Trees

Surprise!  No, it's not Monday, but Sarge's post from yesterday triggered the idea for this post. So, I gave him a break.

Evidently Sarge thinks this is a lot of trees.

OAFS Photo

Well, as the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas! 

Source

 We have (to quote Laugh-In) "Signed Ze Papers" as well as, "Ze Cheque" and this property is now ours. 

Construction Loan paperwork has been signed, and we've talked with the builder to discuss what we're looking for him to build.  

This is what we discussed.  

Akashi Designs

Mrs J and I discussed with him what we wanted to change about that house plan.  He had several additional considerations we hadn't thought about, but worked through with him and gave him the go ahead.

Demolition of the old run down house is the first step.  A septic system is the next one. Then it's construction time.  

Beans, yes there's electric connectivity.  The property is close enough that the County provides it.  

We also discussed living quarters for the Horses along with a fenced Paddock.  In addition, another fenced in area for the Dogs and a cottage for my Brother.  

So...a lot of balls in the air, causing no reliable estimate of the completion time.  C'est la Vie!

Oh yeah!  One more consideration, he's got equipment to take down trees, so that will also be an early phase of the project.

No, Beans, not all the trees, just some close to the house, so we've got a bit more space.

Lots of hurdles still to jump and modifications to the plan will, no doubt, be needed and will cause delays.

But...

We've started the process. Finger's Crossed.

 

 

 

One for the Sarge!

 So...There I was*...In beautiful Sydney Australia, on board the Royal Carribbean's Ovation of the Seeas on our last day of Mrs' J's well planned/excellently executed Family Vacation

 

Capacity ~5000 Pax.  Not full on this cruise, thankfully, but a bit crowded.  Still, a nice boat. Source

We've been on board for 15 days.  Hasn't seemed that long, nor was it odious.  The usual Dweeb 14-15 YO's who think it's cool to walk down the hallways in the middle, forcing the other passengers to dodge out ot their way.  Until, one of them, whom you might be familiar with simply lower's a shoulder and turns slightly to form a wedge to move them to a side of the hall.

Never had to do that more than once.  Didn't realize I had a ship's officer behind me one time.  Went through my routine, kid flinched and got out of the way.  I got to the end of the passage way, where I was thanked by the officer that had observed the encounter.

Punks!

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the trip was fun. The Family had a great time, the grand kids got to know each other (3YO, 2YO, and 1YO) and we spent a lot of time telling old family war stories as well as new ones.

Great time was had by all.

More to follow, as the excursions were outstanding.

Peace Out, y'all!

 

Oh and by the way, anybody know an easy way to convert a posting on Sarge's Blog with the program's time code set to Eastern US time zone, but you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean traveling Eastword at 500+KPH and therefore your iPad timezone changes every hour or two, or what time it will be when this needs to go live at some time the following morning.  But, where in the world will you be at that time.  

My head started aching, very early, very sharply and with a drumming feeling that would put one of Ringo Starr's Drum riffs to shame.

So...My good friends, I ran up the white flag, texted Sarge sometime Sunday/Monday evening/morning and surrendered.  Most of my problems disappeared while sitting at a desk in my office, at home with a glass of recuperative white whine nearby.

See you next Monday!

*Yeah, I know, an old timey introduction, but.  It fills the bill on this series of tales.  I'm open to suggestions!

Le Critique de Cinéma¹

(Source)

First off, no, that's not a picture of my wife trying to determine what happened to the box of Oreo cookies she had worked so hard to hide. Which, as anyone who knows me can attest, trying to hide food from me is a lot like trying to hide the scent of blood in the ocean from a Carcharodon carcharias². Not possible and not going to happen, ever. Ask LUSH, she knows. (Besides which, my wife is not German ...)

So the other day Tuna recommended the Netflix series The Defeated to me. I had seen a brief (far too brief) clip from the series and something about it just annoyed the Hell out of me. So I passed at the time. However, based on Tuna's recommendation, I gave it another shot.

I'm glad I did.

First off, one of the scenes near the beginning of the first episode is a wide angle view of what Berlin looked like in 1945 (and for a couple of years after). Pretty much nothing but ruins as far as the eye could see. Which reminded me of the photos my father took when he was assigned to Berlin as part of the occupation forces from late 1945 up to 1948 (as I recall). Berlin was indeed a sea of destruction.

Secondly, I enjoy programs dealing with World War II, to include its aftermath. After watching a couple of episodes of this show, I'm hooked. Rape, displaced persons, AWOL³ soldiers up to shady things, it's in there. All of those were problems which plagued Europe in the aftermath of the war.

Thirdly, the acting is pretty good, the Germans are played by actual Germans and not Americans/Brits with a faux German accent. Also the story line is entertaining, though rather dark.

So Tuna, you get a 👍 for that recommendation.

In other news ...

Today I will bitch about the mask thing. My place of employment has decided that they will adhere to Chairman Xiden's mask edict after literally months of no one wearing a mask and months of no one getting seriously ill or dying from the WuFlu. At least, not that they're telling us. Which concerns me.

Out in Sandy Eggo on the September trip there was a vast panic when word was given to us that a member of our team had the Wuhandromeda strain. So everyone who felt "unsafe" could piss off and "work from home." (How in Hell one can test shipboard software from home has yet to be adequately explained to me.)

So I asked "who," in order to determine whether or not I had come into contact with this person.

We can't tell you, privacy concerns.

Alrighty then, f**k you and your news. No names, then it doesn't count, it's alleged, it's "might have," "we're not sure." Yup, threw the bullshit flag on that one.

Who else got the WuFlu from that alleged exposure?

No one, not one single person.

So yeah, let's go Brandon.

Anyhoo, at work they aren't quite as strict as the airlines (mask off, drink/eat, mask on) when one is eating/drinking, one can be unmasked, so to speak. But when I see four guys sitting at adjacent tables in the cafeteria, all properly "socially distanced" (Lord how I despise that term), all with a cup of coffee in front of them, all unmasked talking to each other, I realize the mask nonsense is precisely that. Nonsense.

But hey, it's a federally mandated order.

I grow weary of the charade ...

¹ French for "The Film Critic." Why, you might ask? Well, it's been a while since I had a post with fancy sounding foreign words for a title.

² I use the scientific term for this species as I don't wish to trigger anyone. Think about it. Tongue in cheek it is ...

³ Absent Without Official Leave. If a soldier is absent without proper leave paperwork for 30 days or less, that's AWOL. Longer than 30 days is considered desertion. Just so you know. I share, it's what I do. LUSH, stop laughing ...