Octopus Overlords

So I just got hit by a pickup truck--me, not my car.

I was walking in my neighborhood and arrived at a small 4-stop intersection as the truck was approaching from my right. Halting at the curb, I leaned forward and thought that I made eye contact with the driver, although it was a little hard to be certain because I was wearing sunglasses and his windshield was bouncing the sun back at me. In any case, immediately after I looked at him, he slowed to a stop (rather than slowly rolling towards the line like someone about to go through) so I believed he had seen me. I stepped off the curb.

I took two full steps out and then the truck driver gunned his engine and jumped forward. I was right in front of him, and in the split second I had to react I bolted ahead to try to clear his nose. His bumper hit the side of my leg, but I had momentum and was on the other foot, so it just sort of bounced and spun me around rather than knocking me down in front of his wheel.

The flash impression was that he was intentionally trying to run me down, so my flight reaction kicked in, but I turned around and confronted him from the side as he rolled down his passenger window. It immediately became obvious that he wasn't murderous but idiotically careless. The lighter was still in his hand, and I imagine that he had been looking down at his cigarette when he hit the gas to go through the intersection, not even knowing I was there at all.

I started yelling at him about What the hell he thought he was doing and Was he trying to kill someone, and he was clearly painfully shocked and embarrassed and terrified that he was about to be in big trouble. He was probably 22 or 24, scruffy, and probably (judging from the truck and the tools in it) heading to or from a job site. My brain was on autopilot from adrenaline, and I went into what was actually a pretty clear and stern classroom lecture about driver awareness and what to do at an intersection. He kept nodding and saying Yessir.

In retrospect, I should have gotten identifying information, but I was jazzed on reaction and I didn't think that clearly about it until he'd driven away. I don't think I'm hurt (it's been a couple of hours and my leg is fine), but I just keep thinking about how I usually cross that intersection with my 10-year-old a few steps behind me.

Wow, that is terrifying! I am so glad you are seemingly ok, geeze.

He was probably 22 or 24

e kept nodding and saying Yessir

Dont you kinda hate that? Makes me feel old. What I really feel strange about is if a mechanic, doctor, or some other person who has always been older and wiser than me is actually younger than me now. Ugh.

Wow, glad to hear you're ok, Holman.

Jeez Louis, Holman!

Glad you are ok and your kid wasn't with you!

Lucky thing you were alert and managed to just about get out of the way. I walk a lot and have a close encounter of the automotive kind every few months, but I haven't actually been hit yet.

Back when I was living in New Orleans I was crossing a crosswalk by my home when a pickup truck bumped into me in the crosswalk as he thought I was too slow. It didn't hurt me but I came down with my fist and smashed his hood into a vee. Hulk smash!
All the people around the area who saw it (10-15) urged the driver to get out of there. He did.
I wouldn't have done anything but I saw the driver was a frail, skinny old man and I was pretty sure I could take him. If it had been a hulking young strong looking lad I would have apologized and got out the the crosswalk fast.

Jeffrey Combs favorited a tweet of mine .I feel good...Im not special but I can feel good about it

A nonny mouse wrote:have you been working out intensely? it could be Rhabdomyolysis. I have known 2 people in the past few months who had this.

Rapid muscle breakdown form too intense of workouts leads to protein entering urine and gives you brown urine. Pretty serious thing.

No, it's definitely blood. It comes and goes, and once there was even, let's just say, slightly congealed clump coming out the you-know-what which definitely qualifies as too much info. Went to my doctor for emergency appt. Gave them a little cuppie... it's a sickly "pink" in color. One look, and my doc prescribed me 14 tablets of Cipro (with 2 refills, just in case) to be taken 2 a day.

A friend's uncle is going into assisted care, and my friend's stuck cleaning out his house. The uncle has lived in that house for ~50 years, and parts of it probably haven't been cleaned since the 70s. Those same parts have little ventilation and no air conditioning. I spent three days this week helping him out. It was probably 110 degrees in there, humid, and areas had an inch of standing dust. I'm still hacking up bits of lung.

