09:07 – It was 60.6F (16C) when I took Colin out at 0645, overcast and breezy.
More work on kit stuff all day today. We had seven orders from different customers yesterday, so things are starting to ramp up. Our busiest time is generally mid-August through mid-September, when we’ll be fully occupied just building kits from stockpiled sub-assemblies and getting those kits shipped.
Bella, the little Malamute, is safe. Barbara took her to the vet, where she cowered behind Barbara’s leg while in the waiting room. The vet said she looked to be in good shape, but they’ll worm her, do a fecal check for heartworm, get her up to date on all her inoculations, and so on. They’ll also spay her. They’d let Barbara pay only the $30 examination fee; they’ll take care of all the other costs themselves. She didn’t appear to be spayed, so it’s a good thing she’s not wandering loose any more. We’re lucky we didn’t end up with her carrying a litter of Malamute/BC puppies.
Barbara’s friend Joanne stopped by about 1100 yesterday morning, after Barbara had gotten back from the vet. Joanne’s family lost a dog a few months ago due to old age, and hadn’t gotten another. We told Joanne about Bella, and she may well stop over to meet her at the shelter and consider adopting her. While Barbara and Joanne were talking on the front porch, I called the vet. I wanted to let them know that under no circumstances did we want the dog put down, and if they couldn’t place her we’d find someone ourselves or, as a last resort, take her ourselves. So they noted that in her file, and they’re going to call me if it comes to that.
I also asked the receptionist at the vet’s office who to make out a check to for the animal shelter they run. The senior vet in the practice is spending $100/day out of his own pocket to support the shelter, and I’d guess that some or all of the support staff are probably working unpaid hours to help the animals.
“We’re lucky we didn’t end up with her carrying a litter of Malamute/BC puppies.”
Hasn’t Colin been spayed?
Colin? Duncan? Malcom? Do we need some PC diversity here in naming dogs?
CowboySlim who had a paternal uncle named Malcom.
No. I don’t believe in neutering our guys.
I had this discussion with Barbara and Sue Stephens, our vet down in Winston, about Duncan, Malcolm, and Colin. They claimed that neutered male dogs were less likely to roam, to get in fights, and so on. I told them the same could be said of neutered male humans. Sue trotted out the old vet’s argument that neutered male dogs were healthier and lived longer, which is a crock. Yes, neutered male dogs don’t suffer from some diseases (like testicular cancer) that unneutered male dogs do, but the converse is also true, and overall health and lifespans are the same for neutered or unneutered.
We name our BC’s for Scottish kings. The next one will probably be David.
David is a great name.
My parents named us after English kings and Biblical characters; David Richard, Philip Mark, Peter Charles, Martha Ann, and Richard Andrew.
We were probably lucky not to get the names of OT characters given to our Quaker and Puritan ancestors here in New England.
Sunny w/blue skies and I’m off to the dump run, vets group (kinda hoping no one else loses their shit today) and picking up wifey for an early supper at our seafood joint in Burlap, right on the waterfront by the main pier and ferry and bike path. Where I get to practice the art of watching the girls go by dressed in their summer clothes while not alerting wife. Lecherous old demented fossil.
I’m sorry – removing a man’s balls because he’ll be “healthier” is not a good argument. But then, I don’t really care about the arguments. I won’t do to a dog something I wouldn’t be willing to do to myself or my son.
So no staying outside all night, occasional “yummy” snacks, and a pat on the head are all regular features for my son as well as my dog. And nobody cuts off their balls.
Wasn’t Idi Amin king of Scotland?
“We name our BC’s for Scottish kings. The next one will probably be David.”
Yes, that was the birthplace of my paternal grandfather and why I made that comment. Furthermore your middle name is likewise.
CowboySlim who is 25% of that ethnicity. (N0 Abdulsalimmohmet here.)
NFW. Even if he was, I’m not naming a dog Idi. Or Amin.
My parents named my brother and me Robert Bruce and William James. Me, obviously, for Robert the Bruce. I’ve never been entirely sure about my brother’s namesake, but I’ve always assumed it was the bishop associated with Arabella Stuart.
And nobody cuts off their balls
Neither have been married, yet.
