A bit of threatening weather to the north, but no rain before I finally got to bed last night. It’s very damp here, and in the shade that makes it a bit chilly for this (now) Texas boy. I love fall in the upper mid-West, but I’m not fond of summer days. Summer nights are awesome. Summer days, not so much. My daughter is cold here. She’s a Texan.
Plenty more to do here with new twists added. I may have to extend my stay. That will suck for a variety of reasons, but we don’t always get to pick our obligations.
I was planning to do stuff outside the basement today. Now I’ve got a new list. Le sigh….
So, how is your prepping progress? Nothing is getting better out there. Time is getting short.
n
Two rounds of heavy thunderstorms hit our area yesterday. Knocked power out in my neighborhood for a few hours. Internet is still down. Our neighborhood requires buried utilities to reduce outages due to weather but the surrounding, feeder areas, are all above ground so we still get whacked. I canceled my TV subscription with Comcast last week but they still supply my Internet and IP phone, neither of which work today. Sigh. At least we have an antenna on the bedroom TV so we get 3 and 1/2 digital over the air channels. I recommended the wife watch dvds while the ‘net is down. She said she doesn’t know how to work the DVD player or even what it’s remote looks like. Another Sigh. I’ve been through this twice now with her but if she thinks it’s someone else job she just refuses to learn. And using the remotes is “mans” work in her view. She used to be much more flexible but since her massive heart attack and triple bypass a few years ago, she has not been open to learning new things. I think it was the effect of her being bed ridden for almost a year and I took care of everything.
@Nick – Sounds like someone hoping you are desperate to sell and is trying to steal the house t9 flip. Scum.
Housing sales – in our neighborhood, 4 homes have sold within the last month, and all 4 were on the market for less than 30 days. One sold in 3 days. This is also with new neighborhoods being built within walking distance of us. If there is a slowdown going on, it isn’t here.
I joking mentioned to the wife the other day we should sell. We bought this house in mid 2010, right as the market was starting to recover. Whenever we sell, we should come out ok.
This weeks prepping – going to Costco and pick up some extra food. Will be canned goods this time.
I also finally just submitted my application for a concealed carry permit.
Good for you. We need more good people like you out there.
What state are you in? In Mississippi it’s “shall issue” as long as you have lived here more than 2 years and don’t have a violent crime record. My next state, Oklahoma, just passes “constitutional carry” law so no permit will be needed after Nov. 19.
Thanks. Alabama, so it’s a “shall issue” as well. Heck, they don’t even require a training class.
ITGuy1998: Mississippi doesn’t require training for the basic permit but issues an “enhanced” permit for those who pass a training course. The “enhanced” permit allows carry in ALL places not prohibited by Federal law. So I can carry in state court houses, churches, schools, and businesses that prohibit firearms.
I canceled my TV subscription with Comcast last week but they still supply my Internet and IP phone, neither of which work today.
Given your wife’s health issues, I’d suggest a copper landline for phone.
Sure, I pay through the a** for mine, but I never lose dial tone and fax works perfectly.
Greg: excellent advice! She has a mobile but refuses to keep it charged or even turned on. I have wired phone installed at the new home.
Also need to get a Generator bypass installed at the new home so I can plug in my Champion generator safely in the event of outages there.
Fax? I remember those. Some years ago, I casually mentioned to a young person (seems like almost everybody is young now) that the fax was invented before the telephone, and they said, “What’s a telephone?”
Engineer humor 🙂
Oh, and I have a copper land line. It works most of the time. I hate to admit it, but our DirecTV has never been down that I have noticed. Had it for thirteen years. Would drop it in a heartbeat if I had another option.
@ITguy, both of those things are great news.
I avoid the canned green beans at costco. They are the worst I’ve ever tasted. The canned corn is some of the best.
I recommend getting training and classroom time about the legal aspects of self defense. It is very important to understand what the law in your area actually requires, and the legal basis for use of force.
