Althouse: At the Sunset Café...

October 25, 2011

At the Sunset Café...

... I hope you had a beautiful day. Beautiful or not though... tell us about it.

62 comments:

rhhardin said...: Breeze video; 10/25/11, 6:53 PM
Petunia said...: Are we supposed to have aurora again tonight?; 10/25/11, 6:57 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: I came home and tried listening to the new music releases. So boring! I ended up digging through my CD pile for albums I forgot about.; 10/25/11, 7:05 PM
Tom from Virginia said...: 25 years have past; 25 summers, with the length
Of 25 long winters! and again I hear ...
that sound of the ball rolling between you-know-who's legs.; 10/25/11, 7:09 PM
William said...: Worked all day and stacked 2 cords of wood tonight. 3 Advil and 2 melatonin should kick in soon.; 10/25/11, 7:16 PM
Curious George said...: Hmmm...started the day with some George's Burly Blend from Alterra Coffee.

Started a new business this spring...we came up with a unique new method of revenue recovery for hospitals. Just finished a trial to prove the efficacy for a six-hospital group and knocked it out of the park. Put a few million net to their bottom line, and will recover an estimated $4 million annually. A nice payday but more importantly a long term client and empirical proof of concept.

Now it's time to see if we can become a 1%er!

Oh, and a few posts here while I'm sitting on hold. A good day.; 10/25/11, 7:17 PM
Chip S. said...: Tom, You can try to dull the pain the Wade Boggs way, but I don't necessarily recommend it.

It's a shame he never signed with the Brewers as a free agent.; 10/25/11, 7:17 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Overcast and cool-- sixties-- here in Lake Elsinore. Wintery and delightful with scattered showers. By Friday though, back to the high eighties. Bleh.; 10/25/11, 7:18 PM
Will Cate said...: I streamed a live video conference of two ex-Governors (Phil Bredesen, Jim Douglas) at our college (Sewanee). Meaning not that I just watched it, but I produced and directed the 5-camera webcast.

It was a good day.; 10/25/11, 7:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Curious George, Kudos!; 10/25/11, 7:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Today I finished about a year of EMDR counseling for post-traumatic stress.

When I was 3 1/2 years old my family was in a severe auto accident, and my parents were thrown out of the car.

I saw it all - my Mom lying unconscious and bleeding down her face. My dad stumbling around in shock half-crying and half-muttering.

When the emergency personnel came they loaded everyone up and drove off leaving me alone at the site.

They all forget me. I was just standing there all alone for a while.

Then some guy I didn't know took me to his house and I just stood in his hallway screaming until I could get reconnected to my father a few hours later. I didn't see my mother for 8 weeks after that.

And now I can review it and feel fine, and I don't' wake up with irrational fears at night, or have panic attacks that some family member will suddenly disappear.

So many others have had lots worse things happen to them, I know. But for me it is a day of liberation from something that has brewed down there for decades - like a dump fire, always giving off smoke but never going out.

So maybe it is a good time to say goodbye for a season to you-all at Althouse.

Cedar, DBQ, Lem, Chip, MadisonMam, dutcher, tradman, trooper, crack MC, Allen S, former law, hoosier, titus, ricpic, Freeman H, Pogo, Jason, Tyrone, Cur George, Garage, j, (and everyone else I've left off that I shouldn't have): Thanks. It's been fun.

I love you all. (Well, I'm still working on loving Garage and j)

Titus, though I'll deny it all later, as a Mormon I'm only going to say this once, for you:

tits.

Ann, you're the bright and shining star of intellectual honesty in America. Mead, take care of her.

Allah Ma'ak; 10/25/11, 7:31 PM
F said...: Physical therapy for my new shoulder, then mowed the lawn, and gave it an autumn feeding. Back to studying for another FAA rating tomorrow.

WV: isonme. This one . . .; 10/25/11, 7:58 PM
Curious George said...: "NYTNewYorker said...
Curious George, Kudos!"

Thanks. Funny, it all started a few years ago when I got laid off at age 50). My very last client meeting was with my now partner. He had a great product but no sales. I called him the next day and said I would sell for him as a independent rep. Between that and doing some side carpentry work and living on rice and beans I got by. My sales efforts uncovered a need that evolved into a new app that evolved into a business and partnership.