My parents named us after English kings and Biblical characters; David Richard, Philip Mark, Peter Charles, Martha Ann, and Richard Andrew.
My parents named me after Davy Crockett.
Neither have been married, yet
You have won the innertubes, sir.
“You have won the innertubes, sir.”
I second that emotion.
My parents named us after English kings and Biblical characters; David Richard, Philip Mark, Peter Charles, Martha Ann, and Richard Andrew.
My oldest child’s middle name honors Zachary’s Pizza in Oakland, a constant craving of my wife’s during the pregnancy, which proved to be a challenge since we lived in Florida.
CowboySlim wrote:
“Do we need some PC diversity here in naming dogs?”
Yeah, why couldn’t they have named their latest BC Sue?
“Where I get to practice the art of watching the girls go by dressed in their summer clothes while not alerting wife.”
Don’t you know wimminz have eyes in the back of the heads?
I appreciate that pets (dogs / cats / ferrets / etc.) add value to many peoples lives.
But not mine. I like animals. OUTSIDE. My wife LOVES pets and they can do no wrong. When her new cat shreded the wonderful grandfathers leather chair I had inherited, her response was “Cats will be cats”. When the dog rolls in the mud and then jumps on the bed to snuggle up with her, she doesn’t mind. To me, inside pets add cost misery to my life.
Colin is as clean as we are. And a much better watchdog.
Barbara’s friend just stopped by with her husband and son. They’re heading over to meet Bella and possibly adopt her.
Our Boxer, Serena (1967-circa 1978) was never allowed in the house when mum was around. When mum was out my father, brother and I would let her watch TV with us. When Serena heard mum entering the house she’d bolt for the laundry, the only place mum allowed her and where she slept.
“Colin is as clean as we are.”
He doesn’t shed?
Barbara and I also shed.
heh…
A young woman who boarded at my house in the early 90s shed like you wouldn’t believe. I was constantly cleaning large amounts of her long, thick brown/red hair off my socks. I couldn’t believe she didn’t go bald.
A young woman who boarded at my house in the early 90s shed like you wouldn’t believe. I was constantly cleaning large amounts of her long, thick brown/red hair off my socks. I couldn’t believe she didn’t go bald.
We loaned out our vacuum to a friend vacating an apartment. It came back to us with the roller brushes choked with red hair smelling strongly of weed.
I asked my wife, “Doesn’t [X]’s 12 year-old daughter have red hair?”
“Yes, why?”
“She should have the kid tested. I got a contact high cleaning the vacuum after [X] brought it back to us.”
The senior vet in the practice is spending $100/day out of his own pocket to support the shelter, and I’d guess that some or all of the support staff are probably working unpaid hours to help the animals.
One of the most important lessons we learned in WA State is that rural medicine is a tough way to make a living if you genuinely care about your patient base. I’m sure the same is true of being a vet, and they have to make house calls in farm country. There are too many fixed costs which are the same regardless of location, but the patients have less money.
Prepper public service message: I got a pretty good look at downtown Belton, TX today looking for the Post Office (next to the feed store!) near my job. Nice town, non-decimated business district, but it is way too close to I-35 and the economic mess in Temple.
I’ve come to feel that way about wives.
“Prepper public service message: I got a pretty good look at downtown Belton, TX today looking for the Post Office (next to the feed store!) near my job. Nice town, non-decimated business district, but it is way too close to I-35 and the economic mess in Temple.”
When we were ready to move, I did a pretty thorough evaluation of all 48 lower states, as well as some of the Canadian provinces. (Barbara and I could easily get permanent residency in Canadia under various types of qualification because she’s a retired librarian, we’re both traditionally-published authors, and we run a business for the children.)
I tried to balance potential threats fairly, and the conclusion I came to was that nowhere in the 48 states deserved an A rating. The places that I rated B were all in either parts of the national redoubt or the Appalachian Mountains. I decided that the Blue Ridge and Appalachian plateau areas were about as good as it got, so we moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Incidentally, there was no area of Texas that rated even a B as far as I was concerned. In areas where water wasn’t a showstopper, the population density, proximity to interstate highways, etc. was. And the demographics are shifting rapidly for the worse.
