Cooler and windy. Rain in the forecast.
Yesterday was another hot beautiful day. Weather station said high 90s. Certainly in the sun that was possible. I got a bit overheated in the back yard. Didn’t feel well at all. Still on Cipro, and probably shouldn’t be in the sun at all. It was very nice in the shade in the late afternoon. Spent some time on the swing with the kids and on the porch with my wife.
Got some more shelving up. Had to order clips, but was able to steal some from other shelves to get started. You can pack a lot of food in a small space with some good shelves. When I get them all together, maybe I’ll share a picture. I don’t think it would be an OPSEC issue to see some shelves…
I posted a youtube link yesterday to one of my favorite guys, an old guy with a very clever mind and active hands… the link was for a potato tower made in a trash bag. I’ve wanted to do a tower but didn’t want to do the work to make one, and don’t have an extra barrel to use either. His is the first one I’ve seen that was so dirt simple. I’ve even been saving some of the heirloom potatoes to use as starters.
I spent some time getting one of my new surveillance cams config’d and ready to mount. I was up on the roof and think I’d like to mount it on my fireplace chimney. There is a great clear view toward the open end of my street. It won’t be subtle, but that has pluses too. I’m pretty sure I have an appropriate mounting arm somewhere in the stack. If not, under the eve it goes. I picked a spot for the other to look toward the other end of my street too. I’m just going to replace the cam that points that way now. I need to find the IR emitter for the back yard too, and finally get that installed. Backyard is likeliest avenue of approach for bad guys, and is dark as a tomb at night.
Listening to the scanner, there has been a lot more encrypted traffic on the tactical channels than usual. Can’t do SIGINT, but can do traffic analysis. I’d try for some HUMINT in normal times, but sitting at home doesn’t bring me into contact with any of the guys I know in LE. Seem to be a lot of choppers in the air lately too. Filed under Hmmmm.
I’ve been sleeping late. I’ve been really tired, so I’ve been letting myself. This is not the time to be getting run down and vulnerable. Still, it feels like slacking. I had a sense of urgency for the last week before locking down, and now it feels like settling in for a long haul.
I better do something to get started on the day’s list…
Stay safe, stay in.
nick
And speaking of deadbeats, I have to find my youngest brother again tomorrow. It appears that they got thrown out of their apartment. They live day to day off his wife’s pitiful salary as a temp. Temps have not been working for a month now.
I thought evictions were suspended.
My deadbeat younger brother works as a contractor to … FEMA!
My wife’s deadbeat sister, the ex-stripper, got into piece work medical billing about 20 years ago. Maybe your sister-in-law could look into that.
Another deadbeat in and out of our lives, my wife’s former office manager in Florida, sent her a text yesterday, the first in eight years. The phrase “crawling out of the woodwork” immediately springs to mind.
This isn’t the end, but it will be increasingly difficult to get by on schtick and parental largess. Even rentier skims like the Chinese cousins have will be hard work.
The moment Chloroquine or one of the other drugs is announced as effective, I expect we’ll hear from all the dirtbags in our lives.
Seem to be a lot of choppers in the air lately too. Filed under Hmmmm.
I think the police and military choppers still have to do ADS-B “Out” even if they don’t broadcast tail numbers. If you have the Realtek TV dongle, the rest of a monitoring rig is relatively simple.
Do you have a hospital nearby? I’ve seen the air ambulances shuffling people around to various hospitals a lot more lately. The cr*p hospital (my wife’s opinion) closest to us suddenly has a temporary cell tower in the parking lot and a lot of activity.
My wife thinks people will die there just because of the stupidity in the building. I passed one of the local TV station vans headed there yesterday morning so maybe Round Rock has a death.
My local HEB is out of all paper products all the time. Unless you would like to wipe your ass with paper plates! Every bin is marked “one per customer” and still no paper. I guess you have to camp out every morning to get paper. I have a bunch of shop rags with I will start using and washing when I run out of paper towels next month.
