84F at 815. Sunny, hot, and humid. So of course I’ll be on ladders and in attics today.
Did all y’all get any preppin’ done?
Turns out I did buy an 80w solar panel. It came with a charge controller and a sine wave inverter, and a metal battery box. It is exactly what you might see by the side of the highway powering a camera or tag reader. Haven’t tested it yet, but it looks good.
Lost some more food to the rats (indirectly.) I’ve got all of my long term storage out of the garage, and into the black bins with yellow lids that they sell at the home depot/costco stores. They are capacious and sturdy. They are NOT water and air tight. For some reason I’m gettting water inside some of the bins, (they are under a tarp) which I think might just be condensation, but in any case, it ruins the paper contents. So I’ve lost more food to moisture. I’ll lose some to heat too, I’m sure. Cool dry place does not describe my driveway.
The world turns, and there are more reasons every day to prep.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-28/military-seizes-control-water-supplies-venezuelan-infrastructure-collapses
nick
Some suggestions for the prepper bookshelf:
The Storm Gourmet: A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals Without Electricity
Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out
Combat-Ready Kitchen: How the U.S. Military Shapes the Way You Eat
77f at 9:30 this morning. Much cooler than yesterday that hit (heat index) 105f. Unexpected storms rumbled through in the very early morning as a cool front came in.
Another crazy shooter who “everyone knew” was crazy and dangerous.
This quote jumped out at me. “‘There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.'” He knew the shooter was reloading yet did nothing but cower waiting to die. I have never understood that kind of “frozen in fear”. The few times I have been under extreme threat I got MAD and took offensive action. I suppose that must be an unusual trait and probably not one that promotes longevity.
Yep, read that and the sentence about being ‘helpless’ and thought, well, you reap what you sow.
n
@Nick: have you tried sprinkling ground pepper around the food storage area (get the big cans from Costo/Sams)?
Or, there’s a product called “Critter Ridder” (I find it at Home Depot) that is basically a pepper (capascin) spray. Has worked well for me keeping the local squirrels out of my car’s engine area, and away from outdoor decorative plants they eat. Not strong enough to bother humans, but critters don’t like it.
From BH at the Fort Bend Herald:
“If only 11 million Americans remain under Obamacare, why will 24 million people die if it’s repealed ?”
“Does that mean an additional 13 million will be randomly selected and shot ?”
I’ve identified some of my weaker neighbors that it would be easy to shoot and take all their stuff. 🙂 I kid… or do I?
Another day, another asteriod ‘drive-by’: https://www.inverse.com/article/46510-4-vesta-asteroid-is-close-enough-to-earth-to-see-with-the-naked-eye .
This one is 325 miles wide. And will be visible in the night sky without telescope: “Vesta can currently be seen next to Mars and Saturn in the night sky. For anyone looking for the asteroid in the northern hemisphere, it is northwest of the Sagittarius constellation.”
I’m wearing my hard hat, just in case.
Why am I thinking of Footfall when I read about things like that?
Why am I thinking of Footfall when I read about things like that?
Did you mean “Lucifer’s Hammer” ? Footfall is an awesome alien invasion story.
Nope. Footfall is the one. The aliens dropped KEWs on our heads.
It’s not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
Nope. Footfall is the one. The aliens dropped KEWs on our heads.
I had forgotten about that. Definitely awesome story especially concerning the Orion drive spaceship, the “Michael”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall
Nope. Footfall is the one. The aliens dropped KEWs on our heads.
In David Weber’s “The Armageddon Inheritance”, the aliens try to drop one of Saturn’s ??? moons on the Earth.
https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Inheritance-David-Weber/dp/0671721976/
The world turns, and there are more reasons every day to prep.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-28/military-seizes-control-water-supplies-venezuelan-infrastructure-collapses
At GTE, back in the 90s, we knew how Venezuela would end. We hoped we were wrong.
“Trump says court pick to come July 9”
https://www.axios.com/trump-says-supreme-court-pick-july-9-589619e1-7752-4ade-ba9e-b51c17ece427.html
I’ll bet that Trump knows today. But, he is going to let the chicken little dumbocrats stew in their own juices for a week or so.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
104 plus F measured in the attic today. Good thing they got the radiant barrier installed or it would have been hotter. I spent most of the day outside in the shade and mixed sun. Cool vest, big hat, neck cooler cloth. After about 2 and a half hours, started to feel it. Still kinda off.
Installed new toilet flapper, cut grass, cleaned at the rent house. NEED to get it rented. Almost all the work is done, just needs a couple planks on the porch changed out and a final clean and all my tools out.
Got movie night at the pool tonight, and the wife volunteered us as host, then committed to a business dinner, leaving me on my own. Oh well, I’ve been there every movie night so far anyway.
n
“Trump says court pick to come July 9”
And just like that….. nothing about the kids in detention camps.
