09:44 – It was 44.4F (7C) when I took Colin out at 0640, partly cloudy and breezy. We had about 1.5″ (4 cm) of rain yesterday. Autumn weather is definitely arriving. For at least the next week or so, we’re to have lows in the 40’s (5 to 9 C) and highs in the low- to mid-60’s (16 to 19 C).
We’re expecting some effects from Hurricane Irma to arrive Monday evening through Tuesday, assuming the current forecast holds up. Irma is supposed to track up the coast along the Florida and Georgia coasts and make landfall as a Cat 1 hurricane. From that point, the center of the track passes through the Piedmont. Sparta is about dead center in the forecast track, although we’ll probably see only heavy winds and downpours.
Shortly after she got home from the gym yesterday, Barbara emailed me a recipe for easy fudge in the microwave, using only two ingredients. We had the chocolate chips, but no condensed milk.
We did have evaporated milk, so I converted that to sweetened condensed milk by adding 1.25 times its volume in granulated white sugar. A 14-ounce can of evaporated milk plus 17.5 ounces (by volume) of sugar.
The can of evaporated milk had a best-by date of September 14, 2014, so it wasn’t even three years past its best-by. Barbara opened the can. I had her sniff it, and she said it smelled like evaporated milk. Good enough.
We poured it into a microwave-safe plastic bowl, added the 2+ cups of white sugar, and microwaved it on high for one minute. Barbara stirred to make sure all the sugar had dissolved, after which we added three cups of chocolate chips, microwaved it on high for another minute, and then stirred it until it was a creamy consistency. We then added a teaspoon of vanilla extract, poured the batter into an 8X8-inch baking dish covered in oiled aluminum foil, and stuck it in the refrigerator to cool and set.
Just like the last time we tried making fudge, it didn’t really set up. Instead, we ended up with a goopy mass. Barbara isn’t a big fan of fudge anyway, but she taste-tested it. She thought it tasted okay, if a bit grainy. I thought it was okay, but in retrospect I’d either add a fourth cup of chocolate chips or cut down the amount of liquid. The recipe called for one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk, which would probably have set up properly. But I used a 14-ounce can of evaporated milk plus the 17.5 fluid ounces of sugar, which totaled more than the amount of condensed milk the recipe called for.
We finished up DCI Banks and started watching Silk and the 2016 Victoria. The latter was unusual in that it didn’t disguise the fact that Victoria was German, not English, and that the Royals spoke German at home. Their Victoria speaks RP English rather than strongly German-accented English as the real Victoria did.
The real Victoria, of course, was also in-bred and stupid, which this series ignores. And she married Albert, who was literally a moron, and produced a large litter of moronic children.
For your next fudge attempt, use confectioners sugar rather than granulated. I’d go by weight rather than volume, though it probably doesn’t matter for this purpose; minor variations shouldn’t affect texture much and the difference in sugar content of different brands of chocolate chips would probably overwhelm it. To make the fudge set better, heat it a bit hotter.
I’ve never made candy (“confections”, rather) in a microwave so I don’t have any advice on that. I’ve always used either a double boiler or a simple saucepan and a candy thermometer.
And Victoria’s first cousin.
The real Victoria, of course, was also in-bred and stupid, which this series ignores.
I’ll give Auntie Beeb this one — 2016 Victoria is a showcase for Jenna Louise Coleman.
After the amazing run Coleman had on “Doctor Who” it would have been a national scandal if her Victoria acted in-bred and stupid.
Smoke so heavy that the sun is not even visible this morning, we are living in a very diffuse sepia colored world. The smoke smell is getting stronger. I say that because we are not getting used to it.
I hear that they were able to save the historic lodge at Multnomah Falls.
http://www.multnomahfallslodge.com/
The tree-hugging eco-weenie cupcake snowflakes (inclusive enough for you) are all bemoaning the loss of the biking and hiking trails. They have no idea that this ecosystem is used to fires and will recover. All the native flowers and shrubs actually require fire to renew. Too bad this fire was started by some 15-year old brat playing with fireworks in the forest. I suggest he and all his relatives be permanently sterilized and be exiled to live in the desert.
