It was 13 degrees with 30 mph winds and blowing snow when I took Colin out at 8am.
I was down to see Bob yesterday afternoon. The other chest tube is out but he still has the trach tube. Otherwise, things are the same.
Thursday January 4, 2018
61 Comments and discussion on "Thursday January 4, 2018"
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That’s progress Barbara, and in the right direction!
I know it seems long, slow, and tedious, but it is progress.
n
26F with light winds here this am. Dog goes out on his own, if prompted. When it’s not cold, he goes out without prompting. It’s funny how much closer to the house all the piles are when it’s cold or wet out, and not really funny that you have to watch to see that he really goes…
n
18 & cloudy here, with a light wind. Our dog appreciates the path to the yard, but will pee on the porch if we’re not watching.
We expect a high of 1 on Saturday. CC Skiing will probably move to Sunday. If it doesn’t, the kids won’t go at all. We’re used to the cold, but only an idiot puts kids out at 32 below freezing for fun.
All of our roads show pavement now, which is progress. The lake isn’t frozen over yet, but a lot of the warmth is gone, so we shouldn’t get as much lake effect going forward. At least, that’s my hope. Man, that was a LOT of snow.
Hope people are prepped up, but I doubt it…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5233875/More-2-700-flights-cancelled-bomb-cyclone.html
‘cuz apparently winter is happening this year. Lots of pretty pix and maps at that link.
Hmmm, winter weather in January in the north, whoda thunk it?
n
Hmmm, winter weather in January in the north, whoda thunk it?
It was actually warmer in Portlandia than it was in Austin this week.
Cool nights and warm afternoons, 74F expected today. The air quality is however very bad. Stagnant conditions trapping haze and particles.
http://www.valleyair.org/aqinfo/forecast.htm
All I can say about the current media frenzy over some book is … if you can’t attack the facts, attack the man.
n
We have been sending our Winter East for a number of years now. Probably courtesy of the Seattle Global-Alarmists. Okay by me.
The Weather Whatever keeps predicting snow-sleet-ice-rain “tomorrow” but “tomorrow” has not been arriving lately. The token 6-iches of snow that gave us a “White Christmas” has all melted so now it is just cold with temperatures staying between 25 and 35.
Continuing prayers for Barbara, Bob, and OFD.
One of the risks with buying auction items online is not being able to inspect the items. All of the industrial and surplus auctions I buy from have inspection periods. Due to my long experience with the sellers (I know generally what to expect from them), and the sometimes steep learning curve that I’ve already climbed (when I learned the hard way what to look for in photos and descriptions), I rarely actually do inspect anything before I buy it. I am sometimes still surprised, but usually only when buying a new category of stuff, or if the pix are bad and price is low, or if I’m trying out a new seller.
HOWEVER! If I was gonna spend $2k, I’d for SURE want some inspection, and guarantee. This guy just paid $2000usd for a really bad fake watch.
https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/47413644
When I contacted the seller, at $1200, they said “We have not had the watch examined as we are not professionals. Everything on shop goodwill is sold “as is”. Thank you for your understanding. ”
NO ONE pays $2000 for a watch they think is fake….. and I’m pretty sure this guy is fuked.
My grandma once told me you can’t con an honest man. Someone, several of them actually, thought they were gonna get something for nothing here, and one lost out.
n
Nick – I had a friend years ago who bought a generator from a government auction without inspection. When he went to pick it up he was surprised to find the generator was rubbish. But it was mounted on a 3/4 ton truck with less than 10K miles in near new condition and the truck was included in the sale. He counted it as a win.
That IS a win! And I’ve had happy surprises too. They always make your day.
That is sorta how I started out. I was always looking to see what else was in the box, or what else could be done with the lot. (like what is the CASE the item comes in worth? Lots of real crap projectors come in really nice cases, sometimes pelican. Back in the day, they were worth protecting.)
There is money EVERYWHERE if you know how to look.
n
“Cold”. Uh-huh.
Currently 6F here, with temperatures dropping from the high of 7 as a cold wave moves in, accompanied by more snow. If it hit 25 here we’d count it as a heat wave.
Our wind storm continues. Horizontal rain here, piles of snow in the mountains. Trucks blew over on the highway, one train derailed, some areas are snowed in and will remain cut off for the next few days. Things are supposed to calm down starting tomorrow.
