Wed. July 31, 2019 – still at the Cape

By on July 31st, 2019 in Random Stuff

Very nice day yesterday, sunny and hot but with a cool ocean breeze. Did I mention that this rental house doesn’t really have any AC? In the bathroom, for example, it is very hot. This is the longest I’ve been in a non-airconditioned space, while it was hot, in a long time. No sir, I don’t like it.

Even the Daily Mail thinks the Dems ate their own last night. I didn’t see it. I was busy in meatspace.

Gilroy murderer is already falling out of the news cycle.

Hoping to sleep in today, but the little window ac can’t keep the room cool tonight. Joy.

Maybe I’ll get some seafood tonight, after all, this is the place for it.

If the oceans don’t boil in this latest heatwave that is….

n

42 Comments and discussion on "Wed. July 31, 2019 – still at the Cape"

  1. JLP says:

    The Cape is a real mishmash. Local owned business and distant owned “investment”. I’ve been to the Cape dozens of times and I have been both pleasantly surprised and sorely disappointed. I know several people who have cabins bought by parents in the 50s before the Cape was the place to go for the common folk. They (and extended family) use the cabin a few weeks a year and rent it out the rest to cover taxes and provide a little pocket money.

    As to your AC. Bigger AC means more amps, more amps means upgraded wiring, upgrading wiring means upgrading service to current code, upgrading to current code means $$$. Someone did a cost vs repeat customer analysis and decided that there were plenty of new customers who won’t read the on-line reviews.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Someone did a cost vs repeat customer analysis and decided that there were plenty of new customers who won’t read the on-line reviews.

    Asian investor. The minimum gets done to make sure the place doesn’t collapse. I’ve lived it for 30 years with my in-laws.

    Also, another clue — fancy name appliances, but no real AC. Installing AC requires paying big money for a service which the buyer can’t brag about to friends like a Subzero refrigerator, regardless of the working/non-working status of the appliance.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    And it turns out that there weren’t any online reviews of this property. MIL found that odd, but not concerning. Everything here points to the family owners not being involved any longer. The other places we’ve rented over the years still had family involvement, and they were different in feel and quality. They were doing exactly as you experienced, using the place for holidays and special weekends, and renting so they could afford that the rest of the year.

    For example, the new trim around upstairs windows, that was never finished, has been that way all season. The window coverings were removed for painting that never happened, and never put back. It’s possible someone ran out of money, or got burned by a contractor, but if it was a family place, they would have had time to put the curtains back up. It’s clear that no one cares.

    n

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    This is not at all reassuring.

    “One bank faces major security questions as it’s revealed hacker who stole 100 million credit card applications was a lone ‘amateur’ with an unsophisticated attack

    Capital One bank faced questions about their security after hacker revealed
    Paige Thompson, 33, charged by FBI and described as an ‘amateur’
    She stole over 100 million credit card applications from the 10th largest bank
    Thompson was working alone and used an unsophisticated attack
    The revelation has stunned the cyber security community”

    And our old friend ebola continues to make inroads toward destroying the world…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7305233/Fears-Ebola-spreading-grow-SECOND-case-city-two-million-people-live.html

    n

  5. Greg Norton says:

    It’s clear that no one cares.

    Try to avoid being there as much as possible and enjoy the location.

    The location is what you are really renting.

    The Chinese relatives constantly pitched the idea to us of renting a house on the Oregon coast for a week or two. Great, but they never discussed who would do the leg work of finding the house and who would write the checks. The really big problem, however, would have been the inability to leave and get out during daylight hours without coordinating with a dozen people loathe to pay for services like lunch in a restaurant in town or museum admissions.

    The Coast was always something we did by ourselves and had a very good time. The hotel rooms were not memorable because we were never there except to sleep.

  6. lynn says:

    Very nice day yesterday, sunny and hot but with a cool ocean breeze. Did I mention that this rental house doesn’t really have any AC? In the bathroom, for example, it is very hot. This is the longest I’ve been in a non-airconditioned space, while it was hot, in a long time. No sir, I don’t like it.

    Just wait until the New Green Deal. Not only will you not be able to afford the electricity for the a/c, there will not be enough electricity supply to run the a/c should you want to.

    Don’t you worry though. El Presidente AOC and her friends will have a/c to spare.

