that part of Arizona. I never will have to smog one of the beasts again. I'm only bragging sorta - because I hate the "state inspection" even though it has reduced the problem with smog (as Rob notes above).

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    1. Well said on both counts, LL.

      Your place is coming along nicely. I look forward to seeing the finished product.

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  5. I hate vehicle inspections. It's institutionalized graft. I found out that when I had to get mine done in Houston (EPA dontcha know), that it got a good grade if it was hot, and had a fresh oil change. So, I'd put 20 miles on it in Houston traffic before I went to the inspection. It was practically incandescent. I don't live in that swamp anymore, so no emissions testing needed.

    Good luck keeping her running. And I hope you can retire on schedule. May need to move to a friendly state to eek out the existence, tho. And Texas needs decent folks. Keep that in mind...

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  6. State inspections here ended some time ago, they were a yearly PITA and I was lucky enough to get a passing grade each time, my sympathies. Now to track down Ferling's book, thanks Sarge. After my last colonoscopy I came to with a shudder that startled the anesthetist who yelled something that started a nurse laughing, guess I wouldn't make a quiet vampire coming out of the coffin.

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  7. Trust that all will be well in your surgery!!

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  8. All I can add is that if your doctor intends to operate on your eye starting with a colonoscopy I think it might be wise to get a second opinion. Good luck with the procedure. I've gone through life with one mostly dysfunctional eye (amblyopia) and I know how disconcerting it can be.

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    1. Hahaha! I think he knows which end is which.

      Ouch, had a friend with that condition, very disconcerting.

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  9. Had the butt scoped week before last. Sleep doctor said count bac...........woke up about an hour later. Hope yours goes as well. Guess I’ll add Paul to my list, til he lights a signal flare.

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    1. Yeah, he hasn't commented in a while. I'll admit it, I'm worried.

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    2. I have the all seeing eye torpedo treatment next Wed. but, try changing the fore and aft HEGO sensors first. they just screw in, after 50K they aught to be swapped out anyway. if the rear sensor voltage stays steady after you change them, the cats would be ok. unless you have a hole in the pipes or the cats had been poisoned. at any rate, free advice is always worth what you paid for it. my twenty year old lincoln mark 8 is still running on the original cats with newer HEGO sensors. just passed COs high altitude emissions last month. looking forward(?) to an interesting colon inspection.

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    3. After the operation I had three years ago, I wonder if my next exam will be a semi-colonoscopy?

      Yup, converter, oxygen sensors, just about everything aft of the manifold had to be replaced. But she's in fine fettle once more.

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  10. The last one of six of those scope procedures last year just before I rolled 63 was clear. The doc said see you in ten years. After all the other fun and games involved with the lower urinary tract and the weight loss that was a very good thing to hear.
    BTW, The Battle of Quebec is something I learned aboot when I lived in Alberta as a youngster.

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    1. It's something everyone used to learn in New England. Emphasis on the "used to," don't know if they still teach the French and Indian War. (Sorry SJWs, that's what it was called.)

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    2. They used to teach everyone in New England about colonoscopies? Y'all are weird up there. :)

      And, yes, they used to teach about the French and Indian War, too, especially how it lay the foundation for how we fought off the battlefield.

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    3. Without the colonoscopy, we would have never dumped all that tea in Boston Harbor.

      I mean, they didn't have anesthetics back in, that hurt.

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  11. Check the latest comments at Shaun's place for Paul.

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    1. Link for those who don't know who Shaun is? Please? I miss the PLoquaciousQ, yes I do.

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    2. Naval air cowman on the sidebar at the top

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    3. I too am guilty of assuming everybody knows everybody.

      Thanks Juvat. (You find it okay Beans?)

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    4. Yes, finally. Hope he returns. Miss him.

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    5. OAFS:

      Thanks for your concern; yes, I'm alive and well ( well, as well as I ever have been ). Just throwing a snit, so don't mind me. Turned into a lurker for a while, I have. AW is wrong. He writes everything that I might have and much better too.

      I too hope that your procedure goes smoothly. You are a braver man than I, Gunga Din. I have been told that I should have eye surgery, but have been avoiding it for several years now.

      May things go as well or better than expected.

      Thanks for the post.
      Paul L. Quandt

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    6. Paul! Glad to have you back, hopefully it was nothing I wrote or implied. I can be an insensitive clod at times.

      Beans is pretty good isn't he? I know, I know, you prefer to call him AW, I get that and I respect that.

      Seriously, old boy, we've missed you.

      Thanks for the best wishes!

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    7. Well, Paul, usually you can say in 1 paragraph what I say in 15, so using inverse call-sign logic, you are loquacious. Plus both "Terse" and "Succinct" don't start with "L."

      Next time you attempt to run quiet, please sound the dive alarm first?

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    8. Thank you for the kind words. In my family, I'm known as grumpy. You may now begin to understand why.

