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Month: December 2014

A trek to Raymond, Washington

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You might think the above photo is terribly boring.

You would be wrong.

You’d know exactly how un-boring it is if you drove past that large blue building with the impressive air-handling equipment. The wafting aroma of cannabis will follow you for a quarter of a mile.

I recently made a little expedition to a town in Washington state that’s turning out to have quite a story. That building is part of it.

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Cleaning out the closets of the mind

When I moved into this house, nearly 18 months ago now, I didn’t have time to do it right. So many urgent things had to be done — and I’m talking bleach-the-mold-off-the-walls urgent, rip-entire-walls-out urgent, tear-off-rotted-rooms urgent — that many niceties got neglected. Boxes went unpacked. Stuff got stuffed … wherever.

Besides, after having lived small for 10 years (between Cabin Sweet Cabin and that crumbling fifth-wheel in the desert), I had just spent the previous three years in house with an attic, a basement, and a garage. This house … not so much.

Then there was the teeny, tiny problem of closets. This place had not a single one. Not. One. Closet.

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Monday links

Working on a longer think-piece from the hermitage. Meanwhile, thinking of you … Okay, you know the .22 LR shortage is desperate when people start reloading the stuff. S, who sent the link, says he’s not about to start personally risking his eyeballs packing gunpowder into tricky little rims; YMMV. Turns out that execrable CRomnibus spending bill (which rewards every pork-seeking group in the nation, with special attention to funding the D & R parties), has at least one good feature: it defunds the war on legalized cannabis. But Australia banned guns! So how can this possibly be happening??? Well,…

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After being so rudely interrupted

… by WordPress eating the last third of this morning’s blog, I thought I’d quickly check back in for a little catching up. It’s definitely looking more and more like batten-down-the-hatches time for tomorrow. Aside from winds gusting into the 70s and 80s, it’s wet, wet, wet and about to get wetter. This afternoon I took a drive outside of town and at high tide (we’re heavy on salt marsh and tidal estuary hereabouts) the water was already only inches from rising over the roadway. By tomorrow’s high tides, things could get messy. The windows of my house overlook a…

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Dispatches from the Hermitage

It’s been howling and pouring for the last two days — and now the weather folks are telling us the news: a big blow is coming! (That news story is California-centric, but its map is not.) We’ve been having this-and-that warnings all week. High surf warnings. Travel advisories. High-wind warnings. At one point the Seattle area was under 14 different warnings at the same time. Portland, about the same. The pineapple express, usually semi-rare, has been running on a regular schedule this season. Even with the big storm less than 24 hours out, meteorological models are still arguing with each…

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Christmas presents

I’ve already had a couple of readers ask what I’d like for Christmas. And my answer is: You already gave me fabulous presents. Last summer’s roof-raiser was all I could ask for — and more. You bestowed such bounty on me that I’m still struggling to feel worthy. Been a weird year. One thing after another went wrong, but no sooner had it gone than somebody would pop up with a helping hand. It’s been really amazing. So no. I don’t need anything for Christmas. I had Christmas already. If you’re in a giving mood may I suggest again this…

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Sunday-Monday links

Love it! Trekkies (and fed-up fliers) tell the TSA who’s boss. (H/T S.) For this couple, energy-efficiency has jumped the shark. At least they now understand and are willing to say what a pair of idiots they were to build such a house. Wow. That was some impressive pistol shot! Lyrics NSFW and hip-hop might not be to everybody’s taste. But Freedom Feen Neema Vedadi (with Mason Moore) has a way of putting freedom right in the face of a new generation: “See My Chains.” (Tip o’ hat to MD) If you’ve never been to the Buffalo Bill Firearms Museum…

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Knappster’s Big Freakin’ Book Of Stuff

Thomas Knapp has been around the liberty movement forever … well, about as long as I have, come to think of it. Now he’s compiled nearly 20 years worth of selected columns into his first actual book. (Kudos and congrats on the achievement, Tom.) You can get it here in dead-tree, e-book, and free PDF versions. Prices are very reasonable (free is as reasonable as it gets, but the other versions are priced just right for what they are, too.) If you enjoy classic Knappster (and who doesn’t?), you’ll like this. The book is divided into topic sections: Israel, Ron…

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