Category: Interesting

I went to the once golden state to attempt to accomplish a few things.

Sadly, a few didn’t materialize. I didn’t visit or have any contact with a person mentioned elsewhere on the blog and the blog staff meeting fell through due to some family issues on their part.

On the plus side, I did get to spend two wonderful days with my father-in-law. He’s a great guy. I also got to pay my respects to my departed wife. It’s a few days shy of the one-year anniversary of her death. While I was in Elk Grove, I visited my wife’s grave and left her a dozen red roses. I read an account of her life which was previously posted on the blog.

Upon reading the post, I did agree to a recommendation previously given to me, to remove a jab at someone that I poked in the narrative. Once I got back to the place where I am staying, the criticism of the individual was removed but their contribution, which was praised, remains in the narrative.

One observation was the high cost of everything under the domain of Newsom. Regular gasoline was $6.25 at a Shell station in Livermore, California. The cost of drive-through food was markedly higher than freedom loving Idaho. Menu choices were fewer as well.

The frogs in the pot of water might grumble a bit but they are generally happy as the water hits boiling. Generally, people think the “other guy” is getting hurt worse than they are. It seems weird traveling through a world built on the pillars of envy and disposability. Seeing masses of people thinking a dystopian world is normal is surreal.

I accomplished another goal; namely, I got my girl the long-promised diamond ring. I was hoping she would want a ruby engagement ring, but I did ask to verify what she expected. Good thing that I did. On the other hand, she already received a gold ruby ring from me last year. Now I just need to pay a few bills and then plan a return trip. Oh, said return trip, if I buy the ticket now, has a $550 fuel surcharge on top of the regular rate for airfare. I might save money if I wait to buy a ticket.

I had an ambitious schedule for this trip and accomplished many objectives. Tomorrow, I need to make a purchase at Ikea and then have another lunch opportunity with a groomsman from my wedding. Once these events are completed, I’m ready to return to north Idaho. I miss my puppy.

Folks William’s blog about the sinless attacking him is par for the course these days.  This is Baby Boomers trying to attack folks through straw man arguments when things do not go according to plan.

The key is to fight that fire with gasoline!  Here is how.

Folks there are 3 types of parents. 

              Disciplinarian: You chide your kids each time they screw up or go off routine.  This works just fine until said child gets a car or goes off to college.  They rebel and things go south quite quickly as they realize when the parents are not around, they can and will do anything they please with no repercussions.  This isn’t terrible but eventually leads to problems if not corrected.

              Traditionalists:  The parents give their children all the tools to succeed, intervene, when necessary, but mostly are there as “guardrails” as opposed to being a helicopter parent.  This is the category I was in; I positioned myself for success getting a full ride to college, my sister chose a life of crime.  My parents did try; she does not want to change.

              Helicopter parents:  Or “friend parents” as I call them.  These parents want to control their kids’ lives and mold them after what they couldn’t be.  There will be no consequences because if they don’t like the teacher’s grades, they will go to the principal.  If that fails, it’ll be a phone call or letter to the school board.  Coach won’t play my kid, they go to the athletic director.  The parents: defend, coddle, and make excuses for said children at every turn, the kids never hear the word “no.” 

If you still cannot figure it out, options 1 and 3 listed above are the problems in today’s society.  In option 1, the kid will rebel, and if they do not find issues or consequences with their behavior, it will get worse not better.  In option 3 why should your kid apologize?  They did nothing wrong; their entire life has been sheltered and enabled so why apologize?  Rather than choosing things like counseling, let the person go down the path they are going down.  Sure, you won’t like the journey, but in my experience that’s the only thing that can cause someone to wake up.

In the case of my sister, listed above, the reality of the situation was shared with me by my parents.  They stated after the age of 30, people are set in their ways, they won’t change.  They are both dealing with health issues; they have bigger things to worry about.  They fully believe their daughter will come around someday, but she must hit rock bottom.  Folks, for some people, bottom doesn’t have enough rocks to stop them.  My parents shared that they think it’s equally likely she winds up in a ditch and they get a late-night phone call to come “identify a body.”

