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Irma’s Silver Lining
Fled the Keys to Orlando to ride out Irma. As I mentioned in a previous post, the staff at this place is outstanding. But. Still stuck in the hotel and its grounds. Still unable to travel. Ninety percent of my time spent in two adjoining rooms with the family and the dogs. Love ’em all dearly. Still, the walls were closing in.
One can only do so much in the gym. The mediocrity of this gym was adjudged due to the fact that while it had a laudable amount of floor space, it had little/no useful equipment. Lots of room for Combat Conditioning and other body weight exercises. Lots of room for jumping rope.
You can only do so many push-ups a day (said no Drill Sergeant ever).
So as an excuse to get out of the room, I took up smoking. That’s not the silver lining (okay — it was a silver lining. Ain’t gonna lie, there was a certain pleasure in chuffing down the unfiltered Camels. And, yes, I will quit again ‘pon our return to Casa de Mongo). It was outside, smoking and drinking, that I got to know the boys. Tradesmen that flocked to Orlando to be centrally located so that immediately after the storm, they were positioned to get where the need was greatest and get to working. There were linemen, roofers, power grid assessors, heavy equipment operators. All guys that shower after work, not before it.
This isn’t a dig at folk that are educated or white collar. I’m educated and white collared (okay, maybe polo-shirt collared; I’m not getting paid enough to wear a tie more than twice a year). I hope as life grinds on to get more educated and white collared-er. But this is a hat tip to the men who get stuff done. They were stacked up and ready to go. Cheerful, optimistic hell-raisers on a mission that would give them a mark on the good side of the ledger.
Some were educated. I talked to more than a couple of engineers. One guy was a former Army officer who was commissioned into the Engineer branch. Oh, and he was a native Panamanian who’d earned his commission and served in the USA specifically to get his citizenship. His compañeros were guys whose surnames started with Fitz-, Mc, and Mac. The comments, jibes, and insults that flew amongst them would’ve made a Social Justice Warrior spontaneously combust (oh, and the little brown guy more than held his own).
And that’s the silver lining. There was no rancor, no one looking to take offense — plenty looking to give it, but no one had the desire or inclination to take the bait. All my conservative news feeds — and I admit, I realize I’ve inadvertently built a bubble — make me despair. SJWs, micro-aggressions, lack of any sense of history or the liberalism that built the greatest nation in history all can make me despair and think that we’re doomed. This week was a good shot in the arm.
Whatever media exposure the SJWs at the University of Green Birkenstocks or the snowflakes at Pantytwist U. get and exploit, guys like the ones I’ve spent the last week with are out there.
And they’re out there to get it done.
Anybody got a light?
Published in General
Our Yorkie wasn’t a fighter, but he ignored little dogs and loved big dogs. Except our son’s Great Dane, which I think he thought was a horse. Or it may have been jealously because Evie is clearly our son’s dog and that’s what Mocha used to be.
We had a miracle play out. We’d called a screen repair guy for our lanai early in the week. Since his phone was out and our cells weren’t working, he drove all the way out here (he lives 30 minutes away) to check in with us. We knew he was a master workman, but he’s also a master business man. He explained he’d have to get a particular kind of screen which might already be out of stock. He told Jerry about the different types of screens and why he had to purchase this particular density that was made in the U.S. (Jerry loves that kind of tech talk.) And he said he’d be out today (Thursday). We figured, yeah, screen repair guy, we’ll be lucky to see him by December. I was wrong: he showed up today, all sweaty from working hard all morning, put up the two replacement pieces with the good quality stuff at the reasonable price he’d promised. I was very impressed. Our development will keep him busy for a long time with that kind of service!
Um…I do know a few men who have a “stewardess weakness mode…” Probably akin to “cheerleader weakness mode” which gets demonstrated here quite a bit…
On the other hand, I’ve got some serious men-in-uniform-weakness-mode going on, so I can’t really criticize. Am also desperately fond of men-who-fix-stuff.
