Sunday, 14 May 2017

By on May 14th, 2017 in personal, prepping

10:01 – It was 48.3F (9C) when I took Colin out at about 0645 this morning, sunny and calm. We had another inch or so (2.5 cm) of rain in the 24 hours ending yesterday afternoon.

Calligra seems to be fine for my purposes. The default theme was terrible. Hover-over tool tips, for example, were displayed at white text on a pale yellow background, making them unreadable. Switching themes cleared that up right away.

I haven’t tried it with a long document yet. The biggest I’ve edited with Calligra Words is listed on the bottom status line as 164 pages. It seems to work fine. I’m intrigued by another part of the suite, Calligra Author, which is described as an e-book editor. The only real difference I see between it and Words is that Author offers the ability to save-as epub. That seems like a pretty minor feature to justify calling Author a completely separate component.

Things are a bit disorganized here. We had to move a bunch of furniture out of the affected area downstairs, which is about 400 square feet (40 square meters). So we have tons of books and other stuff stacked in the unfinished area. The two downstairs bedrooms, which were affected only slightly (damp carpet right at the doorways, etc.) are also crammed full of stuff from the affected area. That makes it very difficult to get to anything, let alone add more.

There’s still about three person-months’ worth of dry bulk food on a cart out in the garage. Barbara picked it up on her Costco run a week or so ago, but we can’t repackage it until we can get to stuff like empty bottles, oxygen absorbers, etc. that are inaccessible in the main deep pantry downstairs. For the time being, we’ll move it into the laundry room upstairs until we have the time and supplies to repackage it.

Barbara said yesterday, “No more food, please.” Which is a fair request. We’re currently in pretty good shape on food, everything from dry bulk LTS stuff to canned goods, including meat. Enough to keep Barbara, Colin, Frances, Al, and me fed for a long time. As usually happens to serious preppers, the question becomes when is enough enough? We’re not at that point, yet, but we’re comfortable enough to take a break from adding more stuff other than incidentals.

Thinking about it this morning, I decided that we’re better-prepared than 99.99% of the general population and probably 99% of serious preppers. That’ll just have to do, for now.

Barbara announced a few days ago that she wanted to bake cookies this weekend, but when I asked this morning she said that could wait. She wants to make a chocolate cake instead, so that’s what we’ll be having for our evening snack.

 

45 Comments and discussion on "Sunday, 14 May 2017"

  1. nick flandrey says:

    Happy Mother’s Day to the moms out there. No matter that it became a Hallmark Holiday, it’s still worthy of a moment to reflect and thank those who brought us into this life.

    9:30 am and already in the 80’s here. My screensaver just put up a picture of the year we had snow. Nice contrast.

    We’ll see if I can get any work done around the house today while keeping the kids away from mom….

    n

  2. OFD says:

    “… a moment to reflect and thank those who brought us into this life.”

    Wait! I dint ax to be brought into this life, dammit! WTF, over?

    Low 50s today so fah and overcast with showers expected. 60s next couple of days.

    Now on to finish crap I almost got done yesterday before fatigue, back pain, and senility kicked in good and hard at about 1800.

  3. nick flandrey says:

    Tab clearing, data point on the surveillance state.

    In the May issue of Electronic Design, in an article about how hard it is to secure cameras and other devices against cyber attack, they casually drop this nugget in a caption for a picture…

    “This year, General Electric’s Current business will install cameras, microphones, and other sensors on 3,200 street lights in San Diego in an attempt to better monitor traffic and crime.”

    ‘other sensors’ 3200!!

    f me.

    n

  4. OFD says:

    WTF is the point with all the sensors and cameras and lights and mikes to monitor whatever when there is no “law enforcement” to speak of, anyway, other than ticket quotas to fatten town, city and state coffers? And so what if they catch crimigrants or hadjis or BLM’ers committing whatever; don’t all those people get a free ride? Watch ’em nail some old WWII vet in a wheelchair because he didn’t have the required license tag on his “vehicle.” Or a couple of kids with a lemonade stand. That old lady putting in organic carrots and lettuce in her window boxes.

