At left, fresh vinyl in the laundry room; at right, new tile in the crapper (though still no crapper).
Yesterday was a perfect day for a bike ride. The temperatures peaked somewhere in the upper 70s, I had a tailwind for most of the uphill bits, and it even rained a bit during the homebound stretch. I didn’t have a rain jacket, but I didn’t care, because it felt great. Plus the bike had fenders.
Good thing I made time for cycling, too. Because today, after nearly three months of not much happening as regards restoration of the basement following The Shit Monsoon of Memorial Day Weekend, not one but two crews showed up to lay tile and vinyl. Tomorrow comes the carpet, and later this week, the toilet and vanity. Good times.
The downside — and there always is one — is that it is another beautiful day for cycling, yet here I sit, enjoying a symphony of jackhammers and saws, because Herself has pissed off to Denver for a meeting and there is no one else to mind the store. The cats are notoriously unreliable in such matters, and Mister Boo would be down there happily eating adhesive and grout because he thinks everything is food. Swear to God. He’d scarf down a bowl of cat piss and sawdust as though it were steak tartare.
Speaking of folks who will swallow anything, David Stockman isn’t one of them — not when it comes to Paul Ryan and his alleged budget “plan.” Ronnie Raygun’s OMB chief ripped Ryan a new one in The New York Times, and Ed Kilgore of Political Animal adds his personal touch to the bits and pieces he quotes.
Over at The Nation, meanwhile. John Nichols takes the opportunity to contrast Ryan’s Randite vision with Wisconsin’s progressive tradition.
And at The Maddow Blog, Steve Benen calls out Ryan for hypocrisy, noting that while he was raising against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Ryan was right there with his hand out like everyone else.
Mad Blog Media 
August 14, 2012 at 1:39 pm |
Hope there are a few more good cycling days out there for ya, OG. Why is the weather rarely crappy when you have indoor tasks like this? The whole Ryan thing is a cruel charade, the last veep the Repuglicans inflicted upon us was that heartless bastard who claimed deficits didn’t matter. There’s zero logic at work here.These folks are masters at manipulating the very folks they’re screwing over into voting for them…but we know what my wife says… I just hope the morons who stagger down to vote in November are fewer than the voters who see through the charade. With Ryan added to the ticket, the choice of voting for the lesser evil certainly became easier.
August 14, 2012 at 6:53 pm |
Larry, the good news is that the RomneyBot v2.012’s selection of the Zombie-Eyed Granny-Starver (ZEGS) as a running mate apparently didn’t give much of a bump to the campaign.
The bad news is that he’s articulate and capable of lying through those shiny white teeth with a straight face, unlike the guy at the top of the ticket, who lies about as well as a teenage boy caught with a Playboy in one hand and his wanger in the other.
August 14, 2012 at 5:06 pm |
Patrick-
The photo of the linoleum (Porgy…Porgy Tyrebiter!!!!) with the hole in the floor reminds me of a French PortaPotty I once saw. They had toilet paper, though.
August 14, 2012 at 6:49 pm |
Sheeyit, Richard (pardon the expression), you can’t even poop in our hole in the floor. It’s plugged.
August 14, 2012 at 7:01 pm |
That photo gave me a bad memory of a recent toilet replacement project here at the posh office/home of CycleItalia. Gawd, I HATE plumbing! I don’t think it’s improved much since the Roman Empire. My project started as the simple “fix the toilet that keeps on running” project but of course once the old one was ripped apart, the replacement “fits all toilets, solves all problems” kit proved to be not so “fits all” so back to the home-improvement joint to hear “heck, it’d be simpler to just replace the toilet”….just what I wanted to hear (and do) on a Saturday evening!
August 14, 2012 at 7:37 pm |
Oh, lawd, Larry, beware of that replacing-the-toilet project. My man Charles Pelkey got into a simple bathroom fix-it-up in Golden once and found himself down into the joists before it was all over. I write the check and step off for that sort of thing. My plumber wants a cartoon, he knows where to find me.
