10:28 – When I took Colin out around 0730 it was 24.9F (-4C) with a light breeze.
Herschel from Shaw Brothers showed up about 0900 yesterday to install our new dishwasher. It took him about 90 minutes to install it and test it for leaks. In the afternoon, the FedEx guy sneaked up on Colin, who was outraged. The box had a dozen more 28-ounce cans of Keystone Meats canned pork.
Speaking of which, I think I’m going to start ordering Keystone canned chicken. We’ve been buying the Costco canned chicken, which comes in 12.5-ounce cans “packed in water” that specify the drained weight as 7 ounces. In other words, you get 7 ounces of chicken in 5.5 ounces of water. The Keystone chicken is 28-ounce cans that specify “no water added,” so they contain four times as much chicken at 3.08 times the price.
Several of the LTS food recipes I’d like to try call for sour cream. Obviously, the fresh stuff is out of the question for long-term storage. Even in the refrigerator, its shelf life is about a week. So I started thinking about alternatives that do have long shelf lives.
There are, of course, numerous companies like Thrive Life and Emergency Essentials that produce dehydrated sour cream powder and buttermilk powder that are intended for LTS. (The stuff sold in supermarkets, like Saco sour cream powder, require refrigeration once opened, so they’re not really an alternative.)
Sour cream (and cultured buttermilk, another useful LTS item) are simply cream or milk that’s been intentionally inoculated with bacteria that produce lactic acid, which in turn sours the milk. But that’s not the only way to produce them. Adding any acid, like vinegar or lemon juice, to cream or milk has the same result.
Cream is simply milk with a higher butterfat content–typically 18% or so versus 1% to 3.5%–so one can reconstitute cream from powdered milk simply by increasing the powder to water ratio. That’s assuming, of course, that one uses powdered whole milk like Nestle Nido rather than the more common non-fat dry milks. But even the latter work in terms of flavor, if not in terms of fat content.
I intend to experiment with this, starting by mixing 2/3 cup of Nido dry whole milk with 3/4 cup of warm water and a teaspoon of vinegar and allowing it to sit for anything from a few minutes to a couple hours at room temperature to sour. Just for comparison, I’ll try the same thing with LDS powdered non-fat dry milk. I suspect either one will work fine and taste much like commercial sour cream. We’ll try it the next time we make Beef Stroganoff.
And if that does work, making a buttermilk substitute for pancakes, biscuits, and so on would be just as easy. We’d simply increase the ratio of water to milk powder.
* * * * *
Incidentally, Herschel mentioned in passing that he’d brought home a new dishwasher, but his wife threw her out…
Even funnier if Hershel is in his 70’s and has a deadpan delivery….
n
He’s at least in his 60’s, I’d guess, and may be older. And he does have a deadpan delivery.
Barbara just read my page and announced that she doesn’t like sour cream, so I guess I won’t be experimenting with that…
At least she’s stopped referring to my experiments with food as “science projects”. Except those that actually are science projects.
Not for long term storage as you say, but we’ve kept sour cream for very much longer than a week (months) without ill effect. I’m not a big fan of sour cream either, but it is good for things like Stroganoff, and in our case Kuchen (a pizza-like fruit and custard desert).
“Barbara just read my page and announced that she doesn’t like sour cream…”
What is it with wimminz? All the fussy eaters I know are of the fair sex. I’m surprised my younger niece (she’s 30 now) is still alive, given how many foods she won’t touch.
Regular sour cream keeps for ages (months past its ‘best before’ date) in the fridge. I suspect, but haven’t experimented on it, that canned condensed milk could be acidulated as a substitute.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
FBI arrests person who sent an animated gif to Kurt Eichenwald. He said it caused a seizure. How the Hell do you prove that. There must be something else involved. Coffin Cankles made my side split with laughter. Arrest her because I say so.
Next up: FBI arrest Mr. OFD for thought crimes.
“PGA golfer casually removes alligator from Bay Hill course”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2017/03/17/pga-golfer-casually-removes-alligator-bay-hill-course/
That is at least a five foot long gator. Very fast and very dangerous. He does not value his hand very much.
That golfer should start attending the wackProd snake-handling churches somewhere not too far from there. Show ’em how it’s done. “Thou shalt take up serpents!”