Incidentally, second place after the Blue Ridge Mountains was the Montana/Alberta border area.
You misspelled chiiiiiiiildren and left off the half-dozen exclamation points.
Or is it only politicians and “concerned citizens” who get to spell it that way?
Incidentally, there was no area of Texas that rated even a B as far as I was concerned. In areas where water wasn’t a showstopper, the population density, proximity to interstate highways, etc. was. And the demographics are shifting rapidly for the worse.
I noticed Austin was on one of the North Korean target maps in the propaganda stills.
A low yield nuclear weapon exploding in the heart of Travis County might not be a negative development.
Nuking Austin during SXSW would result in an army of hipsters descending upon North Korea in all their wrath and power.
“You Might Not Need Complex, Alphanumeric Passwords After All”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/355496/you-might-not-need-complex-alphanumeric-passwords-after-all
“NIST now recommends using long passphrases instead of complicated alphanumeric passwords, and only refreshing them if they’ve been breached.”
I would have sworn that Steve Gibson had a article advocating long phrased passwords on his website but I cannot find it.
http://www.grc.com
Incidentally, there was no area of Texas that rated even a B as far as I was concerned. In areas where water wasn’t a showstopper, the population density, proximity to interstate highways, etc. was. And the demographics are shifting rapidly for the worse.
But, it’s Texas !
A low yield nuclear weapon exploding in the heart of Travis County might not be a negative development.
“whisper on” I am ok with that. “whisper off”
My middle brother’s wife is from Austin. Her mother still lives in the inner ring in a 1940s ranch house. Her dad was a t.u. prof in the school of business so he was not a total lib like his daughters.
Hell, I recommended that in the 90’s in Windows NT4 for Netware Administrators. IIRC, I gave the example of “the cowards never started, and the weaklings died along the way.” Or if the server restricted password lengths, “tcns,atwdatw.”
Password Strength
Prepper public service message: I got a pretty good look at downtown Belton, TX today looking for the Post Office (next to the feed store!) near my job. Nice town, non-decimated business district, but it is way too close to I-35 and the economic mess in Temple.
What is the economic mess in Temple ?
Yah, but that doesn’t have at least one capital letter and one digit.
And on another site, it’ll need at least one character from the set [-_!*].
And on a third the password has to be at least eight characters, with the unmentioned restriction that it cannot be more than twelve.
And on a fourth…
The second-major problem is the halfwits who think they know the best practices and put in arbitrary rules, most of which make little sense and which seldom match the arbitrary rules elsewhere.
The major major problem is sites which store your password in plain text. I think it’s usually an oversight but sometimes it’s done “for security”, so that company people can get into the account to fix problems.
I was involved on a site which stored passwords in plain text on the production system. Totally not the developers’ fault; the deployment instructions stated that this config file should be used and that the dev profile should not just be copied to the production server, and the developers weren’t allowed to see anything on the prod machine. It had been running like that for months before we got a log file for debugging some problem and we saw a log message indicating the screwup. Now, for those of you with experience in development and production operations, see if you can guess who was blamed for the screwup?
Of course you were. You didn’t make it idiot proof. Shame on you.
For the past five years or more I’ve designed web applications to default to “production secure” mode so that if the config files are missing or screwed up, the prod system won’t be running wide open. The site I described was long enough ago that I don’t know if that was my policy then. Not that it would matter, as I was just a contractor and the important decisions were left to the important people.
Nuking Austin during SXSW would result in an army of hipsters descending upon North Korea in all their wrath and power.
Let’s not leave out Burning Man. One nuke could take out 99% of the SJW population. Please use a tactical nuke so I have time to escape any radiation fallout.
Whew, made my rounds thru the gardens. Pulled some weeds, harvested 3 giant cukes, 3 nice sweet banana peppers, and checked on the watermelon. Something ate about half the green melons, but I’ve still got 5 or 6 ripening nicely. Citrus all survived my neglect but possibly 2 of the oaks in pots didn’t. We’ll see about them in the fall.
Feels like 117F in the sunny areas of the yard. Had to come in and sit down.