Bill Gates warns “lock down” should last a “painful” 10 weeks:
Bill Gates warns lockdown could last 10 WEEKS and should be ‘nationwide’ – as Trump wants to restart economy in days
This from the billionaire who financed a “better condom” for the World. I would love to be a fly on the wall of his McMansion. He probably has one of his “multiple garages, even an underground 10 car garage” stuffed with TP, tissues and paper towels. No wonder I can’t find any.
The vilest person on the face of the Planet, Cankles Clinton:
Hillary Clinton on US leading in coronavirus cases: Trump ‘did promise “America First”‘
She’ll NEVER BE PRESIDENT!
First in the world? Not so much.
My local HEB is out of all paper products all the time. Unless you would like to wipe your ass with paper plates! Every bin is marked “one per customer” and still no paper. I guess you have to camp out every morning to get paper. I have a bunch of shop rags with I will start using and washing when I run out of paper towels next month.
Try going early and getting in line. The HEB near us issues tickets for the paper items.
Last Saturday, I was ~ 100 people back in line but was still offered a ticket for toilet paper.
I still don’t get the mania over the paper products unless people are hoarding them as potential barter items.
The vilest person on the face of the Planet, Cankles Clinton:
Hillary Clinton on US leading in coronavirus cases: Trump ‘did promise “America First”‘
Mean little prog children on her staff, but she has the final word on the postings.
I work with a lot of 20-somethings who still depend on checks from the folks to get by with living expenses in Austin. They’re either Berne Bros (guys) or Warren supporters (gals), many with diplomas from big name schools eagerly anticipating the loan forgiveness.
This from the billionaire who financed a “better condom” for the World. I would love to be a fly on the wall of his McMansion. He probably has one of his “multiple garages, even an underground 10 car garage” stuffed with TP, tissues and paper towels. No wonder I can’t find any.
Gates probably has Jim Sinegal (retired Costco CEO and -?- cofounder) on speed dial, but I’ve seen interviews with Gates prefaced with reporters’ impressions about the house and the unobtrusive staff (!) running the place.
Something has been wrong with Gates for a while. My wife picked up on it in the HBO documentary on Warren Buffett which ran a few years ago. She’s rarely wrong when she gets a hint of something wrong health-wise in the way a person looks/acts.
In addition to resigning from Microsoft’s board, Gates also left the Berkshire board within the last few monts. Like many other shareholders, I thought for sure that Gates would succeed Chairman Warren as figurehead. The latest BRK shareholder letter addresses succession again as a result since many who hold the stock are concerned Warren will just leave everything to his concubine-turned-wife as a final screw you to the algorithm-driven mutual funds holding the mass quantity of ‘B’ shares which was necessary to create to buy BNSF.
I have a bunch of shop rags with I will start using and washing when I run out of paper towels next month.
Just don’t flush them. I have a feeling we will be Roto Rootering all kinds of TP substitutes out of the sewer pipes.
Yah, a number of the 20-somethings at work, half with degrees in data science or a related field and half with degrees in public health or a similar field:
a) Still get a bit of “help” from their parents
b) Are looking forward to school loan forgiveness
c) Claim school loan forgiveness is only fair because they’re not the ones who jacked up tuition so much
d) Universally despise Trump and his supporters and support Bernie, Liawatha, or some other commie
and, bonus item:
e) Had basically no food or other necessities in their apartments or houses beyond immediate needs. And ignored me a few weeks ago when I suggested that they might want to lay in what they need in case the couple-week shutdown actually happened.
Alan, a number of sewer districts have already reported big problems because people are flushing socks and shredded t-shirts. I’m not entirely sure how to address this level of stupidity, other than my by-now-expected suggestion of killing a lot of people.
MrsAtoz is friends with Sinegal. He even picked her up at SEATAC once for a conference keynote. I’ve talked to him several times on a conference call. I keep my conservatarian* yap shut. $$
*Conservative sliding towards Libertarian.