Finally, put some rounds thru your carry piece under a trainer’s guidance. LOTs of rounds. Several hundred at least (although you don’t have to do them all at once.) Make sure you have a trainer there in the beginning to correct any issues before they become habit. And, if you are like me and have been shooting casually for decades, you probably have picked up some bad habits. Modern doctrine changes with the times, so take it with a grain of salt, but neutral eyes on your technique can be very helpful.
added- and some sort of gun specific insurance, like Texas Law Shield (for your state.)
n
I have copper LL also. Only receive one valid call from known person once a year. However part of my internet, cable tv and phone bundle, $99/mo., from Spectrum. Requested cancellation and was told bundle discount elimination would raise cost of other two above $99.
Bundle expires after 1 year. Twice I have then cancelled TV and go to Sling and bill for non-bundled three drops from $200+ to $100+ for phone and internet. After 30 days, I can sign up f0r $99 bundle, for all three again.
Fax? I remember those. Some years ago, I casually mentioned to a young person (seems like almost everybody is young now) that the fax was invented before the telephone, and they said, “What’s a telephone?”
Fax is still huge in finance and healthcare, where a *real* signature is required. Also, fax, unlike email, has a reasonable expectation of privacy when establishing certain truths within a courtroom.
I’ve written before here that strategic use of a fax machine helped us claw back some of the money we almost lost in my wife’s Exploder deal.
The dealers know how to use a Fax machine, and they assume everyone else is clueless. Not us.
Plenty of school districts we work with also use fax. Ours is a virtual fax service. Faxes come in to your email and you can fax out of email or log in to their web site.
I read a Tweet stream and watch some clips of the Dumbo debate last night. Plugs shouldn’t have showed up. He was terrible. My favorite clip is when the Dumbos are asked who would give free health care to illegals. All the hands go up, Plugs looks left and right and puts up a finger. Lol!
OK, to get serious for just a moment, is a fax delivered by email legally as good as one from a fax machine?
OK, to get serious for just a moment, is a fax delivered by email legally as good as one from a fax machine?
My guess is that you would have to be able to demonstrate that the email stayed within the company network. We had that kind of lockdown at CGI.
Email gets really dicey with regard to expectation of privacy, especially in the age where running your own server is a hassle.
We also deal with school districts that accept a signed contract by fax, but insist the original come through snail mail. Work proceeds but will not be completed until the “original” signature arrives on a three-legged burro named “Lucky.”
My favorite faxes come from any school in Kalifornia. One page of signature and 100 pages of boiler plate. I think they even mention this fax may contain materials that cause cancer.
We also deal with school districts that accept a signed contract by fax, but insist the original come through snail mail. Work proceeds but will not be completed until the “original” signature arrives on a three-legged burro named “Lucky.”
I had to file for SWAC (contractor background check for government work) in NY/NJ for work, and the form required a signature from an officer in the corporation in blue pen.
Yes, I remember that when I composed official, contractural documents back in the 90’s. We had to sign in blue ink so that it would be recognized as the “original”, as when copied its copies would show the signature in black.
I wonder how that works in today’s color scanners, copiers and printers. Perhaps only a Notary Public would have to sign in non-black.
Happy anniversary of another journey around the sun Mr. Lynn. 59 is the new 59.
In my ecperience in the financial world, notary service is rapidly going away. I have needed a gold medallion (or something) signature guarantee the last few times. Small pain, because I have a friend who is a notary, and that service is more convenient. She is thinking of dropping her cert, which will have no impact on me.
I deal with about five financial firms, ranging from huge to one guy. All except the one guy have gone to digital signatures on their web sites. I just (sometimes) type my name and check a box. They probably have a real signature on file. They probably got that from someone who stole it from UPS 🙂
As a timely coincidence, I just found a solution. I went to make a monthly scanned copy of a form on my Canon MG6820 copier, scanner, printer.
After touching the copy icon, the machine offered the options of: black or color. I chose black and the process commenced.
Answer to sign in blue only today: Get a FW update from Canon that deletes the color option. As such only the originals will have blue signatures.
Roger that? 10-4, over and out!
We are selling our house in Vegas (hope to close next Tues). Until we went to the Title office, all signatures were via DocuSign. Very convenient.
I wonder how that works in today’s color scanners, copiers and printers. Perhaps only a Notary Public would have to sign in non-black.
“Live ink” looks different under magnification than uniformly applied toner or inkjet sprays from a printer/copier, and a lot of case history shortcuts establishing the truth in court.
The same is true of autopens, but Obama famously used them to sign some bills.