If you think that last sentence makes me not a real Christian; ok, you are entitled to an opinion. Go ahead try to be “captain save a ho” and spend your years left on earth trying to fix people.  We’ve spent tons of money on homeless solutions…. Nothing has gotten better.  Ditto with mass transit, and other objectives, you cannot fix some people/problems.  They can only fix themselves.  Trying counseling or an intervention just gives that person what they want, it’s not my fault it’s yours. 

So how do you fight fire with gasoline?

Easy, it requires thinking about yourself and your own wellbeing.  Your problem kid wants to move back in?  They do it on your terms.  If drinking, drugs, and not having a job aren’t allowed, they better conform or they can’t return to the house.  It’s your house, your rules, do not compromise.  Once you start deviating, the child catches on and will push more and more.  Remember the book you read as a kid, If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want a glass of milk.  It never ends.

Let history be the judge of your parenting. You can always say “what if” later on in life, a child going off the rails doesn’t mean you are a bad parent.  Look at the negative influence the television and social media has on all young people.  Thank God I am not on it!

The bigger thing to take from this blog is this, why are you letting folks judge you?  It is your life not theirs.  The people judging you are likely miserable.  So your girlfriend is overweight?  What’s it to them?  You aren’t married, have no kids?  Again, are YOU happy?  They make fun of your friends, yet they have none of their own.  Trust me when I say this, their kids are doing worse than yours.  It’s called being shallow and extremely insecure. They are trying to attack someone else’s castle when they have many problems in their own.  Oh, they make fun of your choice in women?  I truly hope they are dating a super model!  News flash; they aren’t.  Make fun of me for not being married?  Sure, I also see you and your wife arguing in public, I wonder what the drive home is like. 

Folks, who cares what your friends think about you, they should always be there for you…. If they are judging you, they are not your friend.  You will be living with the person full-time, not them.  If all they see is looks/financial situation/work title they are shallow as hell.  I guarantee you they are not happy. 

In closing I’ll say this.  William, screw what the Boomers think about your parenting style, who cares? 

Yeah, the 90-day guy attacks me, as do my extended family. I’m 40 now, no wife, no kids.  I will admit I am an easy target for folks who believe in some weird game of life.  Trust me when I say this, the guy who is married making fun of your girlfriend, has a treasure trove of porn on his computer.  Oh, when people make fun of your friends saying they’re fat, spend too much, or what have you, I guarantee such a person is a loner.  Kids do not talk to you?  That’s a reflection on you.  So, am I missing something or inadequate?  No thanks.  I’m good.  My house which I paid 300K for is worth about 600K, my stock picks are worth about 500K,  I have about 150K in cash equivalents. Trust me, I’d take my life over yours.  Money isn’t even a thing to me, I gave away 35K last year.  But trust me, you are doing better than me, I’m the inadequate one, your trophy wife, what happens when she is no longer a size zero?  Better go on one of those weight loss drugs, right?  As she ages, better get a boob job and a butt job, right?  Seriously William, read the blog a few times.  If that discussed above is happiness ….. no thanks.

The Chief

Attorney Mario has finally written up the necessary documents to get my girlfriend’s annulment underway. He has had the necessary reports that he needed since December 9^th of last year, but it wasn’t until earlier today that he got the documents filed with the court.

Folks, we are grateful that Mario is finally moving forward. Our frustration is that he moves with roughly the same speed as John Thune trying to bring the SAVE Act to a vote in the Senate.

So now the Court attempts to notify felon Dennis that his piñata wife finally has the means to dump him. My girl and I are expecting that Dennis will not be notified (for reasons stated below) and will not dispute the proceedings. Last I heard, Dennis, is hanging out in South Korea, except when seeing his new girlfriend. He can’t return to his home country due to an outstanding warrant for hospitalizing his wife when they last saw each other. Yep, you’re a class act when you cheat on your wife, abandon her, and then beat the shit out of her just for fun.

