75F and saturated again today. Forecast from NOAA has more rain in it. We’ll see, but I expect to get wet.
Re-read a couple of posts and days worth of comments last night and was filled with nostalgia. One was less than a year old. It’s shocking how much things can change during one year.
The other had me explaining my bona fides and urging me to write more. That was from 2015. It seems so far away now, and yet so short a time.
Lets start this new week with renewed vigor. The world to come will have winners and they should be US. The threats are numerous and varied, but the great thing about prepping is that being prepped for one thing usually covers you for many more.
nick
Subbing today, second time this year. Also have the same class on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Friday of next week. Today is easy. Only one student in first class as the rest are on a field trip, next class no one, then short class because of lunch, one full class, then last class of the day is the teacher’s planning period so I just go home.
School system has changed to block scheduling. Longer classes and supposed to get a full year’s worth of teaching in the first semester. Second semester is another set of classes. This particular teacher will be doing robotics the second semester so I offered to help. I have an Arduino kit at home and have explored the software and how the devices work.
She had the same class last year and asked for my help and myself and the teacher went into the process cold. Made a lot of mistakes, well maybe not mistakes, but certainly could have been done better. This year I am more prepared and understand the software. Such software I was completely ignorant last year.
@ray, you are a braver man than me!
Sore today. All those bags of concrete are hurting me more today than yesterday.
Ebay sales have picked up slightly. I’m more convinced than ever that you need to constantly list new items in order to be promoted by their algorithm, especially if you are a store.
Lots of storm action headed our way (and by our I mean all of us!)
n
@nick, not too bad. Small school system, most of the kids know me from the sports pictures. Something to do.
It also seems the school has done something funny in their IT configuration when dealing with Google. I am unable to get to Google from my Laptop and receive a message about not being a private connection.
I am only connected to the WiFi and not signed on to the domain. Apparently the IT staff is sending Google thru something else to control searches to keep the kids from going places they don’t belong. It may also have something to do with the use of the ChromeBooks in the school system.
The IT staff is not real competent so I don’t put a lot of stock in what they have done or the way they accomplished their goal. I am unable to use Google DNS servers so I am certain the IT staff is blocking Google IP addresses and doing something else with the Google IP addresses.
Makes me wonder if the school system is also controlling the search results on the ChromeBooks, if they can even use Google Search.
Bing.com does not work either, same message. As is DuckDuck.go (forbidden domain), Yahoo, etc. All the major search engines.
I could block all search engines with a simple setting on our firewall. I don’t, but I could. There is enough error in any filtering system to make it a real pain in the butt.
I do, however, log all web traffic. For fun, I look at the logs & see what kind of garbage people look at. (Anonymized, of course. I don’t have IP addresses memorized.) Someday I’ll see something that catches my attention, but not yet. And I don’t go there often. Some things I just don’t want to know.
Oh man, came into work today and the feral hogs have completely torn up about two acres over the weekend. They stick their snouts under the turf and flip it over, looking for grubs. What a mess !
I am still sore as all get out from my heart ablation surgery on August 30. But, I do not have afib or a zipper chest now so it was worth it. The bruising on my body is still very present and I suspect it will be there for another couple of weeks.
Oh man, came into work today and the feral hogs have completely torn up about two acres over the weekend. They stick their snouts under the turf and flip it over, looking for grubs. What a mess !
Hunting/trapping isn’t allowed where your building is located?
Discharging a firearm inside city limits might be the issue. Hogs are always in season in TX.
n
@lynn, I’m glad to hear of your continued recovery.
n
Discharging a firearm inside city limits might be the issue. Hogs are always in season in TX.
What about building a trap?
In FL, live feral hogs were always desireable for hog-dog rodeo events.
I am still sore as all get out from my heart ablation surgery on August 30. But, I do not have afib or a zipper chest now so it was worth it. The bruising on my body is still very present and I suspect it will be there for another couple of weeks.
