Another great fall day, I hope. We are supposed to get rain, but only in a little ring around Houston, for the next couple of days. Any change in weather patterns and that little spot will miss us. I hope anyway.
It got up to 81F yesterday, but was back to 68F at night. Other than being a bit too humid, basically great weather. Clear sky, light breeze, warm sun.
Being that I didn’t feel fantastic, I was moving a bit slowly yesterday. I did manage to get a few things done, and I did get a wuflu test. Talked to my mom in Florida and she sound ok with us missing Thanksgiving with her. Even thinking about the trip seems nuts to me, but I’m not always driving the bus.
The election stuff continues to evolve. We’re learning some stuff about the process and the machines and the companies involved that is frankly incredible. Lou Dobbs says we don’t even know the true ownership of the companies doing the counting… FFS, I thought it was bad in the old days when one company provided the de facto results based on exit polls and really, whatever they wanted to say… and the count was kind of an afterthought. No matter what comes out of this, it’s not going to be good. Even if it’s all laid out and irrefutable, the damage done will be massive. A total reset of voting processes will be needed to restore public confidence. The chances of either of those things being true seem to be slim at this point. We are truly at a crossroad.
I’ve said for some time that I think we are in one of those periods where everything changes, the shape of the whole world gets rearranged. Last time we benefited enormously. Who will benefit this time, as it seems unlikely to be us?
Periods of rapid change and realignment are rarely much fun for the ordinary people living through them. Oh some people will rise like the robber barons, but most of us will be lucky to keep what we have-think europeans after WWII for example. I don’t think I want to live as a DP wandering around Eastern Europe.
I want to live comfortably in the country I grew up in. I’m gonna do what I can to make that happen. And I’m going to keep stacking so I have some resources available. Cuz seriously, what do YOU think will happen when Trump’s team lays out the evidence for the steal, but loses anyway? Or if he somehow pulls it off, what do you think the radical left will do when his “coup” is successful?
Keep stacking.
nick
added- I scanned through 11 pages of those results and found only a couple that predated the election, and those were from unabashed socialist sources.
Preparations to respond are already under way. A manual titled Hold the Line lays out how to form local “election protection” committees and start organizing for coup resistance.[6] Numerous organizations and coalitions are actively preparing for responding if Trump and his supporters disrupt the election and attempt to nullify its results. They include Choose Democracy, National Council On Election Integrity, Keep Our Republic , Stand Up America , and People’s Strike!. Others are keeping a low public profile unless and until open resistance is necessary. Protect the Results, a joint project of Indivisible and Stand Up America, has already organized actions in 233 locations for 5:00 p.m. local time on November 4.
Being Swiss, I hear about a lot of stuff like that. Personally, I just don’t get the fascination with expensive watches. But it’s easy to drop 6 digits on a watch here, and lots of Asian tourists used to do exactly that. Due to this craziness, the number of fake Swiss watches out there – ranging from “you’ve got to be kidding” to “that may be better than the real thing” – is nuts.
Funny, I haven’t heard how the watch industry is doing at the moment. I wonder if the lack of Asian tourists has had an impact, or if they have found other ways of reaching their clientele.
Read Rick Harrison’s (“Pawn Stars”) book if you want some insight into Asians and high end watches. Rick’s take is that it is all about portable wealth, but, based on my experience with my in-laws, I don’t discount what is known in Singapore as Kiasu, a mindset I often label around here as “You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream” — for them, it seems like the more unobtainium an item is, the more desirable it becomes to own simply to rub it in friends/family members’ faces.
In Chicago last March, it seemed like every Chinese tourist and businessman hit the Canada Goose stores as their first stop, wearing the coats around town to put some wear on them to make a personal ownership story plausible going through customs back home.
My in-laws have, among other Kiasu, a garage full of some of the last tube TVs sold in the Northwest, a Ford-Mazda pickup from the 90s untouched by “Cash for Clunkers”, and shrink-wrapped copies of Visual Studio 6 Pro, all desirable among niches in the Northwest, but the family gets off on having the things, being offered money, and then saying, “Not for sale”.
