Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for December 29, 2018

Don’t know what we’d do without you, Gene.

Gene, the atmospheric scientist. Ballardians flock to check his daily assessment of conditions.

Gladys is quite annoyed at Gene’s rating of her cooking skills. Trevor is going to have an overnight visitor to his doghouse tonight after Gene stumbles home from the Tiki Bar.

Not much to see in the tea leaves today then.

Gene’s got his head in the sand here. Today is definitely not ok! Nor will tomorrow either! #Bad. Put up that sign, Gene.

You don’t have to broadcast it.

70% Okay today with a chance of scattered Marginal; perhaps even some Bad in the Valley.

If you can get yourself up and outdoors the first thing in the morning to hang the sign, the day must be better than bad.

Gene is wrong.

Good morning Sheriff.

Okay okay, we’re not in Oklahoma, OK?

Any day that I wake up is a Good day !

CANCELLED!

But for Gene, that stands for “Off Kilter”…

I’m OK. You’re fat.

Gene does a quick analysis of his missus.. just in case passerby’s want to stop in for a visit. Actually a very good idea.. nothing worse than stopping for a quick visit when the mood is.. tense.

Happy new year y’all! It has got to be less adventurous for some of us, I hope. TIA’s are not fun. Trust me. Sun is out here today. Thank goodness.

What people are failing to realize is that Gene is anticipating a gunfight…

Putting up a sign saying OK is just asking for something to happen.

In Seattle there are two roadways, East Marginal Way and West Marginal way. I envision these as the borders of Ballard County.

What people don’t realize is the Gene is rating the achievements of the night before to signal today’s outlook! If you need to deal with Gene, fellow Ballardonians, consult the sign daily!

Rose seem to have a different thought about today.

https://i.postimg.cc/hvhFVyJ1/Rose-Opinion.png

I’m back on the internet. I lost all my access to data through my cell hotpot this morning.

My carrier added extra earlier, but i burned through that faster. :/

That is going to be one heck of a phone bill for me. Most of what i do with my phone involve either texting or fb messaging. That and a few (very) simple apps.

Other than my fb app i think that the weather app is the most complicated. After that my tide-table.

I usually don’t use much data.

So, to make a short story longer, the young man that came to make the repairs was not happy after he saw what was going on. The first person that put it up was an idiot. The company he was working for got fired before this last tech person got here.

It should not have been mounted on the roof. Period. Apparently, everyone that does installations know that you don’t mount to the roof of a mobile home or a manufactured home. It’s imposable to know where the studs are unless you are directly over a wall.

All the idiot got was plywood, except for one foot mounted at the edge of the roof. It’s no wonder it got ripped off.

The tech has some experience with construction so he made some repairs with some stuff that is used for stuff like this. Sheet tar. Never would have thought such a thing existed. He crammed a bunch of it in the holes, and slid a sheet under the roofing over the holes and secured it in place. He tried to do right by fixing it instead of just leaving it.

As for the antenna, and replacing the fried electronics (something shorted out?), i wouldn’t have to worry about any bill. He took photos of everything and sent them to HughesNet. Before and after.

After i shook his hand and thanked him for all that he did for me. And he thanked me for not being that ranting screaming lunatic that he has seen before. :)

Good sunday morning, Sheriff.

Don’t give the snowflakes any ideas, Gene…