Open Thread - Saturday, October 15
Got to hustle to survive.
Get goin'--anything to stay alive."Got to Hustle to Survive" (music - Les McCann, lyrics - Rev. B., 1975)
Most of my family has been doing its hustle-to-survive thing in inner city Cleveland since 2010. In 2011, after looking at abandoned houses for more than a year, we bought a lot with two empty houses on it for $3,500. To us at the time, that constituted a fortune, more than three times what we had paid for our family transportation, a 2003 Olds station wagon.
It's turned into a 5+-year project. We decided to tackle the larger of the two houses first since that 2,700 sq. ft., two-story, two-family house could be easily adapted to four apartments that would accommodate my spouse and me along with our three adult children, all of whom were living with us at the time (or us with them?).
There was no wiring, no plumbing, no heat and no interior walls. It had been stripped down to the studs inside, something that originally attracted us to the property because of the demolition work it saved. First, we turned the water on and jury-rigged a bathroom in the smaller house that had had all the copper supply plumbing stripped from it. Then we installed an electric panel and obtained a "temporary" construction permit that allowed us to have the lights turned on again. (We're still on that "temporary" permit.) After plumbing a bath, hooking up a couple of propane heaters to 100 lb. propane tanks, stapling up some black plastic to the studs to provide some privacy (thanks for the idea, Dexter), we were ready to tough it out through our first winter. Luckily, that winter was very mild for Cleveland, mild enough to survive living in what was not much more than a barn, but not so mild that we didn't sleep with stocking caps on at night.
For the last five years, instead of paying rent, we've been buying materials for the house from the money we earn from our 10-year family gig as website builders who get their work from online freelancer sites. We've put together a pretty functional kitchen, two more baths, hung what seems like a truckload of drywall and put in three raised-bed gardens in the front, middle and back yards. We've added natural gas heat, a wood stove and lots of insulation and storm windows so that winters are both less expensive and more comfortable. We picked up a vacant lot that adjoined our property for $1 from the city. Now we've begun to work on the second house to create another apartment.
We're lucky to have a fairly dependable income from the website work, even though we've seen the site we use change from a friendly place run by a couple of Swedes who coded the site themselves to a venture capitalist nightmare. In the old days, if you paid $25 a month, your jobs were commission free. Now you pay $250 a month to be on the site and nearly all jobs come with a 15% commission. Still, we count ourselves lucky. Around the neighborhood, full-time, permanent positions are pretty rare. There are some older folks on Social Security (my wife joins that club before the end of year) and a high-rise at the end of the street full of disabled folks presumably on disability and Section 8. Others have to hustle as best they can to raise a little cash.
There are the guys that come through the neighborhood with shopping carts looking for metal. Anything in the trash barrels or unattended in an open back yard is fair game since there are two metal recyclers within 3 blocks of here, and they aren't all that picky about the provenance of what's brought to them. Places that take junk cars are a little farther away, but not so far that someone didn't steal that 2003 Olds back in 2013.
For a few years, a neighbor across the street supplemented his dealing dough by running an after-hours club on summer weekends. The usually empty street would fill up with Navigators and Escalades around 3 AM. The party was mostly held in the neighbor's back yard and didn't impact us too much because we were across the street, except when the doors of those big SUVs would open and close and the thumpa thumpa of the bass at full volume would rattle our windows. Things broke up around 7 AM, usually with a shouting match on the sidewalk mediated by our neighbor. I never saw anyone shot, cut or even punched as a result of those disputes, and these were people at the end of a very, very long night of partying. Maybe we should send our neighbor to negotiate something in Syria if people can get past the dealing bust he suffered a couple of years ago, complete with a SWAT team that tazed his old German Shepherd in front of his kids. He couldn't do a worse job of keeping the peace than the warmongers now in charge or those about to be in charge. And I know I can better trust him than them.
Back before 2007 or so, getting an equity loan on your house was a pretty lucrative hustle. Somebody needing mortgages to bundle decided that houses in this neighborhood were worth north of $50,000, and people from owner-occupiers to slumlords started filling out a lot of loan applications. The result after the crash was a neighborhood full of empty houses. When we moved in, only three of seven houses were occupied on our side of the street.