I’m sure that, these days, the family has N95 respirators/masks in a garage somewhere. 3M even. Not for sale. I don’t doubt that’s what’s happened to the PPE not made in China in this country.
Funny, I haven’t heard how the watch industry is doing at the moment. I wonder if the lack of Asian tourists has had an impact, or if they have found other ways of reaching their clientele.
Another trend I saw in Chicago last March was the Chinese tourists/businessmen hitting the Apple store on Michigan Ave. and buying the iWatch. Rose gold.
Bad news for the Swiss watch industry.
I would love to have an Omega Seamaster watch. I really want a new table saw more, though, and it’s only 3k – pocket change!
I would love to have an Omega Seamaster watch. I really want a new table saw more, though, and it’s only 3k – pocket change!
The Daniel Craig “James Bond” product placement Seamaster was $3800 when “Skyfall” premiered. Depending on the bus I took into Seattle that Spring, the dropoff was right in front of the Omega store.
Lack of a Bond movie has got to be hurting Omega as far as foot traffic in retailers in the US and Europe. Chinese aren’t Omega fans as much as Rolex, especially since Swatch bought Omega.
South Americans tend to like Tag Heuer, as the lead salesman for our division of GTE in Venezuela found out getting my friends out of Caracas after the Chavez revolution -er- election twenty years ago. The price to leave the country with all team members cleared was the salesman’s watch.
Portable wealth/bribe money.
Omega did score this week with every male astronaut on the Dragon Crew 2 visibly wearing a Speedmaster “Moon” Watch.
Speaking of watches…
Back in late 1972 I purchased a Pulsar digital watch, the gold version, with LED display. Individual LEDs in each segment of a number on the display. I paid $495 for that watch. Big, bulky, used a lot of batteries, only told the time. But I had to have it.
The crowning moment was when I got relocated to Colorado Springs in March 1973. I went to the movies with a friend to see “Live and Let Die”. In the opening sequence James Bond had a Pulsar watch, same as mine, except his was the cheaper silver version. In the scene he activated the watch and the audience quietly said “wow”. So I activated my watch and held up my wrist for those behind me to see. Ah, to have a James Bond Gadget, that was real, in my possession, priceless.
After the movie let out several people came up to me to look at the watch and see if it really was real. My ego was sky high, my wallet was low.
I like omega and don’t really care for Rolex. TAG always seemed like a mall store watch to me. Invicta is for rappers and wannabees. Bulova is making a resurgence among the same crowd as Invicta, but slightly less gaudy. Of course, vintage versions of those names are exempted from my comments…. and are desirable.
n
@ray, working early LED watches bring good money on ebay.
n
After the movie let out several people came up to me to look at the watch and see if it really was real. My ego was sky high, my wallet was low.
If you still have the watch, it is probably worth something, especially if it the model was featured in a Bond movie.
One of the last moon astronauts snuck a Pulsar on the trip, and Omega had kittens. I don’t know if it was digital or analog, but the watch wasn’t “certified” by NASA’s process which only passed the Speedmaster at the time, a coup for the brand.
About $100.00 used from my research. Those models are the ones with two switches to activate the date and time. Mine was only one switch to display the time.
Unfortunately, I dropped the watch and the magnetic reed switch that activated the display broke. In the closed position. The display was always on. Not good. Batteries would last about a day. I may have been able to replace the switch but it was buried fairly deep, was part of the entire clock module, and would have required soldering skills I did not possess.
Thus, with great pain, a couple of tears, I tossed the watch about five years ago. It had sat in my desk drawer for 32 years without being used.
I did drool over the HP-01 but could no longer afford that watch as I was married. Spousal unit would have removed 4/3 of my nuts.
Whata surprise!
https://www.whichcar.com.au/car-news/teslas-now-more-expensive-to-charge-than-petrol-cars.
It it will only get worse. Add in the additional government taxes. errr… fees to make up for declining gas taxes.
Breitling Airwolf , here.
I kept The Brat home today because she might be getting a cold. (Unusual and against societal norms, I realize, but it’s a thing I prefer to do.) She should be able to do the schooling online with not much loss of function.