My son has the zipper chest — you don’t want that if you can avoid it. We went in for the three month followup visit for his surgery, and the kid pulled off his shirt to reveal a sizeable purple lump where the wire hadn’t been completely secured in the bone and was irritating the tissues.
The doctor asked me, “How long has this been here?”
“You got me. Ask my son.”
The rest of Christmas break was spent dealing with the surgery to resecure the wire and dealing with the wound care.
Discharging a firearm inside city limits might be the issue. Hogs are always in season in TX.
The office is in Fort Bend County. Not in the Sugar Land city limits yet. Maybe someday but I doubt it.
The warehouse are going to hunt the hogs tonight with bows and arrows. There are too many homes around the office property to use guns.
Discharging a firearm inside city limits might be the issue. Hogs are always in season in TX.
What about building a trap?
The traps are only good for one use. The hogs are rather smart.
After the hog hunt, a BBQ?
After the hog hunt, a BBQ?
Quality of the meat depends on the diet. Wild hog from a private property with stocked corn feeders is “good eats”. God only knows what the hogs consume in a light industrial/residential area.
I’m glad you are feeling well, Mr. Lynn. I hope the surgery completely heals.
Keep up the progress @lynn.
My maternal grandfather’s secret to good pork was acorns. He had a big stand of oak where he “finished” all of his market pork. He had quite the reputation for quality pork and got a few extra cents per pound at the market. Happy pigs, happy BBQ.
After the hog hunt, a BBQ?
Quality of the meat depends on the diet. Wild hog from a private property with stocked corn feeders is “good eats”. God only knows what the hogs consume in a light industrial/residential area.
The feral hogs around here are coming up from the Brazos River. Probably eating alligators and water moccasins.
I have been told that the meat is almost inedible. But I have not tried it for myself.
My son has the zipper chest — you don’t want that if you can avoid it. We went in for the three month followup visit for his surgery, and the kid pulled off his shirt to reveal a sizeable purple lump where the wire hadn’t been completely secured in the bone and was irritating the tissues.
Poor kid. How old was he at the time, hopefully only once ?
My 46 ??? year old cousin has been opened up twice. One at three days and then at 11 years, IIRC. She was born with a quarter size hole in her heart (blue baby) and it had to be repaired again at age 11. Her doc went in for her records recently and Texas Childrens Hospital told her that they still consider her a patient.
Poor kid. How old was he at the time, hopefully only once ?
The surgery happened when my son was 11. The surgeons had to correct an ASD and open up a blood vessel to the heart which had embedded itself in the aorta wall.
As much as I gripe about the kids’ device obsessions, the boy asked about his video games coming out of anesthesia, and we knew he was okay.
More important than the zipper chest, in my opinion (I am not a doctor) you want to avoid that heart/lung machine as much as possible. My son was fine, but he was young and on the machine for ~ 40 minutes. I don’t think my father-in-law was ever the same after his first heart surgery at 44, and he more or less had a death wish following his transplant at UT Southwestern 10 years later.
Or old weapons that got lost many years ago.
I have also heard that same statement. My uncle was opened up twice, years before the better procedures today. After the second time he said he was never going through that procedure again. If he needed to have it done he would rather die. He got his wish. Although it was a stroke that got him.
More important than the zipper chest, in my opinion (I am not a doctor) you want to avoid that heart/lung machine as much as possible. My son was fine, but he was young and on the machine for ~ 40 minutes. I don’t think my father-in-law was ever the same after his first heart surgery at 44, and he more or less had a death wish following his transplant at UT Southwestern 10 years later.
My dad spent six hours on the heart lung machine 21 years ago. It took him a year to recover, physically and mentally. His research said that the velocity of the blood through your brain is 3X on the heart-lung machine than that of your natural system. After a while, that blood whizzing through your brain does damage.
I have a buddy that routinely hunts deer that roam a wooded creek bed near his property. It’s within city limits too, but he just uses a bow. I’m surprised nobody has made a fuss when he carries the carcass back to his truck.