“But wait, homes, that is only one fummamuckin’ verse in the entire Bible and y’all gon base yer whole church on dat chit? Lemme outta here!”
“Next up: FBI arrest Mr. OFD for thought crimes.
Oh hell yeah. I keep wondering why it hasn’t happened yet. I have major thought crimes like you wouldn’t effin believe. I bet that guy down in the Capital District has them, too. Maybe they’ll let us share a cell. I can tutor in Latin and he can tutor in Mandarin Chinese. Then we’ll do like these two clowns over in Dannemora did a year or two ago up here: get tight with one of the chick instructors and have her smuggle chit into our cell; we’ll dig through the wall, crawl through a mile of conduit and pipes and pop up downtown somewhere in the middle of the night. Except we will have at least one vehicle waiting for us up there with stolen tags, another several of them at different locations way the hell outta that AO, where each time we ditch and torch the one we just drove in, disguises set up already for us in the first vehicle with new IDs, some cash, and then off to the nearest huge city to disappear.
And here’s some funny chit to start our afternoon:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/fakesecurity/
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Yeah, they can monitor our typing and speech and what we read and buy and say on the phone but they can’t secure their own chit; keystone cops on full retard.
I REFUSED to even TRY Sour Cream till well into my 30’s. I mean, think about it. It’s SOUR Cream and in my world that mean SPOILED cream. And I grew up on a family dairy. Then I was working in a small IT shop in Arkansas and the boss invited me to dinner. Turned out his (second) wife was a Mexican who served nachos and beans with sour cream. I decided not to embarass myself by refusing her food. WOW … I LOVED Sour Cream !!! Not sour or spoiled at all.
And this from a guy who had eaten worms and chocolate covered ants. My dad gave me the ants. They came in an “exotic foods” package he received one Christmas from one of his old Navy buddies. The ants were good. Taste and texture just like the Hersheys Crackle candy introduced decades later. I’ve had rattlesnake, alligator, possum, armadilo (road kill), and kangaroo (at a place in New Zealand). None were bad.
When I was a kid Mom used to make (well still does) a jello dish with strawberry jello, frozen strawberries, pineapple and banana. Two layers with sour cream in between. She would tell me it’s whipped cream but one day I caught her making it. Oh well I already loved it.
Yes most mexican food works well with sc. A chimichanga needs guac and sour cream on top.
“Venezuela has a bread shortage. The government has decided bakers are the problem.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article138964428.html
That picture is a classic. The national police doing a perp walk with bread baker. What is next, the arresting of all the fishermen ? Farmers ? Ranchers ?
I hope that this is not the USA in a couple of years.
Yes, on average women are much pickier than men about food. Barbara is picky, even for a woman. The average guy is like a dog: if it looks edible, eat it. If it turns out to be inedible, vomit it up. If it’s not moving, eat it. If it’s moving slowly, eat it alive. If it’s moving quickly, kill it and eat it.
Back in BBS days, Barbara and I went to a sysop’s get-together. Jim Wilson, a retired quad-specialist Green Beret, hosted it. He announced beforehand that he was serving roadkill stew. All of the guys just assumed he was serious; why would he lie? But all of the women except Barbara, who knew Jim quite well, assumed he was kidding. She knew he wasn’t–as she said, they don’t call Green Berets snake-eaters for nothing–and just avoided the stew. (It was actually quite good. Squirrel, rabbit, and a touch of possum, IIRC.)
Having a LOT of fun with DHS this afternoon. They notified us yesterday that they had detected a Chinese CyberCrime group using at least one of our servers as a malware host. Took hours to squeeze enough data out of them to let us identify the device. Turns out the box has been well and truly Owned for a while. Then they tell us “Don’t do anything to it” and don’t discuss this investigation on email as it may be monitored. It seems this a very sophisticated group that hacks servers (in our case an obscure label printer server) and leverages the breach to plant trojans in our environment as well as use our devices to attack other corporations. Since this is one of the few active boxes from this group they have identified, we are told to leave it alone and wait for a Hunt and Incident Response Team – (HIRT squad) to arrive and perform their forensic magic. No one here is happy to leave it connected but we know that this may be just one of many compromised systems and the best way to find the others is to let the HIRT team disect it.
