Flicks to See

Been enjoying some flicks by Jim Jarmusch lately. I think we found his stuff by looking for stuff with Roberto Benigni in, who's work we really enjoy. Benigni is in Down by Law as an Italian Tourist in New Orleans who ends up in jail with some other weird characters. In this one, you can watch Benigni without subtitles. His English isn't so good, but that's part of it.

Coffee and Cigarettes is a series of shorts, with a variety of characters meeting over, coffee and, cigarettes, of course. Some of these are a real trip, and they even manage to bring Nicola Tesla into the picture.

In Mystery Train some Japanese tourists and others deal with Elvis and his ghost, while in a cheap hotel in Memphis. You might wish there were subtitles here, but that's part of what it is.

Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made is a documentary where Jarmusch returns to the Amazon with director Sam Fuller. Fuller did some filming here years ago in an attempt to make "Tigrero". This never got off the ground, as he relates that the insurance companies wouldn't let it happen. But there is lots of cool stuff about the Indians.

The last one I've got here is Dead Man. This features Johnny Depp as an easterner who ends up out in the western wilderness with a weird indian. It is just strange. Local Daughter & Co. claim it is actually Dante's Inferno in disguise.

We got all these from Netflix.

Current Events

We've recently heard of some problems with Chinese exports. The Chinese have vowed to put an end to this. It seems they are going for some sort of a "Final Solution" here. They are taking this seriously, and I'm sure this won't happen again. You gotta admit, "they don't play".

In other news, The Fuzz is still down in his back. He worked Monday and Tuesday, but that was too much, and it was all he could do to get out of the bed the next morning. So, it was more time off work ! He is hoping to give it another shot on Monday.
It's funny how a day off work sounds so good until it's a result of pain.

The Bad and the Good

This is a Garbage Truck. If it seems a little bit, some how, not exactly "right", it's not your eyes, don't worry, it's not you. There seems to be some problem with the horizontal-vertical stuff. I tried to fix this, but something's still not right.

It seems there was a mishap on the way to the dump. Somehow this truck lost it's footing, if trucks have "footing". Maybe it's not that, maybe it "capsized". But can something capsize if it's not at sea ?

Well now it seems to be stuck on the wall. But, that's not really a wall, it looks more like the ground. Maybe there is a big magnetical field here.

First, fear not, The Fuzz was not involved in this. And I'm happy to report that the driver of this vehicle was not seriously damaged.
The truck was righted and the road cleared.
The oily dirt dug up and replaced, grass re-seeded.

But it was not a good day for our department.

Still don't know how bad the damage is, but needless to say, this vehicle will be down for a while.



And here is the Happy Couple.

Here we see Happy Son and Happy Daughter in Law, in the Tropical Paradise.
They took a long trip for a Tropical Wedding. They did make it home safe, and we hope to get to the partying soon.

Can we say, Mazel tov !

Morning Glories

Out here on the fence by the Garden, we got 'em.


And they come in so many varieties.

I remember when I was a kid, up there, with the Yankees, seeing them grow up on my Grandma's back porch.

I'm sure she planted them there on purpase.

Around here we don't have to do that.





The things are everywhere.

They are some of our major weeds in the garden.

They seem to love the Pole Beans, and the young plants look remarkably like the young beans.

They twine together and it's hard to tell them apart.

Even the leaves are similar.

One difference is, the Morning Glories have furry stems.



But I still like them.

There's something about stepping out in the early morning and seeing these blossoms everywhere.




Here's a variety of our volunteers, for your enjoyment.

The Fuzz is doing a bit better today. He is hoping to maybe be back on the job tomorrow.

I suppose his boss-man will be happy.

Recycling

Yes there are Two Posts Today !