The bank will reject photo deposits of checks I endorse with my legal signature, they don’t believe it’s a signature. Despite it being a match for the one they have on a card in the branch to probably 4 nines… Their OCR just wants something else than my sig.
We dropped cable and cable internet as soon as ATT pulled fiber to the home in our neighborhood. I use ooma to back feed the whole house to provide phone extensions. I’m happy with the service. I sure don’t miss cable. I only lit up the extensions so that the grandparents and kids could call 911 if needed.
I need to get finished with my existing list today.
n
@JimB
Do I recall correctly that this is the Andy Griffith movie with Andy eating dinner outside of the Owl Garage in Red Mountain as the opening scene?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savages_(1974_film)
I read a Tweet stream and watch some clips of the Dumbo debate last night. Plugs shouldn’t have showed up. He was terrible. My favorite clip is when the Dumbos are asked who would give free health care to illegals. All the hands go up, Plugs looks left and right and puts up a finger. Lol!
Plugs won’t last into the Fall. Long term, there are too many questions about his son being on the take from Ukraine while Pops was VP.
Plus, there is whatever BJ Klinton pulled from Biden’s FBI file in the 90s and used to drop the dime on ol’ Joe four years ago.
CowboySlim, (wish I could use that moniker, but I am neither) yes, you recall correctly. The first time you referred to it I watched it through, while I did some other light tasks. Pretty good. I always liked Andy Griffith, but here he played a bad guy well.
Wish I could get cable. Fiber, a dream.
Starlink might be an option. It is for the third world, isn’t it?
Over The Hedge: horrible image
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2019/06/28
You were warned.
From @mediumwave yesterday:
Sarah Hoyt on prepping
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2019/06/27/thoughts-from-the-road/
“This is not a warning. It is a remainder we’re in trouble deep. Barring a miracle, things are going to get exponentially worse. There will be confrontations here and there, ranging from BLM level blocked highways and nuttery to Beirut. It will be worse some places. It’s not even a blue-red thing. I note that though Denver has the same nutty pro-public defecation laws as San Fran it hasn’t got as insane except in very concentrated neighborhoods. Perhaps because most of the locals aren’t amused, and the imported Californians are too stoned to count.”
“It is a place by place and area by area thing, and it’s not easy to guess. The American instinct is to go and “hide out” in the middle of nowhere, but in all the collapses of law and order I’ve witnessed/read about, isolated homesteads were the most dangerous (as they are indeed in South Africa today.)”
I just do not see this happening in today’s USA. This is the picture of a totally dysfunctional society. In fact, this could be a short prelude to a multiple state civil war in the USA.
I just do not see this happening in today’s USA. This is the picture of a totally dysfunctional society. In fact, this could be a short prelude to a multiple state civil war in the USA.
Now that the Texas Governor and Legislature have signaled that they want to spend political capital fighting 50 year-old abortion battles, Austin passed a new ordinance preventing the cops from harassing the urban outdoormen/women pitching tents alongside the road as long as they’re not committing a crime.
My wife said a homeless woman has already set up camp at the prime corner for panhandling, the turn from Mopac NB onto Parmer WB, stringing a line for a tent between two utility poles.
If I get a picture on my commute home, I will send it to Mr. Flandrey for posting.
It may be for the third world now but give Elon time. Once he has it up there, the wailing and throwing of money will make it available to rural areas the the FUSA as well.
“FAA finds potential flaw in Boeing 737 Max software updates”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/faa-finds-potential-flaw-boeing-737-max-software-updates-n1022516
“The software update was supposed to improve safety after the jets were grounded worldwide following two fatal crashes.”
I just do not see using software to correct a people mover airplane that is not aerodynamically stable.
Happy anniversary of another journey around the sun Mr. Lynn. 59 is the new 59.
Thanks. I am old.