—
@Nick: That being a Swiss watch, and me being Swiss, I did a minor bit of research. I suppose it is supposed to be this watch, which sells for well over $30k. Even from the pictures provided, a couple of things are obvious:
– Note the orientation of the heads of the eight screws around the face. For that kind of money, you get them nicely arranged in a circle. Stupid little detail for the counterfeiters to screw up, given the effort of reproducing all the parts, but typical.
– The watches are either self-winding (then they say “automatic”) or quartz (in which case they say nothing at all). None of them say “quartz”.
Also, that particular combination of face, movement, material, and design doesn’t seem to exist.
Anyway, as Nick says, anyone who thinks they’re going to pick up a $30k watch for $2k is either an idiot, or someone hoping to scam the next person in line. And even some place like Goodwill surely wouldn’t just randomly put up a $30k watch on an ordinary auction site. That’s the kind of thing you hand off to specialized auction houses that have the necessary client base.
Personally, I don’t just don’t get the fascination with super-expensive watches. Its nice that people (notably the Chinese) like to drop ridiculous amounts of money paying people to hand-assemble their watches, but…really?
“Intel claims other chips also affected by design flaw”
http://www.osnews.com/story/30146/Intel_claims_other_chips_also_affected_by_design_flaw
“Update: Google’s Project Zero disclosed details about the vulnerability a week ahead of schedule due to growing concerns, and they indeed confirm AMD and ARM processors are also affected:”
“More to surely come.”
Yup. And there is already a javascript exploit out there for any browser.
Personally, I don’t just don’t get the fascination with super-expensive watches. Its nice that people (notably the Chinese) like to drop ridiculous amounts of money paying people to hand-assemble their watches, but…really?
Rick Harrison’s (“Pawn Stars” shop owner) book has a fascinating chapter on who buys/pawns what and why, including insight about wealthy Chinese gamblers. Essentially, it comes down to a desire for portable wealth.
I have a Casio Edifice watch for daily wear and a mid-range Swiss wind-up mechanical model that comes out on special occasions … like visits with the Chinese relatives. 🙂
The Swiss mechanical is a fine timepiece — for the record: a gift from my wife — but the Casio is the best (most accurate/durable) watch I’ve ever owned and does not require a $1000 rebuild every 5-10 years if used daily.
HOWEVER! If I was gonna spend $2k, I’d for SURE want some inspection, and guarantee. This guy just paid $2000usd for a really bad fake watch.
It isn’t a fake; it is an “homage”. 🙂
No, I understand the difference. If it says Audemars Piguet, it is a fake. Someone probably doctored an homage watch with the incentive being that the real thing is an NBA player status symbol.
Dunno about anywhere else, but Goodwill in SW WA State was a racket. The employees worked there specifically to have first crack at the donations, and if something made it to the stores or the website, chances are it was junk.
When we lived there, it seemed like *everybody* in Vantucky sold cr*p on EBay for a living. Effective adult unemployment percentage on that side of the river in the Portland metro was in the upper 30s, but EBT (food stamp) and Medicaid participation was “only” 25%.
@ brad, I hope you are getting a warm feeling from your preps as the storm continues!
WRT the watch, yep, and never did it have a smooth snap-on back. They always have very nicely finished backs, with branding and screws. Note how the screw heads are flat and below the bezel, how rough the metal graining is, and the subtly wrong proportion of the bezel to the screws? The dial face is the best looking thing on it. A quick search of the brand and model (royal oak) with ‘replica’ shows plenty in the $200 range that are nearly indistinguishable from real, at least in the pictures. And ALL of them have the screws right. (the bezel screws are sort of iconic for the model, to get them wrong shows you aren’t even trying.)
I sent a reply to my original email basically asking if they were gonna be hard@ss about their “as is” policy on a $2000 fake. I’m betting in the interest of good will that they won’t but it seems that they would be within their rights to be. MOST sellers have a very explicit disclaimer in their listing notes that this store didn’t have. We’ll see if I get an answer and what it is.
There was another ‘grab bag’ listing for a couple of pounds of random watches. In one picture, slightly out of focus, you can see what looks like another very expensive watch, a Breitling Montbrillant. It’s not a bad fake, but the chronometer dials are wrong (should be a calender) and some of the printing (aside from being very fat and dark compared to the real thing) is wrong, with too big a space between the nautical miles and statutory miles notation.
https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/47313634
Since the bag of otherwise unremarkable watches sold for over $600 USD, I’m thinking someone else is hoping for a Christmas miracle… Unfortunately for them, it’s a lump of coal. (although, there could be another gem in there)
A lot of the lesser known brands do show up in junk lots. There is even a story in the last couple of years of a guy finding a Patek Philippe in very rough condition and selling it at auction for a ton of money. Or this guy: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/found-vintage-lecoultre-deep-sea-alarm-worth-over-35000-for-599-at-phoenix-goodwill
I’m interested in the older vintage brands, that fewer people know. And it turns out that some ‘store brand’ vintage watches have movements from fairly famous makers. You can get a really good vintage automatic or windup for <$10 if you know what to look for. Mechanical watches are cool preps, and fascinating pieces of art and workmanship.
nick
(I personally found a vintage omega, in 18K gold, for $75. Sold it for several hundred in profit the next week.)