Now they gotta scream about Roe vs Wade being overturned. Wackos. Next week should be interesting just for “what’s next?”.
Got movie night at the pool tonight, and the wife volunteered us as host, then committed to a business dinner, leaving me on my own. Oh well, I’ve been there every movie night so far anyway.
You’ve got two choices:
1. accept it
2. yell (or mutter) and then accept it
Wear your swimming trunks and jump in the pool every ten minutes to cool off.
Note to self: get in pool this weekend to justify that expensive hole in the backyard !
104 plus F measured in the attic today. Good thing they got the radiant barrier installed or it would have been hotter. I spent most of the day outside in the shade and mixed sun. Cool vest, big hat, neck cooler cloth. After about 2 and a half hours, started to feel it. Still kinda off.
That feeling off in the extreme heat and humidity is normal post 50 years of age. Air conditioning, and blood pressure medicine, is why so many people live past the age of 60 nowadays.
BTW, have you checked your blood pressure lately ? You may be having borderline high blood pressure.
In 2009, my blood pressure went from 135/85 in August to 210/110 in November, resulting in a “heart incident”. I have no points in between to see if the curve was linear or logarithmic. Now I check my blood pressure daily, 104/70 this morning. Better living through chemistry !
104F in an attic this time of year is not bad at all.
My attic now runs a couple of degrees warmer than outside after installing the new roof. The original roof is still there as it wasn’t leaking. Then 1x4s as slats. Foam board with a silver side between the slats. Almost an inch thick, R6 I think. I have a scrap in the barn. Then the metal, off-white. It’s all held on with screws.
With just shingles I would see 140F often. Fun…. get into the attic and even your shins sweat.
Nick, stew meat…. I suppose the price varies by store. The local HEB sells trimmings as stew meat. Cheaper than almost all steaks by almost $2 a pound. But. I worked at that store for 12 years and noticed a few things. When the weather calls for a cold front? Or a forecast of we’re all gonna diiieee because in /might/ snow? Yeah, they make extra stew meat and jack the price a couple of bucks. A convenience surcharge.
Have you noticed the packages of hamburger patties that are about a half inch thick? They come from the 5# chubs. Sliced and trayed. And a $1.50 extra per pound.
Which is ok if all you need is 4 or 6 patties because you don’t have to deal with the rest of the chub.
BTW, I assume that everyone here is getting a annual physical checkup. And checking their blood pressure monthly starting at age 45. I use an automatic wrist cuff like this and I log the results in a stenographers book:
https://www.amazon.com/Omron-Pressure-Monitor-Reading-Memory/dp/B004C3OWUU/
Guys, you need the wiggling finger up the butt (digital prostate check) and the blood PSA test annually starting at age 45. I am 58 and my last PSA was 0.9. Two of my friends (58 and 61) just got their prostates removed due to the PSA jumping to 7 and 9 in one year on them.
Ladies, you need the mammogram and digital breast exam annually starting at age 45. Plus the cervical check (I have no idea what I am talking about here).
My wife survived stage 2b breast cancer that was growing in size by 25% per month because I harangued her about a mass in her right breast when she was 46 that she swore was a cyst. It took me six months to get her to get an annual physical that she put off for five years. A week after the physical, her gyno called her (a friend at church) and told her with absolute certainty that she had breast cancer, Birads score of 5, and he wanted her into a cancer doctor NOW. Her gyno could barely talk, he was so choked up as my wife was the worst that he had ever seen. The day was Christmas Eve 2004.
https://breast-cancer.ca/bi-rads/
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
I’ll bet that Trump knows today. But, he is going to let the chicken little dumbocrats stew in their own juices for a week or so.
This is usually a big week for vacations in telecom and media. Vacations cancelled.
The other day, walking into the break room for our building, I looked at the TV and noticed that Headline News was hawking jewelry in the early afternoon hours like a shopping channel. Interesting but sad.
HLN is a long way from the days of Lynne Russell and Don Harrison, back when Ted Turner used to roam the halls of the CNN Center at night in his bathrobe.
My attic now runs a couple of degrees warmer than outside after installing the new roof. The original roof is still there as it wasn’t leaking. Then 1x4s as slats. Foam board with a silver side between the slats.
My office building has the foam board on the roof, silver side down. Actually relatively cool up there. And allows me to cool a 5,344 ft2 building with only two 3.5 ton air conditioners.
Harlan Ellison RIP. I have not doubt that both Dr. Pournelle and Bob would have had something to say about his passing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/local/obituaries/harlan-ellison-prolific-and-pugnacious-writer-of-science-fiction-dies-at-84/2018/06/29/f812a6a0-7bac-11e8-aeee-4d04c8ac6158_story.html?noredirect=on
Which reminds me — I’m on the mailing list for Mike Nesmith’s “Videoranch”. Email went out this week thanking everyone for their prayers for Nesmith’s speedy recovery from whatever made him cancel Monkees concerts this Summer.