Did some ebay this am. Got everything relisted that needed to be. Caught up on all my seller auctions. Even bought a couple things. And one of my listings sold. I’m convinced now that ebay does something to move listings around when you add new listings. I almost always sell something just after making a new listing. In any case, I’ve got selling to do to make up for the hole in the month. One thing ebay does that is completely worth it is their Global Shipping Service. My sale today was to Netherlands. That’s a new one for me. I should have a map with pins in it 🙂 Seriously though, the service makes it easy to sell internationally. I send it to KY, they do the paperwork, duties, etc, and forward it to the buyer. I’ve sold all over the world and it’s MUCH simpler with GSS.
n
One thing ebay does that is completely worth it is their Global Shipping Service.
Sweet tip, thank you Mr. Nick.
I was going to ask how long it will be until there’s a King of Scotland named Abdul, but others already plowed that field. I’ll add that my first name is that of my paternal grandfather, and my middle name comes from a local body of water.
As far as passwords, I recently goofed up a system by using the function symbol [ Alt-159 for those using Winboxes ] as my special character. Bad fail, it essentially only wanted the characters above the numbers on a keyboard..
And is it possible to give a dog a vasectomy?
“And is it possible to give a dog a vasectomy?”
Depends on how easygoing the dog is and what chance you’re willing to take…
I was going to ask how long it will be until there’s a King of Scotland named Abdul, but others already plowed that field.
I was going to ask how long it will be until there’s a King of England named Mohammad, but others already plowed that field.
FTFY.
And it well may happen in the next 20 to 30 years. The house of Windsor does not look very stable.
In Burnet, the Post Office is next to the feed store. But here, we call it “HEB”.
Annnnd looking at size of some of heifers waddling around, after they get to the Business Center to bitch and moan XXXXXXXXX complain about a lack of scooters, feed store is the right term.
I worked there for almost 12 years. Started as a checker. Moved into Business Center and pretty soon, Cash Control. Eventually became the lead, aka Count d’ Money. And Biz Center… always…. cause when the biz center chick calls out, guess who gets to cover?
Just gave them my keys and walked out one day. Ain’t been back.
I think the house of Windsor will be ok. Queen dies, Chuck gets a few years, and then who next? One of Diana’s sons. They both seem to be decent folk.
The House of Windsor is a bunch of blithering idiots descended from a long line of blithering idiots. Queen Victoria’s “smart” daughter was actually the brightest one in the family, and she was probably literally a moron.
That was my main objection to Blackadder, which, while generally historically accurate, presented the Prince Regent (George IV) as much, much brighter than he really was. (He drooled.)
I think the house of Windsor will be ok. Queen dies, Chuck gets a few years, and then who next? One of Diana’s sons. They both seem to be decent folk.
Londonistan should be crossing the 50% muslim population in a decade or two. That is not a stable situation.
They must have gotten an injection of genes from somewhere then, as the prince is a working chopper pilot. All kidding aside, that ain’t easy to do…
n
Diana?
Yep.
In Burnet, the Post Office is next to the feed store. But here, we call it “HEB”.
Annnnd looking at size of some of heifers waddling around, after they get to the Business Center to bitch and moan XXXXXXXXX complain about a lack of scooters, feed store is the right term.
Yup, you are talking about my 62 year old sister-in-law. She is about 5’1″ and 300+ lbs. She and her husband have been staying with us for six days now. Her knees and hips are just about gone from carrying those 300+ lbs around for over 30 years. She is a nice enough lady but there are some harsh realities of life coming. Her husband is 61 and getting ready to retire from UPS at the first of the year. He is going to sell their Dallas (The Colony, TX) home and move back to Groesbeck, TX as his income will be dropping from $5,000/month to $2,000/month.
I took a few days off this week and talked with him about the upcoming change. He has yet to work the numbers and is not thinking about it yet. He knows that his medical insurance will be covered through UPS / Teamsters until he is 65. But he does not have a clue about her medical insurance. I told him that her medical insurance will be $800/month if he has to go to Obamacare for her and he went very quiet. And she has a lot of medical issues with diabetes and sinus infections.
He is talking about buying a couple of acres outside town and putting a double wide on it. I asked him about costs for water (well), sewer (septic tank), and electrical hookup (big $ for each pole). He had no idea.