26F with light winds here this am. Dog goes out on his own, if prompted. When it’s not cold, he goes out without prompting. It’s funny how much closer to the house all the piles are when it’s cold or wet out, and not really funny that you have to watch to see that he really goes…
My 15 year old Lady is really having issues with going outside. She can’t go through the doggie door anymore without great difficultly due to her hips being so weak. So, we have to take her out constantly or step in a pile of …
Also, Lady fell in the swimming pool five times last year so we have to watch her in the back yard. I put deck chairs on both sides so she cannot run on the pool side as she likes. She cannot get out of there on her own either even though I put in stepping stones. My wife’s best friend had her 12 year old lab fall in their pool last year. Her husband went looking for the dog 30 minutes later and found it drowned. My brother called that a “floater”.
Nick, I’ve been on eBay as a buyer since 1999, I think. Learned that photos are 80% but you have to play Sherlock Holmes and interpret the clues. E.g., if the terminals on the back of an amplifier are covered in dust and it’s sold “as is” with a nebulous mis-spelled description, caveat emptor!
God, I wish I still lived in San Francisco! I need a good watchmaker to replace crystals, do a C&O, etc. on some nice, fine old watches.
Recommendations appreciated.
WRT Goodwill stores, they’ve recently changed a couple of things.
They now move all the stuff to a central depot and then move it out to the stores. Used to be a store near a good neighborhood had better stuff than one in a poor neighborhood.
They are doing better research too. Prices have moved up, leaving less room for the ebay sellers. This is hard on the sellers, but better serves the Goodwill mission, so it’s hard to complain about it. Ebay sellers do their part, in that there are LOTS of people buying and reselling which helps Goodwill with turnover in their stores. Goods sitting on the shelf don’t make Goodwill any money.
Many Goodwill stores are skimming off easy to sell or higher value items and sending them to their online store – shopgoodwill.com The prices are generally high, especially when shipping is added. I don’t normally even look since there is little room for me, but over this break I have looked and even managed to buy some things at good prices. This was out of boredom, and that most of my regular sources basically take a break over the holidays.
Like all things, doing what I do takes WORK. It’s not generally back breaking, but you have to put in the time and effort. I looked at over 2000 watch listings over a couple of days. I looked at over 2000 electronics/computer listings too. I bought about half for me, and half to resell. A lot of price checking on ebay was done. A LOT.
WRT brick and mortar, I haven’t made much buying at Goodwill. I have gotten some great bargains on stuff for me/kids/house. I have had much better financial success with other thrift stores, in particular a regional chain that is run by hispanics and is filled with crap. Their clothes are often dirty, or torn, and their other stuff is really hit or miss. On the plus side, they are not researchers, and don’t care too much- they just want turnover. I’ve actually made a couple of thousand off them over the past couple of years. If it’s not clothes or housewares, they’ve got no clue about value, and don’t seem to care.
I’ve now made several thousand off Habitat, and saved thousands on appliances there too.
Hey, a thousand here, a thousand there, and soon we’re talking about real money 🙂
nick
(and if it sounds like a lot of time and effort for not much return, it is, but it sure beats workin’)
(most of what I make comes from the industrial resale- the thrift stuff is because I’m there looking for me anyway.)
@jim~ I decided to learn to do it myself. The tools are not super expensive, compared to the service charges, and I already had some of the optics for working on small electronics.
I’m getting into it VERY slowly, and have started practicing on those $10 movements. There are lots of resources online, and I found a local clock and watch hobbyist club too.
The sheer volume of cheap chinese crap watch repair stuff on ebay and amazon points to a real widespread interest in doing at least basic service yourself. Some of it, the quality doesn’t matter. Some it makes a big difference. Some of it is available from other sources both in better quality and cheaper rates.
That said, I did take my wife’s daily wear swiss watch to a local shop for its clean/lube/ and (very light) polish. If I mess up one of mine, no biggy. Hers, well, not gonna take that chance.
