Splendid Isolation

Health Issues Etc.

November 16, 2023 Kim du Toit Health

Yesterday was time for my annual checkup, so after enduring the no-coffee / no-food “fast” for reasons of bloodwork, I settled in to have my chat with Dr. ShitForBrains.

Perhaps a little background is necessary. I have had three primary doctors since the Great Wetback Episode of 1986 — or perhaps I should say that I’ve outlived two doctors, and am on my third. (The first, in Chicago, died of leukemia; the second, in Plano, died of a heart attack.) Doctor #2 was nicknamed “Shit-for-brains” by the family because he was, to put it mildly, the world’s worst diagnostician. No matter how much information we gave him, he’d get it wrong. Lovely man, piss-poor doctor. We were just about to get another doctor when he snuffed it, and we inherited Doctor #3 in the same practice, who is definitely not ShitForBrains, but the nickname (rather unfairly) has become generic, to distinguish him from the other doctors we’ve since acquired (dermos, heart specs, etc.). We have an excellent relationship, truly fine, and he gets my sense of humor (as you will see).

Back to yesterday’s visit. Here’s more or less how it went.

SFB: All your vitals are good: weight has dropped (by 40lbs!), BP is excellent, circulation fine, respiration excellent, thyroid fine. When the bloodwork comes back, we’ll check the cholesterol and so on, but I don’t see any issues. Had any problems since last time?

Kim: I’ve just started having plantar fasciitus attacks in my right foot.. Came out of nowhere, very owie two days back, a little better today.

SFB: [winces] Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I’ll give you a printout that’ll help, for exercises.

Kim: Exercises? I’m in pain, here. Can’t you give me a quick pop of Lidocaine or something?

SFB: Hahaha no.

Kim: It’s a good thing I left my gun in the car, or else we’d be having a different conversation about Lidocaine.

SFB: Kim, you know my policy about gun fights in my office.

Kim: Wouldn’t be much of one; you’re not carrying.

SFB: No, but Christie is. [nods towards his assistant, who gives me That Look]

You’d think I’d have remembered that, because ’twas I who taught her how to shoot and helped her buy her first gun, about eight years back (S&W Lady Smith in .38 Spec+P — she’s since acquired a Kimber Ultra Carry in .45 ACP because she’s a big girl and can handle it).

Anyway, by then the pain had subsided somewhat, so after having had blood taken, I was on my merry way.

Good health: I haz it. (Apart from typical Olde Phartte issues and a sore foot.)

Not bad for… fucking hell, 69 on Sunday.

Time for another gin.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Ed Brown Special Forces 1911 (.45 ACP)

November 16, 2023 Kim du Toit Gratuitous Gun Pics

I must confess to having mixed feelings about this offering from Steve Barnett:

I know all about Ed Brown’s 1911s: they’re fantastic bits of machinery, reliable to a fault, engineered way up the quality curve, and so on.

But the problem I have is that “way up the quality curve” thing: at the end of the day, it’s still a 1911. And just how much better is a quality offering like this one than, say, a Springfield Loaded 1911?

Four times better? (Because that’s the price difference between the two models.)

Like I said: mixed feelings. As any fule kno, I love me my quality guns, most especially shotguns of the H&H / Abbiatico genre. But those are hand made (which the Ed Brown isn’t), which has to count for something.

And maybe it’s just because it’s a 1911 — yes, essentially the same as a 1911 Government as used by Our Brave Boys in France, the Pacific, Vietnam and so on.

Finally, I have no issue with super-quality 1911s of the Nighthawk / Ed Brown ilk — several of my Readers own such pieces, I’ve been lucky enough to have them let me shoot their guns, and without exception, they’re wonderful to shoot.

But I have to confess to y’all: even if I won a lottery, I’m not sure I’d buy a premium 1911 — note, I said “not sure” because hell, I might just indulge myself, much as I might indulge myself with an Omega wristwatch for about the same money.

And maybe it’s because I’ve just been so well served by my plain ol’ Springfield Mil-Spec 1911 (and yeah I know, it’s far from standard issue, with a widened ejection port and polished trigger group). Maybe it’s because I just don’t see how much better an Ed Brown would work for me.

I must be getting old, for such common sense to have crept into my life.