“we will be Roto Rootering all kinds of TP substitutes out of the sewer pipes. ”
–there are a BUNCH of articles about this. a lot of NYFC sewer is from the early 1900s. Lots of big city infrastructure is really old at its core. “Flushable” wipes aren’t.
–on the tour bus, the rule is ‘nothing solid goes in the toilet’. If you really need to you line the toilet with a trash bag, fill that, and dispose of it. At least that’s the way it was in the old days. Might be different now.
–low flow toilets don’t have enough water going down the pipes to keep everything moving in a normal day, under normal conditions. Add in the heavy cloth and the wipes, and people being home all day, every day……..
it’s a mess.
n
c) Claim school loan forgiveness is only fair because they’re not the ones who jacked up tuition so much
Student loans were nationalized to make the Obamacare bill “revenue neutral”, and the government issues the paper so there aren’t any meaningful controls on tuition increases beyond the Feds shutting down places like ITT Tech and Virginia College as an occasional show that they’re serious.
Tuition reimbursement is all about monetizing the Obamacare debt which wasn’t allowed under reconciliation to get the bill through the Senate on 59 votes in 2009.
With cases and deaths doubling, EVERY DAY will be record high deaths, if the counting and reporting is honest, until this starts to burn out.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spain-reports-deadliest-day-record-japans-abe-promises-unprecedented-stimulus-package
n
Is Italy another casualty from You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream thinking?
I know my wife’s Chinese family is fascinated by Italy, Rome in particular. The cousins like to go and complain about not getting what they expected from food in “Italian” restaurants.
“Ah, but Greg, you don’t understand because you haven’t traveled.”
Fair enough, but now they’re scared sh*tless to call the house and risk me picking up the phone. “How’s the weather in Seattle?”
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/fauci-italy-hit-very-badly-by-coronavirus-due-to-prevalence-of-chinese-tourists/
College tuition and fees started increasing at 3X the rate of inflation decades before Obuttsuckcare. It started sometime in the 1980s and was well established by the late 1980s. It corresponded nicely with the ramp-up of federal grants and loans, which were intended to make college more affordable for smart but poor students and resulted in “everyone should go to college”, grotesquely higher college costs, obscene growth in the size of non-classroom staff, and the ramming of the SJW agenda down the throats even of paying students.
When people say that to me, I tell them that most of my trips outside of the US were because the US Army was protecting someone from potential invasion or assisting with an insurrection or overthrowing a corrupt regime, and that they should be glad I’d never needed to go to Italy.
At the vets office for annual exams and vaccinations for our 4 and 12 year old Cardigans. They pulled a switch on me with my normal veterinarian and didn’t tell me. I’ll chat with the office manager about that… stayed in car, dogs went in without me. Lots of PPE, but homemade fabric masks.
Across the lot from the vet is one of our finest bakeries. Two person shop, been here for decades. I got a goodie I didn’t need and a gift certificate for the vet office staff to share. The bakery told me our local nursery had to close their doors because of Governors orders and the nursery is hurting because they’d just got in all their Sees Easter Candy. I’m going to talk to spouse and see if we can place an order large enough to cover the children in my daughters classroom. Her school is having parents come in once a week to turn in work / pick up work do the exposure won’t be any worse.
Last night we shared a picnic of sorts with my in laws. Own cars, 6’ apart, but windows open and chatting as we are dinner in their driveway. It was good to see them.
Weird times.
SteveF I’m genuinely sorry to read of the lack of spousal cooperation. I’m grateful my husband and I are on more or less the same page. I can only imagine the anger and frustration.
Anchorage is a ghost town. I expect we will hit 100 confirmed cases today or tomorrow.
“everyone should go to college” That started by 1960, immediately following Sputnik, it just took a while for the costs to build up.
I am way past the “I told you so” stage, but would like the occasional pat on the back from family. My global banker sib basically did exactly like I suggested, without a word other than scorn while I was suggesting, and got preps in, money out, and self-isolated.
I genuinely want them safe and well, so any action on their part is welcome. I’m pretty sure they aren’t calling me because they are afraid of the “I told you so”, but I’ve got no time for that.