“When Ransomware Strikes”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-ransomware/
“It’s a situation that most IT Managers will face at some point in their career. Per Security Magazine, “Eighty-six percent Small to Medium Business (SMB) clients were recently victimized by ransomware.” In fact, it happened to us at Backblaze. Cybersecurity company Ice Cybersecurity published that ransomware attacks occur every 40 seconds (that’s over 2,000 times per day!). Coveware’s Ransomware Marketplace Report says that the average ransom cost has increased by 89% to $12,762, as compared to $6,733 in Q4 of 2018. The downtime resulting from ransomware is also on the rise. The average number of days a ransomware incident lasts amounts to just over a week at 7.3 days, which should be factored in when calculating the true cost of ransomware. The estimated downtime costs per ransomware attack per company averaged $65,645. The increasing financial impact on businesses of all sizes has proven that the business of ransomware is booming, with no signs of slowing down.”
@Lynn : Thanks. I am old.
I now express my age in hexadecimal. I’m only 0x42.
My slogan: “I may have to grow old, but I refuse to grow up.’
Congrats to you on your 0x3B birthday. (That will confuse the masses…)
Now that the Texas Governor and Legislature have signaled that they want to spend political capital fighting 50 year-old abortion battles, Austin passed a new ordinance preventing the cops from harassing the urban outdoormen/women pitching tents alongside the road as long as they’re not committing a crime.
My wife said a homeless woman has already set up camp at the prime corner for panhandling, the turn from Mopac NB onto Parmer WB, stringing a line for a tent between two utility poles.
If I get a picture on my commute home, I will send it to Mr. Flandrey for posting.
I saw a man and woman living in a tent in front of the La Quinta on I-35 in Austin last year. I was not impressed. The La Quinta manager was not happy either.
If you want more of something, make it easy or profitable. If you want less of something, make it difficult and costly.
It is glaringly obvious that the elected officials in some cities & towns want more homelessness and unemployment.
While it may seem heartless, tough love just plumb works. When a man is hungry enough, he’ll find work (or starve). When a man is rousted (frequently) from public spaces for violation of vagrancy ordinances, he’ll either find a place to live or move on.
n.b., I have seen much wailing about how we should DO SOMETHING about these things. The folks wailing are first to volunteer my money for such things, but they are NOT inviting them into their homes or giving of their pantry. [/rant]
I saw a man and woman living in a tent in front of the La Quinta on I-35 in Austin last year. I was not impressed. The La Quinta manager was not happy either.
I live in unicorporated Williamson County, but the city limits of Austin are 800 yards from my front door.
We already have mischief in the neighborhood due to the new road cut to US 183 through the H1B-targeted development which replaced the cattle ranch that used to act as a buffer.
While it may seem heartless, tough love just plumb works. When a man is hungry enough, he’ll find work (or starve). When a man is rousted (frequently) from public spaces for violation of vagrancy ordinances, he’ll either find a place to live or move on.
Austin, San Antonio, and some of the municipalities between the two such as San Marcos have been emboldened to pursue a Prog agenda ever since the Texas Governor and Legislature failed to squelch their initial trial runs with local ordinances governing cell phone use while driving and mandatory paid sick leave.
If the state doesn’t squelch the camping quickly, the cities will go further.
We are already seeing signs that we are in a dysfunctional society. When the .gov can’t ask if you are a citizen or not on the CENSUS which is used to determine all kinds of things, like number of Representatives, and where money gets spent, you have dysfunction.
n
“Jimmy Carter Says Trump is an Illegitimate President: ‘He Didn’t Actually Win the Election’”
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/jimmy-carter-says-trump-is-an-illegitimate-president-he-didnt-actually-win-the-election/
Given the chance, I will pass on attending a Bible class taught by Jimmy Carter. If a man lies in public, no telling what he will do in church.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
From @nick yesterday:
Even with dad cleaning out the sheds and organizing them, and doing a lot of prep we didn’t know about, there is still a crapton of work to do. Mom wants to take everything with her to a smaller house. That is, what she hasn’t given away already. There isn’t going to be anything for the estate/downsizing sale except some collections. There are almost no tools left, and she wants all the furniture.
Is the smaller house going to be cheaper ? If your mom’s house sells for $140K, it will be tough to find a cheaper home ??? Or are home prices really depressed in IL ?
Where Are They Now? : A drifter, a deadbeat and an intensely private doctor. Hardly heroes, these are the faces behind some of the most famous legal decisions in America.
NB: The article is from 1992.
Given the chance, I will pass on attending a Bible class taught by Jimmy Carter. If a man lies in public, no telling what he will do in church.