I agree with RBT’s assessment of the differences between men and women in tasting food; plus, the SMELL. Mrs. OFD has a HYPER-sensitive schnozz and any food here, refrigerated or not, that is within hours of its sell-by date alerts her instantly. Seafood especially; it has to be caught off the pier a hundred yards away and an Olympic sprinter must run it to our kitchen. Whereas I’ll actually scrape or cut mold off stuff and eat it, and have eaten other stuff, including seafood, well past its sell-by date, with it only rarely, possibly, being the cause of any gastric disturbances.
I am, however, no snake-eater and would prefer to leave possums and gators to live their lives in peace, ditto rattlers and frogs. Beef—it’s what’s for dinner! (cue up the late, great Robert Mitchum).
WRT to RAID and backups; I only bother backing up our semi-critical data to an external drive here; once I get things going in the attic space, however, I’ll have RAID1 set up between an internal HDD and a four-4TB drive enclosure and on a regular schedule. I’m debating on whether to also use cloud-based backup storage.
A bright sunny day here with temps in the low 20s; I’ve been startled a couple of times by the giant friggin’ icicles dropping from the roof/gutters under assault by the sun. Some of them are four and five feet long. Wife hopes some snow will be left when she gets back on the 28th; wants to go snowshoeing. Quite possible; also possible we’ll have to head for the hills to do some traditional northern Vermont spring skiing and snowshoeing.
And from the 2018 Election Countdown Department:
https://defensivetraininggroup.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/2018-election-countdown-update-dtgs-20-month-plan-to-prepare-for-a-democratic-retaking-of-the-house-and-senate-part-i/
The hardest thing for me and probably a lotta peeps is the PT; I really gotta take 20 pounds off my gut and get back some wind and flexibility ASAP. That might kill two birds with one stone; prepping for more strenuous chit to do in my 60s and 70s, and reduce or eliminate the chronic back and sciatica issues.
“With the dump of ‘Vault 7’ you should have no illusion that you’re now, or can be, a ‘gray man’ if you’ve ever read anything here or at any other patriotic, preparedness, or survivalist web site. You. Are. Known. Once you accept that, you can get on about the business of getting prepped for the eventuality that the communists may indeed take back the House and Senate in numbers that will neutralize the Trump administration, possibly in numbers that will allow a democratic veto override.”
I forgot that when in Barcelona in 1968, I dropped into a hole-in-the-wall burger joint. On the wall they had a big chart showing where on the horse they got the best cuts from. I had a fantastic horseburger. Would be happy to have more.
Loosing weight by accident – litteraly.
In Sept. of 2015 I was pushing 310lbs and had a 46 inch waist. Then I fell off a cliff on the Marin Headlands while taking night shots of the GG Bridge. Somehow I didn’t break my neck. I did break my right arm just below the shoulder and beat myself up pretty badly. Spent 30 days heavily medicated and have only 80% usage now. But the wierd thing is, immediatly after the accident, my appetite dropped WAY down. I have been slowly loosing weight ever since. Down to 260 at my last check and running a 40 inch waist. While I haven’t changed WHAT I eat, I only eat when hungry and fill up very fast. I asked two doctors what the connection might be but they can’t find a physoligical link and suspect psychological. I still eat ice cream two or three times a week but some days I just skip meals because I am not hungry. Pisses my wife off. Not just that I am loosing weight without working on it … but the fact we will go out to eat and she will order a big steak and I will be happy with an apperizer. She says it embarasses her.
Nice goin’ there, Mr. Harold, even if it took a fall off that cliff. Brings back happy memories for me of be-bopping around there in the early 70s during my Marin County tour of duty with Uncle. Amazing scenery and looking down and across at the GG Bridge and SF and the whole Bay Area. I was stationed up on top of Mt. Tam, at the 666th Radar Squadron, 26th Air Division, NORAD. Used to hike all over the state park and down to Stinson Beach and Muir Beach and back up again. I had a friggin’ blast during my time there, going to rock concerts in SF and Oakland, etc., but couldn’t get laid to save myself; G.I. haircut on a ‘Nam babykiller.