That is one obit that I’m not looking forward to seeing. We played Nesmith’s “Tapeheads” endlessly in college, and, whether you consider it to be a good or bad thing, Nesmith literally invented MTV.
Harlan Ellison RIP. I have not doubt that both Dr. Pournelle and Bob would have had something to say about his passing.
Harlan Ellison wrote good stories but was a pig. He assaulted Connie Willis at a CON while she was giving him an award. Somebody actually videoed it and posted it on youtube.
Sigh, dimensional units are awesome and the bane of our existence simultaneously. Just ask NASA and every engineering company in the world.
I spent an amazing amount of time this week debugging our user interface and calculation engine. However, our software was doing exactly what I told it to do and converting the percents to fractions as it imported the numbers from the spreadsheet. But, the spreadsheet values were fractions already, not percents. When I changed the dimensional units spec from percent to fraction, the values worked perfectly.
Sigh. Software sucks.
I’m off to bed, everything went ok in the end, and kids watched a movie.
n
Harlan Ellison wrote good stories but was a pig. He assaulted Connie Willis at a CON while she was giving him an award. Somebody actually videoed it and posted it on youtube.
You forgot the urban legend about Ellison getting fired from Disney after one day when he was overheard spitballing the idea of a porn movie using the classic characters.
One constant I’ve found is that kinks and high IQ go hand in hand. When the kinks aren’t manageable, there’s trouble.
And it could be argued Disney still used the idea with success in more family friendly efforts. It is easy to dismiss “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” as Spielberg and Zemekis, but the concepts for “Maleficent” and “Enchanted” originated with The Mouse. The former has a sequel in the works while discussions for a followup to the latter stopped only when the director spilled the truth last year about Disney having to outsource the classic animation work.
There is an element of fandom that is very into kinks. See also the classic con stories from back in the day. Much less cheerful, the FACTS behinds some of the abuse and perversion in the industry are just sickening.
marion zimmer bradley
Samuel R. Delany
to name just two…
n
I’ll file this with your other medical wisdom, that the US needs a single-payer system/Medicare for all/socialized medicine. Which is to say, I’ll circular-file it.
Lynn wrote:
“Guys, you need the wiggling finger up the butt (digital prostate check) and the blood PSA test annually starting at age 45.”
I haven’t had that since 2013, since I had my last colonoscopy. All clear. I guess I’m due about now for another.
Do you need the prostate check if your PSA is normal? Mine was last time I checked.
My BP is usually 120-130/70-80.
BTW, I assume that everyone here is getting a annual physical checkup. … Guys, you need the wiggling finger up the butt … Ladies, you need the mammogram and digital breast exam annually starting at age 45.
I’ll file this with your other medical wisdom, that the US needs a single-payer system/Medicare for all/socialized medicine. Which is to say, I’ll circular-file it.
I would not call this wisdom, more like experience. In fact, more like scars. I deeply regret ignoring my GP in August of 2009 about watching my blood pressure. I’ll never know if I could have saved the back side of my heart if I had monitored my blood pressure over those critical three months. Besides that, the heart attack hurt like hell.
I do have a win though. Arguing with my wife over four months in 2004, begging her to go get herself checked out paid off. If she had waited another six months, maybe only three months, she would have been stage 4 instead of stage 2b.
It is said that old generals fight their last battle over and over again. I understand that saying all too well now. Both personally and in business.
My point about health insurance is that we are in hell now. At least 15% of the population is on Medicare now and that number is rising quickly. Then we have the “Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act” of 1986 that says anyone going to an ER must be treated regardless of ability to pay. These two items are bankrupting our nation’s ERs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act
We must either get rid of the “Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act” or go whole hog to Medicare for All. Otherwise, things will continue to get worse, just ask Ray about his wife’s medical bills. Some people are paying nothing for their medical care, some people are paying half for their medical care, and some people are paying 2X for their medical care. Guess who we in the middle are ? And just wait until some people are paying 3X. And 4X. You could have health insurance and still walk out of a procedure with $50K of bills due to “out of network” costs.
I haven’t had that since 2013, since I had my last colonoscopy. All clear. I guess I’m due about now for another.
Do you need the prostate check if your PSA is normal? Mine was last time I checked.
No idea, I am not a doctor nor do I play one on the internet. I got a colonoscopy in 2010 and am planning on having the next one in 2020.
My GP hates performing the digital prostate exam. He does 400 or 500 of them a year and still gets nervous about it. And he uses way too much lubricant. But, he never fails to do so for an annual physical. Along with the blood PSA check.
Agreed on the first point, but I challenge you to cite historical examples of problems caused by government meddling being successfully resolved by increased government meddling.
The solution, as you half step toward, is to get rid of the government meddling. If this requires the death of tens of millions of politicians, bureaucrats, and other freeloaders, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay.