63F and wet. Off and on sprinkles late yesterday afternoon, and continued through the night. At least the grass got watered.
Year end school activities continue to take extra time, and summer sports are starting up too.
How did my days get so full?
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Too many of us and our kith and kin getting sick or having health issues.
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In other news, my babysitter (63, christian, anti-gun) thinks the Notre Dame fire was deliberate, sees the destruction of Europe by muslim invaders, and has watched the NZ murderer’s video. Can’t stop the signal.
n
listen to the sound….. of silence!
jeez guys, you’re gonna give me a complex.
n
Hey, Foot in Mouth Joe is gonna run for president! Creepy Uncle Joe. “Buy a Shotgun” “just fire two blasts out the door” Joe. “He’s pretty well spoken for a negro” Joe*…
I’ll admit it will be fun watching them eat each other alive during the next two years, but after getting us all riled up, I’m sure that they will find someone moderate at the last minute to swoop in and save their votes.
n
added* actual quote “what Biden said about Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.””
Tucker doing a story on Unca Joe said last night the there was more diversity of thought in an Amish community than the democrats running for pres.
Bernie apparently got heckled in Houston…
n
and holy cr@p, I actually agree with Joe Biden, at least the Joe from 50 years ago…
read this article about why he might not be a good candidate!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bidens-tough-talk-on-1970s-school-desegregation-plan-could-get-new-scrutiny-in-todays-democratic-party/2019/03/07/9115583e-3eb2-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html
My how the discussion has changed.
n
Hey, Foot in Mouth Joe is gonna run for president! Creepy Uncle Joe.
Don’t forget Plagiarist Uncle Joe. Or is it Uncle Neal (Kinnock, MP, whom Biden ripped off in 1987) … or Uncle [insert name].
I don’t remember where, but I saw an interview recently with Gary Hart, dropping a little revisionist history about 1988, claiming that the “Monkey Business” was all a setup orchestrated by Lee Atwater, the Republican mastermind posthumously credited with all kinds of mischief by rivals.
If Hart thinks he can get away with it, maybe Biden does too. Thankfully, Hart is too old to run at this point.
Remember, the Clintons had the FBI files on all potential political rivals, plotting schemes 20 years in the future from the moment they took office in 1993. I have no doubt another dime will drop on Biden regardless of whether Cankles runs again.
It’s shaping up to be a nice day here. 82F in the sun!
n
Tesla’s burning $10M/day, their report is full of shennanigans, and they only got a downgrade to “hold” with a $274 price target?? NOW who’s smoking dope?
If they really are lying, and really need more financing to cover their debt service, and can’t sell cars, and have abandoned the other pie in the sky ways to extend their Ponzi*, then the value should be $00.00
n
*I had no idea they took customer “deposits”. Classic ponzi paying investors out of new money coming in…
Biden’s announcement video is anchored in a demonstrable lie.
The “demonstrable lie” is of course the statement that Trump called the Charlottesville Nazi sympathizers “fine people”, an allegation that has been thoroughly debunked by Scott Adams
It is going to be fun watching the Democrat candidates trying to claw their way out of the crab bucket of their own making!
some old science jokes to lighten the mood….
How many moles are in a guacamole? Avocado’s number.
The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half with liquid and half with air.
Q: What’s the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers?
A: Mechanical Engineers build weapons; Civil Engineers build targets.
See, science content!
n
It gets worse:
Joe Biden Starts Presidential Campaign By Praising Antifa
We are definitely living in Bizarro World!
The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half with liquid and half with air.
The engineer says “You’ve got way too much glass for that amount of water!”
It is going to be fun watching the Democrat candidates trying to claw their way out of the crab bucket of their own making!
Cue the Moxie and pretzels (RIP OFD)!
Creepy Uncle Joe is out to “save the soul of the nation.” Who believes this crap? The only change I’ve felt since tRump was elected is a shit load of less tax. My soul is feeling pretty good.
Trump takes a mild name
https://pjmedia.com/trending/president-trump-already-has-a-nickname-for-joe-biden/
52º and cloudy, but good enough to get outside. I should have gone out yesterday, but the cold & wind spooked me.
Cards with my family tonight. I haven’t played pinochle in ages, but I bought them all cards for Christmas. I plan ahead. My youngest older sister is who I usually team up with. It’s been 20 years or so, so we’ll see how this goes.
It’s a good day.
“Gator gorging on feral hog in state park caught on cam by Tomball resident”
https://www.chron.com/hunting-fishing/article/gator-feeds-on-feral-hog-brazos-bend-park-houston-13792490.php?cmpid=hpctp#photo-12606716
1 down, 6 million to go.