I’ve gone from 270 to 240 and wanna get to 225-220 by late spring. And there are some cliffs around here I can fall off.
you can add whale, elk, moose, horse and reindeer to the list above, minus the possum and armadillo. Whale is delicious. I’m not surprised the Japs want to eat it.
Octopus, and squids too….
n
Since this is one of the few active boxes from this group they have identified, we are told to leave it alone and wait for a Hunt and Incident Response Team – (HIRT squad) to arrive and perform their forensic magic. No one here is happy to leave it connected but we know that this may be just one of many compromised systems and the best way to find the others is to let the HIRT team disect it.
Be careful. Check IDs carefully and verify with the local FBI office. I have never heard of these HIRT people.
“We are from the government and here to help you” is a cautionary tale along the line of the Brothers Grimm.
Fellas, atkins works. If you want to lose fat, it’s about the quickest and easiest way to do it. Strictly following the plan the first time, I lost 10% of my body weight in 3 weeks, and continued to lose as long as I wanted to. kept it off until I was completely off the plan, eating whatever I wanted, years later.
This time, I;ve been very casual following the plan, mostly as a guideline. I’ve lost almost 10% but it’s taken 8 weeks. I’m still losing too. Once you break your sugar addiction it gets a LOT easier, and the
weightfat continues to come off.nick
When a can of chicken loses weight when drained, it doesn’t mean that all the drained fluid is added water. They may simply have filled the can with raw meat and then cooked it, causing it to exude fluid. Or they may have added a little water and then the chicken exuded the rest.
That might kill two birds with one stone;
Or it just might kill you. Take it easy, buddy.
That is at least a five foot long gator. Very fast and very dangerous. He does not value his hand very much.
Unless they are fed by clueless Yankees, outside of mating season, wild alligators are generally scared of adult human males.
Still, on a golf curse -er- course in Orlando, you never know. Better to call the trapper to take him to Gatorland where tourists can safely feed the critters turkey dogs.
Raw chicken full of water. Now how would that happen?
(2pm PDT and two of my sites have just lost internet. is it green beer time yet? Oh how I hate at&t)
Unless they are fed by clueless Yankees, outside of mating season, wild alligators are generally scared of adult human males.
When we had Fred I here in the back one acre pond at the office, he was out sunning himself on the bank one summer day. He was about four ft long at the time. I walked up to him and took his picture several times. Once, I got within five ft. He start hissing at me quite vehemently and then slid into the water after a long while. He was definitely not scared of me.
https://www.facebook.com/WinSimInc/photos/a.388692241192280.86892.117954781599362/397695313625306/?type=3
“When a can of chicken loses weight when drained, it doesn’t mean that all the drained fluid is added water. They may simply have filled the can with raw meat and then cooked it, causing it to exude fluid. Or they may have added a little water and then the chicken exuded the rest.”
Of course it doesn’t. However, Costco’s nutrition information lists the can as 3.5 2-ounce servings. Also, when you open a can of Costco chicken it appears to be about half water, just eyeballing it. The Keystone Meats chicken appears to be about 90% meat.
“Unless they are fed by clueless Yankees…”
I am a Yankee from way back, circa 1620. Nearly 400 years. A lot of us are, in fact, utterly clueless. We think our way of life is pretty grand here, and should have been instituted in the rest of the country. Hell, we think it should be in place worldwide. British Protestant theocracy, with a heavy dose of Calvinism and hypocrisy. Got us an empire, dint it?
Then there’s a few of us out here who dumped our publik skool Murkan history textbooks a long time ago and also quit listening to or reading certain Yankee assholes. And we’re ready and willing to pitch in with other Murkans who are sick and tired of Leviathan and all its works. Personally, I’m kinda stuck on the near outskirts of the Clinton Archipelago but am willing to do my part to the best of my abilities, such as they are.
Feeding gators is not on my bucket list, however. Feeding gummint bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers and financial speculators to gators, though, you could get me to hep out with that.
Also, when you open a can of Costco chicken it appears to be about half water, just eyeballing it. The Keystone Meats chicken appears to be about 90% meat.
The Sam’s Club Daily Chef chicken has very little water in it. I’ll bet that we use a dozen of these a month. The wife pours the water on the dog’s kibble, she and the cat go for it.
https://www.samsclub.com/sams/dc-chicken-breast-6-pk-13-oz/prod20080193.ip
“Mrs. OFD has a HYPER-sensitive schnozz and any food here, refrigerated or not, that is within hours of its sell-by date alerts her instantly.”