Life goes on.
BTW, I see that tRump got tired of waiting for the republacrats and made some deals with the democrans. Both parties are useless, but the republicrats are worse than useless. The democrans deliver what they promise, pretty amazing for the “minority”. There is absolutely no reason to vote for anyone in any current political party.
Mr. DadCooks and Mr. RBT are gonna have to go stand in a corner this morning for all their micro- and macro-aggressions. Wow. Way to start the day, you Nazi bastids. You’re on report, of course.
And yeah, that strain of royal Brit idiocy continues down through the present times from the late 18th-C. I will say this for them, though; they walk the walk when it comes to hitting the front lines of whatever war. Unlike our assholes.
A fourth day of on and off rain and drizzle and fog. Trip to airport cancelled due to heavy rains and weather in northern Noveau Brunswick; too risky for GG to drive to the Bathurst airport to pick up her daughter. As it was I would have missed the vets group this afternoon, most likely. So the new day is Sunday, so I’ll now miss the pistol class I had scheduled up the road at the gun club. And all day Saturday I’ll be in my first lab class at the school Told my wife that our lives and schedules don’t matter here; it’s always what everybody else sets up and wants; constant disruptions every week. And they’ll bug her to do stuff and show up for things on the fucking DAY that she gets back from a week or two weeks straight of working her butt off and then the airplane flight and hassle. And she rarely says the magic word.
It impacts on multiple people all the time and the perps don’t seem to know or care.
So I’m off shortly to a dump run and the vets group, I guess. Patriots game tonight, we’ll grill some steaks and have them with our tomatoes, some quinoa and some grillin’ beans. I’ll do it Texas-style, whatever that is, making it up as I go along.
And tomorrow will be another day of house cleaning and yard work, assuming it’s not too soggy out there, but I doubt it.
And yeah, that strain of royal Brit idiocy continues down through the present times from the late 18th-C. I will say this for them, though; they walk the walk when it comes to hitting the front lines of whatever war. Unlike our assholes.
The generation that will take over after Charles seems normal enough.
Maybe Elizabeth will outlast Charles and the throne will avoid the Jughead Dynasty.
So sad seeing all the people filling sandbags, talk about too little too late. There is no way that they are going to be able to lug enough sandbags home from those gooberment sandpiles to do much good. Saw one petite cupcake attempting to push a baby stroller loaded with sandbags. First little bump she hits and that stroller is going to collapse. People loading their pretty status cars with so many sandbags that the cars are bottomed-out. Saw some big manly-men loading a large black trash bag with sand, tried to lift it and couldn’t, then they tried to drag it and it split open. Obviously they were trying to make up for a lack of actual manhood.
Sorry to seem so unsympathetic, but how a person can live in an area that is frequented by hurricanes and not be prepared is just plain stupid and is apparently unfixable.
So many sad stories, but all were preventable with simple preparations and knowing when it is time to bug-out. And if you cannot bug-out, well you need to be extra prepared.
If there was one thing my Grandparents taught me it was to be prepared, and be especially prepared for the unexpected. It was an actual priority and action, not just a motto. Today too many people have to have a TV that is too big, a car that is impracticable, and a life-style that hip/cool/with-it. The gooberment cannot continue to bail the stupid out.
Now all we need is NKO to do something stupid. Oh wait, we have drawn red line after red line and made indignant speech after indignant speech at the UN and done nothing. There is no reason that NKO should not be a smoldering rubble pile at this point.
WOW, the line of cars waiting to get to the sand-piles in Miami Beach is out-of-sight.
Sorry to seem so unsympathetic, but how a person can live in an area that is frequented by hurricanes and not be prepared is just plain stupid and is apparently unfixable.
Shortly before leaving office, during one of the hurricanes in 2004/5, Governor Jeb! stepped in it by asking a similar question.
Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach have their own special form of cluelessness.