Once upon a time, Jimmy Carter was an honorable man, no matter how misguided.
I still remember the night in 1980 at the Dem convention when Carter refused to turn his delegates loose to vote for Kennedy, in one of the last “smoke filled room” deals brokered at a major convention, and spared the country the fiasco of an Uncle Ted Presidency. Carter couldn’t live with the possibility of handing the nomination to an unindicted murderer, even if it meant he was taking his party down to defeat.
On a related note, Robert Francis pandering and speaking Spanish floated like a lead balloon the other night. He may be done.
The Idiot Castro (ok, they’re both idiots) talking about transgender abortion rights (hunh?) might be done too. At least he didn’t try to speak Spanish — the scions of La Raza don’t Habla even at the Robert Francis level.
I admire Jimmy Carter the man. I have since he was president.
I do not admire Jimmy Carter the politician. He was not as great as a national leader.
You can have both of them in the same man.
I can understand him not seeing Trump as “legitimate”. I do not agree with saying so publicly as he has. That’s as bad as the Birthers. Once a president is elected and all that.
@JimB,
OK another local movie. Coming back from Death Valley down Trona road, then south on a dirt road to the Pinnacles. Saw the left overs of rocket structural frame, upright but all burned-out and damaged. Much later, saw that it was the location for the shooting of a Planet Of The Apes sequel. Then back up to Trona Rd. and back down to 395 and home.
One of my aunts just texted me. She said she was 12 when I was born and we had lots of fun together when I was little. I do remember being the ring bearer in her wedding since I was threatened within an inch of my life if I threw the ring pillow up in the air “one more time”.
@CowboySlim, I didn’t know that, but many movie scenes have been shot around there.
I don’t know much about movies, but would bet that locations are chosen for many reasons beyond their looks.
The current hot spot for commercials is the Inyokern airport. It has many good qualities, and might be cheap. I can sometimes stand on my front porch and see the lights at night. It is 11 miles across the valley. As you know, our visibility is very good.
Also, apparently a mystery star, whose name might be Tom Cruise, has been shooting a new Top Gun movie somewhere. That’s the rumor. Don’t pay much attention.
My only local brush with someone famous happened when I was in the breakfast buffet line at a local hotel years ago. I turned around to see John Voight big as life, and trying to look inconspicuous. I just smiled, and kept moving. I learned later that he was in the habit of going into character, and probably would not have liked an interruption. No one else bothered him either. He was eating alone at an obscure table. The movie was Holes. He is one of the few modern actors I admire for his work and his attitude.
I read SCOTUS will hear tRump’s order to cancel DACA in their next session. Again, why does the President of the United States have to go to court to cancel another President’s stupid EO? It should be fundamental that a President can’t create a law, act, whatever you want to call it, via EO, that lasts forever. He isn’t King Obola. It was supposed to be temporary anyway. To me, this will be a test of SCOTUS legacy building. Who wants to bet all the Libs + Roberts say “no, no, that’s now a precedent that has to stand forever.” Hey, I’m all for giving *true* DACA turds a path to a green card, but no more than that. Any new DACA turds get trebuchet’d back to their shithole. If Obola can do it, why can’t tRump. Every EO he issues is challenged in court.
When I drove through Mopac and Parmer intersection, the tent my wife described was gone.
That’s the key intersection that Apple employees drive through on their way to campus from the hip places to live in South Austin. I’m not surprised that the tent is gone.
IIRC, the proturds sued in fed courts to have tRumps daca cancellations cancelled. If so, only a higher court can rule.
Who wants to bet all the Libs + Roberts say “no, no, that’s now a precedent that has to stand forever.”
That’s probably what will happen since the fate of the Court balance might well be decided by the election, where immigration will be a huge issue, but one of the Liberals might defect out of concern about handing a President that kind of power.
To be fair, Roberts’ consistent line in issues like this is that the court cannot be the place where poor political decisions are undone. The place to undo them is at the ballot box.
The country had a chance to undo Obamacare in 2012, and the Republicans nominated no less than Mittens, architect of the prototype system in MA, and an LDS elder who no member of the evangelical wing of the base would ever trust. The end result was reelection of the incumbent with fewer votes than McCain received in 2008.
Roberts has a point, but it still sucks.