His mother’s house (2500 ft2 4/2/0) is outside Groesbeck on ten acres. His mother has been living with his brother in Waco for 3 years and the house is almost abandoned. His dad built the house 45 years ago by joining two 50 year old farm houses together. Yeah baby, that is how you make a mansion here in Texas. My BIL thinks that if things get bad, he can move into his mothers house for free. But, there is a LOT of deferred maintenance there. I’m betting that none of the window a/c units work. And some of the piers in the pier and beam foundation have fallen so the floor is sagging up to six inches in some places. And the plumbing leaks. And …
Their 25 and 28 year sons still live with them. That is coming to an end when my BIL and SIL move to Groesbeck. The 25 year old son has a degree in History from NTSU. He is now working on getting a teaching certificate from NTSU.
The royals are blithering idiots? Uh…. what’s new here. They’re all Germans on the
throne.
But that’s what happens when All The Royals marry and inbreed.
So, that old song about Deutchland Uber Alle …. English. German. Same same. Just different words.
They must have gotten an injection of genes from somewhere then, as the prince is a working chopper pilot. All kidding aside, that ain’t easy to do…
The younger prince brother was in the Royal Marines under an assumed name. He did three tours in Afghanistan before somebody outed him. They are both good guys and a credit to their mom.
But the statistics of a rapidly growing muslim population in London are going to do the Brits in. Of course, the Brits could eject them into the channel …
EDIT: Hey Mr. AtoZ, Prince Harry is an Apache pilot ! So both prince brothers are helicopter pilots.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4494136/Prince-Harry-set-head-Royal-Marines.html
The house outside Groesbeck on ten acres sounds interesting. But…. hell, I can’t do what I could do 10 years ago.
It’s possible it could sink in and she could change her life, even at this late date. I’ve got a relative and her spouse who both lost 100s of pounds between them in their 70s and 80s when it became blindingly obvious that they weren’t gonna keep on living, and one couldn’t take care of the other if they didn’t do something. ‘Course there were a couple of knee and hip surgeries in there before it became obvious….
n
New flavor of pouch meat at the store, tried it tonight.
Rip-n-ready Shredded beef brisket in BBQ sauce.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/rip-n-ready-shredded-beef-brisket-bbq-sauce/2110415
Really tasty! One pouch per kaiser roll though….
n
Well, we’re not going to the Pageant of Steam this year. Tomorrow was the only day we could have made it, and the weather forecast isn’t looking good. If it were closer we’d give it a try, but it’s an hour to pick up my dad and then 2 1/2 hours to the site. Seven hours in the car for a chance of not being rained on wasn’t worth it.
Dang, that’s too bad. The sounds and smells are just outstanding….you can ‘t get that from a youtube video.
n
What is the economic mess in Temple ?
My observations:
– Lots of closed restaurants and a few shuttered car dealerships on I-35. I remember most of them being open when we first moved here in 2014.
– The new Buc-ee’s required a lot of financial concessions with regard to sales and other taxes from the state, Bell County, and City of Temple.
– Macy’s shuttering at the Temple Mall.
– ALDI in town — not a good sign IMHO, but I bought $6.99/lb T-bones last week so I won’t complain too much
– KCEN TV studios for sale north of city since the station moved to an old church complex downtown.
I used to judge a neighborhood by the presence and number of pawn shops, check cashing places, and payday loan stores. Now they’re everywhere (since the banks got involved) and it’s not quite as good an indicator.
If the local quickie mart isn’t a name brand, that’s a warning sign. If the gas stations are off brand, keep your head on a swivel. If there is graffiti that says “No hookers” or city signs warning johns away, you KNOW it’s time to leave.
nick
I used to judge a neighborhood by the presence and number of pawn shops, check cashing places, and payday loan stores. Now they’re everywhere (since the banks got involved) and it’s not quite as good an indicator.
I believe Ford Credit runs one of the payday loan stores.
I haven’t paid attention to the pawn shop count, but the hospital advertises their new heart transplant ward on billboards.
“the hospital advertises their new heart transplant ward on billboards.”
