Hot and humid, possible rain.
Yesterday was overcast and humid most of the day. 90F in the shade. I spent too long in the driveway and got a bit overheated. I’ve got to watch that. It’s harder to keep track when the sun isn’t beating down.
One of the things I had to do was go through the onions I’d stored outside. A lot of rotten onions and potatoes, and the smell was pretty bad. Cleaned up and salvaged the potatoes the day before, had to do the onions today. About half were rotten or something had snacked on them. The other half just needed to have the outer skins pealed and everything washed. I’m a bit surprised that I lost basically half or more of the potatoes and onions, which should have been good for months longer, after only two and a half months. It points out the importance of ‘cool, dark, and dry’, which I don’t have.
I made some very small progress in the driveway and garage.
Today I’ll be taking a load of stuff to my secondary location. I’ve got a bunch of cardboard to dispose of (got a recycle dumpster there), and some stuff that needs to be moved from here. Also my pool test kit is there and my wife is getting anxious to test the pool.
And I’ve got a couple of auction pickups to do. Started back watching the auctions. Yup. Trying to get back to normal. I’m bidding on a couple of freezers. If the stores are out, the auctions might be the only way to get one. I certainly don’t want to pay what the last auction got for their uprights, over $500 each. I don’t really want an upright at all, but it would fit better in the garage, and there aren’t any chest freezers listed at the moment. If I’m right and we’ve started the big change, having another freezer to fill with food will be a Good Thing ™.
Kids spent a lot of time in the pool, despite the overcast, maybe more than if it was sunny. I might rig a shade for them once the water warms up in the sun. I don’t want them crispy with sunburn.
Swim team practice this am. It gives the kids a chance to really stretch out and use up some energy. I’m not happy about the contacts, but got outvoted. I’m trying to keep my distance while I watch. Normally I’d be selling in the concession stand or doing maintenance around the grounds.
Speaking of watching, I spent an hour watching live streams of various protests. Lots of noise and movement, not a lot of action. Not many cops in the videos I watched live. Just a bunch of people in a mob wandering around. No sign of it dying out anytime soon. Not many masks. And if the wuflu is contagious at all, we should be seeing some big spikes in a week or two. If not, then there won’t be any legit reason to continue with full lockdowns.
However, everyone should continue with their heightened awareness, and think seriously about increasing their security stance… you never know where the stupidity will break out. Or you could just continue to stay home…
Dinner last night was costco prepared lamb shanks, from the freezer, with homemade mashed potatoes with onion and bacon crumbles. Canned peas and some naan bread from the freezer made it a meal.
Oh, and our old friend ebola is back. Congo-Kinshasa has a new outbreak on the other side of the country from before.
Keep learning, keep planning, keep stacking.
nick
Nothing is permanent in this life and Google is reputedly headed for the rocks. But, they may keep voice since it is free.
Google headed for the rocks? I figured Facecrack will be first. Hopefully, Facecrack gets their Linux/C++ scripting tech out before “Lean In” is back teaching aerobics at the Harvard CoOp.
I have a Voice number, but I don’t hand it out too frequently. I use Gmail a lot, probably more than I should.
The inevitable black swan event that puts the Gmail online is not something I sweat, but I’d still prefer to not live the experience.
The new puppy – now here for four weeks or so – is slowly settling in. He’s a handful. I’m told that the only breed that is…livelier…is a border collie.
At puppy school, most of the puppies are absolutely calm, compared to our maniac. One of the skills we’re working on the hardest is the ability to “do nothing”, to watch the world go by without wanting to dismantle it.
He can do most of the standard stuff now. I guess its an advantage of a working breed: he learns really fast. The things he can’t yet handle have to do with being a maniac. “Stay”, or walking sanely on the leash, those are still ongoing projects.
He’s currently asleep under the sofa. At least he still sleeps a lot 🙂
– – – – –
On the subject of y’all’s riots: There was a protest here, a few hundred people, with signs ranging from “black lives matter” to “the only good cop is a dead cop”. People mostly looked at them very strangely, because (a) we don’t have a racial problem here, and (b) we don’t have a police problem here.
We have other problems, of course, especially related to immigration. But protesting the US problems was just…strange. I suppose the leftist elements haven’t had anything to do for a while, so they were getting bored.
Notably, the protester carrying the “dead cop” sign was a scantily clad, young white girl. She should try her act in downtown Minneapolis – she might value some police protection.
We have other problems, of course, especially related to immigration. But protesting the US problems was just…strange. I suppose the leftist elements haven’t had anything to do for a while, so they were getting bored.
