Tree_Fall

The public doesn't seem to know as much about Angola Prison as they used to. That may be because media-savey warden Earl Cain is gone, and court-supervised reforms ended in 2000 after 25 years. Things to know are:

1. About 75 percent of the convicts have sentences of life without parole. The rest have 80-90 year sentences. At sometime in each prisoner's life outside they were very bad people.

2. Angola is their forever home. Reform and rejoining society is an unlikely outcome. It has to be a very tightly controlled environment. Most confinement facilities are not easily understood by people outside.

3. The average convict age is about 45 with many older guys.

4. Few are locked up in cells because of violence, being at risk or having a death sentence. Most live in barracks with a bunk and a locker. Older trustees have considerable freedom of movement. Before reform, trustees could also be guards! Bad idea,

5, Events like the rodeo break the monotony of strict confinement. Convicts who interact with the public have a record of good behavior.

So, enjoy the rodeo at least once while you are in the area. But, never exchange personal info especially contacts with a convict. They have lots of time to dream up ways of screwing with people.

The current drought and strips of dead grass remind me why you need to mix something like Black Cow or cotton bur mulch into the masons sand when leveling. Sand alone doesn't hold water. Everywhere I filled a rut is now water stressed.

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Mickeys Golden Nugget

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Outstanding food in what might have previously been a drive-in. Ha a big metal + lights sign. On the River side of Nicholson close to W. Roosevelt. The chef did great things with steaks, sauces and artichokes. Must have closed about 1988.

Replacing a door that needs frame repair can get complicated. I'm very happy with 2 custom doors, new frames and side lights by Pete Tully LINK

On both doors once the old frames were removed, hidden construction problems were discovered and workarounds had to be figured out.

The Camelot was nice but event revenue wasn't enough to keep it going as memberships dropped off sharply. Part of that drop off was the much older City Club stopped being gender/race discriminatory and siphoned off membership. Another big part was the declining number of people who want to drive in I10/12 for cocktails and dinner then drive home buzzed.

You have lots of good advice already. My successful experience also is using tapcon in a relatively soft brick to mount shutters. Older lead anchors loosened and started to pull out. Depending on how easily you can get a clean hole in the brick, start with a smaller diameter bit then redrill at required size.

Be sure to get a head style that looks good especially if rail holes are recessed. Be careful about over torquing or you will strip out the threads the tapcon cuts. Using a hand wrench/ is safer/slower than power.

I agree with the warning about brick not being structural, but trying to find studs behind brick isn't worth the trouble. If you can, incorporate posts set in concrete at the bottom on the steps it will add a lot of strength.

Old people are not hardheaded, they enjoy their routines.

Many small practice vets work with online companies that provide prescription drugs, food, etc. at a discount. The vet loses that income source but doesn't have to fool with inventory management. Larger vet clinics are still selling meds and food at a premium. The only downside of the online suppliers is an increase in junk email.

how to get to the pentagon in a plane?

I can't imagine finding the Pentagon is hard. It's about 900 ft on each side, 5 stories tall, sitting in a 600 acre lot with nothing bigger. It's also close to the intersection of a river and many large highways.

Be assured that US Military is getting very good about getting the killed home. Just look at MIA stats:

World War II ~71,780
Korean Conflict ~7,380
Vietnam War ~1,566
Gulf Conflicts / Iraq 6

Of course "bringing the man home" now means a few strands of DNA.

Even the most agile heavy payload missiles follow trajectories that are either ballistic and entirely predictable or maneuvered with predictable segments. Defense is a doable intercept calculation and the right hardware. Drone flight does not become predictable until it is extremely close to the target and flooding defenses with multiples is cheap. Aircraft carriers need to be transitioned to at-sea drone make & deploy bases.

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staying in Arlington

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Great number of things to see & do. The museums on the Mall are pretty far apart, so use one of the hop on/off buses or trains. Arlington is good for Metro access. More fun is water taxi but the closest dock is in Alexandria. At the Cemetery try to catch changing of the guard at Tomb of the Unknowns. For a great sunset stand outside of Congress and watch down the Mall. As it gets dark you can see the Kennedy flame in the Cemetery flanked by lighted mansion once belonging to Robert E Lee. History is very close at hand.