Bet they’re not competing on price…
One thing ebay does that is completely worth it is their Global Shipping Service.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve shipped computers all over Canadia & Europe as well as more far flung places like Australia, Singapore & Dubai. As long as I got them to Kentucky…
Any tac nukes to be lit off in CONUS ought to start with Mordor, period.
WRT Mr. Lynn’s relatives; I would not be very optimistic concerning their chances. If the BIL is just now hearing hard truths and looking befuddled, that is a real bad sign. As for pie-wagons and ham planets these days, most of whom seem to be females, esp. YOUNG females, I am also not very optimistic. They’re begging for a myriad of medical issues and problems and early deaths, but maybe they don’t believe it and/or don’t care.
For passwords, I can attest to Mr. SteveF’s summary of the situation; all kinds of different and contradictory requirements, and I’ve now resorted to keeping them up to date in a .txt file on the desktop here, until I can get KeePass or whatever sussed out and working. There have to be several dozen by now; the financial institutions and bills to be paid online; a slew of websites, the machines themselves, etc., etc. I typically use grammatical sentences that won’t make a lotta sense to anyone else and with various punctuation marks.
WRT to the UK monarchy; the last really smart royals were James I/VI and Elizabeth I. Charlies I and II were pretty clever but the first wasn’t quite clever enough and the second was a notorious libertine and spendthrift. Betty’s dad was also extremely smart but one evil muthafucka. And Longshanks was pretty slick, too. But the Windsors? Not until Diana and her two sons, really, as has already been remarked upon here.
Vets group today was interesting; no one lost their shit but we discussed Agent Orange, PTSD, and exchanged a few stories with a new Navy guy and his wife, also attending. We also gave some help to one of our young Desert Shitstorm vets who is having a rough time lately.
And one of my own previous counselor-therapists wrote me an amazingly nice recommendation letter for the grad skool gig. Meanwhile my VA case manager and me are hassling with the college’s stupid and stubborn demand for a transcript from a place where I only took three or four classes and never got a degree from; plus, like he says, I’m not trying to transfer the credits nor am I applying for financial aid. Everything’s always a fucking PITA. Should know more next week; and if all the stuff gets in on time by the 25th and they accept me, I can start the 28th. If not, maybe January, or maybe not at all. We’ll see, and I will go to Plans B & C, if necessary.
@MrAtoz; next-younger brother and I are mulling the idea of drones; mine would be used for random aerial recon ops in the AO here, with a webcam or whatever. He is thinking about weaponizing his for home defense. I haven’t told him about the FAA requirements yet.
Any thoughts?
That is, if you can put down your quiche for a moment?
WRT Mr. Lynn’s relatives; I would not be very optimistic concerning their chances. If the BIL is just now hearing hard truths and looking befuddled, that is a real bad sign. As for pie-wagons and ham planets these days, most of whom seem to be females, esp. YOUNG females, I am also not very optimistic. They’re begging for a myriad of medical issues and problems and early deaths, but maybe they don’t believe it and/or don’t care.
I forgot to mention that the wife told me a month ago that she volunteered the back side of our 9 acre office property for her sister to put a double wide out there. I just about went ballistic. I asked the wife:
1. who is going to pay for the $8,000 septic tank ?
2. who is going to pay for the road on the back 3 acres, $5,000 of gravel ?
3. who is going to pay for the electrical hookup at $1,200 per pole (maybe 4 or 5 poles plus the box hookup, another $5,000 ?
4. who is going to pay for running a 1″ water line about a 1,000 feet (buried), $3,000 ?
Sigh. That is about $21,000 to prep the site.
And then I asked her how much rent that they are going to pay ? The wife said no rent, they are family. I am afraid that I said a bad word.
And the SIL’s older boy is 6′ and about 450 lbs. He delivers pizzas for Dominos.
paul wrote:
“I think the house of Windsor will be ok. Queen dies, Chuck gets a few years, and then who next? One of Diana’s sons. They both seem to be decent folk.”
I hope Chuck Windsor croaks first. He’s a complete tosser.
Diana was super cute, nearly as cute as Sandra Bullock.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/13caa6935bd570ed525064ade366e78f
Free pizza!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-11/pizza-spilled-across-arkansas-highway/8798738
Rip-n-ready Shredded beef brisket in BBQ sauce.