The one thing about getting older is that life is not so scary. You learn that when one door closes another will open.; 10/25/11, 8:04 PM
Elliott A said...: @curious-are you sure the hospitals were diligent in their insurance billing? I often get bills for covered services because the hospital corp filed the insurance with incorrect id #'s birth dates, etc. Instead of checking they send the patient a final notice and then turn them over to their in house collection people after about 3 days. A lot of people will not be sophisticated enough to see what happened and will pay if the amount is not exorbitant, even though the insurance would have paid a properly done claim.; 10/25/11, 8:30 PM
edutcher said...: Grand, brooding skyscape of approaching winter.

Imagine the voyageurs looking at that and trying to make the last 200 miles to the Hudson's Bay factory. Beds, hot food, women...

On a whim, I typed in my Aunt Claribel's name on a search and found more stuff than I would have believed. A very accomplished woman.

All I knew was that she was a teacher in her youth.

And her brother entered Cornell Law at 20 and went from that to the Army Air Corps in WWI.; 10/25/11, 8:34 PM
Elliott A said...: @will- I really liked Sewanee when we visited on my son's college discovery tour of 2000. A very unique place. We stayed at the inn and paid with an honor system envelope. I hope to get to spend more time in the area one day.
P.S. He picked Furman; 10/25/11, 8:34 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I would tell you about it, but I was told to fuggetaboudit.; 10/25/11, 8:35 PM
C R Krieger said...: Two hours of local politics on Lowell local access TV for the runup to the local City Council and School Committee elections in November. I was the guest co-host. It was interesting and it was about our future here in Lowell. Two different candidates. Thanks to a local undertaker we have this forum, and he remotes it to the station from his living room. His wife is a good sport.

Then two hours of editing speaker bios for a Homelessness Conference on Friday. The subject is working with those released from incarceration.

For me that is a full day. So, I made a blog post and took a nap.

Then Dinner and a review of what is happening in Madison, via the Althouse Blog. And driving my wife over to the Rectory to retrieve a piece of paper she left, but needed for planning for Kiddie Choir tomorrow.

And an EMail to an unsuspecting Prof at NIU. She wrote a book and didn't go into hiding, so I sent off a question to help me with a Short Story I am writing for the Fiction Class my wife signed us up for this semester—over 60 Years of Age and the total cost is $30 plus books (per person). I am going to get even with my wife for this selection, I just don't yet know how.

Regards — Cliff; 10/25/11, 8:37 PM
Curious George said...: @Elliott

There are a lot of companies offering services to combat the issues you describe. We aren't one of them. Since we have a unique application, I won't go into details (I want to keep under the radar of possible competitors!), but we actually find insurance coverage that hospitals aren't even looking for...they don't know to look for it, and if they did, have no effective way of doing it. A small percentages of "hits" against huge write-offs brings a lot of cash to their bottom line. That they desperately need.; 10/25/11, 8:43 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm currently designing and building a stainless steel and redwood railing for an outside pavilion that my hang gliding club is constructing. It's one of a kind and built from scratch with raw materials, a laser cutting machine, Portable TIG welder, and hand tools for metal and wood work. I worked today in the rain finishing the first section. I'm very happy with how it came out so far. It's 150 feet long, so a lot of work.

Today was a good day. Hard work in the rain, and now at home with a nice fire blazing. I'm lucky to be healthy and able to work, and free to create my own ideas from nothing. Life is good - I wish I could go on forever.; 10/25/11, 8:44 PM
bagoh20 said...: Congratulation Curious George. Well done, dude!; 10/25/11, 8:46 PM
MadisonMan said...: Frugal traveler visits Madison.

Link.; 10/25/11, 8:47 PM
bagoh20 said...: Hey Tyrone,

I know a female hang glider who hit some power lines in Lake Elsinore a couple years ago. She survived fine, I think she just broke an arm and was back at it a few months later. The funny thing is that she knocked out the power for the whole town at 1pm on Thanksgiving day. Do you remember that happening? I love that story, but don't know if it's entirely true. I fly with her all the time, but I don't want to ask her about it.; 10/25/11, 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: "I'm lucky to be healthy and able to work..."

This is wealth my friend.; 10/25/11, 8:58 PM
Curious George said...: "bagoh20 said...
Congratulation Curious George. Well done, dude!"

Thanks. It's a step, but a big one. Still a long way to go. But you know what that's about.