We ended up moving my mother to skilled nursing (still in Methodist Hospital in the Houston medical center) last night at 1130pm. Dad was wiped out and left at 10pm (after the Rockets game). Two nurses moved her in her bed and I followed. Three elevators and about a 1/4 mile of corridors. I got home at 2am after getting her settled in and making sure that the nurses were going to take care of her. I am exhausted today.
I stand by my prediction that if 10% of the nation is infirmed, the other 90% will spend 100% of their time taking care of them. And folks, with all of these baby boomers getting old, we may be heading there. And yes, I am a baby boomer (birth class of 1960).
BTW, gasoline prices are rising even here in Texas ! I saw regular gasoline for sale at a Shell station in the Med Center last night for $3.099/us gallon. It is $2.599/us gallon out here in the sticks.
Funky Winkerbean: definitely not cool !
http://comicskingdom.com/funky-winkerbean/2019-04-25
Yup, we need to calm down there.
Man Tax.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48056938
Nope. No way would I bother to eat at such an establishment. On the other hand, I have left establishments (and unjoined clubs) that offered exclusivity of any kind. If a certain kind of person is drawn to a place, great. If a certain kind of person is forbidden, I have nothing for them.
And when it comes to seating, I’ll always give my seat to a lady, and I won’t sit while a lady stands. It’s not in me. I’m one of the evil gender.
If they really are lying, and really need more financing to cover their debt service, and can’t sell cars, and have abandoned the other pie in the sky ways to extend their Ponzi*, then the value should be $00.00
Remember, the revenue numbers include a couple of hundred million from FCA in shakedown money.
FCA committed the sin of moving Dodge Ram ahead of Chevy in pickup sales by using a 10 year old “classic” design sold along side the new model.
I saw that the other day too. What man would even want to walk in there much less spend anything?!
Closing. I wonder why.
Spent the better part of the day in bed. Kidney stones (twins, Fred and Wilma) are on the move again. Had a urologist appointment this morning. Had some options, none pleasant. One of those choices was to wait about two weeks and see what happens. I chose that option. For now I am peeing into a funnel with a fine screen at the bottom for until the Flintstones arrive.
As it should be and certainly not evil. I do the same when necessary. Although soon I may be the one that should have the seat offered but the little privileged snot monsters of today will probably ignore.
No exactly in the sticks here but gas is also about $2.60 a gallon. Brother in CA is paying about $3.70 where he lives. But CA is always higher as the taxes are huge.
Class of 1951 here so I am more firmly entrenched than you.
Got the notice for my pension plan from the bank. I get a small stipend each month for having worked at the bank for six years. Fund is now with BofA as the original fund from National Bancshares Corporation (that is correct spelling) had been absorbed/transferred/bought several times. There is currently $19.7 billion in the fund with $12.7 billion in obligations. Lawyers are getting paid several million a year to manage the fund. Leaches all of them.
Spent the better part of the day in bed. Kidney stones (twins, Fred and Wilma) are on the move again. Had a urologist appointment this morning. Had some options, none pleasant. One of those choices was to wait about two weeks and see what happens. I chose that option. For now I am peeing into a funnel with a fine screen at the bottom for until the Flintstones arrive.
Dude, I hope those stones get a move on and complete their trip very soon. Does not sound like fun at all.
From yesterday …
I forgot that with my wife’s job change, our insurance would change too. Have to pick a new plan that might give us some value, but probably will be a dead expense. Freaking plans are intentionally opaque.
Just remember that with the HMO, you get the doctors they pick all the way up the chain. With PPO you get to pick the doctors.
We have Blue Cross Blue Shield Silver PPO with obscene deductibles and copays. It is ok, my $130K heart ablation surgery last year at Methodist was cut to about $14K IIRC and I paid about $5K IIRC.
The drug copays are very good. Unless, you take Armor Thyroid medicine like my wife and daughter do, in that case BCBS does not pay anything since they advocate the usage of the cheaper Synthroid drug. My wife got her thyroid killed by chemo 14 years ago and my daughter had her entire thyroid removed the same year due to three huge growths called goiters. Now we know that goiters can be caused by Lyme disease. Lyme disease is just the gift that keeps on giving, she has another complication that just popped up.
I paid $2.62 / gallon at Sam’s Club on Tuesday. There is still a high % of stations, especially in the eastern half of the county, which are not operational. We aren’t having problems getting or distributing fuel, there just aren’t as many places to get it.
I paid $2.62 / gallon at Sam’s Club on Tuesday. There is still a high % of stations, especially in the eastern half of the county, which are not operational. We aren’t having problems getting or distributing fuel, there just aren’t as many places to get it.
Texas gasoline (and diesel) tax is 20 cents/us gallon. Federal gas tax is 18.4 cents/us gallon and Federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents/us gallon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
Florida gas tax is 32.025 cents/us gallon. Florida diesel tax is 32.90 cents/us gallon. So you are paying more state gasoline tax than we are in Texas.