Looks good. I’ll try it. But made in Brazil?
her medical insurance will be $800/month if he has to go to Obamacare
Actually it would probably only be about $400 a month with the subsidy. I am facing the same problem with my wife’s insurance. Rate is a little over $850 a month with a $425 subsidy. He will also find a $4K deductible and $8K maximum out of pocket at the rate I am paying. Between Medicare premiums, supplemental insurance, and out of pocket expenses I am paying about $1K a month. It should also be noted that the Obuttwadcare has a lot of crap they don’t cover, many more uncovered items than private or group insurance.
But what pisses me off is that I used my projected income numbers when I applied. And my numbers are pretty much on target. But having started doing my tax predictions for the year the numbers are not working out. Seems I will owe the IRS about $3K because I will have been paid too much in subsidy. So I have to contribute to an IRA again this year to reduce my income. Something I had not planned.
For passwords, I can attest to Mr. SteveF’s summary of the situation; all kinds of different and contradictory requirements, and I’ve now resorted to keeping them up to date in a .txt file on the desktop here, until I can get KeePass or whatever sussed out and working
I use LastPass and would recommend it. It works in the browser (Chrome in my case) and has apps for IOS and Android. It also appears to work in Linux because it is browser based. Costs $12.00 a year. It allows me to keep very complicated passwords that work within the limits of a site’s password requirements. One master password to rule them all.
Lastpass will also not allow logins from anywhere other than your home country unless you specifically tell it you will be in another country. Found this out on one of my trips to Germany. Was able to setup the login but it was an arduous process, as it should be.
When my friend died his wife had a really hard time getting into his accounts because of the passwords and security questions. Lastpass will allow a guest login which you can send an invite to someone, in my case my son. When he tries to login there is a two hour delay before he can access. During this window I get a text message and email that he is trying to access and I can deny. After two hours he would get access.
I have placed all the information he would need to access the accounts in the Lastpass application. URL’s, Passwords, Secret Questions. I have also added driver’s license information, passport information, desktop passwords, etc. I learned a valuable lesson when my friend died. Make absolute certain that someone else you trust can get to your passwords and critical information. If not, it becomes very difficult for your survivors. Such information being critical to getting everything settled due to your demise.
“Someone you can trust”. Aye, there’s the rub.
Keepass – Highly recommended.
Make a primary database (I call mine “JimPWDs” – really original) and make a copy “in the cloud”. Give it a “good” password that you MUST remember.
Install the app (or run the portable app) anywhere you do regular work. There exist Linux ports as well.
I use 3 main machines, and sync to the cloud-based copy regularly. I download the file to my smarty-pants phone for reference when mobile. I don’t try to do any maintenance on the phone version.
Keeping passwords in a plain text file is dangerous (and you know that). I regularly find text files on users’ desktops, which I secure when found. My users don’t like it.
Keepass is the most usable I have found that is NOT cloud based. The file is stored (and encrypted) locally. The “Cloud” copy is encrypted as well. To my knowledge, nobody with normal resources can crack a captured file in reasonable time.
I trust it (as much as I trust any software) to keep my data reasonably secure.
Lastpass – I’ve heard a few stories about them getting hacked & information stolen. I do NOT trust them. YMMV.
I can attest to the “have someone else able to access it” sentiment. In my case, it’s my wife. Of course it’s a risk, but one I’m willing to take.
All important information is stored in there. Including SSNs, driver’s license info, etc.
“Someone you can trust”. Aye, there’s the rub.
I can trust my son. He will have to do most of the work when I die as my wife is certainly not technically capable of dealing with the finances and getting access to the accounts. I have in fact told him that when I get to about 75 years old I am transferring all my assets to his name. The understanding that it is my money and I am only protecting his inheritance. I will pay any additional taxes he incurs.
The idea is that I will very likely have to go into a nursing home about the time I turn 80. Medicaid looks back five years for any assets. By having those assets removed from my name more than five years in the past there will be nothing for Medicaid to seize.