    Geez, I dug two holes and planted two rhododendron bushes and it almost wiped me out; gotta rest a few minutes. Starting to drizzle, but got more chit to do back out there. Someone say something about April showers and May flowers? WTF, over? We got rather cool May showers, a few flowers and maybe we’ll see more June flowers? Or what? Oh yeah, global warming, almost forgot.

    And now I’m seeing other chit from other “experts” and “scientists” claiming we’re in for a mini-Ice Age. Yeah, whatever. Sod off.

  5. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I didn’t know rhododendron was edible. For humans, anyway.

  6. nick flandrey says:

    “I didn’t know rhododendron was edible”

    Prepper FAIL!!!

    Preppers plant edible or medicinal plants, esp considering the effort and effect on old bones 🙂

    Lots of decorative and yet edible stuff, even whole books about making your victory garden look good……

    And then at some point you can EAT the results of your labor.

    n

  7. nick flandrey says:

    “WTF is the point with all the sensors and cameras and lights and mikes to monitor whatever”

    Remember the old saw about even honest men committing 3 felonies a day? AFTER their attention focuses on you, then they’ll find out what you’ve BEEN doing. Say hello to the gulag…

    Either that, or Skynet wants more eyes and ears.

    n

  8. Ray Thompson says:

    And now I’m seeing other chit from other “experts” and “scientists” claiming we’re in for a mini-Ice Age

    Sort of like fashion trends. What I wore as teenager are being worn as being “kewl”. Where there is money to be made someone will change the rules to favor their income stream.

    the old saw about even honest men committing 3 felonies a day

    It’s barely past noon and I have probably already hit the limit. Basically it allows the LEOs to bag you at any time and get you on multiple charges. Give an officer a dirty look, boom, you will be charged with multiple offenses, especially after they review the video tapes to find what they can charge you with.

    I once got pulled over by the local Oliver Springs police because I mouthed an officer was a “Dumb Ass” to another officer because of the way he directed traffic. Officer got to my window and said “you mouthed something to that officer”. I said “yes, I did. And I am in my own car and can mouth or gesture whatever I desire”. Officer than said “fine, how about I write you up for following to closely.” To which I replied “at 20 mph a two second rule would require a distance of thirty feet between vehicles and that is the equivalent of two center stripes in the road. How many stripes were between me and the rear of your vehicle?” He just looked at me for a few seconds then said “Just watch your speed” and let me go. Really? I was following him so how could speed be an issue.

  9. OFD says:

    “I didn’t know rhododendron was edible. For humans, anyway.”

    Only following orders here, i.e., doing what I’m told. I was told to plant the two remaining rhodo bushes; she’d planted one already. She’s into the flowers and decorative stuff, which is fine. I’m all about food. Given very limited space and sunlight. Eggplants and hot peppers failed; tomatoes were great the first year and not so much last year. Trying peas this time, plus onions, garlic, carrots, turnips and maybe spuds. Chives and other kitchen herbs and medicinal plants in grow bags and pots and window boxes.

    “Remember the old saw about even honest men committing 3 felonies a day? AFTER their attention focuses on you, then they’ll find out what you’ve BEEN doing. Say hello to the gulag…”

    Yup. At least three felonies a day…and counting. By now they’ve got so much on me I could be seeing the gulag any minute. Hey, at least we have a three-volume operating manual for it, written quite some time ago, but a whole education in how it works. I’m sure it’s been very much refined since the 1930s, though. A.S. went through it during and after the Great Patriotic War. His grandkids were kite-surfing on the bay out here a couple of summers ago. Or maybe great-grandkids, I forget.

    And there must be a few ways to knock out spy cams and mikes by now, too. I’m counting on MrAtoz to develop that capability via his fleet of drones. I guess he’s out somewhere in the country about now, and Mr. Lynn is goofing off over in Montana.

    Mrs. OFD should be home sometime this afternoon from TN and shopping for plants with her mom. I’m back out on the back forty. Forty yards, that is.

  10. OFD says:

    ” Really? I was following him so how could speed be an issue.”