Around here, crop damage is a good reason to shoot a deer. (No feral hogs to speak of.) One apple tree is sufficient, but we have a dozen. My brother-in-law and sister like to come over during bow season & take a few. Good eating when they’re full of apples.
The Nike uproar is funny. “I burned my Nike shoes and I’m not buying anymore” and “Boycott Nike!”.
Sure, destroy something you bought. It makes as much sense as smashing your TV when the news makes you angry.
Nike doesn’t care White Man, you ain’t their market.
I’ve never bought anything from Nike. It’s always looked overpriced to me.
I really like the Nike Air shoes and have purchased several. I get them at a Nike outlet store. Pay about $40.00 a pair if I buy two at once (one full price, one half price).
However, I will no longer be purchasing Nike shoes. I don’t like their ad campaign and think it is a slap in the face. Their marketing department has to be staffed by idiots.
I am not going to burn my current Nike shoes. That would be stupid. I may be an idiot but I am not stupid (but the day is still young).
MrsAtoz had her final interview with the NSA today prior to our trip to Fort Meade. Apparently we get to bump uglies with the Director himself. The final guidence from our “handlers”: don’t get political. I guess I shouldn’t wear a MAGA hat. I love Obola patch would probably fly, though.
AOC 2020!
“A Chevy Bolt in every garage ‘cause Tesla is gonna tank!”
Let’s go full Commie in OFD’s honor!
From yesterday:
Nissan appears to have gotten fully onboard the CVT bandwagon several years ago, at least for cars. On that basis, I’ll pass.
The jury is still out on so much tech going into cars these days due to government mandates about safety and MPGs. It will be expensive to fix.
As I’ve written before, increasingly, the new *cars* I see rolling around town with Mexican plates look like they’re from another planet. If you don’t believe me, hit the Austin outlet malls next Easter weekend. Look at the high end cars especially.
Everything on cars and trucks is expensive to fix now. We have had both our car and truck for 13 years, both have rebuilt transmissions. Hers, the gearbox bearings went out at 90K miles, the curse of the Honda Civic standard. Mine, the full enchilada at 194K miles. But is a lot cheaper than new vehicles.
Ford is getting ready to replace their 36 volt stop-start system in their ten speed automatic with a 280 volt or a 480 volt system and a 8 to 16 kwhr battery for full plugin hybrid. Sounds complicated but there are a lot of miles in that transmission already with no serious complaints. Supposed to be able to go 60+ mph for 60+ miles in the F-150 on electric only. I call that a winner. The only question is the cost, $2K is a knock out of the park and $10K is forget about it.
I am seeing an incredible number of new trucks and suvs here in Fort Bend County. Of course, the average annual household income in Sugar Land is over $130K.
AOC 2020!
Was ist AOC ?
“MAXINE MELTDOWN: ‘I say impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment!’”
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/maxine-waters-brags-she-threatens-trump-supporters-all-the-time-wakes-up-in-middle-of-night-thinking-im-going-to-get-president/
Can somebody get her a bigger bullhorn so that nobody in flyover country misses her message ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“MAXINE MELTDOWN: ‘I say impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment, impeachment!’”
Perhaps Maxine should team up with Steve Ballmer and do a music video.
Miss Crazyeyes.
I am seeing an incredible number of new trucks and suvs here in Fort Bend County. Of course, the average annual household income in Sugar Land is over $130K.
84 month car loans. 72 isn’t uncommon.
Combine that with the return of 3% down mortgages and let the good times roll.
Sedans are a buyers market. The local Toyota dealer is so hungry to move a Camry that they called tonight to “verify an appointment” to look at a car I emailed about.
“You’ll be by at 7:15 tonight. Is this correct?”
“No. I wrote that I might stop by sometime this week after 7PM, and I wanted to know when the salesperson would be available.”
Miss Crazyeyes.
AKA “She Guevara”
For tennis, I buy Tretorn. Of course, I am partly of Swedish heritage; IIRC, Bjorn Borg used to wear them.