Funny, I want a big payoff so I can do what you do...well sort of. I'm a woodworker and have a shop at my lake home that I will retire to. I need enough money to do it full time and not die broke!; 10/25/11, 9:04 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/25/11, 9:06 PM
Curious George said...: @Sixty

Do you have a sawmill? Where you at?; 10/25/11, 9:19 PM
bagoh20 said...: That is some luck Sixty Grit. Don't you wonder who put that nail there? Maybe long ago, some kid with a hammer and a plan started a story that is still unfolding. I think about that stuff all the time. When I find myself with in a beautiful spot, I think about all the other people who saw the same sights and thought the same thoughts in the same place long ago.; 10/25/11, 9:26 PM
mythusmage said...: Learned that the apartment manager is concerned about me. Also learned the bed bugs aren't quite gone, so my stuff stays out on the balcony.

And next week I start weekly visits with my counselor at the clinic (depression plus Aspergers, a double treat :p)

Word: Boxijac (When I was a kid they game in a cheap plastic bag.); 10/25/11, 9:36 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Tuesdays I have 1 hour and a quarter classes and am more used to the fifty minute class. At about fifty minutes I ran out of material and had to fake it for twenty five minutes. Twice.

In the second class I admitted I was out of material but they couldn't go because I still had to do my job, and that we were about to have the 12 longest minutes of all time because I had nothing else to say but would just go on talking until the time came.

They laughed, but I was serious. It was dreadful. 12 minutes that none of us can ever get back.; 10/25/11, 9:37 PM
mythusmage said...: "Came", that's supposed to be "came".

Call me Mr. Klutzy Fingers. :); 10/25/11, 9:38 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/25/11, 9:42 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Went down to Flopupy Chicago and took pics of the whole 18 protesters. They are a pathetic looking rag tag bunch.; 10/25/11, 9:44 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Wow, Quayle. I don't know what to say about that event. Easy to imagine that it would leave some slow-healing wounds. Congratulations on the progress.

If you must go, you will be missed. Good luck.; 10/25/11, 9:53 PM
bagoh20 said...: When we moved into my company's current building, it was carpeted. We tore it all out. Underneath, we found long rows of silver dollars pressed into the concrete. I think they were common coins from the 60s. I just split them up among the workers that day. There were about 100 of them all though the building. We later built walls inside the building for our own purposes, and in turn placed paper bills of different denominations for the next remodeler to find some day.; 10/25/11, 9:56 PM
bagoh20 said...: Just noticed your post, Quayle. Glad you are moving past it. Take care of yourself, and come back soon.; 10/25/11, 10:02 PM
Curious George said...: I did some remodeling, rebuilt porches, and resided a friends 100 year old house just east and north of the Capitol in Madison. I always like to see the carpenters notes and marks.

I've read that timber framers can often be identified in colonial buildings over 200 years old by the marks he used as well as his choice of joinery.; 10/25/11, 10:07 PM
Curious George said...: Happy trails, Quayle!; 10/25/11, 10:08 PM
edutcher said...: Quayle,take care.

I've been through something similar, although probably nowhere near as bad. I know that it takes a lot of courage to do what you've.

You've earned some fun and a new outlook on life.

Go out and enjoy yourself.

We'll always have a place for you here.

PS What you said about Ann and Meade - right on!; 10/25/11, 10:13 PM
ndspinelli said...: Congrats Curious. I have a plan for hospitals to recycle used syringes to 3rd world countries. You put the used syringes in one of those barber sanitizers w/ blue water and ship them overseas. Do you think there's a market?; 10/25/11, 10:28 PM
ndspinelli said...: Peter V Bella, You sure those weren't the Chicago Cubs you shot?; 10/25/11, 10:31 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @bagoh

We always do Thanksgiving with my mom over in Capistrano Beach, so I must have missed that one. The hang gliders and parasailers launch off the hilltop behind my house. It really looks like fun, but I'm a big chicken. I'm at 1600', the hilltop's about 1000' above. We also have our share of skydivers and sailplanes. The big aviation event of the year is if that giant Martin Mars flying boat comes down from BC to put out fires. They use Lake Elsinore as a base. It's easily the biggest prop plane I've ever seen. The sight and sound of that thing taking off from the lake is truly moving.; 10/25/11, 10:39 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: @Quayle

I've enjoyed and applauded your comments many times. I hope you'll come back when you can. Cheers.; 10/25/11, 10:41 PM
wdnelson93 said...: Blessings on your next chapter Quayle. You'll be missed.