Oh, Dennis does know the annulment is happening because he was convinced to unblock his ex on social media long enough to be told. That was in November. Oh, his reply was that if she gave him the house and two million pesos (~$35,000) that he wouldn’t object. Yo! Dennis, who’s the scumbag in this equation?

Not to be out done, Dennis has a sister or two that is harassing both me and my new girlfriend online via fake accounts of Facebook. The sisters are sending anonymous messages to us via these fake accounts. Oh, the newer accounts are using photos of my girl as their profile pictures. One profile picture is one that my girl put on Facebook in November of the two of us at the beach, and the other is one of her after being beaten; said photo was only shared with the police and her ex as part of the arrest warrant process. It was never posted on social media.

It appears that the sister[s] are upset that my girl will get half of the money when the house, which is jointly owned, is sold after the annulment is completed. We (my girl and I) agreed months ago not to go after the other assets that her ex has hidden just to get this unpleasant mess behind us. Instead of being thankful that we are not attempting to extract every last farthing from him, he and his family are being vindictive that my girl gets a few crumbs off the table. They are mad that she gets anything.

Anyway, after the notification attempted box is checked, then the court process can begin. As of now, it will be three hearing dates spread over a few months. The process is crippled to prevent a fast process. Hopefully, at some point, we are hoping that the judge will issue a summary judgment in my girl’s favor and truncate the process, so we don’t have to go the distance with all the hearings. Anyway, her freedom is coming. It’s been nine years since he was first caught cheating. The marriage cratered from that point. By any metric, the marriage is dead and has been for many years.

I was witness to a customer and a colleague talking about things they saw on the television.  As documented in this space, I do not have cable, nor do I partake in watching much more than, call it an hour a week.  I think 90% of what is on said virtual babysitter is propaganda one way or the other.  That includes Fox News. 

They got to talking today, saying there are reports of people impersonating ICE agents and how it is impossible to know what is real and not.  Since all ICE agents are masked, anyone could impersonate them, right?  Right?  The said the agents can bust down your door or shoot you while driving by… because they can!  They can detain you and ask questions later.  They were roused about how the shootings were not necessary and were entirely avoidable.  I had to get up and take a long trip to the bathroom as this was unreal.  But this is a reminder we live amongst the sheep; you view the tv for hours on end and think it is gospel truth.

This is why I am glad to be a libertarian; I will break down how the above is not true at all.

First of all, a warrant is required to enter your house by force (aka kicking the door down.)  ICE agents, while masked, must still present valid ID documentation if asked.  They also cannot enter your property via a locked gate, again, unless they have a warrant or are chasing you (the illegal criminal) on foot or by car. 

If you are stupid enough to open your door for someone you don’t recognize, or feel has dubious credentials, you deserve your fate!  There is nothing wrong with asking for someone’s credentials or flat out not answering the door.  I don’t.  If I’m not expecting you, you either better be dropping something off, or beat it.  I will not allow entry!

Again, they need a warrant to operate.  They cannot and do not operate in a vacuum like the folks on cable TV will have you believe.  When ICE shows up to do a raid, they are usually looking for one or more people, who are here illegally, who have criminal records, and missed their court date.  Read the sentence again.  They do not simply raid the local Home Depot parking lot, that’s a lie.  Also, this may be news to our California readers, but some cities and counties DO cooperate with ICE.  When a person is arrested and it turns out they are here illegally, they can be turned over to ICE that night!  Other times the person is picked up for a crime like; DUI, domestic violence, battery, or theft and when discovered is also turned over to ICE. 