The neighborhood is a very mixed bag ethnically: whites from Appalachia and Eastern Europe; African Americans; and Asians from China and Vietnam. There are a few--but just a few--working the kind of jobs with decent pay and benefits that were common even in poor neighborhoods like this two generatons ago, but the rest of us manage to patch it together with the chewing gum of some earned cash and the baling wire of food stamps or SS. It can take a lot of ingenuity, persistence and occasionally chutzpah to keep it all together. There is very little easy money these days.
I was lookin' all over this whole wide world
Tryin' to find me some happiness.
Everywhere I took a look
The world was a terrible mess...I got to hustle to survive.
Get goin'--anything to stay alive.
Now for a little Saturday morning meditation music: Bill Evans's "Peace Piece."
Comments
After working for two years with our local CDC...
and city councilman, we've finally gotten the responsible authorities to begin the process of demolishing the too-far-gone house next to us. Last Saturday, a contractor hired by the local land bank came by to inspect the property and pronounce it ready to tear down. We went out in the front yard to ask him about how the process would work, and he was very helpful. At one point, he looked at us and said, "Why haven't you gotten 'out'?" We just laughed and explained that we had just moved in a few years ago.
Here's a YouTube version of Les McCann's and Rev. B.'s "Got to Hustle to Survive" from 1975:
“Unschooling” — homeschooling in the U.K.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/11/unschool-children-moni...
Also:
Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame
Castro's doctors and nurses are the backbone of the fight against cholera
Hey GS
Great story about cobbling together shelter. You sound very industrious! I have been asked to do a morning open thread, so am facing a steep learning curve. Any suggestions on how to get one going? Help would be most appreciated. Cheers, sm
You'll do fine.
We appreciate all our new AM OT volunteers.
Saturday: Goin South
Sunday: Lookout
Tuesday: QMS (you)
Wednesday: Can'tStopTheSignal
Looking forward to it.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I lost my virginity today, so I'm not much help.
☐ Congratulations ☐ Better luck next time ☐ Ignored—TMI
Not sure which response you would find most appropriate
Good morning all
Nice OT Goin South. What a huge project you took on. Is the neighborhood likely to gentrify? Detroit is still heavily focused on downtown, but they are tearing down and selling houses and lots really cheap too.
Did you forget the OT banner or have a problem with it? It should be at the top of all your OT's. Give a holler if you need help.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I hope we don't gentrify.
There's some investment being made because the location is so close to downtown. A successful construction guy whose ancestors used to live in the neighborhood has made some investments: revitalizing a Slovenian place; opening a yuppie deli and a craft brewery. A fresh market may follow. So far, none of it has had much impact on our street even though we're a block away.
I'd just like to get rid of the slumlords and the houses too far gone to save. There's also a Chinese restaurant/bar at the end of the street that's a constant source of violence. The whole neighborhood wants to see that go, but the city keeps renewing their liquor license because they have enough money to grease the right wheels.
Sorry, I didn't think about that banner. Maybe I'll get it right next time. If I can't figure it out, I'll drop you a PM.
Re: the size of the project--
The guy from the electric company who came and brought us power kept looking around and saying, "You've got a million piece puzzle here," and shaking his head. We have about 800,000 of the pieces in place now. Just 200,000 to go!
Threw out much $$ I do not want to spend yesterday.
For $70, the honest appliance repair guy told me my dishwasher had eaten all operable parts and my better investment would be a new. Old was over 10 years, considered ancient for a dishwasher these days. This human has had enough of the hand job. So off to bigbox to buy a new, more expensive than I planned. Free install by rebate ($145). In stock, I await the call of the installer. Old one goes off to recycling, by them. Third appliance death this year. Such is what happens to a 30+ year residence I am informed. [calculating in head] I have spent upwards of $90,000 in upgrades in 5 years. Sigh.
Looks like a pretty yellow day. Two holes to dig, one divot on driveway to repair.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
You could buy our neighborhood for $90,000.
I was thinking along those lines but you win
$90k about covers all my expenses for 5 years. Not that I feel deprived.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
When I became a widow I inherited an embarrassment of wealth
and as well an embarrassment of deferred maintenance, health costs, etc. Merry widow was never in my job description, and the money management was not my job. We had lived a comfortable lifestyle, two kids in or nearing college, I tried to maintain for them as well. I am not, no I am, being somewhat defensive. But that is all in the past now. except for the house that I am spending $$ on now to stay in as long as possible. I will agree that I have only lived poor in graduate school. Then things worked out and I was moderately successful until I was not.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Just as there is no shame in being poor
There is no embarrassment in having more, so long as nobody was cheated in the process. Both my sons and my only sibling live very comfortably (very) and I say more power to them, they deserve every bit and have worked for it.