Spent half the a.m. finishing preparations for the high school homeschool co-op class I'm facilitating. Lord of the Rings - book 2 The Two Towers. My academically disinclined nearly 16 y.o. son requested to study LOTR for literature. Anything to keep school from being drudgery for him. Eight kids - equally divided by sex - lively discussion of character and narrative development followed by 40 minutes of vocabulary review and game. It's a good class and I come away energized.

No snow yet in Anchorage - temps in the 40's with rain. I am so grateful. My folks are waiting for an opening in an assisted living situation. They are hoping to be moved before the snow flies. I'm so grateful for every day of mild weather.

Deanna; 10/25/11, 11:20 PM
gail said...: I'll miss your comments Quayle, but am thrilled to hear EMDR has helped with the PTSD. take care of yourself.

My day has been filled with hauling large round hay bales, needed because 1st crop hay that was wrapped for baleage (the white marshmallows seen in farm fields) wasn't wrapped correctly and is spoiled. Opened a couple last week and found white, black and red mold; and as a bonus, green slime.

It's been hard to find good 2nd crop sheep hay to replace those 103 baleage bales, and it'll take 16 hours to haul 48 replacement bales home.

It's doubtful any bales can be fed to livestock (maybe rationed to beef it someone wants to take a chance), so I have to move the bales to the manure pile area, cut the plastic wrap and twine, and let them decompose for 2-3 years so they can be spread back on the field. By spring, because corn will be planted where they are currently stacked.

Farming can be so challenging at times, and when stuff like this happens...

I'd like to moldboard plow barnyard manure down in a field to be planted to corn next year...to dry, last couple of bottoms won't stay in the ground, and we didn't get the forecasted rain. Mom nature doesn't bother me as much as a custom harvester who can't wrap 105 darn bales correctly.

thanks for listening,

wv: apart: Apart from these annoyances, I'm blessed to be able to farm...but I miss my dairyman everyday...rip.; 10/25/11, 11:49 PM
Kirby Olson said...: The leaves are down in the western Catskills. A beautiful thing I did was to read a book by a local geologist who claims that there were T. Rexes and pteradactyls here 340 million years ago. That was fun to imagine. The weather is still reasonable -- around 60. The geologist claims that over the last one hundred years there's been no real warming -- a rise of .01 degree is all that can be noticed, but we have 16% wetter years than they used to have. So we're flooding a lot more. But I live way up on a hill so I have a beautiful view of unimproved mountains and the rivers can't get us.; 10/25/11, 11:51 PM
Royal Tenenbaum said...: It was just another boring day for me, an unemployed law school graduate.

I did some yard work, read and had coffee at Starbucks, surfed the internet, and browsed our local library. Oh, and I got a rejection letter from another employer.; 10/26/11, 1:59 AM
dhagood said...: i had a recruiter email me today, asking me to apply to one of their open jobs. that's something new for me, and it made sort of made my day.

the work looks interesting enough, and i have done some software quality assurance in years past.

i lost my last driving job (fired by god) and decided that was enough of the truck driving gig. i'm pushing 60 now, and clambering around on the top of ice-covered flatbed loads has lost its appeal.

i fell off the trailer in january, and landed sprawled across the curb with a resounding thud. i hurt my back a little, but considering how far i fell and the fact that i hit the curb i was very thankful for how lightly i had been injured.

that got me thinking. a number of flatbedders get severely injured falling off trailers, and a depressing number of them die. i think i've pushed my luck far enough, and its time to see if i can return to the corporate world.

interestingly enough, the company that wants me to apply is epic, located in... madison, wisconsin. it seems like an interesting place to work, but i don't see how it will work out.

besides the fact that madison has proven itself to be a place full of crazy people, and besides the fact that the property taxes are ridiculously high, it just won't work.

our kids are here. my parents, brother and family, and sister and family all reside in colorado springs, which is just 50 minutes south of where we live in littleton. most of our friends are here as well. my wife has a very high-paying job, and i somehow i don't see madison has being a mecca of aerospace engineering.

getting that email did make my day, though. maybe there's some hope for me. well, there's always hope, but maybe i have reason to be hopeful.

quayle, good luck and god speed. tits, indeed.; 10/26/11, 5:14 AM
Clyde said...: Speaking of silly protests, I got a good laugh out of this story:

Fed false logic, campus eats up a hoax and revolts

NORTHAMPTON - All last week, students at Smith College were buzzing over a rumor that the school was going completely vegetarian and locavore. There were protests and counter-protests, with slogans chalked on walkways. There was a Twitter feed that caught the attention of VegNews, “America’s premier vegan lifestyle magazine.’’ At a student government meeting, the dining services manager came under attack: How did she expect students to pass their midterms without coffee?

