On Christmas Day, our refrigerator decided to pull a Hans Gruber (without the dropping from the Nakatomi Tower) and we found ourselves dealing with the idiotic aftermath of losing the least amount of food possible. We have a small stand alone fridge which helped save some of the expensive items. Other stuff went to coolers with ice and other yet has began to spoil making the missus rather unhappy.

But making space in the freezer required brave sacrifice, so we had to extract the ribs and take care of them.

And since the missus did not get the hint about the remote smoker thermometer for Christmas (She got me a nice camera instead) I am forced to do the Surveillance of the Smoker once again.

If it looks stupid but works, it ain’t stupid.

The Daily Herald reports the men, ages 22 and 23, allegedly took four nail guns, each worth more than $400, from the Coastal Farm & Ranch store Saturday in Marysville.

The men walked out of the store and got into a Honda Civic, only to be surrounded by about six customers with guns raised.

Court documents say the driver pulled forward, causing one man confronting him to land on the hood.

Documents say another customer shot at the driver’s side front tire, while a third fired twice at the rear tire.

Marysville police found the theft suspects’ car unoccupied about three blocks away, with two flat tires and the tools inside. Both men were apprehended after a search.

6 customers draw guns on men attempting to steal tools

It makes you feel good to have good people stand for the “right thing”, but in this case this is not the legal way.  I don’t think a prosecuting attorney would be political dumb enough to bring charges against the customers, but let’s not tempt faith, shall we?  Just say no to use of deadly force for simple loss of property.

Cooking time about 3 hours.

I wonder how’ that foot tasting.

One thing I noticed is that the microphone is good enough to pick nearby conversations. The neighbors pulled over earlier and it seems they were not feeling the holiday cheer and they were loud enough about it while slamming the car’s doors.

Found me a nice deal in Amazon and made it one of the official House Gifts.  Two way communication and 180 degree field of view.

And yes, the column is a bit of annoyance, but the house came like this. If you look at the upper left corner, you get a glimpse of the camera still installed which was doing the surveillance duty. I’ll probably remove it tomorrow and locate it to its new spot.

Since our house is not that big and nor is our land, the house coverage will be done with this door bell system, an old school doorbell (this particular brand is hard-wired for power) and 2 cameras for just under $200. I just checked and all priced have gone up about 25% but that is the way internet commerce goes. I just hunted till I saw a good price on the item I wanted and dropped the hammer. Also, I understand that although it may prevent crime (unlikely) it is only good for evidence collection and better yet, early warning: If we are home, we don’t need to break the house seal (door) to see what’s going on outside. Maybe it is Girl Scouts selling cookies, maybe our crazy next doer neighbor or maybe somebody with nasty intentions. Whomever it may be, I can tailor my response and assume the appropriate DEFCON level.

The Sun Sentinel has an editorial today pointing out the failures of Sheriff Scott Israel and how the new Governor should remove him from office. Even though the paper  has done a great series investigating the school board and the failures that led to Cruz shooting Parkland students, very little has been aimed at Israel.

In fact, the article has a lot of “I have come here to bury Caesar, not to praise him” writing. The Sun Sentinel hits on the greatest Liberal hits including LGQBT politics, Gun Control and opposition to Stand Your Ground and by the feel of it, feels like they love the guy.  But the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission  Report does not paint BSO in a good light,   in fact They even dare mention that they felt the need to defend him for the shooting the same they did after the colossal screw up at the Fort Lauderdale Airport that also produced a very negative report basically comparing BSO’s preparation to the best efforts of the Keystone cops.

And, of course, Sun Sentinel presents a bit of a balance.

But they fail to mention that at the time of the CNN Town Hall, nobody but the Sheriff and a few insiders, nobody knew about the cowardly failure of Deputy Scot Peterson and how his lack of action helped Cruz gather more victims. I am not sure of the internal process, but I would not be surprised to find out that while Israel was being all righteous on stage looking down on Dana Loesch, the procedures to allow Deputy Peterson retire with full benefits were already in gear.   But one thing is certain: He knew it was his agency who had failed to the community and not the NRA, not Dana Loesch and certainly not Gun Owners.

As stated in the beginning, the Sun Sentinel is expecting the new Republican governor sends Israel to an early retirement, but one wonders if they had the same desire to do so if the incoming chief executive for the state had been Gillum instead. De Santis should take his time, read the report with calm and make the necessary noises of disgust for let’s say six months or so before dropping the sword on Israel. If the Democrats want to play politics, we should let them wear that albatross around their collective necks a bit longer, don’t you think?