A co-worker had to put a parent in a nursing home. Medicaid put a lien on the house and took all the monthly income from SS and retirement except for $500.00 a month. Medicaid said that was enough to live on. Utilities were about $200 a month, medication about $100 a month, insurance (home) was another $100 a month. Lady had to sell her car as there was only $100 a month left for food.
Get involved with Medicaid and you have any assets your life is going to be a living hell. Best to eliminate all those assets and get them out of your name so Medicaid has nothing to steal.
Medicaid even tried to steal my aunt’s VA money until I got the VA involved who wrote a nasty gram to TN Medicaid.
” But made in Brazil?”
yeah, better if made in USA, like some of the other pouch meats I like, but I like variety. Made for export is always better than made for domestic consumption. The .gov has an interest in not having the whole country blamed for any issues and seeing foriegn trade hit. Doesn’t always work of course…
BTW, looked at your other meats lately? Lots of animals shipping from USA to CHina to be packed, then returned to USA…..
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WRT password managers:
I have used RoboForm since their beginnings so I am very partial to it because I know how to make it work for me.
I do routinely go back and try LastPass, KeePass, and the new kid on the block Dashlane.
Dashlane is expensive and a system hog. KeePass is too lightweight, and LastPass is okay (the have fixed their security problems and are on top of things now) and could be my number one if RoboForm continues its slow improvement and update progress (rather lack thereof).
I also have a 3×5 card file for all passwords and vital data. That’s all the technology the wife can handle. The kids know and have access to my RoboForm and the LastPass standby.
I also have accordion folders in the safes that have copies of all important papers, not the least of which are birth certificates, my DD214, Social inSecurity, and Medi-don’t-Care paperwork. Also all records of house and tax payments, particularly important since the house is paid off but the counties in WA State no longer provide a piece of paper that says you have no mortgage (just a note on tax statements that there are no lien holders). Finally car titles.
house is paid off but the counties in WA State no longer provide a piece of paper that says you have no mortgage
Same here. No paper indicating the house is paid. Just no lien-holder on the tax document.
I really don’t trust the tax records. When I got my last mortgage, a refinance, there was a problem with the taxes. Apparently when I bought the home my portion of the taxes was not recorded, or was not paid, by the title company. The amount of $25.00 had morphed into $75 with interest and penalties.
County said the taxes were never paid. Title company says they paid the taxes. But since it had been 10 years in the past the title company only had records in the archives. It was going to cost me $100.00 to have them get the information. If they were wrong they would waive the fee and pay the taxes, but not the penalties. Apparently it is my responsibility to make certain the taxes are paid.
But such information about past taxes is NOT on the tax statement, only current taxes, I really thought nothing about it. It is to the tax office benefit to NOT tell you about taxes you owe. Eventually they will get paid and the tax office gets the bonus of interest and penalties.
So I just paid the $75.00 as I ran the risk of being out $100.00. If the title company proved they paid I was out the $100.00. If the title company did not pay I was still out $50.00 for the interest and penalties. Either way I was being raped for incompetence on someone’s part.
folders in the safes that have copies of all important papers
My important papers are in the safe deposit box at the credit union. Offsite and protected. Wills, car titles, DD-214, copy of the last bank statement showing zero balance on the mortgage loan, birth and death certificates.
That is, if you can put down your quiche for a moment?
Mmf glub snarf. What?
My go to drone is now the dji Mavic Pro. But a good package is gonna cost $1K+. You can’t go wrong with that small, foldable form factor. 4K video. Actively maintained by dji. There are a lot of $500 and less drones you could go with, even Parrot drones, but they may fade out of existence. dji is Chinese, of course, and our military is now abandoning them since “THEY MIGHT HAVE A SOFTWARE BACKDOOR TO HACK US!” Should have thought of that before using them for milspec applications. Fry’s and Best Buy carry drones if you have one in your area. Larger cities will also have “Drone” stores where you could peruse. Check Youtube before you go Googless.
I’ve used 1Password for years. You can keep the 256 bit encrypted master file locally or in the cloud for access anywhere. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, but Linux is only beta if I remember correctly. You can now keep images in it, so I put scanned copies of sooper secret documents in it.
Thanks @MrAtoz; will pass on the valuable intel to my younger bro accordingly.