Should be a nice day. [72F sunny and blue sky @10am]
Yesterday was another beautiful day, but it did get HOT. 100F in the sun and in my driveway. Caught me a bit by surprise as I was moving from shade to sun and there was a nice breeze. Realized I was panting and went inside to cool down for a while.
I was busy doing yard work and cleaning and organizing. I mowed the back yard. I don’t want the lawn guys back there, too much to see that isn’t there during normal times. Plus, I don’t want the guys shedding virus and spitting all over the place. So I mow, and blow, and yesterday I also did some edging.
In the garden, the cabbage seems to be doing well. The broccoli is still alive, and growing, and the brussel sprouts are alive, but haven’t really changed size. Last year’s pepper plants are heavy with sweet delicious peppers. This year’s are growing well too. The tomato plants still live, but haven’t flowered or set fruit. Potato plants continue their vigorous growth, although there are fewer plants in each tower bag. The onion sets seem to have taken hold and are growing. There is attrition due to something, squirrels mostly. I think I’ll be lucky to get ten whole onions in the fall. No sprouts from any of my seeds yet.
The citrus trees all have fruit this year. Every tree, which has never happened before. I don’t know how many will make it to harvest, and I’m betting only a few oranges, but maybe I’ll get grapefruit and limes this year! The peach tree is fully leafed in and the remaining apple tree is struggling to get leafed. The trees in the store were covered in leaves weeks ago.
The blueberry sticks have all set fruit. Maybe we’ll double our yield this year and get a full cup? Kids have fun with them anyway. The grapevines are growing. The one is vigorous, the other died back to a foot from the ground. No fruit from that one this year, maybe no new vines. Haven’t had any of my grape nemesis caterpillars show so far, but I’m vigilant.
Take any opportunity you get to add to your long term and medium term food supply. These processing plant shutdowns will likely continue, and we’ll probably see transportation issues or teamster type issues at cross docks and transfer agents. Someone needs to unload the trucks, and that almost always means a guy on a forklift. It’s not a hard job but it is demanding. Essential workers are getting sick, and I expect that will get worse as the restrictions ease.
I’m glad to hear reports that stores have restocked, and that goods are available. Take advantage of that so that NEXT time, you won’t be caught short. Even if we’re on the downside of this, and I don’t think we are, TPTB are starting to talk about the second wave. China has locked down even more people again, something like 11M so far.
The third world is starting to really see their first wave sweeping through. It’s gonna be a tsunami soon. FWIW, we have been getting a LOT of food from those third world nations. That’s where all the ‘out of season’ fruit and veg comes from. (And the Imperial Valley in Cali which relies on the same sort of labor.) I expect that will get disrupted soon, and the extent, if the wuflu is unchecked, could mean no laborers to pick the crops, no way to get them here, and we’re back to thinking that citrus at Christmas is a Big Deal ™. I remember as a kid when getting a case of oranges or grapefruit at Christmas was a nice corporate gift, and my dad was happy to get a single orange as his Christmas gift when he was a kid.
The bottom line is that this thing is still spreading, and growing, and there is no effective treatment. People are still dying, and we’re discovering that maybe the survivors are not escaping unscathed either. You don’t want to get it. In the US, I expect that we’ll see localized outbreaks that grow rapidly, and then recede, and it will be going on for a long time, as the hotspots move around. We are about to experimentally determine the amount of economic contact vs public health isolation that the country is willing to accept. Like any other human endeavor, that process is going to be messy, but we’ll also figure it out.
Keep in mind that if there were no more infections starting today, we’ll still have more than 760K cases that will need to resolve, and the totals would continue to rise for the next month at least. If even 5% of those cases die, that’s an additional 37K added to the 50K so far. IF no new cases were added. New cases will continue to be added for some time though.
So, stay in, stay safe.
nick
Oh, and today marks my 15th year as a married man. Short time compared to some of you, but something I never spent much time thinking about when I was younger. I married well, and I can only hope she feels the same 🙂
@Nick
How come you don’t grow corn? It’s really easy and grows quickly and I’m sure the kids would love it. Too much water?