Since The Fuzz is laid up right now, I thought it might be a good opportunity to go back though time, to September 9th, and continue the story. What do we do with all this "yard waste" that was so professionally collected around town ? Well, I'm happy to report, that it is not wasted. This is the "Waste Treatment Plant". All these branches and stuff are driven here, but not wasted.After the brush is dumped out of the trailer, as has been previously explained, the folks here load it into this powerful machine. This will grind all the limbs and other stuff into a size suitable for mulching whatever needs mulching. If that were all, it would be OK, ecological and all that. But you probably realize, this is not merely a place for chopping up trees. In fact, if these were "Scratch and Sniff" pictures, you would know what else goes on here. And so, the product produced here, (which we refer to with a four letter word) is mixed with the remains of our Yard Waste. The result is a mixture much sought after by landscapers and home owners. This can be had for the asking. Here you can see the finished product. Personaly, I'm not real hot on using this stuff myself. I've heard it has a lot of heavy metals, and it's not really recommended for your veggies.
Well, since The Fuzz is laid up and all, I thought I'd take the opportunity to show how "Recycling" works with "Yard Waste".

Art & Pain

It has been perviously noted that The Fuzz is down in his back. This of course means that he spends a lot of time on his back.The Fuzz's Sweetie likes to sketch what ever will hold still long enough. In his condition, The Fuzz falls into this category. Here he is using this opportunity to catch up on some reading. The Fuzz should be back on his feet soon, if he doesn't overdo things in the meantime.

Hurtin' Fellow

This is The Fuzz. He has a problem. This is not the first time he has had this problem. He did not go to work today. But the world went on without him.
Yesterday he had the same problem, but he did go to work. This is called Dedication. This is called Heroical Stuff. It might also be called a little dumb, since The Fuzz has plenty of Sick Days. But today he stayed home. He also went to the Chiropractor. The Chiropractor let him stay home a couple days. A day off of work is always nice, but it is better when he is not hurting.
I am happy to report that The Fuzz is feeling a bit better. In fact, he hopes to be as good as new (for a not so new guy) in a few days.
There is some good to come from all this. The Fuzz gets to spend some time with His Sweetie. That's always a good thing.

Stove Pipe

That fall like weather is finally here. At least for the moment. That cool breeze, those cool mornings.

Of course, those cool mornings call for a little something to take the chill off the house. This means Fire. Fire means Smoke. And Smoke has to find a way out of the stove, and out of the house.

Now there is a hole in the ceiling that connects to a hole in the roof. This might sound like a problem on account of rain and all, getting in, and making things all wet. But this is not a problem. This is a special hole, just for Smoke.
Here is what this hole looks like from the inside.
But the smoke starts it's journey from inside the stove. This means that it must get from the stove to this special hole in the top of the house.
There was a time, when folks just let the smoke kinda rise up in the room and find it's own way to their hole in the roof, but that system doesn't really work all that well. But now days we have a better approach to this. We have a Stove Pipe.
It will be noticed, in the above illustration, that this Stove Pipe seems to be in bad condition. This is, in fact, the case. If this critical component were to fail, it could be serious. So It must be replaced. And that was the project for the day.
It was time for a trip to the Home Improvement Store. There among the thousands of useful items, The Fuzz found Brand New Stove Pipe Stuff.
(He also found some fancy, high dollar light bulbs, to replace the ones that were burned out, but that doesn't have anything to do with Stove Pipes, so I'm sorry I brought it up.) First the Stove Pipes had to be snapped together. The fuzz had fun looking at the trees though them. Then, some of them had to be cut into the proper lengths. The Fuzz used his cool side grinder for this. I don't know why this stuff seems to be floating around like this. It wasn't. Here are all the finished parts waiting for assembly, the damper is installed, and he even remembered to clean off those little stickers with the barcodes on them.
The Fuzz carried all this stuff inside, and stuck the 9" piece up into the hole inn the ceiling. After this was secured, the rest was connected and fastened with screws. One does not want these things coming apart at an inopportune time.

So here is the finished project. Now The Fuzz's Sweetie can be warm without burning down the house.

But there is one thing I Don't understand. The Fuzz bought 6" Stove Pipes, yet these all have the number "9" on them.





In unrelated news, the Older Son no longer has a fiancee, They were married in the Tropical Paradise.