Wife always thought there were limits to “reasonable” prepping and balked or eye rolled plenty of times. I’ve been right plenty of times, and having preps has saved the day (for mostly minor things) often enough that she had a pretty high tolerance for it, if not enthusiastic support. I’ve seen some very odd looks on her face as I piled up the paper products, food, and supplies that came home from the secondary location. I have no idea what they mean, but I think she’s glad we’re not waiting in line for TP.
n
PSA from one of my newsletters… both a caution, and useful info.
Reminder of the dangers of mixing chemical cleaners
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine cleaning
of surfaces to limit the spread of COVID-19, several agencies are trying to remind
people about the dangers of mixing household chemicals.
People are very concerned right now and may not be thinking about the dangers
of mixing cleaners. Some departments have shared information on social media
listing combinations of chemicals that can either create toxic fumes or be highly
corrosive. Departments should consider delivering a public service announcement
to the populations they serve reminding them of the following deadly combinations:
ĵ Bleach + vinegar = chlorine gas. This can lead to coughing, breathing problems,
burning and watery eyes. Chlorine gas and water also combine to make
hydrochloric and nypochlorous acids.
ĵ Bleach + ammonia = chloramine. This can cause shortness of breath and chest
pain.
ĵ Bleach + rubbing alcohol = chloroform. This is highly toxic.
ĵ Hydrogen peroxide + vinegar = peracetic/peroxyacetic acid. This can be highly
corrosive.
Bob would def have something to contribute here…
n
I have no idea what they mean, but I think she’s glad we’re not waiting in line for TP.
I’d love to see the sales figures for the TP manufacturers for the last month. I’m guessing they’ve sold a few years’ worth in March.
Georgia-Pacific is privately held by the evil Koch family, but Procter & Gamble is a public company.
Here’s a nice utube video of different DIY/Commercial cleaners. I got some Everclear on hand and will try the last one:
Masks, Gloves and Making Disinfectants!
** 10-year-old-me-snurking **
* snurking – laughing like a 10 year old at a fart joke
Tom Hanks takes a private jet home from Australia. Hollyweird hypocrite.
“When the needs of the one, outweigh the needs of the many.”
Was designed to get people in colleges to pay for the colleges employing the unemployable. As the waste and corruption mounted it was necessary to start charging higher fees. The schools scrambled to have the latest and greatest that money can buy so a professor could do research that contributes little. But it was fun for the professor, kept him/her/shim employed at a high rate of salary.
Meanwhile in the humanities departments all manner of studies were now able to funded. Studies of no value but kept the unemployables employed. Lots of money spent with little to no results.
And the sports programs, supposedly self-supporting, got a lot of money to renovate stadiums. Remove hundreds of seats for a few sky boxes for the wealthy and well connected. All under the banner of the building program which comes from the general fund, not sports. Each school competing to be better than their neighbor.
My son was forced to pay $250.00 each semester for a school debit card. If he did not use the money by the end of the semester the school kept the money. He was also forced into a meal plan that cost us dearly. Even though he probably could have eaten elsewhere for half the amount charged for the plan. Both mandatory.
Colleges and universities were, and still are, about money. Education maybe second or third if the school has a good sports program. Graduating people who are clueless about life, cannot balance a checkbook, tens of thousands of dollars in debt. With a degree that has zero employment opportunities. Anyone hiring a graduate with a masters degree in ancient Egyptian history? Nope. So they borrow more to get a PhD, stay another 4, 5, or 6 years in school. Racking up more debt, trying to live off grants, fellowships, etc. Free money in their mind. Why can’t that continue into the working world?
I worked on the University of Tennessee campus for 14 years. I worked for an engineering honor society, supposed to be the best of the best. There were some incredibly smart and well grounded people. Compare those to the general student population and it is a dismal picture.