You Had ONE Job

November 16, 2023 Kim du Toit Bad News, Gummint

Columnist Rich Nolan sums up the current energy situation perfectly:

The nation’s electric grid experts and operators now work in a constant state of emergency. There’s little if any respite in the change of seasons. Fears of soaring electricity demand overwhelming power supplies during searing summer heat are now matched by an equally unnerving fear millions will be left shivering in darkness during the coldest days of winter.

The question is no longer will there be rolling blackouts or grid emergencies but rather when or where.

This week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is taking up the issue of grid reliability at a technical conference, pulling together some of the nation’s key stakeholders on the issue. This is an extraordinarily important opportunity to shed light on a catastrophe in the making and the policy decisions driving it.

Warnings over the threat posed by the loss of dispatchable sources of generation – namely fuel-secure coal power – have reached a crescendo over the past few months. And while the experts charged with keeping the heat and lights on have begged for policy relief, they’re getting just the opposite.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory agenda is making an alarmingly dangerous situation all but untenable.

I don’t know when our beloved government decided that electricity had somehow become an optional extra in our daily life, but they need to have the proverbial (battery-powered) cattle prod applied to their genitals, and soon.

We should start with the EPA, who need to experience a 90% RIF immediately, and a concomitant 90% reduction in their “regulatory agenda” — slashing the existing regulations, to start with — and daily budget cuts from a hostile Congress.

I know, I know: the entire fucking Feddle Gummint needs the same, but let’s start small with the EPA (and, okay okay, the ATF as well).

But we need to stop being fearful about our energy needs, toot sweet, and if the existing electricity providers are being hampered, the reasons for said hampering need to be eliminated before we start having Third World problems of rolling blackouts and “load shedding”.

And by “eliminating” I mean this:

Quote Of The Day

November 15, 2023 Kim du Toit QOTD

From Miguel Castejon, illegal immigrant, on why he’s leaving Chicago and going back to Venezuela:

“The American Dream doesn’t exist anymore. There’s nothing here for us.”

Welcome to the club, pal.

He continues:

“We didn’t know things would be this hard. I thought the process was faster,” he said about the job permit situation in Chicago.

LOL it took New Wife over a year to get her work permit — and she was here legally, married to a U.S. citizen.

And of course, as Chicago’s harsh winter is starting its annual bite:

“If we’re going to be sleeping in the streets here, we’d rather be sleeping in the streets over there.”

…because Venezuela is on the equator.

See ya.

And by the way: well done, TxGov Abbott.

Cultural Ignorance

November 15, 2023 Kim du Toit House & Home, Immigration

Last night I had to call 911, because I heard gunshots outside my apartment — first there were two shots, evenly spaced, and then three in a row, very fast. Sounded like a small-caliber pistol, I told the operator. (This being Texas, she didn’t bother to ask me how I could guess the caliber.)

Anyway, the cops arrived, and then a fire engine.

Not gunshots: fireworks.

Of course, “fireworks” never occurred to me as a choice because I’m culturally ignorant, and had no idea that it’s Diwali Time, here in Little Hyderabad, Plano (that’s what they call it, because there are so many people from that city living in the area).

That would also explain why so many apartment patios are festooned with light strings — they’re not premature Christmas lights (which is what I mistakenly thought) but Diwali lights, which is apparently a whole ‘nother thing. So instead of living amidst a large number of Christian folk, I’m surrounded, so to speak, by Diwali devotees. (Okay, I knew that already.)

Anyway, I felt a bit of a fool for calling 911 just about fireworks, but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t get the appropriate memo from the Ministry of Cultural Assimilation. And honestly? these were loud bangs, so my confusion is quite understandable. (I had the 1911 in hand while peering through the curtains and making the 911 call.)

Anyway, the morons who set off the fireworks got their pee-pees whacked both by the Fuzz and the Apartment Lords, as setting off fireworks in these parts is Streng Verboten. (We have an extensive forest on both sides of the nearby creek, surrounded by empty grass fields that have somehow escaped the attention of property developers, hence the fire risk and prohibition.)

And by the way: the cops were on the spot in about three minutes: nothing like “Shots fired” over the old 911 to get the donuts dropped and the engines running. But of course if there had been gunshots, three minutes is far too long.

This is Kim, your local Cultural Ignoramus, signing off.