Cup of Coffee

June 18, 2014: My Own Storm

88 Comments

I thought I was getting some of what you've been having yesterday, as I saw a downpour out my patio door. Turns out the cleaning guys were upstairs and power spraying the patio. They hadn't told me and they possibly ruined a chair I had out on the patio, which is right below. I can't believe the lack of brains that pervades this complex's staff.

88 thoughts on “June 18, 2014: My Own Storm”

    1. I voted for Molina. But I did vote for Gomez (and Revere and Span and Cuddy, alternating Span/Cuddy, I think).
      I was tempted to vote for LuCroy, but just because he makes me remember LeCroy.

  2. Have we discussed pocket knives here? My old man is famous for having some rusted, beat down knife in his pocket at all times. I've been looking for decent knife that isn't a swiss army multi function, locks, and opens with one hand. Unfortunately, those stipulations usually lead to something that looks like it was designed for SEAL team 6.

    1. Some of my favorites are Gerbers- an EAB lite and an Evo. The EAB isn't great for one-handed opening, but if you're cutting a lot of tape and cardboard, it's hard to beat a compact utility knife. The Evo is a more traditional style, and not too tactical-looking considering it is a one-handed liner-locker.

      1. Yes always Victorinox Classic, though I don't know if it satisfies Meat's request (it doesn't lock).
        I end up buying one a year or so because they keep disappearing. I'll find many of them eventually. Two are with two sets of house keys that I've lost since May 1.

        I get black (or other) because CER has red and I don't want confusion over "whose knife?".
        I'll get HPR a green one when he's old enough (which should be soon).

        1. I got a Craftsman (or the at-the-time equivalent) as a Christmas present when I was probably 10. Found lots of uses for it for years. It's probably in a pile of stuff at my parents'.

    3. ...decent knife that isn't a swiss army multi function, locks, and opens with one hand.
      I received a Buck Nobleman as a groomsman gift (he even engraved our initials on them!). I carry it every day and it is awesome. Meets your aforementioned criteria, is lightweight, inexpensive, clips on the pocket but has a low profile and best of all, has kept its edge for as many as 6 months with near daily use.
      To echo sean, I also carried the Swiss Army Classic SD (a 'free' gift with the SA Hiker I've since lost) on my keychain until last weekend ... when I forgot to remove it before airport security.

      1. I have something similar to the Nobleman but the handle has holes in it so that you can lash it to a stick or pole and make a spear, which could come in handy. It's kind of a cross between the Nobleman and Evo Bhiggum references above.

      2. I too carry a Classic SC on my keychain. It's enough for my needs (box opening, nail trimming, and occasional splinter removal. Also, when I was checking out the Swiss Army site, I found out you can order replacement parts! You can replace the toothpick for $0.30 and the tweezers for $2. All these years, I've lived without them...

        1. Keep track of how long the replacement tweezers and toothpick are around. I'm curious if they can be kept for longer than a week.

          1. Heh. My tweezers were around for like 6 or 7 years (until the TSA took 'em) because they never got used but that toothpick was gone in less than a month.

          2. I have most of mine.
            I love the Victorinox tweezers. Regular Health&Beauty tweezers can't grab slivers, ticks, hairs, etc. with any precision. With the Victorinox tweezers, because it's sheetmetal strips, I can adjust my pressure to pull resistant items.

    4. I should also add that it's hard for me to judge if gentlefolks carry knives in their pockets anymore. Having lived in Texas, and now Louisiana, people carry big honking knives as a don't eff with me statement.

      1. I still get curious looks at the law office for even carrying my 3.5" folder, so yeah...that's a good question. However, my longstanding habit of carrying a pocket knife (and the associated benefits) far outweigh any concern I might have about what polite* company thinks.

        *sissified

      2. Most of my friends and relatives carry pocketknives, but we're almost all farmers and tradesmen, so I don't know about the gentlefolk thing, either. I used to carry a Leatherman all the time, but after breaking it repeatedly, I gave up and carry my knife and a pair of pliers instead.

        1. My dad, who grew up rural, carries one and gave ones to both me and my brother. I rarely carried mine after high school (although long had it in my satchel, until 2001). Cultural thing, as I am sissified city folk, being from what was one of the ten largest cities in Minnesota at the time. 😉

        2. I used to carry a small Swiss Army knife, but it'd just be something else to scratch the front of my cellphone. I used to wear a watch at one time, too.

          1. Yes on the watch. Seems rather redundant now that I have a powerful computer in my pocket.

            2. I wear it partially as a timepiece but also as jewelry. Yes, I have received compliments on it.

            3. I gave up on wearing a watch for a while, but it's so much quicker than pulling out a phone, turning it on, etc. Plus, waterproof! And no, I don't get any compliments on my ratty old Timex with a replacement nylon/canvas band.