  7. lynn says:

    “Seattle woman charged in Capital One breach may have data from other companies”
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2019/07/30/suspect-behind-capital-one-data-breach-may-have-more/1865848001/

    “A Seattle woman who is charged with taking data on more than 100 million customers from Capital One is reportedly a former Amazon Web Services systems engineer who may have accessed data from more companies.”

    “Paige A. Thompson, 33, is charged with computer fraud and abuse in a criminal case filed Monday in federal court in Seattle.”

    That ain’t no Lady.

    Hat tip to:
    https://drudgereport.com/

  8. lynn says:

    “Analysis: Dem Candidates Call For More Than $200 Trillion in Spending”
    https://freebeacon.com/politics/analysis-dem-candidates-call-for-more-than-200-trillion-in-spending/

    Uh, the USA economy is roughly $20 trillion. So over the next ten years, they are going to spend 100% of the USA GDP on free stuff.

    That dog ain’t gonna hunt.

    What a bunch of hosers.

    Hat tip to:
    https://drudgereport.com/

  9. Greg Norton says:

    That ain’t no Lady.

    I also gather, reading between the lines, that the individual is another self-taught Seattle hipster who lacked patience for any formal education beyond a six month “boot camp” which is increasingly common these days.

    I’ll give a lot of leeway to “self taught” having laregly done that myself, but I don’t look seriously at any resume which crosses my desk without some kind of commitment, real life experience or even an arts degree, to explain how the individual spent their time from age 18 to roughly 25.

    As an aside, my wife is starting to pick up transgender patients at the VA now that word has got around that she can manage the care and has an open mind. She saw two transwomen the other day — one young and one older.

    I asked, “Special Forces? Those are always the ones who have that going on in their heads.”

    “Not the younger one who is pre-op, but the older one who already had surgery in Thailand, definitely that type.”

    “Takes real balls to cut ’em off, especially in Thailand where the care is a game of chance.”

  10. lynn says:

    I’ll give a lot of leeway to “self taught” having laregly done that myself, but I don’t look seriously at any resume which crosses my desk without some kind of real life experience or even an arts degree to explain how the individual spent the age from 18 to roughly 25.

    The precursor to Antifa.

  11. MrAtoz says:

    My summary of the 2nd Dumbo debate part 1:

    1. #OrangeManBad
    2. #FreeShitForAllButWHITEY
    3. #OpenBorders
    4. #ReparationsForBlacks
    5. #OrangeManBad

    Yeah, Plugs is a shoe-in for the nomination. But, he just might fold during part 2.

  12. brad says:

    I don’t have any personal experience with transgender folks, but from what I read, I suspect that the actual number of people with gender dysphoria is a very small portion of the total transgender number. A lot of people with depression or other psychological problems fixate on the current trend, and convince themselves that it applies to their situation.

    Despite what the LGBT people want to believe, long-term regret after transition is apparently common, and often leads to suicide. This has to do with the fixation I mentioned above, followed by the belated realization that they have added a massive mistake to their already considerable problems.

    Don’t get me started on people who push this onto their kids. Talk about abuse…

  13. Greg Norton says:

    The precursor to Antifa.

    Reed College in Portland.

    During my time in grad school in Vantucky, we half joked that at graduation from Reed, you received a diploma and a bong.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah, Plugs is a shoe-in for the nomination. But, he just might fold during part 2.

    No. Plugs’ son did something bad in Ukraine and China about which the dimes will start to drop if he’s still in this after Labor Day.

    And if Cankles decides to try it again, BJ has all the data from Biden’s FBI file, part of the pile of data on potential rivals that the Klinton operatives pulled and reviewed shortly after taking office in 1993.

    Remember those files?

    Plus, a lot of Progs still blame Biden for Clarence Thomas taking the Affirmative Action seat on the Court, occupying it for nearly 30 years and counting.

    No. Plugs will be done soon … if not tonight.

  15. lynn says:

    Despite what the LGBT people want to believe, long-term regret after transition is apparently common, and often leads to suicide. This has to do with the fixation I mentioned above, followed by the belated realization that they have added a massive mistake to their already considerable problems.