Carpet is done. Now to reinstall new baseboards and get everything back in place. It will be tedious and time consuming but at least there is no time deadline. A couple of really heavy items that will need to be moved for which I will request help from a friend. The worst item is that California King memory foam mattress. Big, bulky, difficult to grasp, awkward, and downright heavy. Unable to locate the charger for the Dyson vacuum. Put it somewhere and now cannot find. Bummer.
In all this discussion of home improvement, Ray, you haven’t mentioned whether the carpet matches the drapes.
Congratulations on your anniversary!
I did my pickup at the restaurant supply yesterday, and got everything home and put away. My office is becoming the de facto storeroom. Man, those 50# sacks of rice are heavy. I can deadlift 225 (not much, I know, but I’m 75) so they shouldn’t feel that heavy, but they do. Oh, well. At least I can still horse them around if I have to.
I’m going to keep stacking as much as I can in this lull. Doing a meat run later today: Chicken, pork steaks, and bacon. Hope I have enough freezer space.
Rainy and cool here in Hoosierland today. Need to wash both cars.
@~jim, I don’t grow corn because it takes up a lot of space for what you get, and I’m pretty sure the squirrels would eat every kernel. My dad tried corn for years, and sunflowers, and we never got a single cob for us that I can recall (lot of squirrels there too). I had two pecan trees here, and I might have gotten a dozen nuts in 13 years. Plus, the Kirkland canned corn is just the tiniest bit shy of just as good as fresh…..
If I was in the country and could plant a real garden, I’d probably put in a few rows of corn, just because I love it fresh, but not here in raised beds.
n
(and, other than peppers, carrots, and collards, I really haven’t had much success actually growing stuff)
New drapes are on the radar. Old ones were taken down and placed in one of the five trips to the convenience center where we disposed of the carpet and pads. Will have to match at that point. Wife asks my opinion on color and style, I give my opinion, am immediately told I am wrong and have no taste. Then why ask?
Need to replace the outlets and cover plates today. Another trip to Home Depot for supplies. I did my son’s house when he purchased. His wife wanted white. Also I did not like the back stab outlets and much prefer screw plates. Bought 60 outlets for his house and used all but one. I also had to replace all the switches and really don’t remember that number but somewhere close to 25. At those numbers it is cheaper to buy the bulk packs and not use a few.
This is a project that has been planned for about a year. Really needed to be done. While the furniture is moved time to clean up some other issues. Such as relocating phone and cable connections to wall plates rather than through the floor. In the process I needed to make some custom cables and terminate the cables, network, phone and cable. Fortunately I have the tools to terminate them properly.
Best corn I ever had was in Oregon. My aunt and uncle had a place south of Salem about two miles west of I-5. Del Monte leased the property around my relatives place to grown corn for the factory. All nice even stocks, no pest damage, no weeds, really good looking corn. The day before harvest I saw a Del Monte guy inspecting and went over to talk. During the conversation he said we were welcome to take a couple dozen ears for ourselves. The corn would be harvested tomorrow.
So we picked a couple dozen ears of corn. Took it immediately into the house and cooked it up for eating. That stuff was awesome. Consumed four ears of the stuff myself.
The next day Del Monte (or a company contracted by Del Monte) arrived to harvest the field. Lot of machines, big machines. Not many people. Twenty acres gone in a little over an hour. The Del Monte guy I had talked to the day before was there. Supervising I guess. I asked how long before the corn was canned. He said all of it would be in cans within four hours. They do that to make it as fresh as possible. Then they quickly moved on to the next field.
Think about the logistics it takes to go from field to can in 4 hours.
Lotta disruption possible.
n
(when we visit my wife’s relatives on Long Island (right next door to the heaviest outbreak) they always do corn on the cob fresh from the neighbor’s field. It’s awesome. But you can only do that for a short time every year.)