Notably, the protester carrying the “dead cop” sign was a scantily clad, young white girl. She should try her act in downtown Minneapolis – she might value some police protection.
Overseas protests about US events are all about footage for CNN to play in airports in the US non-stop.
The clips which really floored me two years ago were the signs from Robert Francis O’Rourke’s US Senate campaign in Texas being waved in … Germany (?). Of course I saw it on CNN … in an airport.
The MJ Hegar for Senate signs are probably already staged in an apartment near the Brandenberg Gate.
A quick note, then I’ll finish reading: That is an awful disappointment!!! Dry and airy will help. I braid my onions and hang them in a back room closet. In mesh bags in the garage rafters would be good. Here in Texas, we can’t grow good keeper onions, so I have to go through mine every month and pull out the sprouting ones to use.
Potatoes need to be excellent to start with – I’ve noticed when there are great sales on potatoes, twofers etc, they have likely been in storage too long and many will already have rot inside at the time of sale. I stopped buying large amounts in frustration because of that. I store potatoes in the refrigerator, always. I don’t prep fresh ones, but if I did, I’d have to have an extra fridge in the garage to put them in.
It points out the importance of ‘cool, dark, and dry’, which I don’t have.
One upside of Portland was that things we kept in the extra space in the rental’s garage for four years survived pretty much intact. The people I knew who were into retro gaming talked about all kinds of cool discoveries in barns/sheds/garages in the region. As long as the roof was ok, cool/dark/dry was not a problem.
Sadly, again, I wouldn’t recommend the area west of the Cascades for preppers.
At our old house, my wife had just started trying long-term storage of produce. Mostly apples, but also some root vegetables. Wow- it really makes you appreciate modern warehouses. While she had very little spoilage, there was just no getting around moisture loss.
The stored apples were excellent in pies and such – actually better than fresh, which often are too juicy. But they were not so pleasant to eat directly – all the crispness was gone. Whereas commercially stored apples are so fresh you’d think they had just come off the tree.
With the house delays, our garden this year will be very limited (my wife is gardening in a borrowed plot, so not much space, and only things that can be harvested in the next couple of months: salad, tomatoes, peas. We’re into our last bag of pickled jalapeños from the old garden, and the chipotle is all gone 🙁
Ah, well, something to look forward to next year…
We had a little dab of rain last night. Enough that I won’t have to water today. Our water bill came Friday: $180. An extra $50 just from watering the garden in May. The city gouges us – it’s all well water, so nearly all profit. Compare to our electricity bill, which was $77 .
We have a 100 gallon trough and five 25 gallon mineral tubs that I collect runoff in, and will try to use that to water with the next 2 or 3 weeks. They were partly filled by the 2″ rain we had on the 24th/25th.
@Lynn, we lived outside Port Lavaca for a few years at Magnolia Beach. It is a good place to live, despite the hurricanes. We’d have stayed, except it was too far from all of our family – nine hours from my mother.
Re Google: the company has never erased anything. They still have every piece of info, every search, etc. I doubt they are going anywhere. The worst downside is they have hidden so much stuff that they are now a very lousy search engine. On the upside, anyone else could do what they did, it just takes storage space and the willingness to use it. Most companies consider “search” an “expense”. It’s not, it’s the most valuable asset they have. By limiting the range and preventing users from access to everything in it, they erode that asset, often to the point they can never recover the lost value.
I remember when Google basically just mirrored and rebranded the Open Directory Project. Then they started dumping free databases into “their” version.
–this is certainly true of the last bin full at Costco in March. They were the worst produce I’d ever seen at my Costco.
–a lot of the rot in potatoes and onions were from the Fiesta (very poor neighborhood) that I hit as my second to last ‘stock up’ back in March. There really is a quality difference between stores, even if you don’t see it right away.
n
Last night’s late night activity just reinforces Ol’ Remus’ advice, Avoid Crowds.
Also, Don’t stand next to stupid people doing stupid things.
Something tells me that the attacks on cops last night are not going to fill their colleagues’ hearts with the milk of human kindness. Whether they were opportunists, or working toward destabilizing society doesn’t really matter. Expect to see an escalation tonight.
n
With the credo “Black Lives Matter”, more than all lives, rioting will continue ad infinitum. 13% of the population wants to *rule* all thanks to the MSM and White ProgLibTurds. Can you imagine our country with BLM morons in charge.
The inevitable black swan event that puts the Gmail online is not something I sweat, but I’d still prefer to not live the experience.