    Mr. Ray must not have got the memo. Can’t look at them wrong, mouth anything at them or about them, make any gestures, etc., etc. Lucky he wasn’t pulled out, tased, stomped, tased again and then shot for “resisting arrest.”

    Nowadays, if you’re trying to dodge the taser strikes or steel-toed boots and writhing in pain, they’ll keep shouting “Stop resisting!” and tase and stomp you some more.

    I just dunno however the fuck I got along all those years ago all by my lonesome out there and managed not to do that to anyone unless they were really out of line and an immediate physical threat. Certainly didn’t go looking for shit on people like facial expressions and gestures.

  11. DadCooks says:

    And we all thought that 1984 was fiction.

    Just proves that truth/reality is stranger than fiction.

    BTW, anyone else noticing a change in attitude among some LEOs? And not for the good or the freedom loving.

    Add: Just when we thought it was safe:
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-14/least-200000-victims-europol-fears-computers-simply-wont-start-monday-after-unrivall

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    writhing in pain, they’ll keep shouting “Stop resisting!

    Makes you wonder. I have watched some cop shows and you will have one officer yelling at the suspect “don’t move”, another yelling “get on the ground”, another yelling “put your hands on your head”, another yelling “walk backwards toward me”. I think the entire scenario is so that somewhere in there they can at a minimum charge you for failing to follow an officer’s instructions.

    anyone else noticing a change in attitude among some LEOs

    I think that largely applies to larger cities. Around here the police are for the most part OK and liked by most. The officers generally live in the area and attend a lot of the sporting events. They are known by a lot of people and probably related to a bunch of the people. I would certainly trust the officers in my town more than I would Knoxville.

  13. nick flandrey says:

    There are specific training programs and seminars to teach your officers how to shout “stop resisting”. One of the touted benefits is that it plants the idea in any witnesses’ minds that the suspect was resisting.

    Any agency that uses that technique is suspect.

    n

  14. OFD says:

    “BTW, anyone else noticing a change in attitude among some LEOs?”

    For a long time now, but mostly in the cities. Out here they’re our neighbors and neighbors’ kids. We know them, see them, know where they live, etc. Modern training sucks rocks, and the top brass are almost always politically beholden and entwined.

    “Just when we thought it was safe:”

    Sitting in a Winblows prolecube farm on Monday morning? Good luck!

    “Maybe they should hire some geeks, and not spend all budget to spy on law abiding citizens and their bank transactions.”

    And what did that PITA OFD say yesterday on this very topic? Thanks, AltRightGirl; you lookin’ fine, too.

    “I think the entire scenario is so that somewhere in there they can at a minimum charge you for failing to follow an officer’s instructions.”

    And it can get somebody badly hurt and/or killed, too. Really stupid. We always had ONE officer talking to the person while the other/s stood by as immediate backup. How hard can that be?

    “I think that largely applies to larger cities.”

    Great minds think alike.

    “Any agency that uses that technique is suspect.”

    There it is. It’s playing dirty. If you’re in that situation, just keep shouting “I’M NOT RESISTING!” If you can breathe, much less shout anything while being tased, gassed, and stomped.

    More drizzle again; finished the cleanup I’d started yesterday and made another dent in moving chit around in the yard. Hope to finish that up by tomorrow or Tuesday.

    No sign of wife yet. Probably slept in late at GG’s and who knows where they are now.

  15. lynn says:

    34 F in Helena this morning. 49F now. 5th day of fishing today. We are jumping on Delta in the morning at 540am headed to Minneapolis. Then on to Houston.

  16. nick flandrey says:

    90F in the shade here in Houston. 50%RH so that’s not bad.

    Currently cooking Mothers day dinner:

    Lamb rib chops – from freezer
    marinaded with rosemary and mint- from garden

    Fresh collards – from garden, with bacon fat, costco bacon crumbles, and onion, chicken stock from storage (one year past due)

    Salad- tomatoes from garden and buffalo mozzarella, seasoned with basil from garden

    Instant mashed potatoes from storage, added bacon crumbles and chives from garden

    cheese balls bread – from storage

    I did use eggs from the fridge instead of powders, fresh milk, etc.

