Random stupid things on your mind. Post them.

[Heather Wade]

That thing is really cool.
$2000-$4000 for an acre of land
$5000 for the concrete slab
$1000 for a radio tower to get your AM from across the US

and you are ready to go.

Fuckin A right, MindFlayer!  I'd be jumping for joy if I had to pay property tax every year on my little acre.

[West of the Rockies]

That sounds like a good thing.

It rubs the lotion on its skin....

Oh, was she a great big fat person?

That guy is still weapons-grade creepy.

[HorrorRetro]

Phoenix... sewer roaches... In the mid 80's I had a friend that lived in north Phx. I don't remember the name of the area, but it was an older part of Phx. At dusk they would start flying around. At first I thought they were bats... nuh uh... frikken roaches... huge roaches... gah

Nope, nope, nope. I've only encountered the flying bastards a few times in Oklahoma. Oddly enough, the largest roaches I ever experienced were up in Fairbanks, Alaska.  Most people think AK is too cold for roaches, but it's not.  We lived in Korean War-era military housing.  This was in 2003.  There is a huge power plant on the base that heats the housing units, and everything is connected by underground tunnels.  The tunnels make a great super highway for the roaches to get into the housing units.  Apparently, decades ago, some large southern roaches hitched a ride up there on a military move and set up shop. They'd come up through the floor drains in the basements.  You'd call to get an exterminator out there, and military housing would claim they were not roaches, but "water bugs." Um...different name, same beast. They refused to have any exterminators come out.  I'd spend as little time as possible in the basement, because these things were huge. 

[Chine]

Haven't been on here much. Fortunately crunched with many commissions. Then a needed break. Flying to exotic Cleveland (to see family) then NYC for art I'll have at Westminster Dog Show.


Hubby and I celebrating our 20 year wedding anniversary! My God...that seems unreal. We still dig each other like crazy, make each other laugh. Very blessed.

[Yorkshire pud]

Fast forward to 1hr 33 mins exactly... What a singer. The article afterwards is pretty good too. Simon Mayo is one of the greatest broadcasters on radio. Some may disagree, but they'd be wrong. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03ph4b7

[aldousburbank]

Haven't been on here much. Fortunately crunched with many commissions. Then a needed break. Flying to exotic Cleveland (to see family) then NYC for art I'll have at Westminster Dog Show.


Hubby and I celebrating our 20 year wedding anniversary! My God...that seems unreal. We still dig each other like crazy, make each other laugh. Very blessed.

Nice Chine!  Excellent to see you here.

[Chine]

Thank you my dear Amigo! Hope your 2014 is off to a spectacular start. I'm going to tune into GabCast tonight.

[UnscreenedCaller]

Hi Chine, nice to *see* you again!

Nope, nope, nope. I've only encountered the flying bastards a few times in Oklahoma. Oddly enough, the largest roaches I ever experienced were up in Fairbanks, Alaska.  Most people think AK is too cold for roaches, but it's not.  We lived in Korean War-era military housing.  This was in 2003.  There is a huge power plant on the base that heats the housing units, and everything is connected by underground tunnels.  The tunnels make a great super highway for the roaches to get into the housing units.  Apparently, decades ago, some large southern roaches hitched a ride up there on a military move and set up shop. They'd come up through the floor drains in the basements.  You'd call to get an exterminator out there, and military housing would claim they were not roaches, but "water bugs." Um...different name, same beast. They refused to have any exterminators come out.  I'd spend as little time as possible in the basement, because these things were huge. 

Mulberrry Street, Manhattan in the middle of Little Italy, college days. A friend shared a minuscule tenement apartment with a communal toilet facility in the hall. I was looking down, and out from under the table crawled the biggest "water bug" I've ever seen in my life. No one would step on it because it was toooo big and would have made a sickening crunch. It was a couple of years later when I saw another giant that size in the Smithsonian. Gah. It was awe inspiring and disgusting.

[Chine]

Hi Chine, nice to *see* you again!