@ray, you’re old furniture will look ‘shabby and old’ against the new carpet, paint, and drapes. Then you’ll have to replace it too…… 🙂
n
Hmmm, I guess I need to look at the default settings for my new NVR software. I filled up the disk in just 4 days. I got a feeling I’m recording 24/7 instead of just on movement. More stuff to look at and adjust. This is why I don’t like change. All the time I spent getting this dialed in got wasted, and now I have to do it again.
n
From FEMA–
Note this line–
NE: 13 out of 25 ethanol plants (52%) in State are pausing operations due to COVID-19 affecting ethanol margins nationally; the plants collectively produce 1,266,000,000 gallons of ethanol annually which is used in part for producing sanitizers and disinfectants
–HALF the ethanol plants offline. Gotta admit, I never thought of this one.
n
Note this line–
NE: 13 out of 25 ethanol plants (52%) in State are pausing operations due to COVID-19 affecting ethanol margins nationally; the plants collectively produce 1,266,000,000 gallons of ethanol annually which is used in part for producing sanitizers and disinfectants
–HALF the ethanol plants offline. Gotta admit, I never thought of this one.
You would think that at some point they would stop adding it to gasoline. Of course, people might notice that their cars run better — mine do, even the new one — on pure gas and get grumpy about switching back when things start getting back to normal.
>”I give my opinion, am immediately told I am wrong and have no taste. Then why ask?”
My wife doesn’t tell me I am wrong and have no taste, but after she asks which of two outfits I think is better, she always wears the one I didn’t choose. I think she just needs the choice to be hers, but couldn’t make up her mind. I’ve learned not to invest any effort in the process.
People have been posting about how the second wave of the 1918 epidemic was far worse. That lead me to read about it. One theory says that normally, people with mild cases ignore it, and get out and about, spreading that mild strain around, and producing an immune sub-population. People with severe cases stay home and don’t spread it around. In 1918, soldiers with mild cases stayed in the trenches, while those with severe cases were sent to hospitals, spreading around the severe strain. That theory seems to argue for relaxing isolation as much as possible without causing an overload of the hospitals. Maintaining isolation is recreating the scenario that is thought to have made the 1918 second wave deadlier than the first.
And happy anniversary, Nick! A bad marriage seems longer than it is; a good marriage just seems good.
My parents had their original couch and my dad’s lazyboy recliner recovered and rebuilt a couple of times. They were still in good shape when we moved mom out of the house, 50+ years after purchase.
Laz-Z-Boy recliners have reached the point where the cost of the hand work to recover them far exceeds buying one new unless you do the work yourself. The new mechanisms are still solidly made and the upholstery details so intricate that even they shop that recovered our couch suggested buying new when I asked if they work on the recliners.
I have two Barcalounger Titan recliners with navy leather that I would like to get rebuilt and recovered. Nobody makes anything like a Barcalounger Titan now. It fits me, in fact a little bit big. I’m 6’1″ and 245 lbs with a 34 inch inseam and an 37 inch sleeve length. I’ve got them in the garage for the moment.
The son’s current theory is that SARS-COV-2 is the unweaponized version of the virus that the Chinese were going to weaponize. It got out accidentally after they isolated the virus. But before they made it more virulent. Way more virulent.
The genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been sequenced and the results show that it is related to other bat corona viruses with a natural mutation pattern. No signs of editing. Also, it’s not as virulent as the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS viruses.
Yup, ready for weaponizing. Apparently the lady researcher in Wuhan who got infected at the lab and spread it outside has been removed from human history by the Chinese government.
Just another conspiracy theory, take it for what it is.
Suddenly it’s overcast and raining. Not much rain, but where did this come from?
Oh well, at least it’s cool.
n
Yup, ready for weaponizing. Apparently the lady researcher in Wuhan who got infected at the lab and spread it outside has been removed from human history by the Chinese government.
Just another conspiracy theory, take it for what it is.
Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by made up folk medicine. Literally, bat sh*t crazy.
My mother-in-law cooked up some weapons grade botulism one Thanksgiving in the form of turkey corpse soup. Corpse — fetid and rotting — no longer carcass by the time she dropped it into the pot the next morning. My wife was sick for a week.