But the Smith administration wasn’t really planning to ban meat, food from outside New England, or anything else.

The whole thing was a hoax - one in a decade of annual pranks perpetrated by professors Jay Garfield and Jim Henle as part of their introductory class in logic...

Punk'd! Again!; 10/26/11, 5:43 AM
AllenS said...: Sixty Grit said...
With farm trees there is usually one explanation - the farmer nails his fence to a tree to save having to put in a post.

I hear ya. For those of you who have been following my exciting life, you'll remember that I've been getting rid of the box elder trees on my property for quite a while. Box elders grow along fence lines because the cows couldn't get at the young shoots. Last year I could see hog netting and barb wire sticking out of the bottom of two. So, I cut the high. Year before last, I ruined three chains, one which broke and went flying off of the bar. I bought a helmet with face mask the next day.

Quayle, good luck to you.; 10/26/11, 6:12 AM
AllenS said...: So, I cut the high

Translation: I cut them above where the wires were. Also, the three chains that I ruined were from hitting nails, electric insulators and wire.; 10/26/11, 6:21 AM
KCFleming said...: Quayle, great to hear of the enlightenment; your burden will be easier to bear now. Spread the news, as you likely can pick out sufferers a mile away.
Come back in a spell, though; we need your voice.

And Curious George, hella good news. I worked too late to respond in time with a raised glass of red, so coffee will have to do.; 10/26/11, 6:48 AM
Curious George said...: "ndspinelli said...
Congrats Curious. I have a plan for hospitals to recycle used syringes to 3rd world countries. You put the used syringes in one of those barber sanitizers w/ blue water and ship them overseas. Do you think there's a market?"

I don't know about the market but I think you will have a problem on the supply side. Hospitals have very strict sharps regulations requiring safety syringes which I think by design are "one time use". (Caveat: Although I was actually in this space providing an alternative to safety syringes, which are expensive and difficult to use, it's been more than a few years. Things may have changed.)

If the above is not an issue, or a workable one, I would look to the companies that pick up "sharps" for disposal as the supplier, not hospitals. Or become one of those companies. Tough business with big deep pocket competitors though.; 10/26/11, 7:41 AM
Scott M said...: Maybe one of the resident grammer nazi's can help me out here.

I'm conflicted about the best way to construct the following situation. A character excitedly realizes she is going to see a famous place, like going to the Smithsonian, then lists off three or four famous things she wants to see while she's there. I originally wrote it as (paraphrasing)...

"actually going to the (famous landmark); the (famous exhibit), the (famous exhibit), and the (famous exhibit).

Obviously that's the extremely shortened version, but it's important, I think, to do it with that structure because of the attractions becomes life-or-death later on. The sentences describing the famous exhibits are a bit long, though certainly no run-ons. Taken as a whole, though, it just looks cumbersome. Reading it aloud (which everyone should do), it sounds fine...just looks cumbersome to the eye.

Any thoughts?; 10/26/11, 10:35 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/26/11, 10:45 AM
Scott M said...: Nazie.; 10/26/11, 10:56 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/26/11, 11:18 AM
Scott M said...: List THIS, and THIS, and THIS, and especially THIS. (it's a visual, but you should be very offended); 10/26/11, 11:21 AM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/26/11, 11:26 AM
Akai_Tsuki said...: Are we supposed to have aurora again tonight?
transfer factor plus fire insurance claims; 11/24/11, 12:35 PM
Akai_Tsuki said...: Physical therapy for my new shoulder, then mowed the lawn, and gave it an autumn feeding. Back to studying for another FAA rating tomorrow.
lead generation system top men hair; 12/3/11, 12:12 PM
Tom said...: Worked all day and stacked 2 cords of wood tonight. 3 Advil and 2 melatonin should kick in soon.
ben 10 alien games cute junior girl clothes; 2/1/12, 12:46 AM