    My wife has a masters degree in social work from the University of Houston. She worked at Harris Country juvenile probation and Catholic Charities Home for Unwed Mothers back in the 1970s. Never again if I have my way. A lot of screwed up people. Anyway, she knew a guy who transitioned surgically to female (inverted the tube). And transitioned back to guy surgically. Except, after the second surgery, he no longer had testicles. And his unit was half the length that it was before. He greatly regretted that.

  16. lynn says:

    Just tried out the new Burger King crispy tacos for lunch. Uh, no. In order of preference:
    1. Taco Bueno
    2. Taco Bell
    3. Jack in the Box

    99. Burger King

  17. lynn says:

    “18 Reasons You Should Upgrade to Windows 10”
    https://www.pcmag.com/article/335952/10-reasons-to-upgrade-to-windows-10

    They forgot the ten reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    They forgot the ten reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10.

    We’ll see if they really pull the plug on Windows 7 in January. I don’t think it will happen, but new hardware hasn run Windows 7 for at least three years now.

    I replaced Windows 7 on my old MacBook Pro with Pop! OS LTS 18.04. The jury is still out on that. If I decide to pull the plug, the machine has no other supported operating systems and will be sold off.

  19. Greg Norton says:

    She worked at Harris Country juvenile probation and Catholic Charities Home for Unwed Mothers back in the 1970s. Never again if I have my way. A lot of screwed up people.

    Try GP medicine in Austin. My wife says that the VA patient base is generally less screwed up with fewer Adderall seekers.

    She had an AT&T manager come in the other day, a vet looking for a health exemption from pole climbing classes. She told him that she knew all about the strike planning thanks to my decade at the Death Star.

    She cautioned him that he may not like the alternative to climbing telephone poles and described my strike call center job in Van Nuys with the mandatory Uverse sales quotas but without the commission checks.

  20. paul says:

    I haven’t tried Taco Bueno.

    Taco Bell varies by location. The location in Lampasas was pretty good a couple of years ago. I don’t go to Lampasas very much. I haven’t tried the Burnet location but it seems to have a long line in the drive thru when I pass by. The location in Marble Falls is good almost all of the time… they seem to have an employee hiring/retention problem.
    The Taco Bell in Cedar Park ? in front of what was an Albertson’s and I think is now a Hobby Lobby or such, sucks. Like all of a tablespoon of meat in the tacos.

    I tried Jack in the Box tacos. Once. Ate half of one and tossed it and the other two out the car window. Nasty. Hopefully I didn’t poison any raccoons or possums. I read a clone recipe and just say no. Take a tortilla, put in some ground meat and a slice of cheese, fold in half and deep fry it.

    I refuse to go to Burger King.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    Just tried out the new Burger King crispy tacos for lunch. Uh, no.

    Now I’m going to be thinking about the Letterman meme from the 90s about frog tacos.

    We actually ate at El Torito, the chain infamous for serving the taco containing the baby frog, the last time we were in LA. Apparently, they’ve gone bankrupt a few times since then, but we didn’t have a problem eating there.

  22. dkreck says:

    Del Taco, but really, someplace local is almost always better.

  23. Greg Norton says:

    I refuse to go to Burger King.

    When I worked at CGI in Belton, I stopped at the Burger King on occasion.

    The problem with the Belton Burger King is that their Diet Coke runs (ran?) through what was probably once a Mr. Pibb or Dr. Pepper line. With those machines, you pick a nozzle for Mr. Pibb/Dr. Pepper and you have to plan on running nothing else there until the machine is thrown away.

    I always had to stop at McDonalds for the soda and Burger King for the food. Fortunately, both were on a easy loop up, U-turn, and down 35.

  24. Ray Thompson says:

    In order of preference:
    1. Taco Bueno
    2. Taco Bell
    3. Jack in the Box

    99. Burger King

    In order of preference:
    1. Taco Cabana
    2. Taco Bell
    3. Jack in the Box

    98. Starvation
    99. Burger King

  25. Greg Norton says:

    99. Burger King

    I only get the burger. Forget the fries.

    Ever been to Belton, TX? If you’re in a hurry, the options can be limited.

    CGI used to justify paying ~ 1/2 of what a developer in Austin would make by stating that Belton had a lower cost of living. I’ll debate them on that, but it was definitely a small town.

  26. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’d almost drive to SanMarcos for In n out Burger. I wouldn’t drive anywhere for tacos.

