72F and 96%RH. Beautiful day yesterday, getting hot later, but starting off awesome. More of the same forecast for today.
I’ve got my “non-prepping hobby” meeting this morning, and NO sportsball with the kids to cut it short or take up the rest of the day. It’ll probably be a short meeting with nothing interesting to do. ‘cuz that’s how my life works some days.
Lots of small tasks got accomplished this week. I feel like progress was made, although not on any of the big jobs. Purchases were limited to a few small things, mostly for the household. Ebay sales were non-existent.
Garden is still growing, although the one orange on the tree disappeared.
New water barrel is in place but still needs to be plumbed. No chainsaws are actually running yet, but my hopes are high. Just need some small pieces of fuel line, some cleaning, and one or two small parts (primer bulb, missing nut.)
I made a couple of small changes to my office, and I can walk into it again. Not <i>clean</i> by any stretch, but I’m working on it.
More work to do later today, but now I’m off to meet with actual people. (some of whom are hams, one of whom introduced me to the ham lunch group- meatspace baby! and I’m not talking about the deli counter) I’m going to see if I have time to bring baked goods.
n
I drove by the state surplus store on my way to my employer’s new offices yesterday. I’ll have to stop one morning before work. Lots of Charger cop cars are showing up these days.
The new office is right next to the Austin VA outpatient clinic where my wife will work as of the end of the month. I don’t like the arrangement of both of us being so far from home/schools in case of an emergency, but chances are high that one of us will have a new job in a year.
Once my wife waits out the non-compete in a year, Round Rock/North Austin is wide open.
“Complete List of Post-Apocalyptic, Prepper, and Dystopian Fiction Books”
https://www.prepperpress.com/complete-list-of-post-apocalyptic-prepper-and-dystopian-fiction-books
I have read 29 out of the 113 book list. And I have about 100 more books for the list, half of which I have read such as the awesome _Emergence_ by David Palmer.
https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/194881806X/?tag=ttgnet-20
Quiet as a tomb in here today.
Spent the afternoon thrifting and picking up my auction items. I got a couple of coolers for $3 each. When the hurricane comes, you can’t have too many coolers. Or if your freezer quits.
Drove past a few yard sales. There really weren’t many. Nothing at the estate sale listings caught my eye either.
n
Cringely’s record hasn’t been so hot lately. Maybe he should retire as he’s been hinting since the start of the year. The fax machine lives on as will broadcast TV, albeit looking a bit different.
A couple of years ago, when we had to outmaneuver the dealer F&I weasels to unwind the extended warranty ripoffs (plural) on my wife’s Exploder, knowing how to use the fax numbers was key to clawing back about $5000 in the deal. Faxed paperwork goes to email inboxes, and the phone calls left a legal record which the dealer couldn’t fudge.
https://www.cringely.com/2019/06/07/the-future-of-television
An hour or so at work this morning then out to the valley with the family for Palmer’s Colony Days. A celebration of Palmer’s origin as a farming community built during the Depression from dust bowl farmers relocated by the federal government.
The best community event of the year, in my opinion. Parade, egg toss, local vendors with delicious food and true handicrafts.
Absolutely delightful every year.
Gully washer on the way home. And a courteous driver in oncoming driver did the headlight flick flick flick thing to warn us of a speed trap.
Marvelous day.
I have about a 3% success rate getting drivers to simply turn
on their lights in heavy rain or after sunset with the flick flick flick thing!
I guess it’s good if they at least slow down, thinking it’s a speed trap.
I use Waze to help with speed traps when I’m driving. The police locations are not always accurate, but if I see 2+ police icons on the Waze map that are clustered, then I know there’s at least one guy up ahead.
Waze is good for any highway trip.
The local constable has an empty truck parked next to the toll road, and google maps w/waze always identifies it as a speed trap.
n
My cat likes to go on walks with the dog. If I’m going someplace she shouldn’t, like through the town, I have to make sure she doesn’t see us leave. Today, we wanted to go see the new town reservoir, which involves crossing a busy street and walking through a few of blocks of houses, before going into the forest. Well along the walk, the dog let us know: yep, there’s my cat, sneaking through people’s gardens, following us. Stinker.
Next batch of beer is ready for the yeast – I’m trying a new recipe, that my wife will, hopefully, like. I prefer lots of hops and/or dark. She prefers lighter beers. This is supposed to be an amber beer. See how it turns out…
In preparation for our move in a few months (to a much smaller house), I’m trying to sort out my workroom. All those things one saves (might come in handy some day) need to go. Duplicate tools – I really don’t need 30 screwdrivers – are going into a toolbox as a birthday present for older son, who also likes being a handyman. The toolbox itself is new, as is the socket set, since I don’t have two of those. Lots of tools are going to the metal recycling: like US-sized drill bits, some really ancient pliers that look cool but don’t actually work very well, a couple of tools where I don’t even know what they are or where they came from.
Building materials, hmmm… I have a decent stock of boards and such. Is it worth paying to have them moved, including putting them in storage for six months? I dunno…haven’t decided yet.
All in all, a mostly lazy weekend here…
The local constable has an empty truck parked next to the toll road, and google maps w/waze always identifies it as a speed trap.
They’re probably trying to scare repeat toll violators more than speeders, but toll enforcement is often a separate budget than public safety (speeding).
The toll plazas record your speed. The less obvious the hardware, the newer the tech and more accurate the calculation. “Hoses” in an old road between empty booths? Fuggedaboudit. Smooth pavement, wide open lanes? Accurate to +/- a few cm/s.
Automated speed enforcement from the toll plazas would be a nit, but, right now, the jurisdictions want to encourage use of the roads.
And, yes, metric.
“Automated speed enforcement from the toll plazas would be a nit, but, right now, the jurisdictions want to encourage use of the roads.”
The French “péage” toll road system does this, taking the average speed between two toll points. They just add the speeding fine to the toll, and charge one’s credit card or toll account.
I use Waze to help with speed traps when I’m driving. The police locations are not always accurate, but if I see 2+ police icons on the Waze map that are clustered, then I know there’s at least one guy up ahead.
Around tech areas like Puget Sound, I’ve found Waze to be fairly accurate with speed trap reporting and timely removal. I don’t know if it is because people are more into it or traffic moves slower due to the better economic circumstances than, say, Vantucky, where it wasn’t so accurate.
Automatic speeding fines or tickets here would result in non-stop lawsuits and a dramatic reduction in use of the toll roads.
We have a right to face our accuser and have a jury trial for any criminal matter, and speeding tickets have always been a criminal matter.
Should they be? Should it just be a fee, like reverse congestion fees or the fee to use the HOV lanes? More legal challenges. I remember Cali losing that battle, but we do have pay for access to HOV lanes, so I don’t know what the eventual decision was. Or maybe the population just forgets there was an issue and accepts it, like red light cameras or radar speed traps.
n
It’s been integrated into Google maps. Works well.
@brad, SCREWDRIVERS – as important as FLASHLIGHTS
IMHO
You need to keep a few ‘beater’ screwdrivers to open paint cans, pry on stuff, chisel wood and metal, etc….
You need TOOLS, lots of TOOLS.
n
seriously though, screwdrivers are expendables. Wrenches and hammers are not. Socket sets are.