    Used a lot of stored items though. Use what you store, store what you use!

    nick

  17. lynn says:

    Goodbye Scott Adams. It was great knowing you.
    http://dilbert.com/strip/2017-05-14

    He has touched the golden calf of climate science. He will be scorned and denigrated now.

  18. OFD says:

    “A sign of the times:”

    No chit. A lot of that going around. In fact, it’s what MOSTLY goes around. To the crowd of imbecilic lefty asswipes who don’t like it? Tough shit, losers.

    The week again, more insanity in FUSA.

    http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_may_14_2017?utm_source=Taki%27s+Magazine+List&utm_campaign=49402be081-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f7706afea2-49402be081-379417973

    “34 F in Helena this morning.”

    34 here the other morning, too; snow on the mountains also. R U through goofing off now, hombre? Back to work!

    I like Mr. Nick’s dinner plans except for the lamb chops. I can’t think of eating those when I have Lamb Chop’s pic in my head with Shari Lewis a million years ago, nor when I see them friskily gamboling in the meadows up here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2b4vUZ7wR4

    From that halcyon year of 1960, when the saintly and handsome Saint Jack beat ol’ Tricky Dicky of the five-o’clock shadow, set up like a bowling pin by the network, of course. Ol’ JFK certainly had that eastern MA/Boston accent down cold. Mine is a mix of that and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

  19. OFD says:

    “He will be scorned and denigrated now.”

    Oh my. A DENIER. Same moral equivalence as a Holocaust DENIER. Many have called for prison time and executions of these people, too. What a country!

  20. lynn says:

    I need a vacation from my vacation now. I am sunburned, windburned, and just plain tired. And my inner ear still thinks I am on the 14 ft rowboat cruising down the Missouri River at 4 mph.

    I am sure that we will be lovingly handled by Delta and the TSA at 430 am in the morning.

  21. OFD says:

    “I am sure that we will be lovingly handled by Delta and the TSA at 430 am in the morning.”

    Ask them if it was as good for them as it was for you.

    Mrs. OFD had a nightmarish mess of airline screwups well into the wee hours last night; late planes, mechanical problems, a crew had to be scrounged up from someplace else, they hadda go get parts, etc., etc. Didn’t get in the air until 0130 or home until 4:30 and then crashed at MIL’s house at 5:30 and has been alone there all day doing laundry. Told me not to drive down to get her as Princess is doing a musical gig in Montpeculiar tonight and will drive her back up here tomorrow “around noonish,” which coming from them means 5 or 6 PM. Good to know the family time zone differences, amirite?

  22. Greg Norton says:

    A sign of the times

    What if Dad went full “Bruce Jenner”? Does he now get a Mothers Day card?

  23. CowboySlim says:

    “A sign of the times:
    http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/you-assumed-my-gender/

    NOPE! Not for me, no transgender, nohow, notime, never!

    OTOH, I will be undergoing a real trans! YUUUP, I am undergoing transethnic.

    I am going to transethnic from 25% Swedish to 25% Norwegian. What I need to effect this trans is to go down to the county bureau of records and file an application to change my last name from Anderson to Andersen.

    10-4, Good buddy! Roger that, Over and Out. Catch you on the flip-flop!

  24. paul says:

    I learned something today. Or maybe it’s just beer. I’m gonna go with learning something. But I’m good with it being beer, too.

    The screen on the sliding door in the living went to hell. It’s taken a few years of dogs walking into it and etc but suddenly the cat had a flap to walk through. He’s a nice cat but I don’t want him in the house unsupervised. I bought new screening and a “pet grill”. Buying the grill was a PITA, because the local place and Lowes seem to have decided that 36″ is the same as 32″. Struth! Different brands are both labeled as 36″ and is 34″ wide. Like a “pound” can of coffee is now 11 ounces. Home Depot had what I needed. Stucco mesh was not going to be pretty.

    I replaced the fiberglass screen with aluminum. Because the new windows have fiberglass screens and a couple of windows have holes in their screens. It looks like battery acid holes on a t-shirt. I have yet to see what kind of bug is eating the screens. Er, the old windows had fiberglass and no holes after almost 30 years.