It turns out that there are LOTs of watch repair shops around here, with most being just battery replacement places, but some are seriously old school. Can’t really be sure until you walk in the door.
n
Looking at the reports of earthquakes (CA) and storm bombs (east Coast), I decided it’s time for the quarterly test of my genertor. This weekend I will dig it out from under a pile of totes full of Christmas decortions destined for the attic, and charge it’s battery and run it for a couple of hours. MUCH Colder than normal here in the Memphis area. Need to keep on top of things.
I just noted that The Eagles are touring again. Vince Gill and Glenn Frey’s son Deacon Frey are filling in for Glenn Frey.
https://www.eagles.com/news/296017
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/glenn-frey-son-deacon-joins-eagles-new-tour-sources-article-1.3646375
I’ll bet that group has some very sweet harmonies.
It turns out that there are LOTs of watch repair shops around here, with most being just battery replacement places, but some are seriously old school. Can’t really be sure until you walk in the door.
There used to be hole in the wall watch guy at the corner of South Post Oak and Willowbend ???. I broke my metal frame glasses in 1974 ? playing football again. Mom took me over there and he welded my glasses back together using an acetylene torch and silver solder. He fixed watches and just about any kind of specialty consumer metal. Needless to say, I got to visit him a few more times. But, metal frame glasses were much cooler than those old black plastic frames and worth fixing.
@lynn, I worked an Eagles show (Hell freezes over) for a private party. It was one of the most lackluster and pathetic shows I’ve ever seen. They got paid a ton of money and could barely be bothered to play. They were on their plane and spooling up before the crowd even finished clapping. A bag of dicks.
n
(crowd seemed to like it, ‘course they were full of free food and booze, and had the Eagles playing their dinner party for just a couple hundred people, maybe less.)
added- if you are gonna whore, and you take the money (for a corporate party, for example), I feel very strongly that you better give a good performance. They didn’t pay to have you sneer at them and stand around moaning. Give them the full monty or F right Off.
Drill baby, drill…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-04/environmentalists-outraged-after-trump-announces-massive-expansion-offshore
n
The article blames amazon, but I think that’s too glib, and doesn’t address the real issues.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-04/macys-announces-5000-job-cuts-closure-7-more-stores-stock-tumbles
IMHO, several things are killing the malls.
One, the anchor stores way over-bought and way over-expanded. Macy’s bought and then killed beloved local brands which didn’t endear them to shoppers. There have been too many stores for a long time, but cheap money and financial shenanigans hid that.
Two, malls are not safe. They are filled with gangs of feral youth.
Three, millennials don’t own or want cars, so they don’t have the mobility of previous generations. They are also tightly scheduled with other activities and don’t have time to just ‘hang out at the mall.’ If you don’t acculturate the next generation, you don’t stay in business.
Four, people are getting wise to the tricks retailers use to get them to spend more. Online shopping (not just amazon) leads to easy price comparisons, and only buying the item you set out to find. this, perversely, lets people spend MORE, but in a more targeted and (for them) beneficial way.
Five, the way people decide what to buy has changed. With the explosion of cable channels (and lately streaming), mass TV advertising can’t drive demand like it did. Cultural drivers have splintered with the way society has splintered into special interest groups who share common media, thoughts, and experiences. Malls are about MASS market, but the mass market has splintered. People are much more likely to take a recommendation from a friend, or online ‘authority’ (whoever that might be for the buyer), or an online recommendation engine, for a specific product, with a convenient link. They don’t have to go to a mall, wandering around, hoping to see the product they want.
So moms are too busy, kids are too busy and the ones that aren’t busy create safety issues, money is tight, time is very tight, kids are focused inwardly and on virtual things, and shoppers’ behavior has become more savvy and refined. Add to that the stuff from the stores’ side- over-exposure, over-building, over-expansion, financial engineering (that doesn’t build value), really bad pricing decisions (outlet malls, trying to maintain high margin in a price transparent world), and you have the death of the mall and a serious contraction in physical retail. NOT just amazon’s fault.
nick
And as a meta comment, you can tell when I’m in work avoidance mode, when I’m posting wall o text comments one after another….
n
An interesting set of 2018 predictions from a commentor on
https://www.cringely.com/2018/01/02/a-visionary-returns/
1. The big fight will be Net Neutality or not Net Neutrality? ….
2. Tech wise everything will unfold gradually, invisibly, over years instead of months ….
3. most everything will run on some kind of GNU/Linux/Android/BSD as the OS but it will all be working in the cloud ….