My partner that passed away in March always said never put anything in an email that you would not mind seeing on the front page of Houston Chron ice the next day. I have tried very hard to follow his advice but failed miserably a few times.
I have my email seized by the FTC, FBI, and the CIA. The husband of an ex employee is divorcing same and managed to get into my email earlier this year to try to stop paying her since she quit her job with me when she married him. My lawyer said shut up and give him the emails. Btw, my lawyer does not use email since it is discoverable. He only uses faxes which are not.
Google headed for the rocks? I figured Facecrack will be first. Hopefully, Facecrack gets their Linux/C++ scripting tech out before “Lean In” is back teaching aerobics at the Harvard CoOp.
Google is heading for antitrust with the FTC and several attorney generals concerning their monopoly position on advertising. Having been front and center with this before, I do not envy them.
I had a competitor go through this about 20 years ago. Wasted an incredible amount of my time and almost got forced into in camera testifying in DC on my nickle. At one point they threatened to come get me with USA marshals. Ended up testifying over the phone for four hours with 20 or 30 lawyers asking me questions. I gave answers that upset the FTC lawyers so they blew me off. My competitors lawyers asked me question after question for hours and ended up selling the business to Honeywell.
I have my email seized by the FTC, FBI, and the CIA. The husband of an ex employee is divorcing same and managed to get into my email earlier this year to try to stop paying her since she quit her job with me when she married him. My lawyer said shut up and give him the emails. Btw, my lawyer does not use email since it is discoverable. He only uses faxes which are not.
With a fax machine, you have the “reasonable expectation of privacy” that is huge in court.
A lot of finance still runs on Group III fax. I clawed back $5000 in extended warranties out of my wife’s Exploder deal because the dealer’s F&I weasel figured I didn’t have access to fax or know how to use it properly.
A lot of rotten onions and potatoes, and the smell was pretty bad. Cleaned up and salvaged the potatoes the day before, had to do the onions today. About half were rotten or something had snacked on them. The other half just needed to have the outer skins pealed and everything washed. I’m a bit surprised that I lost basically half or more of the potatoes and onions, which should have been good for months longer, after only two and a half months. It points out the importance of ‘cool, dark, and dry’, which I don’t have.
One of my great grandfather’s grew potatoes south of Wharton for 30+ years from 1910 to 1945. That area is not dry, cool, or dark so there must be a trick to storing potatoes in south Texas.
Mom says that you need a root cellar below ground. Good luck with that in Houston.
And that goes double for social media posts, including the ones here. I have quite often written a comment – here or elsewhere – and then thought better of it and hit the delete button. It’s just too easy for things to be taken out of context, accidentally or maliciously.
In point of fact, I just deleted a paragraph, for this very reason. It’s a shame, but that’s life on the public internet…
Nick, and others: https://www.askaprepper.com/17-forgotten-preservation-hacks-that-will-save-you-money/
Old-timey stuff from before refrigerated warehouses.
I, by contrast, often deliberately email or post a statement that looks horrible if taken out of context. Hell, a lot of them are even worse with the context. If anyone tries to play gotcha with one statement, I’ll provide a raft of others showing that I screw around all the time, make wordplay all the time, and am cheerfully genocidal at least half the time.
I had a competitor go through this about 20 years ago. Wasted an incredible amount of my time and almost got forced into in camera testifying in DC on my nickle. At one point they threatened to come get me with USA marshals. Ended up testifying over the phone for four hours with 20 or 30 lawyers asking me questions. I gave answers that upset the FTC lawyers so they blew me off. My competitors lawyers asked me question after question for hours and ended up selling the business to Honeywell.
AOL took the Death Star to court early in my time there over our algorithm that matched a user’s land line phone number to dial-up lines which would be toll free from their location. The lawyers didn’t accept the excuse that it was just common sense based on publicly available information. At least, they didn’t want to admit that might be the case and their programmers were stupid so it was easier to argue the phone company was being evil and padding the long distance fees for AOL users.
All of our emails were subpoenaed, including the Exchange PST files on our work machines. It is really too bad they were looking for evidence about the algorithm’s origins and not the mails and calendar invites regarding my bosses’ scheme to essentially steal our product from The Death Star and sell it back to them on an annual subscription basis.
Amazing to think that, less than 20 years ago, AOLTimeWarner was the biggest name on the Internet and that a lawsuit could be launched over an algorithm locationg toll free dial-up PPP lines.