Yep, they’ve known it was coming, with AT BEST being in the fringe of the dirty side, and at worst a direct hit, for a week. The only thing that has changed is how far west it goes before moving up thru FLA.
This AM my wife was commenting in amazement at the fights over bottled water. She’s been on the FB and says “there’s this thing you can put in your bathtub and make a big tank” – yep, it’s a BOB and we have one in the cabinet. Then she says “or you can use a kiddie pool” – yep, we’ve got a blow up one in the garage attic. Then she says “you can put trash can liners in your cans and fill them” – yep, tried that during IKE, wouldn’t recommend it as the can will fail, but you can get some water, or use the recycle bins, or fill buckets, or a whole bunch of other things….
As a prep update, I’ll add that Aquatainers have replacement caps and spouts available cheap on Amazon, but they are ‘add in’ product and will only ship with other orders (unless you want to pay more.) Also Aquatainers will get brittle in sunlight. And finally, I’ve got 3 of those ‘water cooler’ 5 gallon bottles that I filled for Harvey. I picked them up from the side of the road. FREE. I’ve seen several since that I didn’t pick up so no excuse not to be on the lookout. Or get some buckets from your local donut shop, or deli.
FFS, don’t PANIC
n
Heck, dig a hole in the back yard, and line it with your plastic sheeting. You DO have plastic sheeting, right?
When in danger, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
But before then, get ready for anything you can think of. When something you didn’t think of happens, you’ll be prepared to think about a solution and DO something.
This AM my wife was commenting in amazement at the fights over bottled water.
Lots of transplants from elsewhere live in FL. Even Jimmy Buffet isn’t a native.
We had big water coolers from Home Depot which were filled the moment we went under a Hurricane Warning, but we never lost water or copper line phone service during a storm.
Sloppy Joes still hasn’t reopened in Key West. Things are bad.
Greg, you shouldn’t reply to Nick’s and Jim’s recent messages. They’re expecting people to think and plan ahead and to not panic like herd animals. That’s hate talk right there, and you risk getting contaminated with their hatey-hate.
“Are the Hurricanes and Temperature Records Confirmation of Catastrophic Climate Change?”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/165048861836/are-the-hurricanes-and-temperature-records
We don’t have a clue is a great answer.
And we have never had Cat 5 hurricanes before. Oh wait, we have …
“not panic like herd animals”
Well, I for one intend to panic if the storms makes it up here and it’s rainy and windy.
We don’t have a clue is a great answer.
And we have never had Cat 5 hurricanes before. Oh wait, we have …
Most of the treasure galleons sunk off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida were done in by big hurricanes, not pirates, and sane people didn’t live on the state’s barrier islands until the mid- to late- 20th century. The Caribbean used to be a lot more active.
Sorry to seem so unsympathetic, but how a person can live in an area that is frequented by hurricanes and not be prepared is just plain stupid and is apparently unfixable.
Hey, I used to resemble that ! I did not start prepping until after hurricane Ike in 2008. And then the problem becomes money. Why buy preps when you need a new bay boat, a new motorcycle, or a new kayak ?
Microwave fudge? I cannot imagine how that could ever work. Either your sugar won’t dissolve (grainy), or it won’t set (goopy), or more likely both (groopy?).
The key to any sort of fudge is reaching a certain balance of liquid to sugar, as indicated by the boiling temperature. To get the sugar to fully dissolve, you have to start with an excess of water. You then boil off the excess until the liquid reaches the desired temperature. I prefer 116C, but if you like your fudge a bit softer or a bit harder, you can go a couple of degrees on either side of that.
It’s not that hard to do on the stove, but you do have to stir constantly to prevent scorching. It takes me about 45 minutes start-to-finish.
Last note: fudge recipes normally use a mixture of butter and (condensed) milk. How much of which is a matter of taste, but using no butter at all would taste very odd.
Damn, now I want some fudge…
Panic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd6aLnPHqeE
Wife’s fudge recipe is sugar and condensed milk. Boil and stir for about 15 min. Remove from heat. Add chocolate chips, butter and about 16 large marshmallows. Stir until melted and blended. Add nuts if desired (I do, wife doesn’t. pour some in a pan – add nuts then pour rest). Works great every time.