As for me, not being defensive either, just sharing, I am bipolar and with every bout of parilyzing depression I kept paring my activities and possessions down until I am down to the very basics. I am comfortable and it's good for my mental health as just the thought of dealing with "strangers" in my home is too much. One example, I had to call the cable company several times a year for issues I had with tv, never with internet. My solution: cancel cable! This turned out to be a real blessing as I have not listened to politician voices (except Bernie) in about 4-5 years.
Enjoy your new dishwasher and I hope that you don't have to deal with more major maintenance issues in a long while.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
I just read a new invective on FB, I no likee
"retarded turbocunts". In reference to a hypothetical group of ignorant Asians decimating endangered species.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
They ain't ignant,
they just trying to get by in a false reality the west(we) imposed on them. And us.
A LOT of work gs, at least the places were stripped already. The demo part is fun for aggressive venting but just Sucks otherwise, go ahead, ask me how I know! You already know this, but the best time to insulate? Cool and windy to find all those little crevices the wind picks through. Cold and windy work too, it's just a little more uncomfortable.
Hope the 'hood comes back NOT gentrified, but solid mixed income people looking out for each other kind of place.
Not too shabby for a first OT, go have a smoke! ; ]
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
We were working on the little house two weekends ago.
It has not been taken down to the studs and still has the old (1881) plaster and lathe. We needed to take out a section to replace it with cement board for a shower. My spouse did the honors and with great enthusiasm. Must have been something I said.
You are amazing!
My husband is into
rehabbingrenovating our house. In fact he is sheet rocking a portion of the basement as I write this. But what you were able to do would be a bridge too far for even him. I admire your patience, persistence, and fortitude. This was a wonderful and very interesting OT as well as a great introduction to you. Thank you for sharing this amazing story.Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thanks, gg.
I really have enjoyed your Neo-liberalism series. This was never an affluent neighborhood, but it's neo-liberalism that has made life harder where I live.
I really enjoyed reading your story GS
You all are amazing in so many ways. Thank you!
My son and his ex father-in-law are here early this morning trying to find source of drain leak in my house and fix it. They are doing other plumbing related jobs while they are at it. I am so grateful to them. My ability to cope with the water seepage has been limited to keeping dry towels on floor to soak up the water, which is a long way from solving the problem.
When I was ready to hook up the supply side for the...
first bathroom, utility room and kitchen, I had everything worked out, cut and fit. When I was sure and I glued everything (we use CPVC), I turned water on. Unfortunately, there was a whole section I had forgotten to glue, and we had a new indoor fountain.
Glug. I didn't know you could glue pipes together.
Special glue I'm guessing.
My leaking problem is fixed. Yay! I'm trying to dry walls and stuff out now. I'm thrilled to be at this stage, though tired.
No, that's just the unskilled's answer to sweating copper.
They have some new-fangled stuff now that doesn't even take glue. Our son's girlfriend's stepdad swears by it, and he does all his own stuff too.
sweating copper
I actually find sweating copper to be easier and more reliable. One drop of moisture can totally screw up one of those plastic slip joints. This is a problem one doesn't encounter sweating copper.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It may be that I just started with a negative experience.
On the other end of adulthood, my spouse and I undertook building an adobe in the Sangre de Cristos. While we were getting the walls up, we stayed in a pickup camper that we set up on one of our friend's trailer hookups that he rented to raise a little money. The plumbing had frozen before we bought it (a learning experience), so I bought some solder and solder gun and set out to fix it. It was not a positive experience, and when it came time to plumb that house, we went plastic.
I would say that since most people are going to use PVC for DWV, and to me, that's more difficult and exacting than supply side, then using plastic for everything kind of makes sense.
But you're absolutely right. I'm not as careful as I should be about preparing the gluing surface. I just use a lot of cleaner and plenty of glue. I'm pretty much color-of-the-month (that purple or that aqua blue) by the time I'm through.
plumbing stuff
There's your first mistake. Sweating copper tubing is a job for a blowtorch, not an iron or a gun. (Hence my remark about moisture.) If you're uncomfortable using a propane torch, you should indeed go plastic.