Sedans are a buyers market. The local Toyota dealer is so hungry to move a Camry that they called tonight to “verify an appointment” to look at a car I emailed about.
Sept 30 is on a Sunday this year. Bad, bad, bad since car dealers are not allowed to stay open on Sundays in Texas unless they close on the Saturday. Gonna be a rough quarter for the car dealers. The last week of the month might see some awesome deals on those Camry sedans, especially the four cylinders. Dull, boring cars that are great commuters and get great gas mileage. One of my friends bought one 5 or 6 years ago and consistently got 30 mpg driving from Sugar Land to the Galleria to work and back.
One of my friends bought one 5 or 6 years ago and consistently got 30 mpg driving from Sugar Land to the Galleria to work and back.
We had a 2018 LE in Florida, and the MPG readout never dipped below 34, even in stop-n-go traffic once we got to Sanibel/Captiva. 2.5 L DI engine and 8 speed transmission.
Long term, I’m not concerned about the transmission as much as the DI. Toyota claims they “fixed” the carbon buildup problem. We’ll see.
Just noticed on Barbara’s blog that today would have been their 35th anniversary.
https://www.fritchman.com/journal/?p=5351
…and last Saturday (8 Sep) was the one-year anniversary of Dr. Pournelle’s passing….
@nick
Thanks for the responses re:generators. It looks like we could get by with the Honda for the bare essentials. I’m pretty bad about feature creep, but I could start there and upgrade over time.
Long term, I’d like a whole house connected to the natural gas line, but that will be a while, possibly in a different house.
Just built a first aid kit for my wife and her Brownie troop, and filled a bag with practice materiel for their first aid lesson… Mostly from stocks. Could have been all from stocks, but I wanted fresh wound cleaner spray, and couldn’t resist the pink tape. Also added 2 packets of anti-microbial hand wipes. You will want to clean up before and after…
(in my truck I have a tub of the clorox hardiwipes with bleach. they are a sanitizing scrubbie….)
n
…and last Saturday (8 Sep) was the one-year anniversary of Dr. Pournelle’s passing….
Any word on how Roberta Pournelle is doing these days?
@mark, the best thing about the honda is you can get a second one, a sync cable, and get 240v out of the combination (or just double the 120v available.)
They really are super quiet when running well under max load too. At max load, they make noise but are still quieter than something designed for the jobsite.
n
“Miss Crazyeyes.”
AKA “She Guevara”
So they get a majority in the House, possibly the Senate, and they impeach Trump. Then what?
Watching yet another MJ Hegar for Congress commercial last night, my wife said, “Something’s wrong with her eyes, probably Ambien.”
When my wife says something like that, chances are she’s dead on. She treated SpecOps pilots for the addiction in Tampa.
@mark, as a bare minimum, you can get a “jump box” with USB and 12v outlets, and a small 12v inverter to power a lappy or recharge phones. Or get a decent sized inverter, and plan on running it off a vehicle to charge stuff.
I’ve got a ton of 12v batteries from decomm’d UPS systems. They have a lot of life left in them and are cheap. Car batteries are usually available used at junk yards for ~$25 or 35 too, and that makes a good backup.
n
“Then what?”
-he beats the rap? Like slick willie.
Or it’s open season on politicians.
n
I noticed this potential prep item in the local Fox station’s file footage on Austin’s new drunk tank. The camera guy got a really clear shot of the EZBunk label, probably for his own reference.
https://www.fastenal.com/products/details/0616810
”’Car batteries are usually available used at junk yards for ~$25 or 35 too, and that makes a good backup.”’
I try to save any sort of junk battery I come across, and I try to use the worst battery in the pile for the “core” return… So I have a pretty good collection of car batteries at this time (admittedly all needing a fresh charge).
A car battery that is useless for starting an engine still has a lot of juice for phone charging, simple lights, radios…
Or the weak battery might be just enough to jump another weak battery.