Regarding the statements about people in the home/car also being arrested and deported that is a thing also.  It’s also legal.  Choose your friends wisely!  Folks, if I am in the car with a criminal illegal alien, I too can expect to be detained for questioning, just like if I was hiding someone in my house; in which case you can kick my door down!  See how that works?  I’m shielded from the law if I am doing nothing wrong, such protections do not exist when I am harboring a fugitive from the law!  Folks, no judge will issue a bench warrant for failure to appear if you missed a hearing about a speeding ticket, these people are the worst of the worst. 

Now regarding the part about shooting illegal criminal aliens.  Again, what you are seeing on tv are clips from the incidents are formatted and condensed to fit a narrative.  In the case of the women who tried to make a getaway in her car and was shot 3 times, it is hard to argue that she was a saint.  She was agitating officers all day and was told to exit the car!  She made a choice, that choice was suicide by cop!  The other person who was killed, again, was agitating and out of control. He even brandished what appeared to be a weapon.  I never am happy or will defend the shotting of someone, but come on, in both cases it was extremely avoidable. 

The only commentary I will provide to defend the ICE agents is this.  They have a very thankless job. They are vilified by the news/print/radio media constantly.  They have been doxed (identity given to the public) and had their/spouses/family’s lives threatened by deranged whackos.  They are doing their jobs. Oh, and the current President ran on this exact agenda.  It should not be a surprise.  Folks speaking again as a libertarian, the law gives wide latitude to peace (police type) officers when they are involved in a shooting.  If said officer claims they feared for their life, or thought they saw a gun, they typically have the right to use deadly force, even in a state like California.  It is not smart at all to agitate someone who is wearing a badge and carrying a gun, especially when they can use and apply deadly force as they see fit.  I would not want to be hoping that officer is having a good day while I taunt him mercilessly. 

Last point, I overheard the 90-day guy saying, “how come they can’t just shoot them in the leg?”  This is a typical, highly uneducated response that I have come to expect from a “California Conservative.”  First, you are not trained to shoot someone in the leg. Tell me you haven’t shot a gun before without telling me you haven’t shot a gun before.  No gun range has the ability to get you to shoot someone in the leg, it’s a small target!  Hence you aim for the center mass (the torso).  Law enforcement is trained to only discharge their weapon to protect lives and property; think self-defense. This is the difference between cops and soldiers. The other aspect of a police shooting that he doesn’t have the ability to comprehend is, until the threat is considered neutralized, the medics cannot give the victim medical attention.  So, to lay it out, shooting the person in the leg will likely just cause them to bleed out anyway.  Trust me most of the time when there is an officer involved shooting, the criminal is very well known, and the police planned for this likely happening.

The Chief

I’ve been slow to post anything lately as I’m still working through the death of my wife. Thanks to “The Chief” for making the bulk of new content here lately.

I’m sorting my wife’s treasures and purging a lot of them. She valued things in terms of sentimentality and not cash value. Sadly, granddad’s ratty leather briefcase and grandma’s old dish towels don’t mean much to me, and thus didn’t make the cut. Her children generally don’t want anything. None of the three children has offered to help go through any of their mother’s stuff. I’m left to either store what I think they might like later or chuck it out.

I have a huge amount of stuff to scan this next winter. Thus far, I have scanned over 26,000 images that need review. Most were scanned and the originals were scrapped. Frankly, almost all of this stuff is meaningless unless the kids decide to be parents, then maybe their past will begin to have some significance. But right now, they have no future or thought of perpetuating the species. (In fairness, one child is looking at adoption but that is different than having your own offspring.)  The boys are seemingly content to spend their free time in front of small screens playing video games and having cyber friends in place of real relationships.

I have been fishing a few times in the last few weeks. I’ve caught trout in local rivers and bass in a local lake. I haven’t caught anything big, but I haven’t gotten skunked anywhere yet.

One project I’ve been working on is completing the railing for the deck. I bought the materials from Home Depot. Almost every box that has been delivered has been damaged. I have spent much time cleaning up the material so it can be used. I am still missing one box which should be delivered this week, or else I start complaining. I’ve been putting off the stair railing but may have to do that soon. (It’s the hardest so I have been saving it for last.)