DWV plastic pipe is all ABS (black). That's because ABS is tougher and resistant to more stress types than PVC is.
Then you're doing it right. I learned (in surprisingly similar circumstances to your experience) that if I was likely to be sweating, judicious use of a bandanna can keep one out of trouble with this kind of thing.
Also, make sure the fittings you're using are rated to the pressure you're going to be using, especially in the larger diameters. I learned that the hard way maintaining hot tubs. These use 1 1/2 inch PVC hose and tubing for their circulating water and drainage. The high-pressure couplings and other such fittings have a LOT longer slip joint surfaces than standard ones -- and it's the high-pressure fittings you definitely need in that application!
Note: I know that bluish-purple tinge on my skin very well indeed!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
plastic pipes
And special (plastic) pipes. Glue won't work on metal ones. And the glue must match the chemistry of the pipes you're working with. Glue for CPVC won't work for ABS, and vice-versa, because the glues contain some solids of the type of plastic being glued.
Glue is to plastic pipes what solder is to copper ones.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
PEX is the new standard for supply water lines, pliant, bendable
and all else good. Crimped copper for fittings.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
don't forget the flux
sweating copper with solder requires flux, an acid cleaner, the torch. Making up PVC joints also requires a primer, usually purple, which gives the glue a clean surface to adhere. Normally sold as a pair. Wear gloves, as the flux / acid / primer is very harsh. I use exam gloves (nitril). Copper also responds best to an emery cloth shining before brushing on the flux.
Good morning, thanks for the OT (and congrats on your first),
and thanks for the great story. What you are doing, btw, is the beginning of the beginning of gentrification, but you just don't know or or see it yet. I await your tales of adventure gardening in the raised beds. Floating around the web, there are instructions both from DIY types and colleges/universities, on quick and dirty somewhat cheap greenhouse construction using stuff like PVC and plastic sheeting that you could even toss up over one of them.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Our location probably says you're right. We're the next closest
area to downtown that hasn't seen "development." At the same time, it would be one of the first to go that direction on the East Side.
We lived in Croatia and Slovenia for a few years and lived in mixed income neighborhoods. Tito had a little streak of Prudhon in him, and he parceled out land to people, encouraged them to build and allowed for mixed-used zoning in these neighborhoods. A block would have a butcher, a baker, a podiatrist and maybe a little convenience store. People would have a business in the half-basement, a living area on the 1st floor and a tourist rental or relative's apartment would be on the third.
When the Italians left almost wholesale after WW II, Tito gave the deserted village of Groznjan to artists who had living quarters, studios and galleries in the village buildings. With a view of the sun glinting on the Adriatic on one side and a look down on the walled town of Motovun surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, that's a very pretty place.
This little corner of Cleveland will never be like that, but allowing mixed zoning here, might help the families already here to increase their incomes and handle the rise in taxes and expenses.
You and I are thinking alike on the greenhouse thing. I bought a couple of little shelves with a clear plastic cover and put them on our south-facing side when things warm up a little in March. I also invested in a couple of cloches to get an earlier start.
More ambitious, the little house is built in such a way that it would be doable to open up the south-facing roof with skylights. That could be heated.
When I'm about 92, we should get that finished up.
I like your OT
Goin South. A lot of us have to piece together a living as free lancers, contractors or whatever niche we can find in this so called economy. We own an old house built in 1914. We bought it in 1994. It too has been an ongoing 'project' that is funded piecemeal when we can afford it. It was intact sort of when we bought it but was so beat up and neglected that we got it for a song. I did a lot of the initial demo I liked doing it. Better for your pent up aggression then blogging.
Neither of us is handy although I am pretty good at plastering and surfaces. We kept for the most part our lath and plaster walls. I'm also a little skilled at tiling so we did redo the grungy disgusting bathroom with the help of our then neighbors. Down to the studs and the only 'professional' we used was a plumber. In those days people did not get permits unless it was electrical or gas related work. The electrician we used is off the gird lives half the year in Mexico he specializes in old houses and is son cheap I can't believe his handwritten invoices. He's like us a 'freelancer'.
