{"id":30186,"date":"2024-08-27T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=30186"},"modified":"2024-08-26T21:31:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T01:31:22","slug":"sympathy-for-sauron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/27\/sympathy-for-sauron\/","title":{"rendered":"Sympathy for Sauron"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Fall of Barad-d\u00fbr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Compound has been invaded by an army.\u00a0 They have occupied many of the high points and they have laid siege to the citadel.\u00a0 Actually, I have a contractor doing major surgery on the foundations of an extension of the main building that was rotting out.\u00a0 The floor of a room had rotted away and the only reasonable solution was to replace a column-on-pier foundation with a poured slab.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that it is fiendishly expensive and extremely ticklish construction in that the three stories on that part of the building will need to be jacked up off the piers and the columns truncated to accommodate the new height of the foundation which will also be the new floor for that room.\u00a0 I daily expect the whole building to collapse like Barad-d\u00fbr after the destruction of the One Ring.\u00a0 Poor Sauron.\u00a0 A ring makes a damn poor foundation for a tall structure like that tower.<\/p>\n

But while all this is going on I\u2019m kept amused at just how little insurance companies are willing to admit is within the scope of their policies.\u00a0 Regardless of how much we pay in premiums their responsibilities are hemmed in by endless deductibles and limitations on liability.\u00a0 Their favorite retort to almost anything I say is, \u201cYou\u2019re not covered for that.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s to the point I\u2019d almost hope that a catastrophe would be truly apocalyptic so that I could see them cower at the size of their payout.\u00a0 But deep down I know I would still be the loser.\u00a0 You can\u2019t beat these people.\u00a0 Compared to them the Mafia are boy scouts.\u00a0 Poor Sauron.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet he got nothing from his insurance company when the Barad-d\u00fbr came crashing down.\u00a0 They probably had a waiver for unforeseen termite or hobbit damage.<\/p>\n

So daily I have to reassure Camera Girl that when all this is over, she\u2019ll still have a roof over her head and enough money to buy us pumpernickel bagels.\u00a0 She is extremely allergic to large checks.\u00a0 In fact, she insists that I write all of them because that way it\u2019s my fault.\u00a0 In some sense I guess she\u2019s right.\u00a0 If it had been up to her, we\u2019d still be living in an apartment in Brooklyn.\u00a0 I guess in that sense she is the true conservative in the family.<\/p>\n

When the dumpster arrived, Camera Girl was hopeful that the builder would allow her to use the dumpster to get rid of some of her least favorite debris.\u00a0 We have a collection of yard junk that she hates with a passion; garden hoses, wire fencing, a couple of old garden swings and a large pool warming cover that is flaking apart.\u00a0 I opined that the dumpster would be completely filled and probably filled again before the builder was finished but hope springs eternal.\u00a0 But then I told her that she could get her own dumpster for less than what a contractor would charge her for interfering in his operation and that seemed to work.\u00a0 She hates being charged more for anything.\u00a0 She is a very frugal woman (thank heaven).<\/p>\n

I wonder who got the contract to remediate the site of the Barad-d\u00fbr collapse.\u00a0 After all that had to be some serious toxic waste.\u00a0 I\u2019m guessing it would have been dwarves that took the work.\u00a0 They worked in metal and stone.\u00a0 Surely, they could salvage something from the rubble pile.\u00a0 Maybe they could turn it into Section 8 housing for unemployed orcs.\u00a0 I mean live and let live, right?<\/p>\n

Those who call houses money pits are completely justified.\u00a0 Unless you yourself are a jack of all trades, the liabilities of owning a home are staggering.\u00a0 But the alternative of renting is even worse.\u00a0 I completely sympathize with the Millennials and Zoomers who are confronting the herculean task of trying to buy a home in Joe Biden\u2019s America.\u00a0 But without home ownership how can you truly know the joy of having someone knock your house down just to rebuild it at great expense.\u00a0 God bless America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Compound has been invaded by an army.\u00a0 They have occupied many of the high points and they have laid siege to the citadel.\u00a0 Actually,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,818,4],"tags":[3475,400],"class_list":["post-30186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-ocf","category-sff","tag-home-repair","tag-lord-of-the-rings"],"yoast_head":"\nSympathy for Sauron - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/27\/sympathy-for-sauron\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sympathy for Sauron - 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