As @nick is wont to say: Ah, le diversité:
Missing University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck is dead; man charged with murder
Currently in Grants Pass Oregon. Reunion get-together today at a local park. About 20 people showed up. One chap looked really bad, at first I thought he was a homeless person. Rough life spending most of it in the Merchant Marine.
Tomorrow is the big gathering at a local venue just outside of Wimer. Owner is donating the event and food for the reunion just asking for donations.
Also the Rooster Crow event tomorrow. Small town event that has been going on for 66 years.
Gideon v. Wainwright started here, there is a memorial to the case at the local courthouse. As the linked article suggests, Clarence Earl Gideon was not the finest human being on the planet, but that’s not the point.
And Jimmy Carter was a decent, honorable man, whose Presidency was for the most part based on principle. Alas, his principles were all too often wrong. And since he left office he’s opined on policy & politics all too often.
Finally, re: the citizenship question. What I wouldn’t give to hear someone, anyone, on a national news broadcast stand up and say “You don’t have to answer that question, or any others, except for the first one. How many people live at this address?” But that’s not Right Thought, as Eric Blair would say.
But the thought police will soon come and arrest you. On trumped up charges from census worker that “think” they know the law and accompanied by some LEO that “think” they know the law.
Same goes for coming back into the US with a US passport. You do not have to answer any questions as you are proving your identity and that you are a US citizen. However, they border agents can hold you for 23 hours without any charges and just say have a nice day at the end of the 23 hours. You can place money on the border agents exercising that option as you have called into question their authority.
I was photographing in downtown Knoxville, took some pictures of the US courthouse from the street. The security guard comes running and says I cannot take pictures and demands my memory card. I told him to get lost. He said he is calling the police. I tell him no problem. Police arrive, three cars (don’t know what the guard told them). Police asked what I was doing and I stated taking pictures from a public location. Police said if I did not move I would be arrested for public loitering (whatever that is). But I still kept my pictures. I don’t know what the police told the guard.
Some pictures from the trip.
Banana republics. We used to laugh at them for prohibiting photos.
Ask the guard if he took the google street view car’s memory card… or how he’d keep you from filming as you drove by. Perhaps he’d like to remove the picture of the courthouse on their website? Maybe a pen and ink sketch would be ok? No? Fuskers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=knoxville+tn+courthouse —click images tab. maybe he should get an injunction against google?
Dysfunctional. People shitting on the streets. Living in tents. Typhus and typhoid in LA city hall. Swollen martinets swaggering around saying ‘Respect my authority’.
Dysfunctional. City water you can’t drink. City schools that don’t educate. City police that are a bigger risk to the citizens than the criminals.
Bad laws enacted hastily that NO ONE wanted yet don’t get repealed. When was the last time YOU voted for a tax increase?
Congressmen entering as “well off” and leaving as astoundingly wealthy, on 175K a year. Rioiiight. And the band plays on, and no one raises the question.
Good people co-opted by seats on corporate boards and other outright bribes.
defacto NO GO zones in major cities.
What do we see in all the worst areas? “Urban youth” and “urban” culture. Lawbreaking illegal aliens. What do we see in areas that still function? I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
n
In the plus column for the day, the buyer dropped his demands and says he wants to proceed with the sale. Now we are waiting for the VA inspection and appraisal. I’m packing tomorrow, and absent some big change in circumstance, driving home Sunday and Monday. Seems that in IL he can continue his shenanigans for months if he wants to delay and mess around. I guess we’ll see.
The last time I saw my dad alive, he was sitting right here, in this room, in front of this computer, kissing my daughter goodbye. It’s more than just a house.
n
Mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be “software engineers”:
Boeing’s 737 Max Software Outsourced to $9-an-Hour Engineers
Boeing’s 737 Max Software Outsourced to $9-an-Hour Engineers
They’re known as “freshers”. It is an Indian term for “doesn’t know sh*t”.
As I’ve posted before, my classes at grad school were typically 38 Indians, 1 Vietnamese girl, and me. Guess which two students could produce certified transcripts from their respective undergrad programs.
Some pictures from the trip.
Cool. Those are better than the pics the State of Oregon puts in their brochures.
You should put a disclaimer up that The Coast only looks that way for about 6-8 weeks out of the year.