In 2010 we had the kitchen redone a second time as the old counter had dry rot. We have managed to keep the original upper cupboards, windows and built in's. They are beautiful. I hired a furniture maker of the green type to do the kitchen. He used recycled old growth wood scrounged from a demolished 1910 insane asylum. He reproduced the upper cupboards doors in the new counter. We scraped of the layers of old linoleum and left the soft wood floors. We sanded them lightly and sealed them. They have patina.
Hope your street and neighborhood does not get to gentrified or 'developed'. Ours was like yours a mixed demographic group in age, race and income. It is now an un-affordable 'hot' real estate market. We could not qualify to buy our house today as our income is way to low. The street now consists of professionals who make over 100,000$ a year. The bars and restaurants down on the corner have become trendy yuppified gathering places.
Right now were having an epic storm here in Portland OR and my office is full of buckets to catch the water leaking from our partially tarped roof. A section of our metal roof blew off spectacularly in the last 'epic' storm we had a year or so ago. We need the whole roof replaced but it's going to cost 16,000$ and we sure don't have that. I'm going to get the section repaired the best I can to buy some time to refinance the house if possible. Banks even CU's don't like contractors or those of us who cob together a living that fluctuates from year to year. We do have an obscene amount of equity due to the insane gentrification of our hot real estate area. Houses on the street go for 750,000$ and up.
One remaining remnant of the old funky neighborhood is a shoe repair shop around the corner that is front for what seems to be a gambling club where after hours and sometimes in the afternoon the men bring out card tables and play cards and dice. I love walking by in the evenings and looking through the lighted storefront windows at the tableau. It looks like a Hopper painting. Years ago before we figured out it was a social club we got a pair of shoes resoled and the sole fell of in the first wearing.
Thanks again for the inspiring OT. Good luck on your ongoing inner city housing project and your business. Life is these days a hustle to stay alive. Good to read a amazing story about modern hustling and survival.
We're using a lighter touch on the other house.
We'll be able to leave most of that plaster intact. I'm going to paint over some suspicious ceiling tiles. We'll refinish the floor.
The big house had been completely stripped. It was the second house built on the property, and from what our neighbor tells us, the woodwork, etc, were very nice. That was all taken out, the walls taken down to the studs.
The little house was a more modest cottage, and its woodwork is still there.
And we have more time.
One of the scariest nights we've had here--and we've had a couple--was when Sandy hit. That seems absurd to talk about a hurricane hitting Cleveland, but it did. My spouse and I spent the night in the attic as the wind just blew the rain right through the roof. It was crazy, and that was four blocks from the lake. Trees were down all over the place. The lights were out for 3 days.
That Chinese restaurant is less Runyon and more "The Wire." The people who live at that end of the street tell tales of bullets through the walls and guys bleeding out on the porch. Usually, we just hear the gunfire, but in February it sounded like someone pounding on the walls. Twenty minutes later, the cops arrived with a half dozen of them searching the street picking up shells. Out my bedroom window, they were picking up AK-47 shells by the dozens. The targets managed to drive away but died a block away in the Burger King parking lot. Since neither our house nor our kids' cars were hit, it seems the people on one side didn't fire back. Headed the other way on the street, the neighbor's car had half dozen bullet holes.
The "argument," the cops said, originated in the Chinese restaurant.
That sounds like
some argument. We have a hole in the wall restaurant on the corner called Big Bertha's that is only open late after the bars close. It used to be the scene of many 'arguments' with gun shots that brought out the cops but since the gentrification it's been pretty low key. One of their employees ran amok a few years back and shot up a giant mall that's in the exurbs a few miles away. That's one thing about getting gentrified it does cut down on the gun play.
The violent bad actors and gangs have moved out of the inner city to the outskirts as the rents too high. Too high for a lot of us and for the small businesses. When we first moved here there were lots of racist homophobic crazy skin heads. Nobody liked them not even the gangsters and the city cracked down and arrested most of them as they were embarrassing the city state and universe. The rest of them moved to Southern Oregon near a town called Cave Junction. They are now the crazies who run Oregon's current nutso Republican party.
This epic storm is the result of a Pacific Typhoon the edges of which hit the coast Thursday. The big wind is supposed to hit Portland this after noon with gust up to 60 mph. Yesterday the rain deluge broke the inches record for Portland going back to 1906. I can deal with rain and were far enough away from the river not to get flooded out. High winds scare the crap out of me. Maybe because I watched the Wizard of Oz at too early an age.