Good to have options other than taking a chance on frying your vehicle’s computer!
I don’t get it… $400 should buy about 40 ordinary camping foam pads.
But they wouldn’t have ‘drain holes’…..
interesting. I wonder why Fastenal carries them? They normally stick to hole making and filling stuff.
there are lots of shelter packs, look at the salvation army site for some links. There is a need for stackable and rackable “roll it out of the warehouse and use it” stuff for shelters. You don’t want to be laying on concrete if you can avoid it. the pads are flimsy, probably won’t stand up to biocides, etc. And if I can read between the lines, these things make good stretchers too for a mass casualty event (handles molded in.)
n
added- they cost $400 because Uncle is paying….
Some of the (lithium?) jump boxes have outlets (19V?) and cables specifically for laptops.
Also, look at laptop adapter ‘bricks’ that run off cigar 12V.
Those things will run appropriate LEDs (with resistors?) for a long time. Bump them with a little charger occasionally.
I like to keep a couple of LEDs going as power failure lights, independent of any other system. Just recharge or replace batteries when it’s time.
Also, ordinary (5V?) LEDs can be wedged onto the top of regular 9V batteries, but be sure to only use 9V batteries that have been “totally drained” by your smoke detectors for this. Or just enjoy the “pop” and odors…
Pork:
As I understand it, modern supermarket pork is quite safe if cooked to ~145° F
so hot to very hot pink.
Feral hog (and probably most wild game) needs to be rather thoroughly cooked,
so gray or black…
Read up on the parasites!
May I politely suggest that using an inverter to convert to AC from DC and thence the laptop or phone wall wart for AC back to DC is not ideal.
Try to look at DC to DC…
I don’t get it… $400 should buy about 40 ordinary camping foam pads.
As Nick pointed out, Uncle is paying. Plus, my guess that the plastic would tolerate being stuck in a unventilated warehouse in FL or TX for years without degrading.
As I understand it, modern supermarket pork is quite safe if cooked to ~145° F
so hot to very hot pink.
I would still take a shoulder or butt to 160-168 (medium). 145 is really rare, and if you stop the cooking process at the moment the temperature reaches that point, the fat hasn’t broken down sufficiently to get that desirable “fall off the bone” texture.
Pork shoulder is really hard to screw up leaving it in ~225 degree heat for too long. Stability of the temp is important, however — don’t peek and use a thermometer with a remote probe.
I got rid of my cheap-a** electric smoker when we moved to WA because the NW temperatures were too cold for the heating element to be effective. I miss that thing since the pork shoulders it produced were awesome.
I thought there was something wrong with mine! I used it in the depth of winter here and it would barely hold heat…
I prefer my gas fired smoker.
n
“Combine that with the return of 3% down mortgages and let the good times roll.”
That’s crazy talk. 3% down is just begging for people to go underwater on their mortgages. It is not a given that real estate appreciates, and that’s especially true for brand new houses. Do they want another real estate bubble?
“So they get a majority in the House, possibly the Senate, and they impeach Trump. Then what?”
It’s really unlikely that they will gain the seats. AFAIK, Trump’s base is very happy with him. If they’ll just go vote, he’s likely to gain support, not lose it.
But assuming the “blue wave” does happen: would they really be stupid enough to impeach him? It would clearly be for political reasons, and that’s a huge precedent to set. Furthermore, one forgets, but impeachment is only the first step. The House handles the impeachment, then you get the formal trial (for what crimes, exactly?) in the Senate. Just imagine what kind of circus that would turn into.
– – – – –
Lastly, pork safety? It’s quite common here to eat pork fairly rare. The safety issue is Trichinosis, which is a parasite that only infects pigs when they are fed raw meat. Which pigs aren’t supposed to eat, but cheap-ass pig farms used to do it anyway. It’s now strictly forbidden, and cases from eating pork have plummeted to near zero.
More commonly, you get Trichinosis from carnivorous game animals. Bears, for example, legitimately eat meat and can be infected.