OTOH, within the last couple of years, I’ve had someone ask about uucp and dial using Raspberry Pi boards for mail and small file transfers. Once people realize that they have no expectation of privacy with a lot of Internet messaging, the old tech suddenly becomes very attractive.
With the credo “Black Lives Matter”, more than all lives, rioting will continue ad infinitum. 13% of the population wants to *rule* all thanks to the MSM and White ProgLibTurds. Can you imagine our country with BLM morons in charge.
I’ve been listening to Michael Berry on the radio this morning. He thinks that we are going to a whole new level of political correctness after this. I cannot imagine this.
I like your style. I worked with a guy who was similar. He was a bit of a curmudgeon, and liked to make occasional statements that were more dry humor than sarcasm. Those of us who knew him understood when he was serious and when he was being owly. Others sometimes had a hard time. One of his favorite pastimes was to start an innocent rumor and watch it propagate. I can’t remember him ever owning up to the act. Some of us admired his mastery of these social techniques.
I’ve been listening to Michael Berry on the radio this morning. He thinks that we are going to a whole new level of political correctness after this. I cannot imagine this.
The shakedown will be more blatant. It is always about the money more than equality.
–I think the opposite is already happening. Think about all the “white woman uses n-word” videos in the last year. If you haven’t noticed, they’ve been increasing in frequency.
I think the kids who are currently growing up with pc culture don’t see the point, and are increasingly pushing back. The only people who seem to be taking it seriously are the recently indoctrinated 20 somethings and those with legal exposure.
n
I don’t understand why we as a country tolerate these riots. The tolerance goes way back, but it wasn’t always that way. I grew up near Detroit, and remember hearing that looters would be shot on sight. It probably happened.
I remember the Detroit riots of 1967, which were initially uncontrolled. A *bus load* of rioters drove 25 miles to downtown Pontiac, my home town, to “create mischief,” as some idiot pundit probably said. Their first act was to smash a store display window. As the first looter climbed in, he was shot by the store owner with a shotgun. The end. No more violence. They all went somewhere else.
We need rifles on rooftops. Cf Koreatown in LA during the R. King riots.
Of course if the headline says “Florida Sheriff Encourages Residents To Shoot Looters”, it is going to be Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County — the county located between Tampa and Eisney World.
https://woai.iheart.com/content/2020-06-02-florida-sheriff-encourages-residents-to-shoot-looters/
Did anyone else watch Trump state that he is law and order president last night ? And then walk across the street to the church. And Trump also stated that he will use the military if the governors will not take control of their states.
And Biden is supporting BLM. So this means that Biden is anti Law and anti Order. Scary stuff that.
We are very close to a short horribly bloody civil war. Horribly bloody.
And Biden is supporting BLM. So this means that Biden is anti Law and anti Order. Scary stuff that.
Biden and the cabal are now backed into a corner where have no choice but to take an activist woman as VP. Anyone other than Moochelle or Stacey Abrams will require justification.
On the plus side, MJ Hegar was supposed to coast to an easy victory next month over Royce West to take on Cornyn, and “Doors” doesn’t seem so inevitable after last weekend.
https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/vote-texas/2020-texas-democratic-primary-election-results-senate-runoff/269-bd92a224-d91b-4e14-b32a-3cc7b161aeaf
Doing okay in the crisis
(I suspect that the crisis that Pastis refers to is the so-called pandemic, but the word also works for the ongoing insurrection.)
I have no problem at all with that. “Stand your ground” should be a basic human right. Yes, in fact, your possessions are more important than the life of a criminal who is trying to take them. Alternate formulation: When someone is committing a serious crime, they have entirely surrendered their rights to anyone willing to stop that crime.
Still, anyone who shoots looters better have convincing evidence that whoever they shot was, in fact, looting. Unlike the police, ordinary people can’t just get away with killing random people, throwing flashbangs in infants cribs, breaking down doors in the middle of the night, etc, etc..
Which actually does bring me to a possible solution: Seems to me that the protests really are justified, insofar as they are protesting police incompetence and immunity to mistakes. If there were a national call to alter all police union contracts, so that individual police officers are personally liable for their own actions, it might just quiet things down. The officers would need to carry malpractice insurance, just like other professionals. Sufficient claims, and they wouldn’t be able to afford the insurance – and would be out of a job. It’s a backassed way of eliminating incompetence, but it might just work…
“It’s a backassed way of eliminating incompetence, but it might just work… ”
–it’s a free market way of doing it…
I didn’t see many protesters after 12 midnight. I saw restless mobs, opportunists, and “citizen journalists” looking for youtube subs. And the normal criminal element.