I would not be surprised to see us paying more state and federal gas / diesel taxes soon. Or maybe even an annual mileage tax to cover the electrics and lng / cng / hydrogen.
Here in my part of the Olympic Peninsula, regular gas ranges from $3.29 to $3.69. About a 50-cent increase from about a month ago.
Another trip to CA this month will let me experience the new gas prices in three states.
The “GasBuddy” app is good to find gas prices in any area.
I’ve been meaning to comment about the sharp rise in gas prices for a week. A couple of weeks ago it was $1.89 at costco, now it’s $2.59. Even if I’m mis-remembering and it’s been 6 weeks that is still a pretty steep rise, and summer isn’t here yet.
Speaking of summer, what a gorgeous day today turned into. I did some outdoor work at the rec association and it was awesome in the shade. Some kids were in the pool too.
n
Oh yeah, my 14th wedding anniversary was this week.
hooray us!
n
“Just remember that with the HMO, you get the doctors they pick all the way up the chain. With PPO you get to pick the doctors.”
Wife went with the aetna HMO. She checked all our existing Drs against the list, and the two closest hospitals and we’re good. NO out of network coverage though.
n
A link to a ‘dark web primer’, from one of my EMgmt newsletters.
https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USDHSFACIR/2019/04/25/file_attachments/1199378/Dark%20Web%20primer.pdf
And next month there will be a MASSEX in Memphis
n
That is becoming real common with most policies. The danger is an emergency room visit. Most of the ER doctors are non-network and results in a high bill that insurance ignores. When my wife had surgery we had to demand the hospital use network providers as we had been burned in the past. The hospital balked but I stood my ground and the hospital complied.
“If You Value Your Privacy, Never Bring An Amazon Alexa Device Into Your Home”
–um, no sh!t sherlock. This is news to people?
n
Florida gas tax is 32.025 cents/us gallon. Florida diesel tax is 32.90 cents/us gallon. So you are paying more state gasoline tax than we are in Texas.
The philosophy is “Let the tourists pay the taxes”.
Another neat trick by insurance companies is when figuring the copay amount. Say the amount is an odd number, $372.45, not evenly divisible by two. Guess who gets stuck with the odd cent, in every claim. Multiply that by a few million claims and that little bit of pocket change quickly adds up to profit for the insurance companies. In fact I would wager that the adjusted amount is purposely done in such a way to leave an odd amount. Insurance companies are evil.
My property taxes were (past tense) fairly low. I paid ~ $850 in property taxes on a home worth ~ $125,000 on Jan 1, 2018. The value on 2019 is going to be 3% higher, the maximum increase in FL for a homesteaded property. The actual value will go up more; demand exceeds supply by a wide margin. And the total taxable value of property in the county will have dropped quite a bit, while at the same time the county’s budget has been scattered to the four winds. The school board is still looking at > $200,000,000 in uncovered exposure, I don’t know what the county’s uninsured portion is going to be.
every once in a while I come across something online that I just don’t know what to make of it. this is one of those things. If the guy is who he says he is, and is speaking the truth as he understands it, it is devastating. His friendly, almost humorous demeanor is SERIOUSLY at odds with the material.
https://bustednuckles.com/2019/04/24/this-video-is-going-to-blow-your-mind-and-enrage-you/
It sounds nuts, but– catholic church. boy scouts. Jeffrey Epstein and his rape island- with convictions. Thousands of kids brought across our southern border. The Clinton Haitian orphan scandal-with convictions. Weiner-boy, husband to SECSTATE’s right hand woman-with convictions. Spirit cooking-whatever the fukc that horror is…
It’s pedos and slavers all the way down.
n
It’s pedos and slavers all the way down.
I’ve seen presentations from Jesse Kornblum, the real-life version of McGee from “NCIS”, except Kornblum worked for OSI (yes, just like Steve Austin).
Child porn was the most frequent computer offense OSI investigated. Probably still is.
And I won’t flog the dead equine about my neighbors in FL and the drunk perverts who run the “wars” from MacDill. Honestly, I wasn’t totally distraught about what happened in 2008 and had hopes that Obama would clean house at the freak show commands at the south end of the Interbay. Instead, we just go more of the same — generals continued to fly into Tampa to eat steaks at Berns, play golf, and have sex with Muslim Brotherhood sleeper agents.
At a minimum, I had hoped the Nazi woman who lived behind us would lose her job running the snake torture at Gitmo under a contractor badge from Booz Allen Hamilton.
I would not be surprised to see us paying more state and federal gas / diesel taxes soon. Or maybe even an annual mileage tax to cover the electrics and lng / cng / hydrogen.
If Portland’s experiment with tolling the freeways is successful, I expect that every major metro and cash-strapped state will want a piece of that action.
Are there any un-cash-strapped states?