These are the times when we see the real Americans. My Mom’s property was the only one on the block that had a (very large) tree down. Two big guys on the block with chain saws showed up to help my brother get that baby cut up and the yard cleaned up in one day. Then they took off to help other friends and relatives. What a blessing they were.
I love the Boss’ stories. They give me hope.
When my Golden Retriever and I visit my son who has a Havanese named Lucy, Lucy is totally in charge. It’s a riot to see this little tiny dog bossing my 75 lb. Suzi around. Once Suzi picked up one of her toys. Lucy ran over to her and gave a full-throated growl with the result that Suzi immediately dropped the toy and came running over to me for protection.
Ha, ha. Who could you possibly mean? Where are you Mike?
They are fierce little things, I give them that.
The hurricane mustave blown it away…
My mini dachsies have all had Napoleon complexes, except 1.
Boss, I don’t think it is possible for you to write a bad Post. Thanks again for good stuff.
I keep hearing, on Ricochet and other Florida friends and relatives, how the power that was supposed to be out for “one to two weeks” is already back on in many places, so I am thanking Oncor and the rest of those folks right here and now. Way to step it up!
Thank you for the update, Boss! I’d give it another day; things are improving rapidly here in Atlanta, even though there are still some problem areas and we didn’t get hit like you all did. I imagine that each day things are getting better in the Keys, although it may be hard to notice.
Meanwhile in Havana:
No, no, no. Zeus has the “stewardess weakness mode.” I just get pulled along for the ride.
We met one lovely young Scottish stewardess (SS), blonde-haired & blue-eyed (it’s relevant) who asked “Ooh, you’re the one with that big, brilliant dog.”
Mrs. Mongo: We’ve also got a German Shepard.
SS: Ooh, ah’ve seen him. He’s quite brilliant, too. He’s all black ‘n tan, inn’t he?”
Mrs. Mongo: No. Ours is blonde. And not very smart. She’s a dumb blonde.
SS (claps delightedly): Ooh, me too! Me too!
Here’s a pic Mrs. Mongo took: Me telling SS tales of derring-do. Probably the Army version of how I killed Bin Laden.
Obviously smitten with your, uh, “big dog”.
?
I’m a believer in everyone upping sharpshooter skills. But on your comment, better to be the first guy shoved outside the wall than to be the emergency rations.
She’s hot.
Duh. See what I’m saying? Zeus is not at fault for his affliction.
Oops, I was busy being chased by crazed cheerleaders. ?
Outstanding observation and great post. It reminded me of a worse disaster, and the post that Peggy Noonan wrote after September 11, 2001. She described all the white collar, the Wall St. people, etc. were helpless – all they could do was stand on the sidelines and cheer and clap for the men that got things done all those terrible months, and they did. You can Google it at Peggy Noonan’s site – It’s called Welcome Back Duke.
The word from South FL. is long term clean up – I hope all is ok with your turf – my friends in Lakeland and Tampa are trying to get back to normal, but many many disruptions – God bless!
Right on, FSC, and let’s not forget the Gulf Coast here in Texas, too. Everyone talks about Houston, but down around Rockport and that area, it is still wiped out. Irma kind of shoved them off the news.
EDIT: I meant to post this quote from the Gulf Coast area – it is from the little newspaper down there, and it makes sense, but it’s something you don’t read every day, or ever, in my case:
Lastly, as power is being restored to customers around the area, residents are reminded to clear cooktops and electric stoves of any debris; and ovens should be turned off.
Rockport got nailed by a hurricane. Stuff blown apart. Houston got hit by a tropical storm. Rising water, roof leaks, and lots of stuff soaked.
I’ d rather the heavy rains than the heavy winds.
Seawriter
After Waldo Canyon, the utilities took a long time to turn the gas back on because they went house to house to check it before and after.
My heart goes out to all of you affected by the hurricanes.
Yes – thank you for those updates – poor Texas – wow! Now more storms in the Caribbean – I did as much hurricane prep here in NW FL for my customers’ homes, and they are opting to leave everything in place – its un-nerving!! I paid our homeowners insurance renewal a month early, in full!