I’ll drink milk that is up to two weeks past its use by date, I’ll eat yogurt that is two months past its use by. Any more than that and I sniff it first. I’ve eaten pies and pasties that have sat at room temp for a week, and leftover Chinese takeaway that has been at room temperature overnight. My sister will chuck it out if it hasn’t made it to the fridge within 30 minutes.
Oh for sure, same here; wife will chuck out all kinds of stuff; she’ll sniff it and go “Ewwwwwww, it’s ROTTEN!” And I’ll just laugh and eat it. Ridiculous. We’ll see how the oh-so-picky fems will make out when SHTF and roadkill is a delicacy to be savored.
I don’t eat sushi!
Don Edwards says: “…back home in Texas, we call it bait.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLrsVBTYvfA
We’ll see how the oh-so-picky fems will make out when SHTF and roadkill is a delicacy to be savored.
One of my favorite scenes in the “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou” movie is when they are on run from breaking out of prison and eating at the cousin’s farmhouse. George Clooney’s character mentions that the meat is a little bit gamey and their host says the horse has been dead for three days and the meat is starting to go bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Brother,_Where_Art_Thou%3F
Looks like costco must have added a new vendor.
Thrive storage food is in next week’s sale flyer.
https://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch?keyword=thrive+storage+food&pageSize=96
Also ARK deluxe one person bucket
https://www.costco.com/390-Total-Servings-of-Emergency-Food-Storage-ARK-Deluxe-1-Month-Supply-With-Gamma-Lid.product.100102033.html?catalogId=10701&langId=-1&storeId=10301&krypto=acPwkwnG1%2B7hZRtdInOQBNR%2BL0fM%2BHxXCpy8iAiIeo5FkWDtyihXfOsDsWaHPfjuUG0QZdBzFO0Dm4mvvB7G6sBudqu1E18F9NvPMI4mG8I%3D
I’m guessing that they are typical low quality, low calorie content, very exaggerated number of servings, but it’s nice to see FD food back at Costco. There hasn’t been any at our store for a long time. They used to have a nice $60 Mountain House variety box that was a nice base to start from.
nick
compare the ARK at $115 with the Mountain House 30 day kit at $470.
While the ARK listing looks like a good bunch of side dishes, I’m not seeing meals. MH is meals, if heavy on the noodles.
https://www.costco.com/.product.100282427.html
Still, $115 for 390 side dishes isn’t too bad… it’s just not a complete menu.
n
The Thrive stuff has been on their website for a long time. I almost ordered a few Thrive items from them in late 2013 or early 2014.
The ARK stuff looks like typical cheap carb-heavy stuff, but at least it provides 2,000 cal/day. I’ve seen products that provide 900 cal/day or less.
yah, i was clicking on some of the ‘also viewed’ and nutri-something is 1200 calories…
Lot of TVP in the other brands too
Anyone cost out the thrive FD meat variety pack vs say, keystone?
n
FD meats generally cost $50/pound and up. Rehydrated, that’s $10 to $12/pound. Keystone meats are $7.74/can for beef chunks ($4.42/pound) or $6.28/can for all the others ($3.59/pound).
FD meats generally claim a 25- or 30-year shelf life, but are actually good for as long as the can lasts. Keystone has a best-by date five years out, but stays good far longer.
I figured someone had already done the math.
I priced Keystone on walmart.com last week and it was $10/ can, which seemed really high. Guess is wasn’t that high.
n
My taco meat cans aren’t on the grocery shelf anymore, so I was looking at the keystone taco meat specifically.
n
Keystone doesn’t make taco meat. The Walmart prices have been the same for the last year or so.
yeah, i figured that out just now, it must have been the yoders.