I have set aside a small place near the front door for some photos of my wife. I’m lacking one more picture frame to complete this area. Meanwhile, the craft room is almost stripped bare, at least compared to how it looked before.

Th electricians have never finished the garage but I’m hoping that they will finish the job. It should only take one guy a day to finish what remains.

I’ve committed to connecting the upper stories of the house and garage. Hopefully my contractor can do the work as we discussed. I’m penciled in for August but that was before his daughter ran up $18K in medical bills. (The down side of not having medical insurance.) It was also before I decided to go to Ireland for two weeks.

Yep, I paid for a trip to Ireland. My wife made me promise to take a trip somewhere we would have enjoyed going together. I know I’m supposed to go because the recommended book to read prior to the trip is, “How the Irish Saved Civilization.” St Patrick is the best.

Anyway, that’s the highlights for now.

My initial comment here is that I have actually done this. What I have done will be different than for you but the principles that I express here will be helpful.

First you need to understand what the person was using as their main points of identity. In a world of two-factor identification, this is important to start closing accounts online. Apple or Microsoft or Google and perhaps Facebook are what I would consider the usual suspects. (Leave these accounts for last.) Also, knowing the PIN to get into a person’s cell phone is a must. Typically, this is a four-digit number.

Banking and Money

Start with financial stuff. Freeze the debit or credit cards. Close any accounts tied to a person’s bank. Amazon, PayPal, Venmo, eBay, etc. You don’t want anyone draining the bank account while you are doing other things.

Please note that bank accounts can create terrible experiences for spouses, trustees, and relations. Financial institutions will often freeze accounts, want to see a death certificates, and be made aware of a clearly defined successor to any accounts. My wife and I have a Trust and that removed a lot of obstacles in this area. My former next-door neighbor let her husband handle all the bills and when he died, the banks and credit cards froze all the liquid assets. She went over six weeks just to get control of her checking account. Meanwhile, no bills could be paid, and she couldn’t buy any food.

Subscriptions

Cancel subscription services: Netflix, Disney Plus, Discovery Plus, Max, Kindle, etc. Do this even if you want to keep them. Redo any streaming accounts in the name of a living person.

Photos, Documents, and the like

Once you close the financial accounts, you need to start unwinding the stuff on the cell phone. Archive photos, email, text messages, documents on the phone. Also, check the “cloud storage” from Google, One Drive, Dropbox, Apple, etc. Put what you want to keep on a PC or laptop. To access Android data, you can set up Blue Stacks on your computer. Then you can access copies of photos, text messages, contact lists, etc. It takes patience and computer skills to do this.

Concerning text messages, they can be backed up and copied to a PC; however, they are completely unreadable without restoring them to another cell phone or using third party software. I can see them in Google Messages via Blue Stacks but can’t print them, which is really frustrating. I found third party software that can print them but the text message file from my wife’s phone was over 4 GB, and the software can’t handle such a large file without crashing.

Facebook

The easiest account to close was Facebook; however, it takes some thought and preparation before you act. First you need to decide if you want to delete the account or have Facebook archive it. Either way, the contents of the account can be downloaded. This includes all photos posted, friend lists, and other stuff. Deleting the account is easy but there is another option. You can give control of the account to someone else. In the bowls of Facebook settings, it is possible to designate anyone on the friends list as a beneficiary. (Of course, FB calls this by another name.) The designated person can then go to their Facebook account and report that the person died. Before doing this, you will need a scanned copy of the death certificate. Fill out a simple form, again buried in the bowls of account settings, and be sure to attach the death certificate.

Reporting the death of a Facebook person and subsequent approval will lock the deceased person’s account, archive the account, and affix “In Memory of…” to the top of the FB page. This also givs the beneficiary control of the account. The beneficiary can post on the account, back it up, or delete it.