Students who would wait in the hallway for 5 minutes for an elevator to take them down one flight of steps. Students would try three or four times to push on a door when it is clearly marked PULL. Students would would complain in the student center about not having enough for lunch when the sandwich was $4.95 and all they had was $5.00. Unable to comprehend the sales tax of 9.75%. Would argue that $5.00 was enough and they were due $0.50 in change. (Yes, I saw it happen).
These same students would walk with their head buried in their cell phone totally unaware of their surroundings. Saw one walking towards me, 50 feet away. I stopped. She ran into me and said I should have gotten out of her way.
Students whose primary goal getting out of class was figuring out who, when, and where they were going to meet to go drinking or having a party. If they have enough for beer, they don’t need student loans. Students whose first thing when they got out of class was hide their face in their cell phone, often times walking by the elevator and turning back.
I have few good words for what I saw on the UT campus and the liberal brain dead muffin heads.
Who knew there ws a Taco Bell on Uranus.
*Snurking.
@Lynn – It looks like The Big Nerd Ranch has lost interest in training and keeping their books updated for Mac OS applications written in Objective C/C++. That’s unfortunate.
If customer demand warrants and you’ve kept your GUI compartmentalized for proper MVC, the challenging part of a Cocoa GUI would be the GUI part. I have the third edition of “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X” which still covers Objective C in Xcode 3, but you would want a book up to date at least with Xcode 4, where memory management with ARC replaced garbage collection on OS X IIRC.
Maybe the fourth edition, a used copy?
I know Apple has excellent C++11 support at a minimum going back to Xcode 4.
I worked on the University of Tennessee campus for 14 years. I worked for an engineering honor society, supposed to be the best of the best. There were some incredibly smart and well grounded people. Compare those to the general student population and it is a dismal picture.
As I’ve noted here before, Computer Science can be pretty grim, staring about 10 years ago. The lucrative nature of the degree inspires a lot of academic dishonesty, always, as of late, led by a 30-ish individual who dresses like the cover of the Athleta catalog.
(I’ve seen it across CS departments through two grad programs and a professional development certificate in the last decade. I’m not going to say “female” because Lululemon makes male yoga pants.)
For grins, I ordered a 12-pack of Brawny Paper Towels from Amazon. Projected delivery for Prime is 3-weeks. Bill Gates is still hoarding!
80+ F right now with occasional misty drizzle almost getting started. Just enough to discourage outdoor work that can’t get wet.
Plus, as you can imagine, SUPER humid.
n
If it’s time to leave, it’s time to GO.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8162899/Hamptons-wants-ban-New-York-virus-refugees-Rhode-Island-sends-National-Guard-them.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8163473/fears-mass-exodus-nyc-mass-exodus-nyc-trump-says-hes-considering-quarantine.html
And the corollary, you may not be welcome at your bugout location…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8162807/Spain-suffers-worst-day-coronavirus-deaths-832-space-24-hours.html
–for the innumerate, if you’re doubling, every day will be your worst day until it’s over…
some days I hate people.
Certain people in particular–
—NOW he’s worried.
–totally as an aside, how’s that not owning a car thing looking to your average NYFC resident now? Gonna ride the subway out of town?
n
Subway? Might want to think about an alternative.
Verizon just added 15GB to my data plan, thru 4/30. Kind of pointless in that I’ve only used 1 of my 10GB that I already had, but I suppose it’s a lifeline for some.
Did I mention the turkey in the back yard? Yesterday, day before? A hen, just wandering around for almost an hour pecking at whatever it is turkeys eat. Making turkey hen clucking noises…. more of a pip sound than a cluck.
Today was a deer. Just wandering around in the same area. Which is nuts. I’ve lived here since ’92 and all I’ve ever seen of deer is tracks and droppings.
My Internet connection was smoking along pretty zippy for several weeks. It suddenly seemed slower. Well, the ISP guy did say he was updating firmware on radios. And my radio had been rebooted. But to go from almost 30 down to 15 seemed a bit extreme. I tried the speed test routine on the machine in the EDC and well, the problem is not the ISP. The problem is Spring. I have a clump of brush around a young live oak tree and the brush has leafed out and I swear it has grown a foot taller in two weeks. The weird to me part is that while down speed is halved, up-speed is just 1mb slower at about 6 pushing 8.