    N

  27. Greg Norton says:

    I’d almost drive to SanMarcos for In n out Burger. I wouldn’t drive anywhere for tacos.

    The In-n-Out at Airport Blvd and I-35 isn’t far from the State Surplus Store.

    The neighborhood between Downtown and ABI along Ben White is … interesting. I never explored that part of town much before the office moved to Met Center.

  28. lynn says:

    She had an AT&T manager come in the other day, a vet looking for a health exemption from pole climbing classes.

    Climbing the poles with spurs will give you a double groin hernia on the inside of your legs after a while, especially if you are older. A friend of mine had his groin hernias fixed on workers comp. Three times each side.

  29. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’ve heard there were in n out burgers in Austin, but never found them.

    The area between the surplus store and the goodwill outlet was full of what looked like carnies begging and living beside the road.

    N

  30. mediumwave says:

    Speaking of burgers:

    The guy in the barber chair ahead of me today claimed to have been a member of some sort of federal(?) anti-terrorist group. He, the barber, and I got on the topic of how many Africans were coming across the southern border and their potential for bringing Ebola into the USA.

    The guy in the chair proposed this lovely scenario: Grind the corpse of an Ebola victim very, very fine, mix the bits with light oil, and spray the streets with a truck in the same way mosquitoes are sprayed for. According to him, the spray can be made fine enough to penetrate brick.

    As Eric the talking skull, the sidekick of Morgus the Magnificent (the local TV Svengoolie back in the 50s/60s) used to say at the end of his show: Pleasant dreams!

  31. lynn says:

    We are thinking about buying this house that we just looked at. It was built by Perry Homes in 1998 and has single pane windows.
    https://www.har.com/6111-bridlewood-drive/sale_32881950

    We would replace the windows with double pane soundproof windows, paint, and replace the carpet. Then move in. Then add the rear patio, mosquito netting, and man cave once we sell our house.

    The three non-master bedrooms are grouped together with two jack-n-jill bathrooms spread between them. Our disabled daughter would have plenty of room to live in.

  32. Nick Flandrey says:

    There are a lot of nightmare ebola scenarios. Most of the worst end with the death of western technological society, as all the interlocked pieces fall apart.

    ONE ebola patient, in a group of 100 illegals in the back of a truck, and they make it across…. Then those 100 disperse across the US, to every corner and every town, and when they become symptomatic, they don’t go to the ER (because they’re illegals) until it’s too late for the ER staff. We lose 100 hospitals. No one goes to work or school. Everything stops.

    n

  33. Nick Flandrey says:

    Spent a nice couple of hours at the pirate museum. Didn’t know that they had the only actual pirate treasure ever found in the US. Or that the idea of pirate treasure maps goes back to one story….

    For a while, pirating was good business. Until it wasn’t.

    Weather is a bit cooler this afternoon and evening. We got down to the pond behind the house and dipped some bait in the water. I did my best to rig the bait so we wouldn’t actually catch anything, and I succeeded. We did have a couple of exciting strikes to keep the girls’ interest. No rowing on the pond as someone took the drain plug from the boat… I looked but couldn’t find it with the other boat stuff. Without that, it’s really not a boat.

    Lobster dinner was nice. I prefer king crab, but the lobster was tasty. It wasn’t even crazy expensive. We were able to eat on the deck and keep the mess outside. It’s all part of the Cape experience.

    Supposed to get rain for the next couple of days, but we’ve made sunny day plans too. If it were MY vacation, I’d be on the couch, AC cranked, reading books. But it’s not.

    n

  34. Greg Norton says:

    Climbing the poles with spurs will give you a double groin hernia on the inside of your legs after a while, especially if you are older. A friend of mine had his groin hernias fixed on workers comp. Three times each.

    Now that SNET is gone, dumped onto Frontier, not much of AT&T’s infrastructure is overhead anymore. The pole climbing classes are just a way of generating attrition while the company runs the kabuki for Wall Street.

    One of our managers thought she was clever and got herself certified as acrophobic so the company assigned her to strike duty crawling under houses in older neighborhoods in Houston.

  35. lynn says:

    Lobster dinner was nice. I prefer king crab, but the lobster was tasty. It wasn’t even crazy expensive. We were able to eat on the deck and keep the mess outside. It’s all part of the Cape experience.