I’m guessing Bat Tartare. “Raw bat. You have sex for long time.”
The craziest thing I’ve heard out of immediate family is that onions are a type of meat. The Big Ayee in Seattle decreed this one year, and, out of deference, everyone stopped using onions for a while … except our house.
@nick
According to Windy, it came from a cell that popped up in New Braunfel about 9am local, then headed east to you. Grew into a sizable storm as it traveled east. Lots of lightning flashes in the animation on Windy (look at the 6 hour scale).
https://www.windy.com/-Show—add-more-layers/overlays?radar,29.389,-96.342,8,m:euOadvr
Oh, and today marks my 15th year as a married man. Short time compared to some of you, but something I never spent much time thinking about when I was younger. I married well, and I can only hope she feels the same
Congrats ! It took you a long time to find her, sounds like she is well worth it ! And she has given you two children, you are blessed. So is your wife.
@rick, that’s cool! I didn’t know windy did that. It just pops up, and comes right for us.
and soon it will be past.
n
“The Messianic World Reformer Behind WHO’s Agenda. (It Isn’t Bill Gates.)”
https://www.garynorth.com/public/20793.cfm
“The historical questions are these, and in this sequence: what, where, when, who, why, and how? Each successive question is more difficult to answer.”
“What? The World Health Organization is part of the United Nations.”
“Where? Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. But geography is irrelevant. It is an international organization. It is under the jurisdiction of UNESCO: the United Nations Educational and Social Organization. That is located in the United Nations Building in New York City. Why New York City? Because John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated the land. It cost him $8.5 million for 18 acres. The city spent another $5 million. The Rockefellers owned the apartment complex across the street. The value of that property soared.”
“CONCLUSION”
“Today, the WHO is a bureaucracy with a minimal budget, half of it raised by voluntary donations. There is no trace of its old humanist, world-transforming vision of world reconstruction through systematically applied coercion by the United Nations. That was Chisolm’s vision. Today, the UN is toothless. UNESCO is impotent.”
“WHO’s employees are narrowly focused medical technicians who must content themselves with trying to stop diseases that threaten to become pandemics. Their solution is always the same: a vaccine. But there is no vaccine for COVID-19. So, all that the WHO can do is recommend that national governments put the world’s population under house arrest until someone, somewhere comes up with a vaccine. They are narrowly focused specialists with a hammer — a promised vaccine — who see mankind’s liberty as a nail.”
…
“Don’t worry about Bill Gates. He has no power. Worry about your governor, who has enormous power, and who has used it without a vote from the legislature to shut down business all over your state. When is he going to stop paying attention to Fauci? When is he going to cancel your state’s system of house arrest, which he unilaterally imposed on his own authority?”
Already gave away a love seat and hide-a-bed (miserable thing) that was 40 years old, we were original owners. No stains, really dated material. Wife hangs on to crap way too long. I hated that thing from day it was bought.
Put it at the end of the driveway with a “FREE” sign. Within 10 minutes it was claimed. Ratty looking people. Lady chewed and had bits of tobacco on her lips, no hubcaps on their van, at least three of the wheels were missing lug nuts or studs, drivers window was held up by wood wedges, engine was running on 5.2 cylinders out of 6 best guess. I guess they really needed it. Probably looks good next to their meth lab.
So, one of your relatives?
Some of the people back home, by the sound of it.
I miss the mountains. I don’t like the yuppie scum and the libtards and the wanna-be movers-and-shakers where I live now, but I didn’t like a lot of the hicks and inbreds when I was a kid, either. However, it’s a lot easier to deal with people in the mountains, where you’re sitting on thirty or forty acres and can keep everyone at a distance.
Took the truck to the car wash today. Someday I’ll remember that 4 minutes is not enough time and to drop a couple extra quarters. But I say that every time. No matter, it looks much better.
Then to the hardware store. The switch/plug item I want was $7.99 in ivory. $11 in white. But only one in ivory. No triple gang outlet plates. Or triple gang outlet boxes. Oh well. So much for “shop local”.