Looks like I need to find my tree loppers. My back hurts just thinking about it.
A cool front today. No rain beyond enough to spot the dust on your car. Last night my leg started aching. Which means the weather is changing. Changing to what, I have yet to learn. Sore leg, hard to sleep. Then this morning Penny is limping again. Even whined a bit. She’s better now after walking around. I think she has more going on than a pulled muscle from chasing cats.
That’s all from here. The oak pollen level is about to go from “yeah” to “awesome, everything is yellow!”.
Could be worse. 🙂
Verizon just added 15GB to my data plan also. I wonder if I get to keep it until it is used up?
Hah hah, I crack myself up!
Temperature dropped over 10F, breeze picked up. Lawn guys came by during misty drizzle and cleaned up the front yard. FULL of live oak leaves and pollen pods. It’ll be nice to have them gone. The more pollen I can keep away from the house the happier I am. The guys are not allowed in the driveway or back yard from now on. WAY too many preps visible.
Still hasn’t rained although the ground is wet.
n
We have flocks of maybe a dozen turkeys out behind the house now and then, mostly just derping around between our yard and the neighbor’s yard before derping back into the forest. And deer, though they’re usually crossing the street (or walking along the unlighted street in the evening like imbeciles) or in the Winter coming for Grandma’s compost bin — when everything’s covered with snow, those half dozen fuzzy carrots or squishy apples must be mighty tempting.
@nick
you may not be welcome at your bugout location
This occurred five or ten years ago. An overheard conversation at a coffee shop while in ‘the valley’, strangers observing that they hear a lot of talk from the city folk and their plans on bugging out to the valley if SHTF. Strangers observed how few bridges were between here and there, and that maybe valley folk might or may not cotton to all the townies flooding out if SHTF.
Take a look at Alaska’s road system, particularly between Anchorage and Palmer / Wasilla.
“Countdown to chaos: Mayor Bill de Blaiso says NYC’s healthcare system could collapse in NINE DAYS as coronavirus cases in US epicenter soar by 2,000 to 25,573 and deaths hit 450”
—NOW he’s worried.
–totally as an aside, how’s that not owning a car thing looking to your average NYFC resident now? Gonna ride the subway out of town?
DeBlasio is a nitwit. When the postmortem on this situation gets done, he won’t survive politically.
If you’ve driven down Riverside drive in Austin between SR71 and I35, you know that Mayor Adler is another nitwit who has no business being in charge of a major city. At least one of the Salvation Army’s “clients”, who are fond of camping in the medians of Riverside, just tested positive.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/salvation-army-client-staying-at-downtown-shelter-tests-positive-for-covid-19
Doh! Unfortunately, Adler will survive politically. The state will have to get involved at this point since the potential numbers are unbelievably bad given Austin’s penchant for protecting the homeless’ rights *in the state capital*.
As for cars in big cities, removing the privately owned vehicle from city centers has been a long standing goal of pinheads like DeBlasio. We are nearing the end of a 20 year push to make the US fleet amenable to central automation of the roads. Figure in another five years, you will see the automation of city streets with cars not plugged into the system heavily tolled as “congestion” and further penalized by their insurance companies into obsolescence since they lack the tattle tale black boxes like Ford just started putting into the 2020s to monitor your driving habits and report to the insurance carriers.
https://www.ford.com/ford-insure/
Sure, it is for a discount now, but it won’t be forever.
Oooh, that Ford insurance is available in TX. Not available in NY. Hmm.
I was shopping for auto insurance a few decades ago. When the sales idiot bragged about their safe driver discount a little too much, I interrupted and said I had heard enough, and wasn’t interested in a policy. A bit puzzled, he asked me why. Bad move. I said I was considering insurance for accidents, and if I would be penalized for being involved in one then that was unacceptable. I would find insurance that actually lived up to its purpose. Of course, at the time I had choices. Now, I probably don’t. I see my current policy is littered with many “discounts.” My favorite is the one for being a nice person. 🙂
And speaking of deadbeats, I have to find my youngest brother again tomorrow. It appears that they got thrown out of their apartment. They live day to day off his wife’s pitiful salary as a temp. Temps have not been working for a month now.