Could add this for variety:
https://www.amazon.com/Rose-Pork-Brains-Sampler-Ounce/dp/B00GP2ZDZO
MMmmm, gravy…..
n
I”ve got several of these in my cupboard, but I’ve not actually eaten one:
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/sweet-sue-canned-whole-chicken/1048698
note that you can arbitrage these to amazon and make BANK!
https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Sue-Chicken-without-Giblets/dp/B00U9W2VMY/ref=sr_1_13_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1489796432&sr=1-13&keywords=sweet+sue
$45 per can! I’m in the wrong business.
n
I never imagined I’d write this, but I almost ordered 12 whole chickens. They offered “free” shipping through 3/24/17, but with an asterisk that “free” meant a $25 discount from their normal shipping price. So I added 12 cans to my cart and went through the checkout process until I saw that they would normally charge $55+ shipping on this $54.96 order. Even after the $25 discount, shipping was still $30. No way I’m paying more than 50% shipping, so I’ll just have to do without their whole chickens.
I was looking at 10-pound fire extinguishers online recently and the shipping to here was roughly the same as the cost of the units. No can do. Will look locally.
If they want to compete in e-commerce, free shipping is a must. Sine qua non, as the Romans said.
Feeding gators is not on my bucket list, however. Feeding gummint bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers and financial speculators to gators, though, you could get me to hep out with that.
One of the early Carl Hiaasen books featiromg “Skink” has a scene where the “bad” guys feed a typical nasty South Florida condo yenta to an alligator. I think the title is “Tourist Season”.
As much as I hate to admit it as a near native Floridian, if you read one Hiaasen “Skink” book, you’ve pretty much read them all. Great entertainment for a plane ride, however.
That’s funny. I just did the same order and got the same shipping cost. I live 2 blocks from a store, but there wasn’t any store pickup option that I could find. And free shipping up to $25 isn’t really free shipping is it?
I’d offer to pick up 12 cans and ship them, but I expect it to actually cost about 30$ to ship UPS ground. I usually estimate $1/pound in the US and it’s usually a bit cheaper than that.
I’m a bit surprised that HEB even has an online store, given that they are only a regional chain. 125 year old chain, but still mostly or only Texas.
They have online ordering and curbside pickup at some stores, and tried home delivery at one point. They’re pretty innovative for being so old and a grocery store….and their disaster response made us converts. Their local prices are the best for the quality too.
They are a good company to do business with, very supportive of the locals, and it would be awesome if their online store was competitive. I guess maybe the amazon $45/can makes more sense. NOPE, no it doesn’t. The $10 a can seller is a bit more reasonable but it is still crazy.
nick
He was definitely not scared of me.
Someone in the neighborhood was probably feeding Fred.
We had a nuisance gator at our office park in FL. He became a little too fond of pastrami on rye sandwiches provided by the cleaning crew so we had to call the trapper to take him to Busch Gardens.
[snip] National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights [snip]
Thank you, Eric Blair.
I am a Yankee from way back, circa 1620. Nearly 400 years. A lot of us are, in fact, utterly clueless.
Clueless Floridians do things like dump pythons into the Everglades when the “cute little ‘huggy’ snake” gets too big for the aquarium.
That’s funny. I just did the same order and got the same shipping cost. I live 2 blocks from a store, but there wasn’t any store pickup option that I could find. And free shipping up to $25 isn’t really free shipping is it?
I see that whole chicken in a can in HEB occasionally. I have wondered how a totally canned chicken would taste …
I love HEB. Best run grocery store in Texas nowadays. And you can tell they check their prices with Walmart as they are practically the same.
He was definitely not scared of me.
Someone in the neighborhood was probably feeding Fred.
We had a nuisance gator at our office park in FL. He became a little too fond of pastrami on rye sandwiches provided by the cleaning crew so we had to call the trapper to take him to Busch Gardens.
I doubt it. I own the 14 acres that the office and ponds are on.
We watched Fred I or Fred II drag around a three foot catfish for a week once. It was hilarious. He would eat a little of it each day and then hiss at us if we came around. I have a picture on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WinSimInc/photos/pb.117954781599362.-2207520000.1489803767./558730480855121/?type=3&theater
Heck, the HEB at Bunker Hill has as microbrewery tapping beers in the liquor section. They do more wine tasting than specs and hand out lots of samples in the boutique section.
If they would only stop getting rid of brands I like…
n
(FWIW I’m having the same problem at Costco, I have a dependable brand we like, and it goes away.)
“Thank you, Eric Blair.”
Eric was a very decent man who died way too young. But left an enormous legacy.