4. and who will be king of the cloud? Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle?
5. Definitely not IBM …. but I think AT&T may in the future buy that sinking ship and do something with it, maybe use it to make their own play combining online storage and delivering content …
6. One day, Apple and Disney are going to merge, as content providers and how users get it continue to change …
7. Hollywood will not be Hollywood any more except as a tourist attraction ….
8. five to twelve years will see the death of on air commercial television broadcasting, that spectrum is going to divvied up big time ….
9. but the radio band …. that depends …. on market forces, politics, municipal, state and federal government agencies and nostalgia …
10. space tourism will always be the domain of the rich ….
11. the paradigm shift in energy (solar and wind farms) will occur in the Middle East and Europe, and a Saudi King will have his hands all over it …
12. The likelihood of a nuclear conflict is very much back, the trick will be to know where the likely targets are and don’t live or work near them …
13. and if you do live and work in or near likely targets, how to effectively duck and cover or be prepared to survive ….
14. cyberwarfare is just as scary and there is no place to hide even offline. Your vehicle, your appliances any medical devices may be affected. You could try to live off the grid, but you still have to get news from outside world …..
15. No matter how horrible politics and conflicts get, humans will still search for light entertaining diversions, from augmented reality apps, serial comedies and dramas and soaps, to actual human interactions, like dating, sports, picnics, hiking, walking in parks, etc, …
16. the ecology and saving parks and landmarks will be important again ….
17. the new emerging businesses will be dealing with impact of climate change on immediate environments ….
18. while caring for 70 aging million baby boomers as they approach their eighties….
The 70 million aging baby boomers is a very dire concern as evidenced by RBT and OFD.
6. One day, Apple and Disney are going to merge, as content providers and how users get it continue to change …
IIRC, Steve Jobs’ widow is currently the largest single Disney stockholder.
Jobs definitely exercised his influence at ABC/Disney to further his other business interests on occasion.
Disney is very high tech and always has been.
As long as Location Based Entertainment remains a thing, and immersive environments continue to entertain, Disney can survive and thrive. They don’t need to grow thru acquisition, or merge with anyone. Some financial bright boy might think that’s a good idea, but I think they run a real risk of losing focus and destroying their core competency- family entertainment.
n
Watches are priced like guns. The functional, serviceable item is very modest in cost, whereas the hand assembled and decorated are like Picassos at auction. The stellar brands, Rolex, Omega, et al, are status symbols priced to reduce and enhance demand.
A Casio “Duro” resembles a stainless Rolex (from very high altitudes) and is less than $50. Seiko’s better automatic divers’ are less than $400, sometimes and models far less. Chinese knock-off, excuse me, microbrand homages, spec and perform like their far pricier inspirations for less than $300.
Didn’t stop me from kicking the tires like a hick at new model day at the Omega Boutique last weekend though! 🙂
I like omega. I’ve got an automatic that I picked up for <$100 that is one of my daily wears, when I'm not wearing a sports watch. It's vintage and I really like it.
I've got a couple of really nice watches that were gifts, but I don't have many places to wear them.
Rolex is your 'get out of dodge' money in the 3rd world. It's your 'cross the border', 'last seat on the last flight out', 'I don't know who caused the auto accident sir' money. And they really are durable.
Still, you can get a vintage timex automatic for practically no money and most still have a lot of life left with a clean and lube. Not likely to get jacked for an old timex either.
If modern is your thing, get a couple of timex expeditions or indiglo watches. No money at all at thrift stores, yard sales, ebay, and the TSA seizure store….
We've gotten out of the habit of wearing watches when everyone carries a phone, but if the phones are down, you still will want to coordinate check ins, stand watch, listen to the shortwave, etc. Plus if you think you might have to do any emergency medicine even grid up, you need a watch with a seconds hand…..
After years of not wearing a watch, I feel naked leaving the house without one now.
n
added- modern and vintage seiko watches are great too. Seiko made and makes some great mechanical watches.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=seiko+5+automatic&_sacat=0
“7. Hollywood will not be Hollywood any more except as a tourist attraction ….”
I’m about an hour SE of Hollywood, but I’m not going there until after I transgender.
“IMHO, several things are killing the malls.”
The Sears nearest to me will be closing in April. No big deal, they do not carry the jeans that I wear, so I go to the Boot Barn:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Boot+Barn/@33.802354,-118.073418,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dd2e676fefe893:0x4f07fb3055b5f982!8m2!3d33.8023549!4d-118.0734184
Yeah, Rolex does have value as an immediate high priority wealth transfer device. Goldsilver.com sells necklaces and bracelets in solid gold for similar purpose.