    If you have ever looked at screening supplies at the hardware store you may have wondered why there are two sizes of spline. (The round stuff that holds the screen in the groove.) I have. The 3.5mm is for fiberglass screen and the smaller size is for aluminum screen. Because the metal screen is thicker. The groove in the screen frame looks to be a standard size. I used part of the slider screen to re-screen the laundry room door screen (for practice) and I used the old spline, no problem. I’ve re-screened other windows with what fabric they had and reused the old spline, no problem.

    By using aluminum screening on the slider, I had to stretch the spline enough to have two feet left.

    That’s what I learned today.

    Time to oh hell, not doing stir fry tonight. A dented can of ravioli will work. Szechwan stir fry tomorrow!

  25. SteveF says:

    I cooked a beef brisket in the crock pot today, plus half a dozen baked potatoes. Made a 2 gal pot of ham-potato-corn chowder yesterday, but by the time the locusts were done I had less than 3 quarts left. (I had maybe a quart and my wife had a small bowl. The other gallon was eaten by her friends. I allegedly gave permission for them to eat it, which is odd, what with my having been asleep at the time permission was allegedly asked.)

    … And Princess Punk is saying that the brisket is too spicy. sigh Her mother is Sichuanese* and while I’m not compulsively fond of spicy food I do have a high tolerance. Where did we go wrong? On the other hand, my wife is chowing down on the sauce still in the crock pot, saying she can’t believe how good it is.

    * Years ago I asked my wife if Sichuanese mothers gave their babies hot peppers instead of pacifiers. She said it’s not exactly true…

  26. OFD says:

    “…file an application to change my last name from Anderson to Andersen.”

    Kinda complicated in my case; Hardy is spelled the same in England, France and Germany, but the “ie” spelling is Scottish. I only have a smidgeon of Scottish blood, but I guess I could do that same trans-ethnic thing, too.

    “If you have ever looked at screening supplies at the hardware store…”

    A current pending project: two odd-sized window frames on the back porch, lower portions of screens destroyed by wind and three cats. Normal-sized window in the living room, ditto. Gotta figure how to pull the screen frames out and bring them to the hardware store on whatever day/s the screen-fixing guy is there. Also putting a “chubby cat” door in the back wall of the porch, that can also lock.

    “…I allegedly gave permission for them to eat it, which is odd…”

    Well, there is your reality and then there is theirs. It’s all relative, man. Get with the program.

    “Where did we go wrong?”

    Americanization and probably the bland public skool lunch programs.

    Mrs. OFD likes food hotter than I do for some reason; puts hot sauce on her hot sauce, and hot sauce on ice cream and everything else, regardless of how I might have already seasoned it.

    I made a batch of beef chili today and she’ll probably like it, but she’ll put hot sauce on it, too.

  27. OFD says:

    Oh my.

    http://conservative-headlines.org/inauguration-day-antifa-protesters-face-decades-in-jail/

    ” “I weep for you,” the Walrus said:
    “I deeply sympathize.”

  28. SteveF says:

    Americanization and probably the bland public skool lunch programs.

    A reasonable guess, but off target here. She doesn’t go to public school and anyway she was all babyish about spicy food even when she was a baby. I tried telling her “don’t get your diapers in a bunch, little baby” but that failed to shame her into eating spicy chili and washing it down with a beer. And it’s not just because she had only one tooth; I cook chili in a crock pot so it’s nice and tender so even babies can eat it.

    “I weep for you,” the Walrus said:
    “I deeply sympathize.”

    Not me. I’m laughing fit to bring tears to my eyes.

    (Not really. But I have a slight tensing of facial muscles which for me is like shrieks of laughter in anyone else.)

  29. OFD says:

    “She doesn’t go to public school…”

    Sounds like she’s doing very nicely without it, too.

    “…shrieks of laughter…”

    I don’t actually shriek with laughter; I chuckle, I guffaw, I chortle, I go “hahahaha” and “bwaaaahhhhaaaaahhaaa!” I will go into utter paroxysms and gales of laughter if these little commie shits get sent to do their time in AN cell blocks. How long before most of them become AN soap bars?