              1. I can't get out of the habit of wearing a watch. Even when I don't have it on, and even with a powerful computer in my pocket, I glance to my wrist when I want to know the time. I wear a new(er) Timex on the right wrist (no compliments either). Most people seem to wear theirs on the left wrist, but that's never felt 'normal' to me despite being right-handed. One drawback, I have to take the watch off in orderto throw a tennis ball for my dog.

                1. I like being able to quickly set a timer or start the stopwatch without having to go through the lock screen, etc. on my phone. I've also been in situations where my phone battery died and I both wanted to know the time and was nowhere near an outlet.

          2. I put my cellphone in my left pocket and my other miscellanea in my right pocket. If I expect to use change, I put that in the fifth pocket, and put my wedding ring there if I'm expecting to dirty my hands or are washing them.

            1. Ditto, but mirrored. If the fifth pocket is the little one on the right side, then also ditto for both uses of it.

              1. Yes that's the fifth.
                I remember an old California Cheap Skates catalog (didn't skate, but got fashion ideas therein) which advertised a pair of jeans with "Enough pockets for you and 1 1/2 friends!"

            2. I only use my front pockets, so keys/cellphone in the left, wallet in the right (I don't carry change). Putting things in your back pocket has the potential to cause back problems, and it's more of a target for pickpockets

              1. Why keys with the cell phone? I also use only my front pockets (mainly due to nagging from my wife and after switching to a Slimmy wallet) but I do cell phone in left pocket and keys/wallet in right pocket. I really wish life didn't require keys.

                1. already a bit tight in the right with just the wallet. ditto not wanting keys -- I love putting them in the carry-on's little pocket when I leave the airport parking lot for the airport.

                  1. wallet in the front left pocket, keys in the front right, cell in the shirt breast pocket. Unless I've got a suit/sportscoat on, in which case wallet and phone migrate to the coat.

                    1. This is where the cargo pants are amazing. I carry two sets of key (car key and keychain with everything else), so it could get bulky quickly. I've got my wallet on my right leg, phone on my left, car key in left pocket and everything else keys in the right. nice and neat.

                3. I absolutely love my Slimmy. On days when I drive the F100 I only need two keys (truck & house), which live on a ring with my first dog's license tag and a P-38. That all easily fits in my fifth pocket. The rest of the time I have a big plastic keyless key which lives on big steel S-link because it's too big for my pocket.

            3. Another reason I love the winter - jacket pockets. I usually have chapstick and my pocket knife in my pockets and the wallet and phone while in walking transit (keys in hand). Once I get where I'm going, out come the wallet, keys and phone (dresser/desk/shelf). I can't stand having stuff in my pants pockets while sitting and, although I missed the clothing discussion, I can't wear cargo pants to work.

              1. Jacket pockets are nice. I usually will use my right jacket pocket for my keys and my left jacket pocket for my cell phone when I have jacket pockets, but I basically always keep my wallet in my right pants pocket and can barely stand not having it on me.

              2. I agree about not having stuff in my pockets. When I work (at home) I put my cellphone on the desk in front of me, and wallet and keys remain on my armoire upstairs.

              3. I love my jacket pockets. I can put so many things in them.
                I hate my jacket pockets. I can lose so many things in them.

          3. I can't carry my phone in my pocket wearing jeans, so I got a nice Otterbox case that clips on my belt.

            And yes, that fifth pocket is great for change and small parts.

      3. That's why I go with the classic: it fits in pockets easily.
        I brought it into the Twins game by putting it in my backpack.

    5. My father-in-law bought one for me from Cabela's that is very simple and easy to use.

    6. The conversation has shifted to what people carry, so I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Everyday Carry. Some of the postings venture into apocalypse preparedness, but many are the simpler what people carry in their pockets.

        1. That's a nice list of knives- I've got some CRKT's I like (cheap but tough), Spyderco is very well-regarded, and Benchmade is probably the best combination of quality and utility you're going to find.

          1. Benchmade auto's are what I used in the Navy. After the second one went missing (the first one lost in the bilge or over the side, not sure which) I decided I couldn't afford any more. However, they were awesome knives & Benchmade's reputation is well deserved.

          2. I was just coming here to say that I decided on the crkt swindle and lucked into a good deal via the ebays. It would seems that this knife fulfills all I want including indulging my penchant for sleek design.

          3. I kicked up a CRKT in the sand in Kuwait, dissassembled and cleaned it, then carried it for 12 months in Iraq. I was going to suggest them as well.
            Most companies likely have policies on such things, limiting to a certain blade length or some such. I stopped carrying a pocket knife once it seemed no longer polite to fiddle with one in the midst of a meeting. While playing Army, though, it was part of the standard load in my pockets.