Marathon makes nice, tough, mil-spec automatics, various governments approved, and not crazy priced.
Short of EMP though, quartz movements are inherently less expensive and much more accurate timepieces. All the Japanese majors have solar powered quartz making service a couple of decades horizon. Bulova Precisionist (owned by Citizen and NOT solar) models are especially extremely accurate even for quartz. Chronograph stopwatch features really only make financial sense in quartz, though a rotating bezel will work, too.
In the end, ya pays yer money and takes your chance.
Man, I have a black cloud over me. I just nailed a 200 lb doe deer on the road in front of the office at 50 mph. About $3,000 (SWAG) damage to my 2005 Ford Expedition. She came across the railroad tracks running full out and ran right in front of me. And she is still alive but both of her back legs are broken. I called the game warden and he is going to come out and put her down in a while.
And Sears/Kmart announced another 103 stores closing.
“These Are The 103 Stores That Sears Announced It Will Be Closing ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-04/these-are-103-stores-sears-announced-it-will-be-closing
The most surprising thing is that there are still Kmart stores to close.
n
It’s lucky for you that you live in this day and age and country. With 57 genders, you can self-identify as a cross-dressing woman and not have to buy a new wardrobe.
I’d have killed the dear right there, probably by cutting its throat. Though the one time I did that, it squirmed and I couldn’t keep a good grip because deer necks and heads are shaped differently than on humans and my arm was positioned wrong and I ended up getting blood all over myself and every other damned thing within two yards. Come to think of it, maybe it would be better to smack it upside the head with the ball-peen hammer in my toolbox.
I’d have killed the dear right there, probably by cutting its throat.
I thought about killing the deer with my .44 snubby but she crawled over to the railroad land. Shooting a gun on railroad land is a federal felony for anyone but a game warden. And about 50 cars passed me while I was looking at her. I figure if I pulled a gun out, about 10 of them would stop and video me.
BTW, this is the biggest doe that I have seen in quite a while. Maybe 200 lbs. I would not get close, they can kick quite well.
“Shooting a gun on railroad land is a federal felony for anyone but a game warden.”
That is something I didn’t know. I’da been worried about getting fined for taking one without a permit.
n
I just nailed a 200 lb doe deer on the road in front of the office at 50 mph
I did that when I was teenager, not quite as big, and not as fast. Deer was fairly badly hurt. Took out the tire jack and smashed the skull. I had to report the kill to the game warden. He chewed my ass for killing the deer and threatened to cite me for killing out of season, at night, using a spotlight (headlights on the car). I reminded the warden that the deer was suffering and I merely put the deer out of it’s misery. He said that was his job to kill the animal but would let me off this time. He was an asshole.
Then that summer while mowing a field of oats I hit a fawn with the sickle mower. Sliced off a couple of legs. Had a .22 pistol with me so I just shot the deer and tossed the carcass over the fence. Decided I would not inform the warden as the deer was trespassing and it should be a county sheriff matter. The mother did charge me and I had to jump back on the tractor. She hit the wheel weights, hard, almost knocking herself out.
I did tell my uncle who promptly beat me for killing an innocent fawn and not seeing the fawn in the field. Yeh, right. The fawn was small, hidden in the thick oat field, at the end of a 7 foot sickle bar mower sticking out to the right side of the tractor on the back. Not easy to see much when traveling at 7 mph and having to watch the rest of the stuff.
The most surprising thing is that there are still Kmart stores to close.
Hwy 50 in Clermont, FL. Nice piece of real estate which will only get nicer as Disney builds out that side of their property.
Kmart had a lot of great locations in Florida.
Real estate locations were why that guy bought sears and kmart in the first place. He never intended to run retail stores, only to sell off the land. However, the universe had a different plan, crashed the real estate market, and the guy found himself having to run the business to pay his note. Poor him.
That’s probably (not incidentally) why sears isn’t performing well. No one there really cares. And all the other factors I mentioned above….
nick
You had a tire iron. Shoulda used it again.
-shrug- I’m fast, agile, and well-trained. If a deer with broken legs or back is able to kick me as I’m getting close, I deserve to be kicked.