My dad used to say that nothing good ever happened after midnight, and I am coming to believe he was right.
n
I didn’t see many protesters after 12 midnight. I saw restless mobs, opportunists, and “citizen journalists” looking for youtube subs. And the normal criminal element.
I didn’t see many black faces in the live coverage of the protests on the late news out of Austin the last couple of nights.
Government employees shouldn’t be allowed to unionize, full stop.
A local nurse was fired from her job because of an offensive FB post. She has also been reported to the licensing board and may lose her license.
Which actually does bring me to a possible solution: Seems to me that the protests really are justified, insofar as they are protesting police incompetence and immunity to mistakes. If there were a national call to alter all police union contracts, so that individual police officers are personally liable for their own actions, it might just quiet things down. The officers would need to carry malpractice insurance, just like other professionals. Sufficient claims, and they wouldn’t be able to afford the insurance – and would be out of a job. It’s a backassed way of eliminating incompetence, but it might just work…
We need to get rid of the War on Some Drugs ™. It has criminalized all of the people who self medicate. And half of the blacks self medicate.
I am tired of the goody two shoes who want to legislate morality. In other words, they want to regulate yours and mine behaviour. We fought this battle in the USA with the alcohol banning and now it is drug banning.
Still, anyone who shoots looters better have convincing evidence that whoever they shot was, in fact, looting.
It used to be in Texas that if you shot somebody in your yard, they advised you to drag them in the house. The Castle Doctrine changed all that. See Joe Horn incident for more info.
“Cristobal forms in the Gulf—models trending toward Louisiana”
https://spacecityweather.com/cristobal-forms-in-the-gulf-models-trending-toward-louisiana/
“Tropical Storm Cristobal formed earlier today, but Matt and I wanted to wait until after the 12z model runs came in before posting an update. Now that these forecasts are in (I promise I’m only going to do this once, but I can’t help myself) we’re going to look into our …
C R I S T O B A L C R Y S T A L B A L L
(If you hate that pun please direct your ire to a former colleague of mine). On to the forecast!”
That leaves a blood trail. Rent a small backhoe and bury them where they lay. With a rose bush stuck in their anal orifice so at least they would be useful.
“Cristobal forms in the Gulf—models trending toward Louisiana”
Perfect timing for a 4th of July weekend gas shortage!
Unlike the Atlantic, the Gulf water is warm right now.
Home again. Crossed downtown without incident and almost no slowdown. The freeway exits to downtown are blocked though.
Supposedly there are a lot of people downtown right now. Didn’t see them.
I bet tonight’s violence kicks off earlier than last night. I wrote my post at 2am, but my comments in yesterday’s thread were at 3 am. BIG change in the violence between then.
I don’t think they’ll wait as long tonight, and I don’t think the cops will wait for it so patiently.
n
THAT WAS THE RIOT THAT WAS:
India is starting to take off…
“India Sees Total Cases Top 200k As Iran, Bangladesh Report New Daily Records: Live Updates”
Brazil is well on its way.
n
India is starting to take off…
The truth on the ground there has probably been ugly for a while.
As I’ve posted before, both of my wife’s near miss infections were with Indian doctors working for the VA. Both showed up for work claiming to be well but visibly sick. In both cases, the thermometer read 102 before the individuals were sent home, and one had just returned from putting her niece on a plane departing Austin airport as part of what was most likely a series of flights back to the Subcontinent. At least two.
I have one of those magic boxes that is controlled by the power company. It is supposed to shut off my pool pump and water heater when demand is high and the power they buy from TVA gets expensive. Supposed to only be off for no longer than two hours.
Did not happen. Shut off at 4:00 and did not come back on at 6:00. Shutting off the breaker to the water heater, box deactivates, pool pump comes on. Turn water heater breaker back on and the box activates again and shuts off the pool pump. I am guessing the water heater is also shut off.
Called and the power company is sending someone to fix the issue. Power company is working on replacing all the poles on my street and did a lot of work today. Coincidence? Who knows.
Coincidence? My power just went out, wait 30sec and came back on. PCs are slowly coming back up, and internet too.
n
wordpress took down western rifle shooters blog for “TOS violation”.
Opening salvo?
n
wordpress took down western rifle shooters blog for “TOS violation”.
Opening salvo?
Bold.
Sounds like Freehold.
Kicking off a bit earlier tonight….
https://twitter.com/Breaking911
n
I think I’m headed to bed. I was up way too late last night.
I’m beat.
n
Good link, thanks.