His uncle had a big collection of smoking pipes. He told me to take whatever I wanted, as I do smoke a pipe from time to time (once every couple of months at the most.) I smoke curved stem pipes, and nearly all of his uncles were straight stem. I did take one, though, a calabash (think Sherlock Holmes.)

When I got home and started reading up on them, I found that it is an actual gourd calabash with a meerschaum bowl. That is a very cool thing to find, as gourd calabash pipes are hard to come by - most these days are made out of carved wood.

It's now clear David Bowie was the glue that was holding the world together.

--Stolen off twitter.

Blackhawk wrote:A friend's uncle is going into assisted care, and my friend's stuck cleaning out his house. The uncle has lived in that house for ~50 years, and parts of it probably haven't been cleaned since the 70s. Those same parts have little ventilation and no air conditioning. I spent three days this week helping him out. It was probably 110 degrees in there, humid, and areas had an inch of standing dust. I'm still hacking up bits of lung.

His uncle had a big collection of smoking pipes. He told me to take whatever I wanted, as I do smoke a pipe from time to time (once every couple of months at the most.) I smoke curved stem pipes, and nearly all of his uncles were straight stem. I did take one, though, a calabash (think Sherlock Holmes.)

When I got home and started reading up on them, I found that it is an actual gourd calabash with a meerschaum bowl. That is a very cool thing to find, as gourd calabash pipes are hard to come by - most these days are made out of carved wood.

Neat. I don't smoke or know anything about pipes at all, but that sounds like an interesting find.

GreenGoo wrote:

Blackhawk wrote:A friend's uncle is going into assisted care, and my friend's stuck cleaning out his house. The uncle has lived in that house for ~50 years, and parts of it probably haven't been cleaned since the 70s. Those same parts have little ventilation and no air conditioning. I spent three days this week helping him out. It was probably 110 degrees in there, humid, and areas had an inch of standing dust. I'm still hacking up bits of lung.

His uncle had a big collection of smoking pipes. He told me to take whatever I wanted, as I do smoke a pipe from time to time (once every couple of months at the most.) I smoke curved stem pipes, and nearly all of his uncles were straight stem. I did take one, though, a calabash (think Sherlock Holmes.)

When I got home and started reading up on them, I found that it is an actual gourd calabash with a meerschaum bowl. That is a very cool thing to find, as gourd calabash pipes are hard to come by - most these days are made out of carved wood.

Neat. I don't smoke or know anything about pipes at all, but that sounds like an interesting find.

I inherited a bunch of pipes from my dad (nothing special, just your run-of-the-mill briars) and gradually burned them all out because I smoked them too hot. Eventually switched to disposable corncobs...and finally gave up pipes altogether because they were too hard on my teeth. I do like pipes for weed, though. Stone is best but it's gone out of fashion; dope pipes nowadays are mostly glass, which really isn't very practical at all.

A quote from a show I used to love in the early 2000s. I may toss one up every now and then. Someone might like one of them.

The Heavens burned, the stars
cried out
And under the ashes of infinity,
Hope, scarred and bleeding,
breathed its last.

Went to book signing by Charles Stross for the new Laundry files book (the nightmare stacks) and had him sign my kindle. I'm such a nerd....

Pyperkub wrote:Went to book signing by Charles Stross for the new Laundry files book (the nightmare stacks) and had him sign my kindle. I'm such a nerd....

Funny! As it happens (and way behind the curve), I just yesterday started reading The Atrocity Archives for the first time.

Another little old elderly lady boo boo

This time a 91 year old lady visited a museum and filled in a crossword puzzle while there. Unfortunately it was a work of art worth $60k

I wonder if when she goes to iHop she goes back and cooks?

70 years old is too damn olde to be president. I used to think that when I was younger and I especially do now. We're all at least a little senile by that age.

I hate child-proof electric outlets. When we had the house remodeled, the contractors were required to use them - I would have never picked them myself. Now every time I unplug something in this room, it's a total crapshoot whether I'll be able to plug it back in.