Here’s one for those of our readers who think that because they don’t live in the city, depravity and the depraved won’t find them…
“Runaway teen, 16, held in ‘torture chamber’ basement as four people ‘raped and assaulted her with a machete and lit cigarettes’
Girl, 16, was held in the basement of an Auburn, Massachusetts home last week
She had her head shaved and was brutalized with a machete and lit cigarettes
The New Jersey runaway was tortured until police found her on December 27
Four people have been charged with raping and brutally assaulting the girl
Suspects had believed the girl was responsible for organizing a home invasion
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5236987/Four-people-charged-kidnapping-assaulting-teen-girl.html”
“The victim, who had runaway from New Jersey, was tortured until police found her in the basement on December 27.
Krystal Lugo, 23, her brother Christopher Lugo, 19, her boyfriend Yariel Torres-Abee, 22, and Yuleny Ortiz, 19, have been charged with a range of offenses including kidnapping and assault.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5236987/Four-people-charged-kidnapping-assaulting-teen-girl.html”
Auburn MA is pretty far from the big city. And the whole beef is over some guys breaking in and trying to steal dope from the dopes.
There doesn’t have to be a “golden horde” come SHTF. They’re already right here….
n
In the interesting facts not widely reported mode:
From one of my newsletters–
“USFA Firefghter Fatalities in the United States 2016 Report released
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) released their Firefghter Fatalities in the United
States in 2016 (PDF, 8.2 MB) report. Eighty-nine frefghters died in the line of duty
in 2016: 56 frefghters from volunteer departments, 23 from career departments
and 10 from wildland agencies.
Overall, USFA notes, frefghter fatalities have been trending downward with 1978
having the highest on-duty deaths at 173. In the past 10 years, only three years
have seen 100 or more frefghter fatalities. Other notable facts:
ĵ Highest cause of death was stress/overexertion (43), followed by vehicle collision
(19) and “struck by” incidents (8).
ĵ Nonemergency incidents accounted for 60 percent of fatalities.
ĵ Nine frefghters died during training activities.
ĵ There were two deaths from gun violence and one reported frefghter suicide.
ĵ Combined, the line of duty deaths represent more than 1,700 years of active
fre service experience.”
Stress and overexertion is a killer, even for (presumably) trained and fit men.
n
My first guess was that the perps would be black or hispanic. And I was right!
My companion guess was that the perps would be “outside the mainstream employment opportunities”. And I was right!
My subsidiary guess was that, if the perps were hispanic, that at least one’s immigration status would be less than clearly legit. No word on that yet.
One was listening to his court date thru headphones, so not an english speaker…
n
“Major chip flaws affect billions of devices”
http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/03/technology/computer-chip-flaw-security/index.html
“Called Meltdown and Spectre, the flaws exist in processors, a building block of computers that acts as the brain. Modern processors are designed to perform something called “speculative execution.” That means they predict what tasks they will be asked to execute and rapidly access multiple areas of memory at the same time.
“That data is supposed to be protected and isolated, but researchers discovered that in some cases, the information can be exposed while the processor queues it up.”
“Researchers say almost every computing system — desktops, laptops, smartphones, and cloud servers — is affected by the Spectre bug. Meltdown appears to be specific to Intel (INTC) chips.”
Two snooping modes. This is looking better by the day.
5Mhz is nice and strong tonight. Got Infowars at 4.840 good music from TN on 5.085
and some normal spanish stuff, probably Cuba in the 5’s.
n
We have hot water in the house now. Life is good.
Except for the truck with the broken headlight, front bumper, and the left front fender.
OFD?
I tried searching through all the old comments, but that turned out to be frustratingly tedious. Can someone please give me the rundown on where OFD has been? I must’ve missed the original comments about him. RBT’s Daynotes has been a daily read for years (since 2001?), but over the last few months it has been sporadic for me as my daily routines have been interrupted by work annoyances.
RE: Watches
I took my wrist watch off in ~2008 and never put another one back on. I have to say after almost 10 years without a watch that I haven’t missed it at all. There’s certainly no shortage of clocks in the world and who doesn’t have a cell phone clock in their pocket all the time these days anyway? Honestly, I think the only people wearing watches these days is the 50+ crowd (out of habit) and those people wearing them a status symbols. Smart watches might drive everybody back to wearing a wrist watch for functional purposes, but it’s not happening nearly as fast as manufacturers like Apple wish it would. I love my naked wrist.
@Chad: Re OFD, it appears that his problem was different from the initial diagnosis. Current theory is that he has an autoimmune problem that is attacking his nerves. At the moment, he is having trouble with both arms and legs, and it laid up at a VA hospital. He is answering email – last update thanks to CowboySlim on 28 December.