Except that her account to get into the system is locked and apparently has been. She’s been using her mother’s account. Which is now locked. And the kid didn’t bother to tell me until I went up to check that everything was going OK, found her screwing around on the computer “doing homework” but actually just screwing around. (She started to say something but cut herself off when I asked how she was checking her homework when she couldn’t get into the school classes-and-homework system.) I got things straightened out by contacting the school’s “take care of all the things” person, but The Brat missed the first two classes.
I hear that some parents can manage to let their teens reach 18 without drowning them. Can’t figure out how they manage that.
EDIT: Now that she was finally in the online class, she was trying to tell me that she couldn’t participate because the microphone wasn’t working. Yes, Little Miss Braintrust, the mic on/off switch is clicked to Off.
She’s allegedly not unintelligent, but I’m not seeing it.
(Yes, I realize this is a deliberate lack of being able to figure things out. Still annoying.)
How to speedily increase unemployment.
Whata surprise!
https://www.whichcar.com.au/car-news/teslas-now-more-expensive-to-charge-than-petrol-cars.
It it will only get worse. Add in the additional government taxes. errr… fees to make up for declining gas taxes.
EVs also ride for free on CA’s expanding network of toll roads. It is a much better deal than the old trick of getting the toll tag in the gardener’s name/address.
How to speedily increase unemployment.
And eliminate delivery from anyone but the big players. I thought WA State minimum wage was pushing $15/hr in most places.
It probably won’t hold up to a court challenge, but its there for now.
Minimum wage in WA State was above $11 when we escaped Vantucky. Wendy’s was a $50+ trip for our family of four, and the big pizza chain was [the “Take and Bake” brand which shall remain nameless] since they could take food stamps via a loophole in the law.
It must make sense for Costco in some way. Inslee does whatever Costco tells him to do. As Governor, his reason for existing is to be their chore boy, bought and paid for. Certainly more restrictions increase TP and paper towel sales by panicking the masses.
Ah inflation… $50 used to be a date night restaurant.
n
Can anyone tell me what a bitcoin or other crypto store of value would look like on a hard disk or thumbdrive? Is there a file extension you can search for?
n
I read more and more Great White Carbuncles like John “Lurch” Kerry are signing on to “The Great Reset.” I can hear Billy Gates cackling in Mr. Burn’s voice: “Excellent, Lurch.”
LET THE GREAT RESET AND HEELING BEGIN!
Hmm, maybe you should move to Australia to avoid the heavy handed fascist Trump government… oh wait
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/south-australia-bans-exercise-dog-walking-during-6-day-circuit-breaker-lockdown
I guess they didn’t want to be seen welding doors shut yet.
n
I received the following from my NINE yo’s teacher.
–pseudo-scientific mumbo mixed with business school jumbo
Translation- in the special program for gifted and talented kids, the kids are supposed to research and investigate an “enigma” (mine picked Loch Ness Monster) and then create a presentation for the rest of the class sharing their research results. The relevant requirements are somewhere on a website called “It’s Learning”, which requires a login and account. There is a tool somewhere online called “Flipgrid” that the kids are expected to use to create their “PRODUCT” (video report) based on the previously mentioned “RUBRICS” (which is a term of art in education, apparently, meaning a list of requirements and expectations about the assignment.)
It’s my observation now that the kids spend more time learning the jargon, than the material. Where there is material to learn, it is often abstracted two or three layers, ie reading an article about a book critiquing a scholarly paper, instead of just reading the source paper.
Their online ‘resources’ are a jumbled mess of unrelated and unlinked websites, that look like poorly designed Sharepoint sites, or like a PhD candidate imagines a child would LIKE a site to look (lots of color and clipart), all requiring different accounts and logins, all with different tree structures, and all with differing jargon. Nothing is ever one click away, and most of it is buried in a clickfest of nested directories.
What a mess.
n
Hmm, maybe you should move to Australia to avoid the heavy handed fascist Trump government… oh wait
I guess they didn’t want to be seen welding doors shut yet.”
That lockdown is getting walked back. Big mistake. Hilarity ensued.
https://summit.news/2020/11/20/south-australia-revokes-lockdown-after-revelation-one-person-lied-to-contact-tracers/
Doesn’t Plugs want Federal contact tracers?
wallet.dat usually in a folder called .bitcoin
It’s my observation now that the kids spend more time learning the jargon, than the material. Where there is material to learn, it is often abstracted two or three layers, ie reading an article about a book critiquing a scholarly paper, instead of just reading the source paper.