Then NAPA for a little part. I can make the wiring connection to the chargers for much less that the $10 or so each for “factory made”. Like, for about $4 and parts I have.
Gas was around $1.69 everywhere. Where’s the $1.30 stuff I read about? Wal-Mart had gas for $1.52 but I didn’t stop.
Whataburger is barricaded closed. Facebook said some new hire tested for Kung Flu. So they closed the joint. Sucks to be one of the other employees.
Home Depot has folks lined up outside, in the sun, all six feet apart. Yeah, no. I’m not standing there for half an hour just to get into the store.
Tractor Supply was pretty normal. Though they have plexiglass shields at the check stands. Other than a couple of folks wearing masks and glaring at the mask-less, folks seemed normal. Hey, you scared? Stay home.
Anyway. Got the truck rinsed off, part from NAPA, cat food from Tractor Supply, and home. Not exactly a successful trip. But the blue bonnets are mostly done, everything is nice and green. Lots of noisy birds chirping their hearts out. Nice weather.
Pot roast in the crock pot tomorrow.
You didn’t ask, but I’ll give you an AMEN!!!!
Don’t worry about Bill Gates. He has no power.
Bill Gates has a lot of power and money. He’s also very competitive and wants to leave his mark in the world before assuming room temperature.
Windows was stolen from Apple and Steve Jobs.
DOS originated from SCP, but was really a ripoff of CP/M.
Word and Excel were innovative, not revolutionary, and depended on bundles — and Egghead Software’s return policy — to gain market share well into the mid-late 90s.
Internet Explorer was a knee jerk reaction to something Gates heard Marc Andreesen say on “Computer Chronicles” about the browser reducing the OS to a set of linked libraries.
The first Microsoft CEO was Paul Allen.
The weird fascination with vaccines is something that is uniquely Gates. He’s also into composting toilet design, but that isn’t something the American public is clamoring for right now.
Plus, thanks to Disney fetishizing Marvel properties, people want a Real Life Tony Stark (TM) in whom they can blindly place all trust. Elon Musk turned out to have feet of clay.
I was afraid to ask. A DNA test would not work because their DNA probably does not branch much.
We’re sitting on an acre, a little over half forested. It was about 2/3 forested, but I cleared enough to give us a back yard. The wood was mostly junk, shrubs and trees barely thicker than kindling, which I ran through a chipper and used as fill as we smoothed the new part of the yard. I cut the rest into fireplace-sized logs. My dad took maybe a ton and I set the rest, several more tons, out on the front of the yard and it all disappeared in short order, a pickup load at a time. I also made mazes in the front yard with skinny but long trunks and limbs, changing them every couple days. Kids (and their parents) came from all over the neighborhood to walk the mazes.
We have neighbors twenty meters away on one side and thirty on the other, which I’m not keen on but can deal with. And a new house is being built across the stream behind us, which really pisses me off because that land was supposed to be forever wild. Presumably someone greased the right palm; it’s a million-dollar house, at a guess.
Crazy sort of apocalypse we’re having. My in-laws sent us two live maine lobsters for our anniversary dinner.
Fresh boiled lobster, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
With a nice bit of steak from the freezer on the side.
Yum.
n
Spent the day dodging the rain. Got out the electric chainsaw, and cut up some logs that had been waiting for awhile. One was 12 ft of oak about 6-8 inches across that I grabbed from the neighbor on tree waste day a few months ago. Oh yeah, I’ll take free firewood.
Took a branch off one of our ‘chinese’ cherry trees. In quotes, because I don’t actually know if that’s right, but that’s what the previous owner called them. That’ll let some extra light into the yard and garden.
Replanted some seed, put wire mesh over the seeds, moved some stuff in the driveway and put out some more heavy trash.
Oh, and I cut my hair again. Took a bit longer this time and tried to be more thorough. Looks ok from the front.
n
“NASA chief to space fans: Don’t travel to Florida to watch SpaceX’s 1st astronaut launch”
https://www.space.com/nasa-spacex-crew-dragon-demo-2-travel-advisory-coronavirus.html
Bite me, NASA dude.