    7. Last week, I found one of those credit card sized folding knives on Amazon with free shipping for only $2. I figured it was worth a punt to see if it was any good.

      I have Gerber multitool that I loved when I worked at the rink, but I don't carry it regularly anymore now that I'm not repairing things all the time. I also have a USMC ka-bar that I put on my belt when I'm camping/hiking. I can cut down saplings, pound tent stakes, probably kill a puma if I'm not busy crapping my pants. All sorts of things with it.

    8. Figures an interesting topic like this would come up on the day the entire campus network is down (power outage). Hopefully you still see this, meat.

      For the last several years I've had a friction folder made by Michael Morris in my pocket. He custom makes his knives from high carbon metal files. You can order any length, choose from a variety of points and tail shapes, and pick what color Micarta handle you'd like. Even comes with a custom leather sheath.

      Mine is a 2.5" blade with a black fulltail handle. It's very simple and light, an advantage of the friction folding design. Only two functions - knife and a bottle opener built into the tang. What more does a fella need?

      1. Man, that dude is one hell of a crafts person. A tab bit out of my price range, but I'll keep him on the list for when I hit the lotto.

        1. Thought you'd appreciate the craft. I watched a series of YouTube videos of him working. He's really something. But yeah, I saved up for a while for mine (about $120 or so all told, I think).

      2. I've got some old files and elk antlers I'm trying to make some knives out of. They won't look that nice, but it's a fun project that I really need to get working on again.

  4. I'm out of town starting Saturday afternoon, so if anyone wants to take over the World Cup logs, it'd be appreciated.

    1. Great book, I loved it when I was in middle school. I'm certain I would manage to avoid accidents/being attacked by porcupines (that's not how I remember that part going), so I'd live at least long enough to die of starvation.

        1. Damn right they are. One of them bastards ate my backpack at a camp ground in Door County when we were biking around the peninsula back in the day.

  7. I love how the WGOM is morphing into Queer Eye for the Twins Fan, what with all the fashion talk of late. 😉

    1. If anything makes the NFL pursue changing the franchise's name, it will be the loss of revenue due to lack of trademark.

      I guarantee it.

      2. The NFL blew this one big time, and I really don't understand why it chose this as a hill to die on. Like it or not, it's been apparent for some time now that the name was eventually going to change. Why not get in front of it and get some favorable publicity out of it? Yes, there'd have been some negative publicity, too, but the majority of it would've been favorable, and the negatives are not likely to stop watching the NFL because of it. Just from a P. R. standpoint, the NFL's stance on this really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

        1. And if I should've used a forbidden zone tag there, I apologize, but it didn't seem to me like it was required.

          1. I wouldn't think it necessary there. It would seem you're advocating diplomacy regardless of any political stance, and I can't imagine the mostly level-headed field here disagreeing with that.

  10. It's raining pretty hard right now, which means it'll soon be raining hard inside my office. I'll be really happy when the new addition is built.

    1. Spent the day prepping the golf course for the flood (moving equipment, picking up loose objects, etc). Good thing we got an early start because by 5 oclock the river swallowed a third of our land.

    2. My old home town of Wessington Springs was hit hard by a tornado tonight. I don't know any details yet, but please keep them in your prayers.

  12. It was a tough day for close baseball games. Trey's all-star team lost its first tournament game tonight. Trey was 2-for-3, including an RBI single to put his team ahead in the bottom of the fifth (games are six innings). Unfortunately, the other team scored the max five runs in the top of the sixth and held on for a 14-13 win. Trey's team had a runner thrown out at home to end the game. If the kid was running his best, he had to be the slowest on the field. He's a great hitter, but it was painful watching him run. He hit a ball that rolled to the wall and just barely made it to second base. With two outs, the next batter singled to the outfield. The kid on second was sent home and the throw went all the way home. The kid stopped and tried running back to third. The catcher started to run him down and then threw the ball into left field. The kid looked like he was trying to touch third before figuring out he should head for home again. The throw from the outfield was slightly offline, but the catcher caught the ball on one hop and tagged the kid sliding into home plate. It was a close play but the right call.

    My biggest frustration was the infield defense for Trey's team. They had numerous errors while the shortstops from the first and third place (Trey) teams were playing in the outfield. Half of the infield was populated by players from the second-place team, which happened to be managed by the same guy that was managing the All-Star team.

    The team they played was from the same league, Newmark. Newmark has dominated the district All-Star playoffs in the upper levels (this is just the second year we've been a part of this tourney), so it was pretty apparent the rest of the district wanted to ensure that at least one of our teams was going to lose in the first round. Fortunately, it is a double-elimination tournament. We told them we'll see them in the championship game.

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