Grand and Glorious Curmudgeon

While driving around town last Sunday I happened to go by the Chili’s construction and noted a hand painted sign on the door that indicated the Grand Opening on Monday Aug 8. So, I had to go into town anyway to get a package from the Post Office (Thanks, Jen & Kate). I stopped in at about 11:05am and was one of the first 10-12 people seated.

The first thing I ordered was a Margarita of the Month.

Interestingly it included Moin Desert Pear syrup. It was very good.

The dark color is the Desert Pear syrup, a dark purple color.

Loaded Potato Soup for Appetizer

I got the $6.00 Margarita and the $9.00 Lunch Special, so the total bill was $15.00 (plus $0.90 tax). I often look for some evidence that things are meant to be so below is a copy of the check:

Now for the obligatory house info.

Most of last week was consumed by numerous trips to Menards to get the plumbing to get the Reverse Osmosis system functional. So far, we have made 2 each 500gallon tanks of water, only to have to dump them to fix various leaks. I think we have everything working now and will start making water again.

Finally, for the several of you who are concerned, I have an appointment with Dr. Corrie White for this Friday, Aug 12th, at 11:30pm. See the Google calendar for amplifying info.

I am still woefully behind but will attempt to bring us up to date. While visiting the family last month to commemorate Nana’s passing last year, I went on a cruise:

After the weekend of 16/17 July, I left early on Tuesday morning, accompanied by my sisters Jill and Dawn. We stopped in Las Vegas at the Boxabl factory. Jill was very interested in putting a Boxabl Casita on the land in Wyoming. Unfortunately, the Boxabl company is probably a year away from actually producing them. As an alternative Jill is exploring having Arland (AT) build a custom 20’x24′ – more info to follow.

We spent the night in Provo, UT, went to a great Mexican Restaurant called El Gallo Giro. Great authentic food, with terrific prices.

The next day we drove into Caspar and rescued the cat and showed Dawn & Jill the property. They also got a whirlwind tour of Casper and a sense of why I like the place.

Work on the house continues:

Also started plumbing up the Reverse Osmosis System. It will take well water with about 5000 TDI (Total Dissolved Solid) (basically undrinkable) and get it down to well under 500 TDI.

Work continues inside:

I added a set of glass blocks (actually acrylic blocks) to the shower in the Master Bedroom.

Also, the roofers started in the middle of the week. This shows half of the roof covered. As of this afternoon the entire roof is covered and next week they will work on soffits and trim work, to finish the roof.

Finally, while filling up with gas last week, I saw a 1957 Chevy Bel-Aire getting gas at an adjacent pump.

Probably only Sis remembers (and maybe Jill), but we drove across the country (in 1959) in a 1957 Chevy station wagon (with the same color scheme). In 1963 it was a just a used car that Dad traded in for a blue 1963 station wagon that Nana felt was a mistake.

That’s all for now.

Over the last couple of weeks, the house has made great progress. See various pictures below.

The next step is to finish the roof sheeting and continue with the house wrap and installing doors and windows. When that is done the house will be basically weathertight.

I finally managed to capture the cat jumping from the ladder to the top of the trailer. I have watched him going both ways, but I have finally managed to capture him in the act.

I decided I wanted to see Top Gun: Maverick so I checked out the local theater, Studio City Stadium Cinemas. I did get the senior price and was surprised to find that it cost me $8.00 for admission. For a large popcorn and a large diet Coke, and 5% sales tax , the cost was $16.28. It seemed reasonable so I stayed around and watched the new release of Jurassic World: Dominion. I noticed that the two big blockbusters of the summer were retreads. Top Gun was mostly a retread, with cameos by F-35 fighters and a putative SR-72, but most of the action focused on a strike by F-18’s on a pesudo-Iranian Uranium enrichment site. Of course, Maverick and Rooster (Goose’s Son) escape in an old F-14 and land back on the carrier.

Jurassic World was a replay of the Jurassic Park franchise. Humans’ vs assorted dinosaurs with various despicable humans greedily assisting with their own demise.

My question is thus: Why are the two biggest hits of 2022 retreads of the 1980’s? Where are the new, attractive, engaging stories of today? My guess is that forcing the progressive storytelling into the traditional roles doesn’t work.

Another option is that this is an example of Idiocracy in action. My father’s generation, raised during the Great Depression, also known as the Greatest Generation, knew how to do stuff. I was a Baby Boomer and learned a lot from him about how to identify a woman, the differences between the (2 – XX &XY chromosomes) sexes. In the ’60’s and ’70’s the U.S. travelled to the moon with hardware that that was laughably simple by today’s standards, but was understood and operated by Boomers, supervised by their seniors. Top Gun was released in 1986 and Jurassic Park was released in 1993. The Star Wars trilogy were released in 1977, 1980, and 1983. In the last 10 years what has been released? Nothing but sensitive remakes, remakes with female leads, but what new original movies are there? My take on it is that the Millennial generation, that has supplanted the Boomers, have in general been captured by the leftist ideology that has infested colleges & universities. The focus on race and gender ideology, the lessening of structure in the social sciences has dumbed down the background knowledge of an entire generation.

I’m finally seeing the definitive results of my solar power usage on my electric bill from Rocky Mountain Electric Company. Note that the peak in Feb and Mar bills of over $300.00 were due to temps about freezing and relying on supplemental electric heat. April and May were relying on solar during the day. The June number reflects basically full-time solar use.

Jon was scheduled to fly in Friday evening but was diverted to Colorado Springs due to winds. He managed to get to Denver later that night but he missed the evening flight to Casper.

He arrived on Saturday, and we took off to the Shirey’s to camp for a day and showed Jon the sights of (forested) Wyoming. For what it’s worth, I think I picked up a bit of food-poisoning and felt out of it until we got back Sunday afternoon.

Over the weekend, I got a surprise email that my reefer had come in to Sonny’s RV and was ready for pickup.

Meanwhile about 10:00 am the walls started going up.

Notice the headers above the windows in the above picture. Two4-foot windows in the MBR, a 3-foot window kitchen, a Patio Door and finally another 4-foot bedroom window.

This is most of the outside walls in. Note the clouds filling in over the mountains to the south. Shortly after this picture the thunderstorm blew in with 40-50 kt winds and we scrambled to collect tools and quit early for the day.

Starting Tuesday, the day started with only the mildest breezes and without a cloud in the sky.

We first finished up the remaining walls.

We then started sheathing the wall with chipboard.

And finally, after working, we drove into town and stumbled across this near the intersection of 2nd Ave and Wyoming Blvd.

They are rebuilding an old restaurant into a Chili’s. Coming soon, I won’t need to drive to Cheyenne for my fix.