Afternoon, everyone.
Rex, Alabama made it three times on the top 25 laziest cities! We're number one on that list.
I suspect they had some polling outfit call 10 people in cities across the country to come up with that nonsense. Having grown up in Cleveland, I know there are way more fat, lazy people there and they didn't even make the list. I'm not classified as fat but I do watch Glenn Beck and don't exercise as much as I should so I guess I'm guilty on two out of three counts.
Ken, looks like your storm should be winding down. I hope you didn't lose power. We lost power twice and Ida wasn't even a big deal here. I'd sure have a small backup generator for that sump pump though. My neice and her husband, both doctors, had a 12,000 square foot house built. They have a huge basement that's finished and carpeted. I told them to spend the $500 when it was being built to have a transfer switch and generator installed but they didn't think that was needed. A year later, they lost power during a big storm and the entire basement was under three feet of water. It cost them their $2,000 deductible and about three months worth of work to fix everything. Believe it or not, the also put in an emergency generator for the sump pump as part of the repairs.
Each state has some weird laws about civil liability if a person is injured on your property. Even uninvited "guests" are covered in some states unless you meet certain requirements. Some states have special laws that apply to dogs that are either known to bite or trained to attack. It can range from a simple fence and "Beware of Dog" signs to having the animal restrained at all times with prominent warning sighns and no trespassing signs. Most of these laws were passed to protect innocent people, like children that might get into your yard. Over the years, they have been perverted to protect trespassers who are injured when they were on your property with criminal intent. The real people to blame for this is not the law but juries made up of morons that will give money to just about anyone, especially if you have deep pockets or they don't like your race or ethnicity. In really liberal wacko states like Maryland, juries have gone completely nuts. Until we get real tort reform, this kind of thing will keep happening.
Barry, I suspect the police officer's dog is probably trained to attack on command and will only attack on his own if you are attacking the police officer. I don't know if he's a K-9 officer, but most police trained dogs are exceptionally well-mannered until a command is given, usually in German, so some bozo can't give the same command in English and cause problems. I was working a really boring detail one night with a K-9 officer, when we were manning a roadblock due to a big wildfire. His dog was named Bear, which fit him well, since he was a German Shepard that weighed about 120 lbs.
. I was eating my lunch and pulled out a pack of cookies. Bear promptly snatched them out of my hand and started devouring them. I said "Hey, Bear just stole my cookies". He looked over at me and said "Do you want to try and get them back?". I just went without cookies that night.
Tom, you're getting a front from the west. Luckily, Ida-ex will be out of the area by then. If those two had gotten together, it would have been really bad.
Corey, that little bastard seems funny now but it wasn't so much fun when he was hanging off my leg. I got ribbed about that one for a long time. It turns out the Muffy had been involved in two other biting incidents so the the DA went after the owner and recovered the cost of the medical bills and my uniform pants. The yard had no fence or signs and apparently Muffy liked to hide in the bushes and bite people like the mailman...and cops.
I really hate Christmas decorating but I guess it's getting to be that time again. At least I put everything away last year in an organized fashion so I know where all the junk is. I think I'd be psychotic if I worked in retail and had to listen to Christmas music for the next month and a half.
Chris, you can certainly defend your home from an intruder. Having Jacob bite someone who's just in the yard may be another matter. That last picture looks just like Muffy, the little bastard.
Barry, the only person my big lazy Maine Coon cat has bit and clawed was me. We have four cats and they'd run and hide if anyone came in the house. They're cute but worthless for anything but laying around.
Another beautiful fall day down here. I spent most of this morning paying off the last of the bills from my little trip to the emergency room and subsequent doctor's appointments. The total was over $10,000, of which I had to pay about $2,000. The weird thing about my Blue Cross is that paid for the entire ER visit with no deductible but have to pay at least a $40 copay for every visit to my regular doctor, plus the cost of lab tests. Seems like this is exactly the wrong thing to do, since I'll just go to the ER for every little ache and pain and not pay anything, instead of being rational about going to my doctor because I have to pay. I'm sure the new national health plan will fix all this though.
A big dog is about the best alarm system ever invented. A Remington 870 is also an effective deterrent. 
weekend.