“KAPELSOHN ON CASTILE” by Massad Ayoob
http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2017/09/04/kapelsohn-on-castile/
“I have known Manny Kapelsohn for decades. We have appeared together on numerous panels at national and international training seminars. We serve together on the advisory board of the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network. I consider him one of the top authorities on armed defense on the planet. He is a very experienced expert witness, and successfully served in that capacity in the recent trial of Officer Jeronimo Yanez for the shooting death of armed citizen Philandro Castile.”
“In the August/September issue of Concealed Carry magazine, Manny presents a letter explaining why he profoundly disagrees with those who feel the officer panicked or overreacted, as so many have come to believe.”
“First, he points out, Castile never told the cop he had a license to carry, only that he had a firearm. Kapelsohn notes that Yanez calmly told Castile, “OK, don’t reach for it then.” When Castile disobeyed, Yanez shouted “Don’t pull it out! Don’t pull it out!” Only when this total of three explicit commands was disobeyed did the officer open fire.”
“FEMA looks to buy out homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey”
http://www.chron.com/business/article/FEMA-looks-to-buyout-homes-flooded-by-Hurricane-12180372.php
This is an excellent idea. Sounds like there is a lot of red tape though.
And I don’t have a problem with allowing someone else to build there IF they raise the house to 18 inches above BFE. Me, I would put the new home 3 ft above BFE. BFE = base flood elevation.
WRT FEMA buyouts:
Typically only provide 75% of a home’s assessed value, probably not enough to payoff most of the mortgages. An area eligible for buyouts does not require people to accept the buyouts, so you end up with an area with a lot of vacant uncared-for lots so those left behind end up living in a neighborhood that looks like a not so great place. And as @lynn said there is no requirement to build so that any future homes will be resistant to floods. The only people who really make out are the realtors and contractors and FEMA goes deeper in debt.
BTW, I think there are some lots of unused Katrina trailers somewhere.
Life goes on, swirling down the bowl.
“Typically only provide 75% of a home’s assessed value”
Based on the assessed value BEFORE the event. The assessed value after the event may well be zero. Again, why should taxpayers take the loss. The individuals affected should take the loss personally, less anything private insurance pays for. If it bankrupts them, so what? They shouldn’t have put themselves in that position.
An area eligible for buyouts does not require people to accept the buyouts, so you end up with an area with a lot of vacant uncared-for lots so those left behind end up living in a neighborhood that looks like a not so great place.
My understanding is that the City of Houston requires that the damage to a house by flooding to be less than 50% of the house pre-flood value in order to get a building permit. Unless, the house is to be raised. Ech will probably correct me on this.
I just found out that my friends who live upriver in the Brazos floodplain got 4 inches of water in their house that they built almost 40 years ago. They have flood insurance and the FEMA dude has already been to their house and approved their fixups. They are removing 1 ft of the sheetrock from the downstairs.
This is the first time that their house has been flooded even though they live in the floodplain. They live on 40 acres and would love to sell it but no one wants to live in the floodplain. They used to have horses and cattle but those are just too much work with their dry cleaner business.
Moral of all the stories: don’t live in a flood, hurricane, tornado or landslide zone. If you do anyway, make sure you pay (extremely high premiums) for adequate replacement insurance. It had better not come out of the rest of our pockets, no matter the alleged strategic value to FUSA. I consider most of the East and Gulf coasts hurricane zones. Including Cape Cod and the Islands, settled by my ancestors nearly 400 years ago. They’re friggin’ SANDBARS, and going under the waves eventually anyway.
If ten feet of snow and ice cave in our roof, I don’t expect taxpayer handouts from peeps in New Mexico or Mississippi.
@OFD
+ ∞
don’t live in a flood, hurricane, tornado or landslide zone
You forgot earthquake and blizzard prone areas. That really cuts down available living spaces. I live in the New Madrid earthquake zone and pay $250 a year for earthquake coverage. Of course that coverage will only cover 75% of replacement costs.