I grew up in Wizard of Oz country.
When I was 12, I was sitting with my parents in the living room of our old farmhouse with its windows that ran ten feet from just above the floor to near the ceiling. It was hailing so hard from the west that we were afraid the windows would break, so we moved into the kitchen. Just then, the hail switched coming from the west and began to come out of the south. We had no cellar, so we just sweated it out.
A few minutes after the sudden change in wind direction, things cleared up. We went outside to find that our neighbor's barn had been lifted from its foundation, carried more or less intact across the road between our farms, and then dropped in our front pasture. After that, the twister somehow lifted and went over our house.
I've been around a lot of severe storms, but never a hurricane before Sandy. It was a whole new level of intense as far as I'm concerned because it lasted for far longer than a few minutes.
wow, what an amazing story
have any pictures you want to share?
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
We've been taking pictures all along.
Some are befores. Some durings, shots of us working. Not many afters yet.
One day, we'll get it together.
What do you plan to do with the vacant lot you
acquired, gs? More gardening?
.
Our house needs extensive renovation, but it never seems to get done. However, I need some personal renovation--a new knee. I've been trying to find a way out, but it looks like there isn't one. I've been taking glucosamine and chondroitin for years now. I'm not sure if it helped forestall the inevitable, or it was just a waste of money.
I'm gimping around on crutches now and can't depend on it to support me. I was swimming regularly and it really helped me lose weight and improve my balance. Since my knee quit on me I tried swimming only once and my knee was much worse. Looks like I'll have to go crawling (almost literally!) back to the doctor. I was going to wait for a scheduled appointment to talk to my internist who is younger than me but also has knee problems. Sadly it looks like I don't really have any other options than to become "bionic".
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
I hope things go better with your knee.
I have a few health things that could do with some attending, but I'm hanging on for Medicare. I'm relieved my wife is just a few months away.
My daughter is the one who had a health scare since we moved to Cleveland. We were able to negotiate that maze successfully, and she ended up receiving some excellent care at one of the best hospitals in the country without finding herself deep in debt just as she starts life.
Otherwise, we've been pretty lucky.
I have seen people undergo knee surgery and regain years in mobility and comfort. I hope you have good doctors, and good therapists too. If it weren't for them, all that new hardware would go to waste.
We use that extra yard for some gardening and behind-gate parking. That old Olds was stolen twice. The first time, we got her back. The second time, we didn't. So we park behind a set of stockade fence-type gates.
I'm glad to hear that your daughter was able to get
such good care. I'm on Tricare now and go on Medicare at the beginning of next year with Tricare as a supplemental. I haven't always had the best luck with doctors, but we'll see.
Sorry to hear about your car. I wondered if you'd got it back, so yes AND no. I can see how protected parking would be so important. You and your family are scraping by, but to those so much worse off, you seem like a source of revenue. Scrap yards should be required to demand titles for junked cars.
Inequality is killing this country. Here's hoping for better days.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Battle of Dabiq
About to happen
Why this matters
We should have a Crazy Contest.
It will be like Randy Newman used to sing about the whole world being hooked up on satellite TV.
There will be two teams. The Sabres will have members from ISIS, Nusra, Al Qaeda and all your favorite terrorists.
The Yankees will consist of graduates of West Point, Annapolis and especially, Colorado Springs. Boykin will definitely be there. Just for fans of off-the-charts chilling, we'd might go outside the Academies to bring in everyone's favorite Harvard professor cum Nobel Peace Prize.
They could discuss Dabiq and Megiddo along with a dash of "acceptable losses" and "collateral damage."
There would be no winners or losers. Both teams will be sentenced to spend Eternity with each other.
Dominionist USAFA types
You mean those Dominionistic USAFA grads would never be seen in Colorado Springs again? Oh yeah, baby, bring it!!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Redacted Tonight
paging Big Al!
our tarp ripped so the rain's a-gonna come in. Could you send me a message with the contact info of your roofing guy?
Thanks.
Oh bummer,
will do.
Thanks GS
What a bold pioneering spirit !
Berlin big-city girl in Minnesota, all alone among Trump fans
A year as an exchange student in small-town America
Do you believe in evolution? (in German)