      Paul

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    9. Heh, you have achieved full curmudgeonry, something Lex was working on.

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  12. How the heck did you know I was low on reading matter? I shall go in search of Almost a Miracle
    Life is getting more taxing every year... friend won a new car recently, took it to the DMV to register, it needs a smog test says they! But, it has the papers from the dealer: smog certified in 50 states. Nope not good enough...
    Thank you, Dave for the first laugh of the day.

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    1. Glad to be of service Ma'am.

      Yeah, state governments are simply Federal grifters in training.

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  13. Yeah, I dislike paying for repairs, but dislike new car payments more. Paying a lot for my daughter's car repairs right now, which is a test in faith since I can't visit the mechanic myself since she's in Savannah. I failed an emissions test a few years ago and they recommend several repairs. Someone else said to blow out the air filter which resulted in a pass. Friggin mechanics.

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    1. I was taken into the shop to see what needed fixing. Corrosion is not your friend.

      Frankly, I'm surprised it lasted this long. It's original equipment. Sigh. Rather keep this one running than buy a new one.

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  14. On the first day of moving last year, I was driving my van of 19 years and said to myself, "Myself, you just put in $1,000 to keep this wonderful vehicle on the road for another 6 months. And as much as I love this old girl, I don't know if she'll survive being used as a moving vehicle." (Never talk bad about your ride where she can hear you.) So on the second day of the move I bit the bullet and sucked it up and started looking (online) and found the current vehicle, a Ram Promaster City workvan with A/C (must have A/C) and dropped the wad of cash for it. And now I haven't paid out $3,000 in repairs and I am using much less gas and oil. Figure within 5 years the new hotness will have unpaid for herself.

    I recommend, unless you are a classic car restorer, to seriously consider moving to a newer vehicle. 15 years is usually the point even wonderful Honda stuff starts to fall apart, especially up north where there's that icky road salt crap. Seriously. Talk it over with your wife and children and mayhaps you'll be able to scrape the foolscap together to pay off a new death machine without or with minimal payments. (Remember all the retirement talks last year. Think of all the expenses you won't be incurring by not driving and going to work. Being able to eat breakfast at home at a reasonable hour, same with lunch, both by themselves will be a major reduction of expenses. And, of course, the royalties from your BOOK!!!!)

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    1. Big Girl isn't done yet. I hope.

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    2. Hope not either, but don't get complacent. Are you keeping her undercarriage free of salty spray?

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    3. Rhode Island isn't as free with the salt as some states. Then again, we don't really get a lot of snow.

      We stay clean as we can.

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    4. Ah, it's just your state politics that are dirty...

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    5. Some more so than others. Florida isn't supposed to be a leftist hellhole. Rhode Island, well....

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    6. There are days when we out-Massachusett Massachusetts. And we don't even have Fauxcahontas!

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  15. Thankfully, my county doesn't (yet) require emissions testing, & my state doesn't require any other inspections. The day my county goes for emissions tests, I'm swiping my Granddaddy's '72 Cheyenne back from the cousin to whom I passed it on a couple of years ago!
    As a libertarian-minded sort, I'm against such tests in principle. I'm even more against them as practiced by Trashville/Davidson County, & other places in TN, because they're a blatant money-grab, with nothing to do with air cleanliness. An example:
    I had a coworker whose car failed the test. They never hooked up the equipment; the test-center employee looked at the dash & saw the "check engine" light illuminated. In Trashville, that's an automatic fail. Now, many things can cause that to light up, including, in some instances & on some vehicles, not having the gas cap on correctly. It's a ripoff, & may every state & city pol who voted for it develop hemorrhoids to such a state that they walk more poorly than my crippled-up self does!
    --Tennessee Budd

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    1. Amen!

      Yup, improperly fitted gas cap, or a gas cap with a bad seal will turn that sucker on. Been there, done that.

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    2. Dang! TB thats a heckuva curse. But ya know what? Probably well deserved! You win the internet today.

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  16. Prayers for the best of outcomes on the eye surgery Sarge. Had cataract surgery a couple of years ago, highly recommend it. I'm due, possibly overdue, for the "Up Scope" treatment. Last time my doctor called me a "Polyp Farmer". Sadly, no market for used polyps.

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    1. Thanks Flugelman.

      Polyp farmer, now there's an image. (I'm about due myself.)

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  17. Two days ago had a car I recently purchased over to AirCareColorado for testing so as to buy license plates. Slow day, and four "workers" were poking under the hood. When I got into the car to leave (it passed) my driver's seat had been moved. WTH, they drove it maybe 60'. Went back to the starting point, found the person who drove it, and gave him a piece of my mind. Petty and trivial? Yep, that is me. Ended up speaking to several of the staff who decided to interject themselves in the discussion.

    Good luck with the surgery.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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