“You forgot earthquake ……”
10-4, I’m on the Newport – Inglewood fault!
I guess the only thing that will get me in Vegas is the incessant heat. I read Vegas had one of the biggest floods in US history. In the 1800’s.
My house is in the Brazos River floodway. But we put up a 12 ft levee system with several pumps with diesel generators to pump out the 2,000 acre interior. So, with our levee, we are above the 500 year flood plain. But Harvey has been estimated at a 1,000 year flood and we did not get flooded. Primarily because Harvey went south of Houston instead of north. So now, I have flood insurance at $450/year, just in case. And for flood insurance, there is a monopoly, FEMA. The only game in the USA.
BTW, our levee is FEMA regulated and approved. In fact, FEMA maintains the flood maps for Fort Bend County with a 2 ft elevation levels. I have studied this map extensively. And they forced us to raise the levee by 4 ft five years ago. Our subdivision, Greatwood, paid for the levee systems, maintenance, operations, and raising ourselves.
http://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/index.aspx?page=337
This info about flood insurance and FEMA from Denninger:
Army Corps CHOSE to open the floodgates at Addicks and Barker, and to such a degree that they flooded homes that have never flooded, and didn’t flood from the storm. Thus their positive action caused losses to the homeowners. SOMEONE needs to acknowledge that. Had the Corp done otherwise, or finished their repairs before hurricane season, or any number of other options, those homes wouldn’t have flooded.
Even with flood insurance, which caps at $250k, we have neighbors facing an 800K loss. Note that the loss is unusual in that the Corps continues to flood their homes. Once flood water is in a home for over a week, the house is a total loss. And this is NOT how homes here flood from storms. They flood, the water goes down, you rip out the wet, dry out, repair, move on with your life.
n
There is a McMansion in front of my brother’s house off Brays Bayou that was built last year. It is only 3 ft above the street. The water was 4 ft deep. The house was for sale for $1.3 million. I note that it has been taken off the market now.
Here is another McMansion between my brothers house and Brays Bayou. It is only 3 ft off the ground (if those front steps are 6 inches each) and for sale for $1.7 million. I’ll bet the builder is ready to commit suicide today.
http://www.har.com/4107-durness-way/sale_39408146
@OFD, your neighbor Pat Buchanan is fairly straight forward today, “Trump dumps do-nothing Congress”
http://www.wnd.com/2017/09/trump-dumps-do-nothing-congress/
“Donald Trump is president today because he was seen as a doer not a talker. Among the most common compliments paid him in 2016 was, “At least he gets things done!””
“And it was exasperation with a dithering GOP Congress, which had failed to enact his or its own agenda, that caused Trump to pull the job of raising the debt ceiling away from Republican contractors Ryan & McConnell, and give it to Pelosi & Schumer.”
Might be some interesting stuff to listen to on HF:
Not much on HF thru the solar noise.
However, on the domestic surveillance front, for anyone who didn’t believe the US Mail wasn’t scanning the front and back of every letter…. I got this from my USPS online account. Now it’s a feature!
“Your My USPS® account was recently upgraded to include Informed Delivery® – a new feature that gives you the ability to see a digital preview of your incoming mail. Informed Delivery allows you to view images of the exterior, address side of your household’s letter-sized mailpieces* on a computer, tablet, or mobile device. As part of the upgrade, you can receive a daily email containing images of your mailpieces that are arriving soon”
Pretty soon, amazon will offer to replay any conversation, Siri will tell you where you left your keys, and you’ll be trying to convince your nest t-stat that you really would like the heat to turn on, despite the parlous state of your bank account. And it will all be ‘features.’
n
And someone just mag dumped in my neighborhood. 11 shots sounded like a block away.
n
We sometimes hear shotguns around here but it’s usually hunters or someone taking shots at the coyotes, which seem to run in a pack less than a mile to our northeast, just north of the bay estuary and into the farm fields and scattered woods. No mag dumps as yet.