“…if you read one Hiaasen “Skink” book, you’ve pretty much read them all. Great entertainment for a plane ride, however.”
Wife and I have gotten a kick out of those books and she did, in fact, read them on the countless plane rides and hours spent on layover in various terminals.
“…Clueless Floridians do things like dump pythons into the Everglades…”
We’ve had a couple of stories from Maffachufetts where some idiot’s pet Egyptian cobra got loose in a residential neighborhood, or up here where parents took their young kids over to see the cute mama black bear and her three cubs in somebody’s front yard tree.
“…the HEB at Bunker Hill…”
There’s a “Bunker Hill” in Texas??? BLASPHEMY
How would y’all like it if we had an Alamo in Massachusetts??? Besides a car rental agency, I mean.
We have a Village of Bunker Hill. Very pricey. Bunker Hill Av runs thru the village and right to the HEB and costco, best buy, lowes, &tc
n
“…the HEB at Bunker Hill…”
There’s a “Bunker Hill” in Texas??? BLASPHEMY
How would y’all like it if we had an Alamo in Massachusetts??? Besides a car rental agency, I mean.
Dude, Texas is so big that we have cities of almost all names. Paris, Berlin, Monticello, New York, Richmond, Atlanta, etc, etc, etc. We ain’t proud, we’ll steal from everyone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Texas
Wow, I guess so.
Wife’s gig next month is ten days in El Paso.
We have a Berlin, VT. Even a West Berlin. But no East Berlin. And Maine has Paris and Mexico. Maffachufetts also has a Berlin; a Boston and a New Boston, and Salem and New Salem.
And now my next-younger brother is looking to get out to a warmer clime, due to arthritis, multiple back and shoulder, neck, and knee problems (thanks to many years of semi-pro weight lifting, no doubt) and wifey there just HAS to have her endless shopping and stores and restaurants and her retard siblings who are down there all the time, too. So he’s looking at the Floriduh panhandle region. None of my siblings in Maffachufetts dig the cold and snow and ice very much, whereas I love it.
bed time.
crazy getting crazier in the world.
gonna wake up to a different map one of these days….
n
Bedtime here, too, I guess; looking out the window at a very bright 3/4 moon, like a searchlight just over the trees to my immediate south.
We’ll all wake up to a different map by and by, not sure when or how or what will be involved but it will sure be different.
Pax vobiscum, fratres…
We watched Fred I or Fred II drag around a three foot catfish for a week once. It was hilarious. He would eat a little of it each day and then hiss at us if we came around. I have a picture on facebook
Three foot catfish and ducks? No surprise that you have a gator.
If you have ducks around, you want a Fred keeping the numbers under control. I lived on a lake in FL with ducks where the neighbors had the alligator removed. Oh, the horror!
Wife’s gig next month is ten days in El Paso.
Fort Bliss. Home of the US Army’s Air Defense School and MrAtoz’s entrance into the military. I guess I had to learn how to shoot them down before flying them. Also got my PADI certification and Private Pilot’s license there. Got my Commercial Rotary Wing Instrument ticket in Alabama.
I met a Vietnam-era chopper pilot back in the early 70’s. I asked him how different it was to fly a helicopter versus fixed-wing. I’ll never forget his response. He started doing the old routine of rubbing his stomach in circles while he patted his head with the other hand and then switched from rubbing/patting to patting/rubbing. I said something like, “Yeah, so?” He replied that if I could do the same thing with both hands AND both feet at the same time, I might have what it takes to learn to fly a helicopter.
MrAtoz, can you fly fixed wing too, or just choppers.
I remember seeing a movie once where an airline pilot was incapacitated and a chopper pilot with no fixed wing experience had to land the plane. Is that feasable?
“MrAtoz, can you fly fixed wing too, or just choppers.”
IIRC, he would have got his private pilot’s license by flying a fixed-wing aircraft, either a military trainer or a Piper Cub. Then on to helicopter training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. During the ‘Nam war they processed chopper pilots outta there like an assembly line, some of them teenagers.
Airliners pretty much land themselves. The pilot can just sit there without actually doing anything from takeoff through landing. He’s there only so he can take control in an emergency.
He’s there only so he can take control in an emergency.