– – – – –
Yeah, watch repair shops. Even here, where you might suppose the standards would be high…
My mother had a very nice grandfather clock, which is now in my hallway. When I packed up her things in August 2010, they finally arrived here 3-4 months later, and some of the rods on the chimes had broken off right at the base (they looked sort of like this. Must’ve been some rough handling.
Anyhow, just down the road there is a very respectable looking shop, lots of antique stuff on display, guy seems nice, what do I know? So I call him in, he says “sure, I can fix that”. He basically unscrewed the stubs from where the chime-rods were mounted, stuffed the broken pieces in, tightened the screws, declared himself done, and billed us a few hundred francs. Does anyone else flinch at the thought?
So, after that wasted money, I found a better clockmaker. But really, it’s hard to judge the quality of a business that you are unacquainted with.
– – – – –
Death of commercial TV: We’re having an interesting referendum in March. For decades, every Swiss household has paid a TV/Radio tax, unless they could prove beyond any doubt that they did not own any TVs or radios (pretty hard to do, given that every car has a radio in it). Every business has to pay as well, but it was easier for businesses to say “we don’t use it”.
These fees are mainly used to fund TV production (think BBC, but smaller). Really, it’s not bad stuff, but it’s typical of a government funded program: a lot of money for what you get.
Given the internet, and the fact that everyone now has a computer or smartphone, on which they can watch the online version of TV, the government said “screw it, everybody pays, period.”
So some random college student started collecting signatures. To his shock, almost overnight he got the necessary 100,000 signatures required to establish a national referendum. So we are voting to completely eliminate the program. The government and the media are up in arms, of course – the more so, because current polls show the referendum passing easily.
Even though I like the content, I expect to vote for its elimination. Some surveys have shown that the average viewer is over 60 – meaning that essentially no young people watch television any more. If they want programs, they get them from Netflix, or somewhere else on the Internet.
A wall of text to say: yes, TV as we have known it, is dying. Time to adapt, dinosaurs (looking in mirror).
Continued best wishes to Bob and Barbara, OFD and anybody else who needs them!
lynn, glad to hear you were not hurt in the collision. Damage to a vehicle is repairable.
I have occasionally needed to dispatch an incapacitated, but live, deer without using a firearm. A thrust to the heart with a sufficiently long and sturdy knife is a good swift method, provided one knows cervid anatomy well enough. I would do that in preference to slitting the blood vessels in the throat / neck, which is not easy (cutting through dense hair and thick skin), and distresses the animal additionally because it is rather slow.
Eh? Thrust the point into the neck from the left side, rotate the knife so the blade is facing the deer’s front, push outward, the blood gushes out (and all over me). The deer was probably unconscious five seconds after the knife went in, quicker than a knife thrust to the heart.
Real estate locations were why that guy bought sears and kmart in the first place. He never intended to run retail stores, only to sell off the land. However, the universe had a different plan, crashed the real estate market, and the guy found himself having to run the business to pay his note. Poor him.
Lampert had visions of turning Sears into Berkshire Hathaway. It wasn’t totally his fault, however, because I remember Cramer and the other unindicted criminals -er- hosts on CNBC advancing the same idea.
RE: watches. I got out of the service in 1993 and took off my watch for what I thought was the last time. I just don’t care about what time it is, and nothing will really change that.
In 2002, I got a Garmin gps for running, which I still use, but only while running or biking. It comes off as soon as I’m done. I don’t like the feel, as it’s large & bulky.
In 2016, I got a Samsung sportwatch (free, with my explody-phone), and used it for about 6 months, when it died and wouldn’t come back to life. I liked the step-tracker in the watch, and the heart-rate monitor as well. But I don’t miss it, and will never buy another one.
I suppose I should get a couple of old timex wind-ups, but I’m not motivated in the least to do so.
Anyone who needs to use their hands while checking the time will still need a watch. EMS, .mil, other first responders, or really any employee who you don’t want reaching in their pocket for a phone every 10 minutes can still use a watch.
One of the ‘tells’ I look for when looking for like minded individuals is a sports/dive watch. (cargo pants, clip knife, flashlight are some others, and any paracord accessories)
Like any personal accessory, be it a knife, pistol, flashlight, jewelry, or clothing, thankfully we live in a time and in places where we have a broad range of choices.
n
Greenies lose a frivolous challenge to oil exploration in Norway…
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42569104
Hollyweird here we come. Going over the hill for a couple of days. Stinking Rose for dinner tonight, some comedy club tomorrow. Me? I’m just looking forward to a real Tommy’s burger.
http://www.originaltommys.com/