Mulberrry Street, Manhattan in the middle of Little Italy, college days. A friend shared a minuscule tenement apartment with a communal toilet facility in the hall. I was looking down, and out from under the table crawled the biggest "water bug" I've ever seen in my life. No one would step on it because it was toooo big and would have made a sickening crunch. It was a couple of years later when I saw another giant that size in the Smithsonian. Gah. It was awe inspiring and disgusting.

Thanks! Living in NYC many years, I remember super large critter experiences. Also on Mulberry St, was walking home to the West Village. On the street a heft bag of garbage began to move and shake. Out came a bunch of huge rats. Really huge, larger than standard dachshunds... and so many it was like clowns coming out of a tiny VW in the circus.

Had a cat named Waterbug. Can't remember how or why we gave her that name.

[bateman]

Thanks! Living in NYC many years, I remember super large critter experiences. Also on Mulberry St, was walking home to the West Village. On the street a heft bag of garbage began to move and shake. Out came a bunch of huge rats. Really huge, larger than standard dachshunds... and so many it was like clowns coming out of a tiny VW in the circus.

Had a cat named Waterbug. Can't remember how or why we gave her that name.

Jesus Christ. 

A friend in Brooklyn has a basement apartment that's turned into party central for some of these charming creatures. The garbage & recycling bins are in the hallway down there, so they're dumpster diving at night, and apparently looking for comfortable living quarters in the walls, ceiling, wherever the hell else rats like to hide. So my friend's apartment was pretty well sealed, or so she thought, until at 4am one night she heard the tearing of a plastic bag. Sure enough, an enormous rat had managed to squeeze itself into the kitchen FROM BEHIND THE OVEN. The space must be like 2 inches wide. The fuckers are contortionists. I think she went to the hardware store soon after to seal up that gap. Stuff of nightmares.

[Chine]

Bateman.

Another NYC Tails of Rat Crypt...

I moved into the Bronx for a few months. My roommate had a pet parrot. Now, it's food was stored in this barrel. Well...apparently there was a hole chewed into it.

One night, I wake at 3 am to get a glass of water in the kitchen. It's dark and I see large figures (like standard dachshunds). When I move down the hall, I realize they are fucking large rats!!!

Thinking they will scurry away....they don't. Three or four saw me and took a defensive stance. Two began to move at me! They ran me out of the apartment. I'm on the front steps in my nightgown. Banged on my neighbor's door...Help! My roommate wasn't home that night. Anyhow, it was terrifying. That barrel of bird kibble must have been a food source for every rat on the block. I moved back to Manhattan a week later.

[Heather Wade]

Wow.  I thought I had problems.  Holy wtf.

[McPhallus]

Scary shit, chine.  I'm wishing I hadn't read that before going to bed.

[Chine]

This was about 20 some years ago. But as anyone in NYC will tell you...the rats can be found in all kinds of places (subway tracks, the parks).

[Heather Wade]

This was about 20 some years ago. But as anyone in NYC will tell you...the rats can be found in all kinds of places (subway tracks, the parks).

So glad I never saw one there.  Even walking down streets with the four foot high trash piles, never had the special horror of seeing one. 

[Chine]

It wasn't often but yeah...those were my only two experiences that really stayed with me.

I've never had a bear show up on my porch as I've heard happens out west. In Vegas, never crossed paths with anything but Coyotes and scorpions.

I saw a picture of an alligator being stopped by police in Florida on the news. I'll share...it's pretty funny.

[bateman]

It wasn't often but yeah...those were my only two experiences that really stayed with me.

I've never had a bear show up on my porch as I've heard happens out west. In Vegas, never crossed paths with anything but Coyotes and scorpions.

I saw a picture of an alligator being stopped by police in Florida on the news. I'll share...it's pretty funny.

Had it happen in Jersey. More than once.

[McPhallus]

This was about 20 some years ago. But as anyone in NYC will tell you...the rats can be found in all kinds of places (subway tracks, the parks).

Not to mention government, law offices....

[HorrorRetro]

It wasn't often but yeah...those were my only two experiences that really stayed with me.