  30. OFD says:

    Speaking of shrieks of laughter…I love it when the progs shit all over the libtards…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hne-hG4raHI

    Warning: bad language, haha.

    Sadly, Jimmy’s right about Barack Hussein Soetero, but hell, he and they voted for the bastard. They just think Bernie would be a lot better.

    Bernie and Jane (she destroyed a college up here) live in a mansion on the lakeshore just a few miles from here. Had their honeymoon in Moscow.

  31. nick flandrey says:

    Dinner was a big success. The instant potatoes were even edible. They were 2 years past due, and had a tiny bit of the ‘instant’ flavor. Might have been better fresh, who knows?

    Forgot the dessert of chocolate fudge brownie, again from mix in storage. Very yummy. required water and oil and one egg. used fresh instead of powdered, but could have used LTS. Again the mix was more than a year past due with no effect on taste. Same for the chicken stock the collards simmered in. UHT packaged in a box. I wish they’d use gamma and be done with it but the UHT boxes seem to work.

    n

  32. OFD says:

    Tx for the stored food viability info, Mr. Nick.

    We’re still at the canned goods stage and at roughly the two-month level of stuff. Need to get more of the basics and more shelving assembled.

    Off to the Land of Nod…got more outside work tomorrow…

    Pax vobiscum…

  33. lynn says:

    My 78 year old father wants to file sexual assault charges on a TSA officer. He has a mechanical heart valve that sets off the scanner everytime so they give him the full treatment and feelup. He has trouble walking and bending over so anything is painful to him.

  34. Miles_Teg says:

    Sorry to hear about the indignities visited on your father. I’m reluctant to visit the US for exactly that reason. When my sister visited the US a couple of years back she crossed the border into Montana by road. I think that’s the only way I’d visit.

  35. Dave says:

    My 78 year old father wants to file sexual assault charges on a TSA officer. He has a mechanical heart valve that sets off the scanner everytime so they give him the full treatment and feelup. He has trouble walking and bending over so anything is painful to him.

    I’ve been through TSA Security Theater twice without incedent, and I take two titanium plates and sixteen titanium screws with me everywhere I go.

  36. nick flandrey says:

    Wow, sale prices

    DPMS Panther Oracle Black .223 / 5.56 NATO 16-inch 30rd (AR – 15)

    $439 – $75 rebate = stunningly low price.

    http://grabagun.com/dpms-panther-oracle-223-16-30rd.html

    That is astoundingly low. You can’t even buy the parts that cheaply.

    n

  37. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    I didn’t see the rebate when I looked at that link. Even $439 is a good price, although I’d probably go the $40 more for the Ruger AR-556. I’ve had nothing but good experience with Ruger products for 45 years now.

  38. nick flandrey says:

    BTW S&W is running rebates too, available at your local gun store or online. There is a lot of stock out there that needs to move apparently.

    n

  39. ech says:

    WTF is the point with all the sensors and cameras and lights and mikes to monitor whatever when there is no “law enforcement” to speak of, anyway, other than ticket quotas to fatten town, city and state coffers?

    Perhaps it is preparation for when the majority of cars on the street are self-driving. When that happens, ticket revenues and DUI arrests will plummet. Local government will have a hole shot in their revenues. In some small towns, 30-40% of the revenue is from speed traps. In Houston, over 5% of the city revenue seems to come from parking tickets alone. (Think about it – a self driving car can drive until it finds a parking space.)

  40. nick flandrey says:

    Will a self driving car recognize when it’s in a place where it SHOULDN”T park? or will that be rayciss?

    I know a lot of places where just a block means your car is at risk….

    n

  41. Dave Hardy says:

    Avoid cities, crowds, “events,” and self-driving cahz.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  42. brad says:

    Funny, I went to look at the grabagun link, and get an “Error 1009”, which I’ve never seen before (actually, there is no such HTTP status code). The message: “The owner of this website (grabagun.com) has banned the country or region your IP address is in (CH) from accessing this website.”

  43. nick flandrey says:

    Huh, I guess there must be some issue with international sales they don’t want to mess with… although I’d have thought that just looking would be ok…

    n

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