Root Accounts

There is a good chance that all or some phone data is backed up on Google, Microsoft, and/or Apple servers. Deleting these primary accounts will end any hope of data recovery. Use a tech savvy person to do this and then do a factory reset to the phone.

Final thought, Samsung no longer has their own cloud storage; instead, they piggyback it onto Microsoft’s One Drive. I am not clear if this is a stand-alone backup or part of the disk space allocated to Samsung users. Without a valid email account, you may not be able to access the data anyway. If you are extra paranoid, keep this in mind.

Have fun doing this. It took me a week and I’m not totally done, just at a comfortable place to stop … for now.

In this installment I will lay out a solution to our mental health crisis in the country. I again want to inform folks this part of my series is satirical in nature for one reason; none of these options are likely to ever become law.  In addition, some will likely think I am being overly mean in my commentary. My point of this series is not to attack those with actual mental illness, it’s the cheating scum who doctor shop so they too can ride the crazy train.

No weapons allowed: This applies to the entire household. Junior gets a diagnosis, it doesn’t matter who owns the guns, they must be turned over to authorities.  Any knife that isn’t a serrated blade as well. Too many crazies in the world right now. We have had enough shootings/killings.  Can’t take any more chances.  Nope you cannot keep it in a safe or at a relative’s house. If you’re on a pill or someone in your household is… it’s gone.  This will be made easier when the Sith Lord gets his way and the government maintains a national database for firearm ownership.

Mandatory mental health checkups: once every other week, by a trained, licensed professional.  Again, we cannot take chances here. We never know who the next person will be to open fire on a school/business/church etc.

TV viewing capped at one hour a day. Again, this is obvious. With the average person watching north of 8 hours a day, we cannot have you being brainwashed.  There is reality, and fantasy land, TV is mostly fantasy land.  The news makes people depressed and distressed. Depressed people are the ones who typically go on these rampages.

No more internet privacy: A copy of your browser history will be sent daily to your psychiatric caseworker for review.  Anything flagged will have you remanded to the psycho ward.  The dark web and other rabbit holes create a massive problem in this world. Remember, you are on a pill. You are not normal.  Internet time is also capped at 1 hour daily.  Again, like tv, too much brainwashing going on.

NO alcohol or drugs: legal or illegal. You will be wearing a monitor.  You are on a pill. We need to ensure that nothing interferes with the chemical balance of the body’s systems which the pill is trying to maintain.

Mandatory driving tests twice a year: Behind the wheel.  Unlike being innocent until proven guilty, here you need to prove you can drive safely twice a year.  Heck, have you seen the size/speed of some of these cars lately?  Yikes.

No voting: Again, if you are less of a citizen or crazy… no vote for you.

Mandatory inpatient care: Military style, one weekend a month, two weeks a year.  You are under evaluation, not simply going to a doctor and trying to get out of it.

Obviously the above will never be allowed to happen.  Truthfully, I do not even believe these would ever be voted in. The premise of this series is not to demean the folks who actually do have disabilities as they are actively seeking help.  I am going after the losers in the game of life you see from time-to-time that use the mental health card as a sympathy card.  My opinion is if you want the “benefits” of this condition, you must deal with the reality of our situation.  In the last few mass shootings in the US, it’s been done by a person with mental illness. In many cases, the FBI has been “right on the tail” of the shooter to no avail.  It was too late.  We can no longer take a chance.  This conservative has heard/seen enough of these. If you want to play the card, you must deal with the consequences.  No more shootings.

If these were to pass, watch the number of people with “mental health issues” plummet quickly.  The number of folks popping a “pill” will drop drastically.  Again, be healthy, be well. Put the tv remote down, stop scanning the internet, none of the news is good.  Touch some grass. No, not that kind! Go outside. Be barefoot. Enjoy the world that God made for us and quit being so self-focused and quit sheltering in place to avoid life.

The Chief