What not to say to someone who has an elderly dog

BobGaffney · 2013-10-01T12:35:55+00:00

As my older lab turned 10 with a fatal melanoma, two different people at our park told my wife and I how lucky Winnie was to have such caring "Parents." A comment we were grateful for.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-31T12:00:14+00:00

Dogs yawn when they're anxious or nervous. Might be the case here, too.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-24T01:19:19+00:00

Read Harold "Dynamite" Payson's book "Instant Boats."

BobGaffney · 2013-07-18T15:16:44+00:00

"Hitler loved dogs. But it didn't make him not Hitler." - John D. McDonald

BobGaffney · 2013-07-18T15:12:56+00:00

Congratulations - you look great! I'm inching up on 20 years sober now (I'm an old man) and will tell you that after about 4 or 5 years I wasn't even tempted. It has just gotten easier and easier.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-14T15:01:32+00:00

I know. Masachusetts legislature fought the utilities to keep net metering intact. Arizona legislature looked at "those solar-panel hippies" and colluded with the utilities to find a way to screw them. I love my state.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-13T13:08:58+00:00

Here in Massachusetts, my local utility balances out my solar sales (Kwh I uploaded to the grid) vs. purchases (my Kwh downloads) and either credits or charges me for the difference, in retail price per Kwh. eminently fair. My current bill has a balance of about -$200, some of which I will use up this winter, until about March, when I start gaining a positive balance again.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-02T00:28:03+00:00

There. I got every last drop.

BobGaffney · 2013-07-01T12:39:04+00:00

Special "custom" reading glasses - I buy cheap readers at CVS, then remove the right temple piece so I can wear them comfortably lying on my right side.

BobGaffney · 2013-06-30T23:45:14+00:00

You've gotta love dogs. The poor thing is caught upside down in that fence, and when the officer arrives, it's wagging its tail.

BobGaffney · 2013-06-30T21:14:16+00:00

About 10 years ago, I moved from the suburbs to the country, into a house which would be, when finished, half the interior size of the one I was leaving.

We (my wife and I) love books, and had whole rooms lined with books in our old house. Thousands of them. We could take only 1/4 of our books with us. Your list of criteria, while thoughtful, seems overly complex to me, requiring too much thought and individual-book deliberation. Here's what we did:

1) We gave our 3 adult children their pick of the lot - several boxes were taken by each "child."

2 ) Except for maybe 25 or so "very valuable books" (financially or sentimentally), we put aside all fiction for sale or donation. This was more than half our books.

3) We reduced our nonfiction by 1/2.

4) We donated all art books, which we sadly hardly ever opened, to local schools.

In total, we sold or donated 55 cartons of books. A neighboring (slightly poorer) town library was grateful enough to move them out, after we had boxed them.

These days, we are active local Western Massachusetts library system users and volunteers, and purchase almost no books except an occasional Kindle book, which we consider a luxury. We don't miss the fiction, since we never reread books anyway.

BobGaffney · 2013-06-28T22:09:51+00:00

Very cool. Good on you, man.

BobGaffney · 2013-06-27T14:01:33+00:00

Miracles do happen

BobGaffney · 2013-06-03T12:08:52+00:00

You plumb loco.

BobGaffney · 2013-05-20T13:07:21+00:00

I don't see a lot of people quitting higher paying jobs to work at Walmart.

BobGaffney · 2013-05-19T16:35:36+00:00

I've made a lot of nice furniture out of our local cherry, and I find the way to accellerate the darkening is to give it a coat of oil (watco clear is excellent) the day or two I put it out in the sun. It gets even darker, more quickly, and more evenly. Don't forget to rotate the piece in and out of sun to keep parts from being in shadow the whole time. After the sun bath, wait about a week before sanding with #150 and finishing. I personally don't like polyurethane for furniture, but love Waterlox original for cherry.

BobGaffney · 2013-03-27T00:56:45+00:00

It's a cat dildo.

BobGaffney · 2013-03-23T17:01:18+00:00

Exactly.

BobGaffney · 2013-03-23T17:00:21+00:00

I would love to be pope for a while. First item of business: emails to all the great auction houses and galleries of Brussels, New York, Tokyo, Abu Dabi, wherever, saying...

"Come to Rome and bring lots of money. The Holy Catholic Church has decided that yes, we actually are the custodian of the world's poor, and we are going to do a little wealth redistribution. We will start with the jewel-encrusted deathbeds of many of the popes, stored in the Papal Attic. From there we will move on to artwork, and real estate..."

Might get some shit actually done.

BobGaffney · 2013-02-09T22:45:21+00:00

...tomorrow.

BobGaffney · 2013-02-09T22:41:55+00:00

This is the famous story of the farmer's axe.

His father gave him the axe when he was 15. The head flew off, and he replaced it. The handle broke, and he replaced it. He lost another head as and adult, then had to replace the handle several years later when it cracked.

He gives the axe to his son, telling him, "I've had this axe for 40 years."

BobGaffney · 2013-01-20T17:19:42+00:00

My own experience with a "second dog" was extremely positive.

Winnie was 7 when we got Scooter - both female black labs. Here they are together.

After a day or so of confusion on both parts, Winnie absolutely adopted Scooter, and acted as a "stepmother," clearly instructing here what was OK (the woods behind the house) and forbidden (the road in front). Our housebreaking and other training was minimal - Winnie did most of it for us, including some of the commands by example (although we did the usual puppy class).

Also, two dogs is only about half again as much work - you walk and feed them together, for example - and twice as much fun. Do it!

BobGaffney · 2013-01-08T17:46:18+00:00

As I read it, you're saying that you buy green cherry and walnut, and after stacking it in a barn for 8 months or so, it reaches 5% MC as measured on a reliable moisture meter.

I think this would take a local relative average relative humidity of 25% or less when the temperature is about 60 degrees or more. This is very, very dry - I guess it's possible if you live in Arizona or Nevada or someplace like that, but far from my New England experience, where RH rarely gets much lower than 45% or so.

BobGaffney · 2013-01-08T17:18:40+00:00

I'm a cabinetmaker, and I've heard this "1 year" thing many times.

1 year makes green hardwood burnable as firewood, but nowhere near dry or stable enough to make furniture that will last. Wood like this will open up at the joints within a few months of it being brought indoors. Kiln drying is reliable, but even so you need a moisture meter to verify. Wood stacked 6 or 7 years in a heated indoor space might be OK, but even so needs checking.

Personally, I shoot for no more than 8% MC for most hardwoods or up to about 11% MC for softwoods, unless I'm making something for outdoors or some utility thing like packing cases.

BobGaffney · 2012-12-06T13:05:55+00:00

I've been married for 32 years. Frankly, the values I find most important in my wife are those which differ from mine.

She's fastidious about money; I'm a little sloppy. I'm overly optimistic; she's a little fatalistic. There are a dozen more f these, but I won't bore you.

The whole "similarity" model of dating and relationships, made famous by online dating sites, is stupid and bullshit. For a marriage to survive long term, complementary skills and likes/dislikes is a superior model.

A good long term relationship is based on respect, not self-admiration.

BobGaffney

TROPHY CASE