Some day I will go and watch them light one off. Some day.
I went to go see the last space shuttle and they broke it, delaying a couple of weeks.
Scanner has the cops surveilling a guy who they have a wiretap on, which suggests he’s going to go kill someone. He came to their attention in a traffic stop where they found two guns hidden up under the engine compartment. Now they’re intercepting his phone to see if he’s really gonna go kill this other guy, or if he’s “just gonna be selling and dealing like normal.”
They were going to watch for him for about 2 hours, then go home.
Hope he’s prompt if he’s a killer.
n
Spent the day dodging the rain. Got out the electric chainsaw, and cut up some logs that had been waiting for awhile. One was 12 ft of oak about 6-8 inches across that I grabbed from the neighbor on tree waste day a few months ago. Oh yeah, I’ll take free firewood.
I used my bow saw to cut my 20 ft branch up into 9 big pieces today. I need an electric chain saw !
Holy crap Lynn, don’t do that. The upper body workout feels just like chest pains, and you’ve got history. I use the power tools so I don’t end up in the hospital!
Bite me, NASA dude.
Some day I will go and watch them light one off. Some day.
I went to go see the last space shuttle and they broke it, delaying a couple of weeks.
Lots of public roads around the space center offer decent viewing with plenty of “social distancing”. Google for recommendations on sites. By the end of next month, unless numbers jump suddenly, I imagine FL cops are going to be over it and not going to care if you aren’t breaking real laws. Even the Governor was over his own state-wide “shelter in place” order the moment he signed it.
The question will be whether the checkpoints are down on I-10, but a successful launch will mean plenty of viewing opportunities later, under normal circumstances. I think Boeing and SpaceX are contracted for a dozen each (?).
SpaceX was quietly hosting viewing parties at the Visitor Center for cargo runs, but a manned launch will be special. VIPs only.
That is one long a** drive from Texas. The last time we went in 2017, we took the long way back, stopping in St. Augustine to make a pilgrimage to the Murray brothers’ restaurant and staying in Pensacola for the night. Much easier on the sanity.
Went to our Riverpark HEB tonight. They have extended their open hours from 8am to 8pm to 7am to 10pm. Previous to this mess they were 6am to midnight.
I forgot to check their TP and PT but I suspect that they had plenty. They had plenty of everything else. Except for hand soap and Purell, of which they had none as usual as of late.
That is one long a** drive from Texas. The last time we went in 2017, we took the long way back, stopping in St. Augustine to make a pilgrimage to the Murray brothers’ restaurant and staying in Pensacola for the night. Much easier on the sanity.
Yup, it is. I have driven it three times back and forth since 1982. It is a hike. The section from Beaumont through Louisiana (the steel grate bridge in Lake Charles is a nightmare) to Mobile Bay is a nightmare. The rest of the trip is nice, just boring. We have always randomly stopped when we got tired.
“it’s a lot easier to deal with people in the mountains, where you’re sitting on thirty or forty acres and can keep everyone at a distance.”
My wife was just saying that she was feeling kinda stressed. I had been too, but wasn’t quite sure why. She figured it out: it’s weekend here, and there were 4-5 people in our immediate vicinity (we are temporarily living next to a building with several vacation apartments).
That’s 4-5 people, instead of maybe 1-2 neighbors that we know. Way too many for dedicated introverts.
Speaking of marrying well: I’m not sure how two introverts found each other, but we did 🙂
Greg
Guess you havent had a System 36, so, Excel and Word, no, neither innovative, only just a port (btw Lotus neither).
As far I can see Jobs neither, Xerox had it too before GUI etc.
But, maybe you could see SAGE, (people here surely knew it) and 360/370/3090, between three there are 90%? of all the things running now
Last but not least, as I always say, IT is an eternal deja vu, and, boomers bould Internet, centennials Tik Tok
I am getting old
Who stole it from Xerox PARC.