I've never had a bear show up on my porch as I've heard happens out west. In Vegas, never crossed paths with anything but Coyotes and scorpions.

I saw a picture of an alligator being stopped by police in Florida on the news. I'll share...it's pretty funny.

For some reason, it's becoming quite common for wallabies to be on the loose in my county and the next county over. 

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/escaped-wallaby-startles-pierce-county-deputy/nHSJ9/

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/sep/16/hansville-area-on-the-hunt-for-escaped-wallaby/

[Heather Wade]

Ok, we've got rattlesnakes out here, and I've killed my fair share.  That's gotta count for something on the freaky creature list.  I'd still be more scared of a NYC rat though.

[FallenSeraph]

Bateman.

Another NYC Tails of Rat Crypt...

I moved into the Bronx for a few months. My roommate had a pet parrot. Now, it's food was stored in this barrel. Well...apparently there was a hole chewed into it.

One night, I wake at 3 am to get a glass of water in the kitchen. It's dark and I see large figures (like standard dachshunds). When I move down the hall, I realize they are fucking large rats!!!

Thinking they will scurry away....they don't. Three or four saw me and took a defensive stance. Two began to move at me! They ran me out of the apartment. I'm on the front steps in my nightgown. Banged on my neighbor's door...Help! My roommate wasn't home that night. Anyhow, it was terrifying. That barrel of bird kibble must have been a food source for every rat on the block. I moved back to Manhattan a week later.

I was bracing myself for the rats carrying the parrot down the hall and out the door or something. Whew.

[bateman]

I was bracing myself for the rats carrying the parrot down the hall and out the door or something. Whew.

HAHAHAHAHA, that mental image is both hilarious & terrifying.

[zeebo]

When I lived out in the boonies, one night I was doing my final rounds for the night, and noticed in the dim light a scorpion-shaped leaf right there in the middle of the living room.  Figuring I'd tracked it in from outside I went to pick it up, and stopped just short thinking, better make sure, just in case.  Flipped on the light and noticed it it was a real dead scorpion.  Went to pick it up to get a better look and thought again, better make sure, just in case.  So got a glass jar and scooped it up into it.  Put it on the counter and was looking at this ugly dead thing with it's ugly dead stinger and I'll be damned if that little bastard didn't just wake right up and start running around that jar like a crazed little bastard.  Moral of the story, if you see a scorpion-shaped anything don't be an idiot like I almost was, twice.

[Juan]

Just alligators and wild boars here.

[PB the Deplorable]

Ok, we've got rattlesnakes out here, and I've killed my fair share.  That's gotta count for something on the freaky creature list.  I'd still be more scared of a NYC rat though.

Funny thing about rattle snakes out and around the area where I live.  We have some but not a huge number of them, I haven't really seen that many compared to other snakes (gopher and king, especially), but there are a few around.

Anyway, a ranger friend told me so many in our area have been killed over the years, on farms, in backyards, in the parks and open space, when people hear them rattle, that the ones that rattle less or don't rattle at all are becoming much more common.  The loudest rattlers have been killed at a higher rate and the others continue breeding.

Scary.  I like my rattlers to rattle hearty.

It's rare that anyone dies from being bitten, I say just be careful around them and leave them alone.

[Yorkshire pud]

I say just be careful around them and leave them alone.

With you on that one PB; applies to all animals. Leave em alone they won't attack; The caveat there is large predators of course! 

[McPhallus]

With you on that one PB; applies to all animals. Leave em alone they won't attack; The caveat there is large predators of course! 

...and certain humans.

[Yorkshire pud]

...and certain humans.

Some subscribe to the Agents' appraisal of humans; Virus. 

[b_dubb]

Some subscribe to the Agents' appraisal of humans; Virus. 

A William Burroughs referrence?  "Naked Lunch"? Or Malthusian?

[Yorkshire pud]

A William Burroughs referrence?  "Naked Lunch"? Or Malthusian?

No, Matrix. Told to Morpheus.