That’s crazy talk. 3% down is just begging for people to go underwater on their mortgages. It is not a given that real estate appreciates, and that’s especially true for brand new houses. Do they want another real estate bubble?
Yes. Yes they do.
It’s really unlikely that they will gain the seats. AFAIK, Trump’s base is very happy with him. If they’ll just go vote, he’s likely to gain support, not lose it.
The Dems have a lot of attractive candidates out there. I wouldn’t be surprised if our frequently MIA (R) Congresscritter was tossed out in favor MJ Hegar (see my link to her commercials above).
Even if my wife is wrong about the Ambien — which I doubt — the slick ads make Hegar look the poster child for the Work-at-Home-Mommy Mafia which forms a solid voting block in this district.
“Do they want another real estate bubble?”
— yes. Most of the physical houses and failed and underwater mortgages that were bought during the last crisis were bought by big investment houses like Blackrock. They need to get out, and so a bubble suits them very well…
3% down is pretty much the only way you can get anyone normal to buy a house in California. Between high house prices, and high cost of living, those salaries don’t stretch to include saving 20% down… hourly earners can’t even do that.
I read or was told that the only cases of Trichinosis in the US in the last 50 years have come from bears. Can’t be bothered to look it up. Bears apparently were a major source of meat during pioneer days, several of the recipes in the Oregon Trail Cookbook start out “Render 2 to 3 pounds of bear fat”, and Pa in the Laura Ingolls Wilder books brings home a bear on more than one occasion.
Possibly after SHTF bear will be back on the menu. Certainly wild hog will be in these parts.
n
I’m pretty sure there have been a few cases of Trichinosis that weren’t from bears. Some hillbilly somewhere feeds his hogs meat, and then eats them. But it’s not a problem in commercial food (anymore). Hence, the rules we grew up with – cook pork until it’s dead, dead, dead – no longer apply. A medium-rare pork steak can be a fine thing.
Of course, greedy commercial feed yards will find new stupid things to do. Remember mad cow disease? In the UK, at least, it clearly came from feeding processed meat to cows. Dunno what kind of idiot ever thought that was a good idea, but it must’ve saved a buck. Of course, the people who made the profit aren’t the ones who paid the price.
Stupid Mad Cow.
I told stories for years that they wouldn’t let me donate blood because they thought I might have had relations with a cow. Truth was that I was stationed in Berlin during the time that Mad Cow was a thing, and I might have eaten some.
Now I probably could, but it’s been a long time, and I’m still bitter about the whole thing.
— yes. Most of the physical houses and failed and underwater mortgages that were bought during the last crisis were bought by big investment houses like Blackrock. They need to get out, and so a bubble suits them very well…
This time around, they want Texas real estate. Ten years ago, the tight lending/appraisal rules kept the state house prices from getting seriously out of control, but the rules have been loosened since then.
Appreciate the hint about pork shoulder. I almost never buy pork anymore because they’ve bred all the fat out of chops and the like, but I’ve done a shoulder for pulled pork a few times. Did a whole pig in pit once too. You know what the hard part is? Getting the damn hair off!
I miss Bob and Jerry. I used to ask Bob really dumb , simple one or two sentence questions about chemistry and he’d promptly (and tersely) reply. I keep coming up with more, but he’s not around anymore! For example. someone mentioned Chlorine bleach as a water sanitizer. Well, I came across a 5 gallon bucket of E-Z Chlor
( Sodium dichloroisocyanurate dihydrate) 98% but have no idea of how much free chlorine it produces or how much to use. Bob would know!
Sure makes a great bleach for laundry, though! A ½ tsp in a cup of hot water is all it takes.
On top of which it’s probably cheap as heck compared to sodium hypochlorite.
Yes but is it poison to people?
Miss Bob.
n
Make a BLMer or pAntifart drink some and find out. They aren’t really people, but they’re close enough to human that we can get useful data by experimenting on them.