August 15, 2012 at 1:42 pm |
One of the first things I did in my girlfriend’s condo in Honolulu was replace a dead toilet. Man, talk about weird ways for someone to fall in love with you.
“Hey, Norton, you doing anything for dinner tonight?”
August 15, 2012 at 1:08 pm |
I thought Porgy was helping Porcelain make the bed, not Linoleum. Or am I missing something?
August 14, 2012 at 7:51 pm |
Paul Ryan, Paul Schryan. The important thing is restoring the bathroom sink so HRH The Turk regains a favorite sleeping place.
August 14, 2012 at 9:03 pm |
Happily, Libby, the Turk’s chosen sink is in the upstairs bathroom, the one that remains functional.
Lately the big galoot has been napping on my drawing board, which I have been compelled to cover with a blankie so that he may be spared the rigors of its harsh wooden surface.
The other day I had to remove His Majesty in mid-snooze in order to meet a deadline and it’s a wonder I still have enough fingers with which to draw. Don’t be surprised if you see a few ragged lines and the odd bloodstain or two in the latest “Shop Talk” strip in BRAIN.
August 14, 2012 at 9:29 pm |
Hah!
So you must be brushing your teeth at the kitchen sink to spare HIs discomfort and your hands.
August 14, 2012 at 9:49 pm |
Too weird not to tell you about this.
Hadn’t been on Facebook in ages but had something to report. (New bambino, so there are now five of us, and I’m the only one who pees standing up. Although, I’m thinking, if we were staying at your place, the ladies might need to learn how.)
Anyway, I’m reading Charles Pelkey riff on the 1%, and someone chimes in, changing the subject, that collectivism has never worked, and it’s legacy is 100 million dead in the last century alone.
But then I’m reading something else, and again, apropos of nothing, someone else spouts the exact same thing.
And again over here.
And again over there.
Another guy uses it as a parting shot when it had no bearing on the subject at hand.
Another dude slips it in somewhere else where it was equally off topic.
So I scroll through a couple of hours worth of posts, and I counted 27 utterances of almost the exact same verbiage: collectivism has never worked, and the socialists, communists, and fascists killed 100 million during the 20th century.
Had to be some ditto- head twilight zone shit going on. The talking points went out, and the minions had to obey.
And if that’s what we have to look forward to, then I’m looking for a cave in which to spend the next two months.
With or without working plumbing.
August 15, 2012 at 6:29 am |
I’m wondering why we came back from Italy about now, we could have voted from there and avoided all the political insanity. Being in a “toss-up” state (which is what I want to do every time I hear Mitten’s TV spots) we’re bombarded with it during the network newscasts. I guess I’ll have to watch PBS exclusively (again) to escape most of it. As to the toilet, the job is done – it HAD to get done, the water was shut off, so it was do the business in the back yard otherwise! Where’s your cave? I may want to join you.
August 15, 2012 at 1:16 pm |
HPD — funny you should mention the trolling thing. Here’s an excellent little article on this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/dec/13/astroturf-libertarians-internet-democracy
August 15, 2012 at 8:40 am |
Here is the direct link to the Times op ed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/14/opinion/paul-ryans-fairy-tale-budget-plan.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
Patrick, did you or the city put in the anti-backflow valve yet on the sewer line? I’d hate for you to have to do this yet a third time…..
August 15, 2012 at 5:16 pm |
Yes Patrick…yesterday was a good day for a bike ride. Mine went a bit awry though. I managed to bridge up to our one-man break and give him a rest for a few seconds before pulling over to let him take the front so I could get a rest. There was a wheel overlap, but this time I didn’t avoid the collision. Down I went around 25-30 mph- luckily I got to the grass. The tally was one right clavicle, several right ribs and one partially collapsed right lung- which might not have been high score, but it did get me a night in the local hospital. I’m home now and applying scotch instead of hydrocodone. Hopefully I’ll get more sleep tonight.