• It is quite unnerving to drive a large truck so close to a jumbo jet that you can no longer see anything but the actual belly of it.
• It is almost as unnerving to be on the bucket of said truck so that you can inspect the rear engine on the tail of it.
• A large truck handles very differently after you load 1500 gallons of water into it.
• Buckets on booms, high pressure hoses, sprays that rebound right up your noses.  Sunshiny days, trucks that handle rough, this is a bit of my favorite stuff.
• It is always a good idea to know which end of the nozzle the spray is going to come out of before pulling  back on the trigger.
• Overheard on the radio:  “Please do not back up the truck when its rear end is pointed at the airplane.  STOP BACKING UP THE TRUCK!  STOP!”
  • It wasn’t directed at me.
  • No bad things happened, but it’s never a good thing when people come running so that they can witness something that looks really interesting.
• When one of the hinge joints on your jaw refuses to cooperate, it’s time to call the rheumatologist.
• If de-icing was done in gorgeous weather like we’ve had the past few days, I’d volunteer to transfer.  Of course,  it’ll only happen in January when it’s blowing and snowing.  That’s why it’s called ‘de-icing’ and not ‘de-sunshining’.
• I got my new barrel from York Arms today.  Time to buy the rest of what I need to complete the  upper.
• You know, after watching how the parks department and VA have been treated during the shutdown, I think I would support efforts to place all veterans and war memorials, as well as the entire VA, under the purview of the Department of Defense.  I’m not saying that the Pentagon isn’t a bureaucratic leviathan that squashes ants for fun and profit.  What I am saying is that when this happens again, it probably won’t be hard to get volunteers to keep the VA hospitals  and war memorials open and maintained.  My guess is that a Marine lance corporal or Army specialist would be a heck of a lot more respectful and polite to aged veterans than the jackboots that have been prominent so far.

• I watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” with Boo today.
  • That sack of rocks that Charlie Brown gets while trick or treating would come in handy if someone tried to mug the other kids for their candy.
  • The butt chewing that Sally gives Linus when she realizes that he’s an idiot sounds eerily familiar.
  • The World War I flying ace has obviously seen too much. He just needs someone to listen to him talk. What clued me to this was how music played on a toy piano caused such a quick and traumatic mood swing.
  • Linus  needs to realize that the Great Pumpkin isn’t in the pumpkin patch. He’s in the costume stores and the slasher flicks. He’s in the temporary candy aisles in the stores and the overpriced corn mazes. Yes, Virginia, there is a Great Pumpkin, and he is found everywhere people start shopping for Halloween as soon as the back to school sales are over.
• Well, the great storms passed through this weekend.
  • On a good note, I got to meet my new neighbor, who is apparently into ship building and menageries.
  • The money we put into waterproofing our basement and replacing the roof was well spent.  We probably got more than 3 inches of rain in a few hours, and the house was bone dry.
  • Lightning strikes that are almost instantaneous with the thunder boom are nature’s way of telling you to quit caulking the seams in the porch and go inside.
• Girlie Bear enjoyed her camping trip this weekend.
  • The adults cut it short because of the monsoon that was sweeping through, but only by a few hours.
  • I’m going to have to show her the trick of putting important stuff into ziploc bags when you’re going to be outdoors.
  • In related news, Girlie Bear will soon be purchasing her own cell phone for the very first time.
• Taking the Siamese cat and the labrador retriever to the vet at the same time wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
  • I noticed that my vet bills lately have been bigger than the payments on my first car loan.  I think we’re officially full when it comes to critters.
• I’m pretty sure that my circadian rhythm is set to “Calypso” at the moment.

If the webservers that serve out pages for such things as the National Park Service and such are offline because of the government shutdown, why are the computer systems that take tax money out of my paycheck still up and running?  It would seem to me that something that provides a service to the nation would be at least as important as something that parasitizes the nation’s lifeblood.