WRT tTrump; he’s gotten some things done that would NEVER have been done under Cankles and he’s undone or is trying to undo some other chit. He really, really needs to clean out the nests of former Obummer and Cankles staffers stinking up various offices and departments, though. ASAP. And I’m not fond of his having a mini-cluster of generals at the top with him.
Watched the Pats lose their NFL season opener this past night; no defense worth a shit and the offense very sporadic and now two more injuries. What a mess. As Chris Collingsworth said, it’s just not even the same team that won the Super Bowl last year. Several new guys, and Patricia apparently in some other dimension. Oh well; I’ll only watch Pats games this season and I’ll quit watching the NFL altogether when Brady and Belichick retire. At that point I’ll also cut our cable tee-vee and just keep the innernet and landline.
“We snoop on you — for your convenience!”
WRT Mail: You knew they were capable years ago when they were spraying barcodes on the envelopes while sorting. (And if you didn’t know, you simply were not paying attention. Go look at any mail that has come into your house lately. Barcode is usually an off-red color.)
Knowing that, it wouldn’t bother me to know what’s coming. Customer payments are always welcome. AARP notices are burned before they get in the house.
Assume at any time that you are being overheard or watched, and you won’t be far wrong.
The Pats didn’t look like a “great” team last night. Barely good. Andy Reid doesn’t look healthy. I love sportsball.
One meme I saw last night says a lot: Tom Brady and Alex Smith have a combined 5 Super Bowl rings.
Trump is doing the big-tent thing. If he can work with someone, he is. If that means working with the Dems to get something done, he does. I can respect that.
Don’t take that to mean I LIKE Trump. He’s just better than Clinton. I would very much rather have a Constitutionalist or classical liberal in his place. This Progressive crap has got to stop (or at least stop growing.)
Don’t take that to mean I LIKE Trump. He’s just better than Clinton. I would very much rather have a Constitutionalist or classical liberal in his place. This Progressive crap has got to stop (or at least stop growing.)
Looking to the future, I see another prog replacing Trump in 7 years. After all, we go in turns in the USA, we learned that in kindergarten. The new prog, quite possibly Chelsea Clinton, will immediately reverse all of Trump’s decisions and congressional laws through Presidential fiat. After all, elections have consequences.
I hope that you like $2.50/gal gasoline now. The new prog pres will immediately put a $5/gal global warming tax on gasoline, heating oil, and diesel via presidential fiat. You know, because of Harvey and Irma. There will be corresponding taxes on natural gas and coal because, global warming.
Do it for the children !
Seven years is a very optimistic range of years ahead to get all our ducks lined up; would that it were so, prior to yet another commie. I guess we’ll find out.
I’m expecting some version of national SHTF well before then.
There @lynn goes again, the eternal optimist.
If I am an eternal optimist, what is OFD ?
Seriously, I still think that the USA has 10 to 20 years before the financial apocalypse. And I think that the union has a 50/50 chance of surviving that. Or, splitting into 7 to 12 nation states, each repudiating the debt of the union and issuing their own money.
If Texas splits off, I want to take New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and Nebraska with us. I am afraid that if we took Wyoming that we would have to take the pansies in Colorado also. Utah and Arizona would be good also. That would be over 50% of the natural resources of the current USA.
https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/usa-state-and-capital-map.html
Texas can have the ones you mention, except for KS, NB, and UT.
A millennialist? Millennarian? Aw, hell, just call him a Millennial and confuse everyone.
I just thought again about this post (scroll down to the 11:03 entry)
http://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/2004/2004-26.html#Tuesday
I told that one to Jerry about 10 or 15 years prior to that post. He was not amused. I actually think I hurt his feelings. I miss those long phone conversations with Jerry, sometimes two or three hours long. Both of us used it as an excuse not to work.
That was a wicked pissah joke! I’d forgotten it. Outstanding!
He’s with some previous popes right now, I’m thinking. The good ones.
Greg Norton wrote:
“Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach have their own special form of cluelessness.”
One of my psals lives in WPB. He made a run for St Petersburg.