First Fire

It seems to be that time of year again. Kinda cool this morning. The Fuzz's Sweetie wanted a fire, and The Fuzz knows enough to keep His Sweetie happy. So The Fuzz tried to gather a few twigs for some heat. While the Older Son and His Sweetie are in the Tropical Paradise, the Barkely is here for a visit again.
This Barking Dog likes to play fetch the stick, and this complicates the kindling gathering thing somewhat. The best place to gather kindling is under the oak trees in the front yard. But there is this dog tied out there. Whenever The Fuzz would pick up a twig, this doggie would grab the other end. He wanted to play fetch the stick, but The Fuzz wanted to play Light the Fire.
See how fierce this doggie looks ! Don't let him fool you. He is only barking, "Lets play. Please play with me. Bark Bark Bark !"
But the wood pile is behind him, so if The Fuzz wants a piece of wood, he will have to play. You will be glad to know, that the Fuzz's Sweetie did not freeze this morning. He was able to dodge the dog, and the fire was kindled and the house warmed.




In the future we'll discuss the stove pipe.

A Tree Thing

It seems there are people who think that trees are inhabited by spirits and things like that. What would they think about this one.
This could really be something, if one were to stagger past on a dark night.
Maybe the thing is inhabited, I don't know, but things were pretty quiet when I passed by. But I would hate to run up on something like this while camping in the woods on a dark night.


Fuzz 's been trying to post this for a couple days now, but things kept coming up (maybe there is some kinda hex thing). Looks like he might make it this time.

Brix

You may think that The Fuzz just sits around drinking beer and making pointless posts on this blog. If so you would be wrong. Take this situation for instance. Long ago, but in this galaxy, grass grew on this hill. Being the Tree Hugger that he is, The Fuzz let many trees grow here. The Fuzz does his part to fight Global Warming. The downside of this was that the grass mostly died out. Bare dirt on a hill is not a good arraignment, so he went to a lot of effort, and installed these timbers to form terraces and control the eroding situation. This was fine but made for a rough ride out on The Fuzz Cycle. There was also still a problem here at the gate.
There were a number of bricks here from a similar project, ( It was really part of the same project, if one would take the larger view of things ) so it was time to brake out the old pick and shovel, and go to work.

This is the first step, some more has been added since the pix, but there is already a big improvement here. The Fuzz's Bike apreciates it too.

The Tropical Paradise Revisited

We heard from Older Son and Fiancée. They have arrived in the Tropical Paradise. They have "Big and Evil Plans". Well maybe not really "evil", but "big" enough. It is convenient having Air Force Daughter for a sister. I guess she is also, Air Force Sister.
We have the doggie here. Yes the barkin' Barkley is back. At home he gets lots of attention, I think he misses this. But he'll make it.

Smashed

Here you can see that #12 Boot at work. Over time these cans seem to accumulate around here. It's not really all that much beer. The Fuzz mostly prefers his beer in bottles, the exception being those cans of delicious stout with the fizzy things inside. My Sweetie sometimes brings a few cans home when walking the pooch. This helps clean up the environment and all that, and theoretically, brings in a few pennies.
The Athletical Son likes to use them for target practice, but this tends to scatter them all over. Young Daughter likes to use them for yard kitchen stuff and also tends to scatter them all over.
The idea is to recycle these things. The idea is to recycle them where one can get paid. This is just a little more complicated than giving them to the county, requiring a bit of a drive. We still have them, but they have at least made it though the crusher.

The Swacar

I mentioned A "Swacar" the other day. Well, here is what I was referring to. We use these rigs to pick up branches, yard waste and on occasions what we call "solid waste". This is basically a big trailer, pulled behind a truck without a bed. Small piles are loaded by hand, usually with a pitchfork. Larger stuff gets a tractor ride. You can see that the tractor operator needs to have it together working this close to this building. I never have understood what makes people do things like this, piling stuff so close to a building like this. I don't know if they don't think, or are hoping we will tear something up, and then they can get the city to fix it for them. The swacar is not hard to drive, but backing one up takes some getting used to. To empty one, the truck has a lift which raises the whole front of the trailer. This usually works OK, but if the stuff gets stuck, it can get weird trying to shake it loose. Swacars also get stuck in the mud fairly easily.