My brother flies for American Airlines, 737 is where he started. Those were fairly easy to fly. Engine start, push a button. Taxi is like driving a car except brake require a twist of the ankle rather than a push, steering wheel on the left. About all he did was taxi, give the engines throttle, wait until Vr and pull back the stick. Retract the gear, pull in the flaps, and dial in your direction and altitude, which is generally pre-programmed.
He only has about a year left before he will be forced to retire. Starting training him on the Airbus which is universally hated by the pilots. Primary reason is the extensive automation. Basically get to the start of the takeoff point, push a couple buttons, and sit back and enjoy the view. The automation does the rest. His comments are that flying those is incredibly boring. Twist a few knobs in flight to change course and altitude in case of storms or traffic and adjust the cabin temperature if some passengers complain.
I foresee the day when we could have completely automated airplanes. But such will not be accepted by the public when the public will accept self driving cars. Driving being a much more dangerous adventure than flying.
I will never accept self-driving cars or planes or trains. I want a human bean at the controls at all times, who knows what to do in all situations. After I’m dead, y’all can have all the robots and self-driving whatever to yer hahts’ content.
I will never accept self-driving cars or planes or trains.
I guess the shuttles between terminals at major airports, such as Atlanta, must give you real fits.
MrAtoz, can you fly fixed wing too, or just choppers.
Yes. I had already completed Rotary Wing training. The FAA accepts all military “ground school”. All I had to do was flight training and get the required number of hours solo. I then went up with an FAA instructor pilot for testing. It only took about 6 weekends of flying. I have a SEL, Single Engine Land prop license (non turbine). Flying a small fixed wing is immensely easier than a chopper. My Commercial Rotary Wing Instrument license allows me to rent choppers and fly-for-hire in instrument conditions. I would have to get a flight physical and refresher training if I wanted to fly today.
“I guess the shuttles between terminals at major airports, such as Atlanta, must give you real fits.”
Nope. I never go anywhere. I last flew somewhere two summers ago to NJ and boy did it suck. Mostly the Newark Airport security theater. Prior to that I had not flown anywhere since 1994.
“I would have to get a flight physical and refresher training if I wanted to fly today.”
Get on it, buddy. We have work for you soon.
I wouldn’t ride in a self-driving car unless I was absolutely sure that the computer’s priority was my safety. I don’t want it to decide to drive off a cliff to avoid running over a bunch of school kids. Let them take their chances. I want my car to put my interests first and only.
Mostly the Newark Airport security theater
Newark just sucks. Has nothing to do with security theater. I have arrived there three times from flights from overseas and in my opinion Newark is the ass crack of airports.
Oh it was security theater in our case; we had wife’s pre-flight TSA-approved status or whatever the fuck it’s supposed to be and if we hadn’t had it, we would have been even worse off, which was already pretty bad. Shunted like cattle through a narrow overheated hallway for 90 minutes and then we saw two groups of people arrive late and get put on ahead of the rest of us. Several people in line almost came to blows right there. Meanwhile the line of cattle without TSA-approved status stretched back upon itself several times and out the door. I still had to remove my belt and shoes and empty my pockets. If I never fly in a commercial aircraft again it’ll be too soon.
Flying fixed wing …
My mother learned to fly in a Piper in the 40s, but never certified because of depth perception problem that made landings far too Interesting. She put me into pilot lessons at 15. I quickly discovered that flying a Cessna 150 was dead easy. Anyone can do a takeoff in VFR weather and flying a fixed course isn’t hard. Landings took a little more work but after about 20 hours I was very comfortable in the air. But my problem was understanding the voice commands from the tower. Given that I had started building explosives at a young age, helped again by my mom, my HF hearing was bad. And the audio quality of aircraft radio wasn’t the best. So I never took my solo as I was terrified of landing on the wrong runway because I didn’t understand the tower. I still love to fly low and slow. Have been in several ultralights and would love to get a gyro copter. They were all the rage in the 60s with adds for kits in the back of Pop mechanics and similar magazines.
Mr. H. Combs’s mom sounds like she was a real pistol. Wow. Teach sonny how to fly and work explosives. Yikes.
If I had the dough, I could take flying lessons over on one of the Champlain Islands. I’d love to learn how to fly a float plane and be-bop around on the lake and Maine and Maritimes lakes.