    I love eating lobster. And lobster bisque. And lobster sub sandwiches.

    There is a place here in Houston that sells awesome lobster rolls and lobster bisque.
    https://www.mainelysandwiches.com/

  36. Greg Norton says:

    Lobster dinner was nice. I prefer king crab, but the lobster was tasty. It wasn’t even crazy expensive. We were able to eat on the deck and keep the mess outside. It’s all part of the Cape experience.

    Lighthouse tours also?

    We couldn’t go anywhere this summer due to my wife’s new job and my older child’s band activities. Next year…

  37. Vince says:

    Lobster dinner was nice. I prefer king crab, but the lobster was tasty. It wasn’t even crazy expensive. We were able to eat on the deck and keep the mess outside. It’s all part of the Cape experience.

    If it were MY vacation, I’d be on the couch, AC cranked, reading books. But it’s not.

    Lobster bisque is nice, although I’m closer to Cape Ann than Cape Cod.

    Sounds like my kinda vacation too, Nick.

  38. lynn says:

    If it were MY vacation, I’d be on the couch, AC cranked, reading books. But it’s not.

    Me too. Unless we were floating the Missouri River in Montana catching rainbows.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    I’ll see your WalMart shooting and raise you a Dollar General incident.

    At lest it wasn’t Family Dollar … though, that is around the corner if I remember that part of Fort Myers correctly.

    https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2019/07/27/gunshot-victim-dollar-general-martin-luther-king-jr-blvd-sw-fl/1847383001/

  40. mediumwave says:

    I’ll see your WalMart shooting and raise you a Dollar General incident

    Woman upset with food punches chef, fires gun in Bourbon street business

    I’d describe her behavior as juvenile, except that she appears to be an adult.

  41. Greg Norton says:

    I’ve heard there were in n out burgers in Austin, but never found them.

    The area between the surplus store and the goodwill outlet was full of what looked like carnies begging and living beside the road.

    US 183/Ben White/Airport Blvd isn’t exactly the garden district of Austin.

    P. Terry’s, a local burger chain, is pretty good too.

    Enjoy the lobster this week. Burgers can wait.

  42. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’ll take a double double, with onion and fries over lobster tail in most settings, over lobster CLAW in every setting. I LOVE those things.

    Daughter 1 has been getting weirder about food lately. I’m going to have to start looking for root causes. Daughter 2 pounded down 3 claws and the attached arms tonight. She did not care for the stuffed clam (breading and clam on a half shell, not my favorite, but tasty with enough butter.) We had fresh from the field corn on the cob as a side. That was almost better than the lobster in my opinion.

    I finished Sakura:Intellectual Property, by Zack Hill tonight. Go to the side bar at Monsterhunternation.com for a link and recommendation, and backstory. I enjoyed it immensely. Very reminiscent of classic cyberpunk, only incorporating a love letter to heavy metal music. I was surprised how many of the songs mentioned throughout I knew and liked. I don’t think of myself as a metal head but maybe I am more than I thought. BabyMetal ROCKS.

    Wrt the rental house, now the side door no longer locks. All the doors and windows are very nice heavy duty secure and insulated. The doors have a 3 point locking system that I didn’t know you could get except as a “storm door” that I’ve linked to in the past. But today the lock stopped working and so the additional locking elements just disengage. And it’s still hot as Hades in here. I’m sitting in the kitchen sweating. The bathroom with a closed door had sweat dripping off me. To make it worse, the hot water baseboard heat was on on the first floor. No one knows how it got turned on, or how long it’s been on. It’s off now, but jeez that sucked. We mostly think the kids might have done it this evening, but if it was on the whole time………. and the online tax records show a guy in MA bought the house last year. I think he did some upgrades, then stopped for whatever reason. Roof, doors, windows are all new. It’s not his family’s home. The remodel, and the new kitchen are 5 years old according to the electrician who came by to replace the missing outlet covers and switchplates.

    The incoming cold water pipes are sweating so much that there is a puddle under all of the copper lines in the basement. No insulation at all. I’m thinking that anywhere in the walls where air can contact the pipe is having the same issue. Mold city anyone? If not yet, soon…

    Well, I’m off to bed and air conditioned bedroom…

    n

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