I thought evictions were suspended.
My deadbeat younger brother works as a contractor to … FEMA!
My wife’s deadbeat sister, the ex-stripper, got into piece work medical billing about 20 years ago. Maybe your sister-in-law could look into that.
My brother has the ability to piss off anyone beyond a normal human’s ability to withstand crap.
I am through trying to find a job for my SIL.
Do you have a hospital nearby? I’ve seen the air ambulances shuffling people around to various hospitals a lot more lately. The cr*p hospital (my wife’s opinion) closest to us suddenly has a temporary cell tower in the parking lot and a lot of activity.
I met my real estate agent over at the house for sale today. His daughter in law in Austin, Texas is a RN at a hospital. She has been dismissed from her shift for the last two days since all normal surgeries have been canceled and they have zero SARS 2, COVID-19, patients. They are building a triage tent in the parking lot and they have ZERO patients.
Want to place bets that building such a facility gets rewarded with state dollars?
If customer demand warrants and you’ve kept your GUI compartmentalized for proper MVC, the challenging part of a Cocoa GUI would be the GUI part.
*Snicker*. He said “compartmentalized”. *Snicker*.
450,000 lines of MFC C++ code. 770K of resource files (mostly dialog templates). There is Win32 code all over the place.
https://www.click2houston.com/health/2020/03/28/attorney-houston-auctioneer-has-access-to-millions-of-masks-truckloads-of-sanitizer-but-texas-ag-stands-in-way/
Our new “Judge”, in her first real disaster, seized legally owned goods from a third party. When the dust all settles and the auctioneer’s countersuit is finally settled all the taxpayers in Harris County will be financing his retirement.
This is one of the auctions I patronize. They are honest and above board and WAY more open and flexible than any other auction I deal with. When prices were going crazy on cases of masks, he called the bidders to make sure they knew what they were bidding on. I’ve bought thousands of dollars worth of stuff from him and been happy with every transaction. He’s getting screwed, and the remaining masks will sit in warehouses instead of entering the economy.
The people who own them have acquisition costs, warehousing costs, transportation costs, payroll and insurance costs, and are BUSINESSES who took on risk when they bought truckloads of expired masks that they were hoping to sell later. HOPING, because a different auctioneer I deal with says he sold a trailer load after holding it for 5 YEARS. He couldn’t move it at any price for 5 years.
Note too that he had an agreement to sell them to the county, and FEMA, before the county came and seized them. And they never accused the auctioneer of ‘price gouging’ because they know you can’t price gouge at a public auction.
Dirty business.
Dirty prog “judge” elected on straight party ticket vote, with NO prior experience in Emergency Management.
n
And the corollary, you may not be welcome at your bugout location…
I must admit, that is unexpected.
That’s all from here. The oak pollen level is about to go from “yeah” to “awesome, everything is yellow!”.
We’ve been there for a week. My nose continually runs. I have six boxes of snot rags conveniently placed at the house, truck, and office.
I bought 20 gallons of regular gasoline today for $1.69/gal. Going down, down, down. I still expect the loss of half of the 15 million oil and gas jobs in the USA in the next three months.
They are building a triage tent in the parking lot and they have ZERO patients
Want to place bets that building such a facility gets rewarded with state dollars?
I will bet FEMA. Trump’s signing of the national emergency decree triggered many actions behind the scenes.
Any FEMA camps going up yet ? Resist mightily before you get dragged off to one. Passing bowel movements over an open slit trench is not the worst thing there.