Barring laws you can just replace them yourself right?

Daehawk wrote:Barring laws you can just replace them yourself right?

Yeah, but I'd hate to start ripping out plates from the wall, in a newly remodeled room. I mostly just try not to unplug stuff now

No chance of shorting a wire, burning the house down, and having the headache of dealing with insurance that way ....live a little

Once when I was a kid helping my dad wire in a new house I put in all the outlets. I was so proud. Dad said he had to go back the next day because the circuits kept tripping. Seems I had stripped the wiring to almost every outlet a little too long and when I shoved them into the wall box they touched each other. Poor dad did not have a fun day that day.

Had a girl recognize my shirt at the fast food place. Always surprises me when a young person today knows anything at all

I was kind of gratified when the clerk at REI today was wearing a Borderlands T-shirt.

The woman working at the feed store where I get my dog's food was wearing a Dune shirt. It was definitely unexpected.

My t-shirt says nothing on it, but has a handy utility pocket.

I'm like Batman!

Default wrote:My t-shirt says nothing on it, but has a handy utility pocket.

I'm like Batman!

AKA the home of my reading glasses nowadays. What happened to the many years it was the home of my cigarettes when I didn't roll them up in my sleeve?

LordMortis wrote:

Default wrote:My t-shirt says nothing on it, but has a handy utility pocket.

I'm like Batman!

AKA the home of my reading glasses nowadays. What happened to the many years it was the home of my cigarettes when I didn't roll them up in my sleeve?

Stay gold, Ponyboy.

I was never cool. I've just always been a slave to being cheap and easy and lazy. Putting smokes in your jean pockets meant having crushed smokes.

Two hummingbirds fighting sounds almost exactly like a lightsaber battle.

This is Lucca. She is a retired veteran now and a hero. She has a book about her life.

Her book


A short bit of info on her

A pic of her after losing her leg and her best friend and fellow soldier / handler Juan


A video about her

A pencil printer

Of course its not real but wouldn't that be cool? Erasable printing.

My team screws up a change because they didn't research and test well enough and now I'm on the hook to drive the root cause analysis.

And it didn't truly break anything. Users just had to re-enter their email credentials.

Grr.

Like we can remember our passwords!

Young Jane Goodall was a babe.

You know what would really help get you out of trouble in that federal investigation? Murder

A neo-Nazi angry over an FBI probe executed one of his best friends and two other people at a rural Washington home Friday, cops say. On Monday, the creepy suspect sneered for TV cameras covering his court appearance.

The Vancouver-area bloodbath led cops on a manhunt for Brent Ward Luyster, a tattoo artist and swastika-inked skinhead, who has been charged in the triple homicide and held without bail, the Columbian reported.
...
On Monday, he was escorted into Clark County court under heightened security, handcuffed and wearing a “suicide smock,” the Columbian reported. As he walked to the courtroom, he flashed a smile for KOIN 6 TV cameras.

It was the day Luyster was supposed to face trial for a different violent crime: allegedly pistol-whipping his ex-girlfriend at a Longview home. In that case, he faces charges of assault, harassment, and illegal firearm possession.
...
Meanwhile, an FBI agent told Clark County authorities that Luyster is facing federal charges—for unlawful possession of a firearm—stemming from the May 2016 incident, the affidavit shows.

User calls me over to her desk, alarmed that she's getting an alert about an update but can't clear it or move it.

I walk over to her desk, and she shows me how she can't click on the warning and do anything. I instantly recognize the error she's getting as being an image of the error in an email I sent out yesterday, warning users about it and advising them to ignore it until I get a chance to clear it over the weekend.

Some days...

It took my m-i-law and I almost 7 minutes to walk from her rocking chair in the living room to her bathroom using her walker. It would take about 20 seconds if you were dragging your feet.
Oy very ist mir!

I'm a little tired of the world right now. Going to take a break from my life for a little bit. See how things go.