Twice a year, we use these things to pick up all the trash people have (illegally) dragged to the curb in the mistaken belief that we are supposed to get it.

Here are some cool cars to look at, if the site is still up.

Wonders of the World

Here is something that has facinated me for years. The many loyal readers of this blog know that in my line of work I get around town a lot. I first noticed this years ago when I was "pulling garbage" on this side of town. This is a fairly upscale neighborhood, nice yards with trees and all. I don't often get over here these days, mostly working on a different route. But by the end of the week we are often pretty well caught up, and things were kinda slow. I was working over here with a "Swacar" (I'll explain what this is some other time). I also happened to have slipped my camera into my bag.
This probably appears to be a normal cedar tree. Well it has been trimmed up a bit, but that's beside the point. You may notice a branch about halfway up the trunk. The Arborists among my many loyal readers may notice something strange here. All of you who said, "That's a Cherry Tree" get 10 points ! Some how, I don't understand, there is a cherry branch on this cedar tree.
I have tried, rather unsuccessfully, to graft apple shoots onto apple trees, but I understand it can be done. But I always thought that the trees in question, had to be at the least, close kin. This does not seem to be the case here. But The Fuzz has a theory about this. He is convinced that originally the two trees were growing side by side. Somehow the big one enveloped the poor little cherry tree. But the little cherry tree subscribed to the "Never Give Up" philosophy, and never gave up. Some how it managed to keep this one branch out in the world, and somewhere, inside this cedar tree, there is a determined little cherry tree, that just won't give up.

Falling Leaves

For some reason, I always associate falling leaves with cool weather. It may be my yankee background. Yet here they are. I don't know if it's the dry weather of what, but they seem to start falling this time of year. Not all of them yet, but enough to sweep up. The colors will come later. We do have colors here, although not like up north. People here go to the mountains to see the colors.
The Fuzz was cooking some chickens out on the grill the other day. He had to sweep the pile of leaves out of the way so as not to set the yard on fire. One time, some years ago, the yard did catch fire. It was not a good thing. It burnt up the clothes on the clothesline, a shed and a couple of motorcycles. The Fuzz got a ticket for unsafe burning, or something like that. But the house did not burn, and the trees that were killed made a good bit of firewood. So I guess that affair did have a good side.

Water

We finally got some much needed rain. When I say "much needed", I mean, much needed.
We are on a well here, and it is not a very deep one. Here in North Carolina we have had a hot, dry summer. Dry is not good if one's water source is an old shallow well. But this is not the first time, and if the Climate Change People are right, probably not the last time.

Over the years we have worked out ways to deal with this. This is our Emergency Drought Water Management System. We are fortunate in that we are able to reduce our water consumption considerably when necessary. I think this may have been born of some camping experience, where one must either carry, or find, enough to get by. The two barrels store about 100 gl. It is drawn out though the handy spigots and carried were needed. This is primitive, I know, but quite effective. It also is an opportunity for some good, heathy exercise.
The Oriental Vehicle is equipped with a barrel of it's own. This is filled in town at the home of an Accommodating Friend, and then driven home.

The last step involves getting this water into the Emergency Drought Management System. The Fuzz has found, that rolling the 400 lb. barrel off of the Oriental Vehicle and carrying it to the rest of the Emergency Drought Management System, is somewhat difficult. But since the driveway is at a higher altitude than the side yard, a simple hose connecting the barrels easily does the job. All The Fuzz has to do, is sit and watch !
We have learned to conserve water. It is really surprising how little one needs. The Fuzz can take a complete shower with a gallon jug of warm water. Only a cup is needed for tooths brushing, and our Special Facilities require none at all.
Soon it will be time for the County Fair, and it always rains for that.