If you want to have a tent when you get patients, you have to start building it before you have them.
n
Nice write up on the HEB, now this west coast boy knows what you’re referring to:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/heb-prepared-coronavirus-pandemic/?utm_source=pocket-newtab&fbclid=IwAR2Y0RVyaKJFYjwhn5lEAzOV9BkzgLVhqAdzQCjsFO99HqxAMnOYvRcfYIE
xkcd: 6-Foot Zone
https://xkcd.com/2286/
No, I don’t stand in a place with a lot of horses. Or cows. They like to play dominance games and stand on your feet.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2286:_6-Foot_Zone
HEB rocks. They are very focused on support and recovery for disasters. They didn’t even mention their portable kitchens that they send out to support first responders and victims in hurricanes. Or the way they got trucks and ice and water moving while FEMA sat on their rule book.
HEB has been our pharmacy and grocery since their response to IKE.
The best part is including all they do, they are still consistently the lowest prices here too, except for things that Costco carries or some sort of one off, or an ultra discounter. For general grocery items, they are always cheaper when I compare.
Their store brands are generally very good too.
n
BTW, the season one ender for “Star Trek: Picard” was awesome. The wife and I look forward to season two in 2021 should we still be alive.
However, the season one ender of “Star Trek: Discovery” was just ok.
However, “Today is a good day to die !”
Their store brands are generally very good too.
Just depends how hungry you are. If you haven’t eaten anything in a day or two, awesome.
HCF thick cut bacon is plenty good enough, esp at 2/3 the price of name brands.
Flour is flour, milk is milk…
The Central Market stuff is premium, probably better or equivalent to Trader Joes brands although it’s be over a decade since I had TJ’s anything.
n
(what is the one between HEB branded, and HCF?) In general the HEB branded is just as good as any national chain, for most things I’ve tried.
Scanner has the PD working surveillance on a bunch of guys who are tooled up to go kill some rivals. They also apparently shot up some unmarked cars in a different incident. The PD is just waiting for the group to find their targets and load up. Must be a while now, since it sounds like they’re doing a shift change….
n
However, the season one ender of “Star Trek: Discovery” was just ok.
Season Two of “Discovery” has a finale which rocks. Anson Mount probably saved that program.
Watch Mount’s face when he sees his character’s eventual fate in canon.
And nobody has a better time with her role than Michelle Yeoh.
Find the “Short Treks” if you haven’t already. In particular, watch “The Escape Artist”.
Nice write up on the HEB, now this west coast boy knows what you’re referring to:
HEB in Texas and Publix in Florida. Privately held chains, no unions.
Publix is going to take on the whole “therapy animal” nonsense with a lawsuit.
HCF thick cut bacon is plenty good enough, esp at 2/3 the price of name brands.
Flour is flour, milk is milk…
The Central Market stuff is premium, probably better or equivalent to Trader Joes brands although it’s be over a decade since I had TJ’s anything.
n
(what is the one between HEB branded, and HCF?) In general the HEB branded is just as good as any national chain, for most things I’ve tried.
I just shared some HCF Kernel Korn with the wife. She put it up before we polished it off.
Then I ate some HEB ice cream that I buy in the pint size to keep me from eating too much.
And I fed my dog two platters of HEB wet dog food that she likes a lot today.
And I could not buy HEB sourdough bread since they shut down the bakery for the crisis.
Everything else we buy is a name brand. Bush’s beans, Van De Camp’s beans, Diet Dr. Pepper, Nathan’s hot dogs.
However, the season one ender of “Star Trek: Discovery” was just ok.
Season Two of “Discovery” has a finale which rocks. Anson Mount probably saved that program.
Watch Mount’s face when he sees his character’s eventual fate in canon.
I was wrong, it was the season two ender of Star Trek: Discovery. Ok, nothing great when one had Star Trek: Picard to compare to.
And having your property seized for the public good is just a cost of doing business
— sanctimonious bureaucrat or elected official
Or maybe that’s just a thing in New York. (Motto: Corruption is more than skin deep. It goes clear to the bone.) I don’t know how many times I’ve heard variations on that from bureaucrats and a couple times from politicians, when a government vendor’s payment was delayed or reduced or an operating permit was denied for trivial reasons boiling down to petty malice.