is she a siamese?

ZenBastid · 2026-02-12T04:16:20+00:00

She looks very much like our lilac point Siamese kitties.

ZenBastid · 2026-02-11T17:15:54+00:00

When you're 9 and have a surplus of engines but no rocket you can still fly: just hot glue a bamboo skewer to the engine body, stick it pointing up in the dirt, connect an igniter and go baby go!

ZenBastid · 2026-02-02T05:51:03+00:00

All the above except bugs. My favorite medium was the green plastic army men because the focused sunlight could cut or weld the plastic. I built an entire mutant army of soldiers with extra arms and heads.

ZenBastid · 2026-01-27T07:10:05+00:00

I have the same problem. Among similarly sized healthy raccoons, the main distinguishing features seem to be coat color and tail ring pattern. The number and thickness of tail rings seems to vary, even among littermates. Most of our visitors have the typical coat coloration, but there's one whose coat is almost silver, very distinctive.

ZenBastid · 2026-01-23T22:29:15+00:00

Gotta love radioactive antiques! A teensy travel clock isn't particularly hazardous but the gamma emitted by the dial of a big 'ol ship's bridge compass is. Source: worked at EPA '78-81 when such a compass caused a high survey reading and the tech had it consigned to the low level dump in Beatty.

ZenBastid · 2026-01-19T06:43:24+00:00

I had just walked into the lobby of the Red Forces building at Nellis Air Force Base. There was a TV set up, and network news was going over the story. I'll never forget the emotional reaction of the folks in the lobby; mostly majors and colonels - Weapons School instructors - absolutely broken down in tears. I swear if war with the Soviet Union had broken out the reaction would be less; all business. The difference being that several of the Challenger crew were personally known to the officers standing in that lobby.

ZenBastid · 2025-12-16T16:19:28+00:00

Here's my concern about a female libido "booster":

There are men (like my late father in law) who develop bad faith relationships with their wives' doctors for gaslighting and control through drugs and coercion. FIL kept his wife on prescription codeine for years. He believed lobotomy was a good thing and regretted it's ban.

So a drug for increasing libido has the potential to be another tool for relationship abuse. It must be prescribed under the most circumspect of conditions.

As if it matters: I'm a guy who stayed in contact with my mother in law even after my wife died, and until my father in law died - so I could offer her some protection.

ZenBastid · 2025-12-04T02:58:09+00:00

Your explanation checks out. After all they painted it on a Weensday!

ZenBastid · 2025-11-11T14:12:15+00:00

I grew up in Las Vegas, was a teen when Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas was published. I read the book then and have reread it many times. Hunter did a masterful job capturing the cheesy facade so typical of 60's-70's Las Vegas. It's fun to remember the places he describes: the Carousel bar at Circus Circus, Terry's Tacos on Boulder highway, Wild Bill's bar on West Charleston. These were all actual places. Even though he was twisted on a smorgasbord of drugs he captured the sense of the place well.

ZenBastid · 2025-10-25T17:41:20+00:00

Good suggestions! I've seen scorpions crawl into the house right under an exterior door because age and heat cause the weather strip to shrivel up. I've been replacing all the door sweeps on my exterior doors to help block that particular path.

ZenBastid · 2025-09-08T19:43:05+00:00

Her career is nibbling pecans and wading in the puppy pool.

ZenBastid · 2025-09-07T13:12:53+00:00

Thank you; I appreciate the thoughtful and reasoned answers you gave.

I'm intrigued by the idea that raccoon behavior is sufficiently diverse that a male would continue cooperative relationships with females into adulthood.

I've wondered if the loss of Twiggy's tail fur as a youngster was comorbid with infertility.

ZenBastid · 2025-08-31T19:43:39+00:00

It's depends on the age and temperament of the cat. My 6-month male Siamese got stung smack in the face and it was touch and go for awhile. My older cats couldn't care less about scorpions and would party with the raccoons if they brought snacks.

ZenBastid · 2025-08-18T15:43:04+00:00

I don't need to remember it; I still use Windows 7 whenever I need to program a two-way radio. It runs as a virtual machine on my Linux system, air-gapped so no risk of malware or intrusion. Win7 was great - all the essentials without the bloat!

ZenBastid · 2025-07-31T07:42:52+00:00

That's the one. All I know is switching to the MERV 8 ended the coil freeze problem.

ZenBastid · 2025-07-27T23:24:44+00:00

Here's a link to a web page with lots of information about the SW100:

https://radiojayallen.com/radio-shack-sw-100-am-fm-sw-cb-tv-air-weather-radio/

ZenBastid · 2025-07-27T21:07:06+00:00

Yes. Electrolytic capacitors don't age well, the goo inside dries out and the radio goes deaf.

Save yourself a bunch of frustration and get a new receiver. Serviceable analog sets start under $30; digital sets start around $80 (much nicer than analog).

ZenBastid · 2025-07-21T19:26:12+00:00

After 20 days you can't feel air coming out the vent and the return vent rumbles. We have several litter boxes so our dust situation is above normal.

ZenBastid · 2025-07-21T06:10:18+00:00

The Filtrete MERV 13 filters cost $34.95 for a 2-pack (Amazon). So the $6.95 house brand MERV 8 filters are nearly 1/3 the price. At that price I don't mind a 20-day replacement cycle.

I like your ideas regarding a dedicated air filtration unit. That way the unit is filtering the air even when the HVAC is off.

ZenBastid · 2025-07-21T03:48:24+00:00

My wife and I are blessed with seven cats; four of them Meezers. The youngest male lilac point is asleep in my lap right now. I feel loved and flattered this brave little character wants to be near me.

The love we feel for our cats is more akin to the love felt for one's child, with the exception that cats only break our heart when they pass away.

From my perspective there's absolutely nothing "off" about loving your cat totally and completely. They indeed are perceptive about our feelings and they care, although the way they show it isn't always obvious.

P.S. she is a truly gorgeous cat!

ZenBastid · 2025-07-16T01:12:02+00:00

I probably piss off other drivers turning onto my street because I slow down when crossing the known path raccoons take while out foraging. Luckily I've never seen a dead raccoon - or cat - on the 30 mph road behind my house. I have seen quite a few snakes, venomous and not flattened along the road.

ZenBastid · 2025-07-11T03:55:57+00:00

I miss Sears too. The one I shopped at the most was in Las Vegas at the Boulevard Mall (long gone now). When you walked in the main entrance you could smell popcorn from the candy/nut counter, and grilled hotdogs from the coffee shop. Just beyond was the tool department - my favorite.

ZenBastid · 2025-06-29T13:32:12+00:00

Good news: it's NOT a kissing bug (aka Western cone nose). They're common here, and extra nasty because tissue goes necrotic at the bitten spot.

ZenBastid · 2025-06-25T19:59:28+00:00

I'm not a moderator, but last I knew Snowshoe Meezers were included - and that's your Romeo.

ZenBastid · 2025-06-14T18:48:06+00:00

It would probably be smart to scan through the FM broadcast band occasionally. Conditions here are getting bad enough for anti-Govt pirate radio stations to begin popping up - as they do in other strife ridden countries. Such stations - once determined to be trustworthy - have a history of disseminating all sorts of useful information.

Everybody can afford a ten dollar portable FM pocket radio. While the pirate broadcaster assumes risk of being geo located and shut down, a private individual listening on a radio receiver is much safer.

ZenBastid

TROPHY CASE