Misc.

Violence in my Neighboorhood

I have been distracted.

Friday morning brought a bashed out truck window. The creeps who did it tossed the contents of the gloveboxs, and made off with – now this is exciting stuff for the buggars (read: #$%#^&^^%$)  – the remote control to the complex gate,  maybe 3 bucks in change that was in the ash tray and a few home burned CD’s with a mix of classical, country, jazz, and bluegrass music from under the seat.  The creeps left behind: a flashlight.

Calls to the insurance company, police reports done online, and a request for the complex video security tapes. Now that is funny security? Ha. So, we know who did it but no one else seems to care. Oh well – the glass is all cleaned up – I needed to wash the truck anyway.

Friday night a a group of teenagers massed in the front of the complex – read in front of my townhouse – and started to argue. The group got louder and larger. Before the police arrived it had grown to about thirty kids and one adult. The sticks and knifes came out the group moved away from my front yard and carport so I took the oppportunity to get in my truck and leave. As I was leaving on police car arrived. When I came back there were five police cars and more kids arriving. I parked across the street and snuck back into my townhouse – I was worried about my dogs. The police finally got it all calmed down and left.

Saturday and Sunday were spent jumping up and peeping out the windows everytime we heard kids screaming or noises in the carports. Augh! These are the terrorists in my little world.
Saturday there was a shooting at the park where the dog park I go to is located. Sunday a shooting downtown in front of the Macy’s that left one kid dead and maybe another soon to follow.

I have been considering joining what we call the white flight – moving north out of the southern mess of Sacramento – now I am considering Oregon or Nevada. There are too many rats in this cage we call Sacramento. I have always been a true believer in mixed neighboorhoods but today I feel like it is an experiment in social studies that has gone terribly wrong.

I could blame the instigators of the fight friday on the Katrina victims that rented a unit here as they were at the core of the mess. Or, I could blame it on an ethnic group since all those involved in all of the above problems were anything but white. But, I think the problem is the same one we have always had: ECONOMICS.

Forcing section 8 housing and renters into areas sucks! The loosers are always the quite, peaceful, law abbiding as they watch their community taken over by thugs. Our townhouse associations homeowners are diverse in ethnic breakdown. The minority is white. We all are tired of the laws that forced section 8 into our area.
I almost did not post this and I may regret it later.

A Tale of Annie’s Tail

Saturday Catfish and Annie dogs participated in our third annual WOOF walk at the Elk Grove Park. It was an easy walk with more than 200 other registered participants. My labrador retriever Annie is 1 1/2 years old. Catfish is three. Annie still gets very excited when around lots of other canines. She has a very active tail.

When we got home everybody was tired. The dogs went to their beds and zonked out. Later on in the evening I noticed that Annie was acting strange. Not as active as usual and she whinned a little bit once and a while as she does when she wants a toy that is beyond her reach or stuck under something. I searched for any stuck toys and found none. I assumed she was just tired as this was our first long walk of the year and she went back to sleep.

Later on, after non emergency hours are over at our veteranary, she woke up and acted as if she was in pain. I worried that perhaps her hips of legs were sore. Finding nothing I just kept an eye on her. Then came the big augh hah! Oh my, her tail is hanging down kind of limp like a stuffed toys. About 3 inches down it had a strange looking bend in it and then it just hung down.

We all start trying to think of how she could have hurt herself, was her tail broken? Was something else causing this? She had not had any scruffles, bumps, or any other incidents. I checked her tail and yep she let me know that hurt and leave my tail alone please.

This is now where all humans in the household panic thinking she has broken her tail, load her up into the car and drive to the vet. Convinced that somehow she had broken her tail and feeling guilty that this could happen without us having a clue. Finally we get to the vet, sign in, tell our tale of the tail and wait.

One hundred and twenty six dollars (after hour emergency fees and medicine) later we now know that a dog can sprain it’s tail. Similar to someone waving on a float all day and awakening with a sore arm. Yep, a sprained tail! There are a few names for this: Cold water tail and limber tail are the most commonly used. It is supposably a common occurance in sporting dogs but I had never heard of it before.
So, now you know, I took my dog to the emergency vet clinic for a sprained tail and Annie is on anti-inflammatory drugs for a few days.
Info on cold water/limber tail syndrome can be found here at the Labrador Retriever Club, Inc. site.

Union Brigantine Constructo Wooden Ship Model

I purchased this easier kit to occupy me when I get annoyed with the Britannia. It is an entry level kit of the Union Brigantine. The never was a real brigantine with the name Union but it is representative of the type. Brigantines were small ships that had sails and oars. It got it’s name as a favorite of pirates as Brigantine from the Italian brigantino – Brigan’s ship. Brigantines are two-masted sailing ships, square-rigged on the foremast and having a fore-and-aft mainsail with square main topsails.
Union Brigantine Kit

I hope to practice my airbrush skills and get some experience with rigging by building it. Here is what I completed on it yesterday.

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The decking is simulated by drawing lines with a lead pencil 3mm apart and then divided into 50mm planks. The hull was not properly cut out at the box for the bulwarks so I did have to chisle a bit. I wonder if there is a wooden ship model kit out there that has all the pieces cut properly?

At least the instructions are translated into proper english. Very little verbage but lots of pictures and a diagram of the rigging.

Wooden Ship Model Britannia

I am sure that some of you are tired of my wooden ship models. Oh-well.

I have finished the decking on the Britannia and have run into an annoying problem. The rudder is held on to the hinges? by a wire that runs along the edge of it. It keeps coming undo! Augh!

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