Subcontinent learning.
I don’t know about your ISD, but the Subcontinent parents here have the contents of the ISD’s qualifying tests for the gifted programs, and the class content is geared towards the way that demographic learns back home, which the adults in the household arrogantly believe produce superior results based on their dominance at the big IT shops in this end of town. It is a vicious feedback loop.
The next middle school over from our neighborhood school, located in the H1B community, is only half utilized, with the parents frequently requesting zoning exceptions for various reasons (a list of which is also circulated in that community). It is hard to compete via dishonesty in a school where everyone is being dishonest. The end result is all of the other middle schools are still overcrowded despite a decade of capital spending by the ISD and the H1B neighborhood being the only new construction in the last five years.
I was assigned by one teacher, the one I sub for the most, and the class for the recent incident, as a student and can see the assignments. It is a mess.
Teachers have not had real guidance and what little they have had has been provided by clueless people that are not teachers. Students forced to use TinkerCad, a barely useful WEB based 3D design software. No guidance to the students, copy and paste, no real learning.
Case in point is the ballon powered cars to be designed and printed. Axles too large. Exhaust path for the balloon into the axle hole. Exhaust path about the size of pencil lead. Basically a block of plastic. No guidance to the students.
I tried to explain to several of the the issues and considerations. The students did not listen and just copied and pasted. Learned nothing. No ability to think and reason.
This entire generation, with a few exceptions, will be unable to function as thinking adults. If the lightbulb does not turn on, the ability to realize the bulb is burned out and needs to be replaced, will not exist.
But they can send a text, use TikTok, chat on video, play video games.All useful skills for adult life.
@SteveF:
I managed it 3 times, twice with success, the third less so, in that the two oldest graduated from University, and have productive, well-paying jobs. The third is assistant manager in a local food shop, having dropped out of Uni. after her first year. So still not a failure.
BTW, No. 2 is the teacher I’ve mentioned before.
G.
I sort of thought Gen-X was the last generation that would embrace wrist watches, It seems the younger end of Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z had no desire to wear a watch at all (outside of hip-hop and related wannabes) and just used the clock on their phone. Then, fitness watches and smart watches hit the market and watches reappeared on everyone’s wrist. I don’t wear one as I find them annoying. Same is true for me for most accessories. I never wear hats, gloves, or sunglasses either.
There’s a funny xkcd about it: https://xkcd.com/1420/
My sons are grown and employed and all that.
The Brat is, I’m pretty sure, more trouble than the sons put together. I’d write it off to rose-colored recollection or individual variation, but parents in general indicate that daughters are more trouble than sons. (Contemporary middle-class American parents, at any rate.) I’m still trying to forge her name on Army enlistment papers or get her married or maybe just put her in a cardboard box and mail her to China, but so far no luck.
I have worked in grocery stores since I was a pre-Teen, family owned and otherwise. I either broke or scratched so many watch crystals that I would rather not wear a watch to work, expensive or cheap. I now have an Armatron that I paid $17.99 ten years ago. I have found that the cheaper the watch, the longer it lasts.
I did drool over the HP-01 but could no longer afford that watch as I was married. Spousal unit would have removed 4/3 of my nuts.
One of those went through the “Pawn Stars” shop in the last few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbnr-omLeRk
$100. Gotta wonder what the markup was when the watch hit the display case.
Anything HP calculator-related dating back pre-Carly Fiorina era is collectible. I have an HP Prime for work simply because the others I own are now impossible to replace.
#DisneyMustPay Alan Dean Foster
I am not sure if any one here is a fan of the amazing Alan Dean Foster but, ADF just revealed that he has not been paid his book royalties by Disney since 2014 ! Here are more details.
A message from SFWA’s President, Mary Robinette Kowal:
https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/18/disney-must-pay/
@Lynn: Just read your link about Alan Dean Foster. Crazy – Disney has’t got a leg to stand on, and he can easily win in court. The SFWA posted his story in case any less-well-known writers have the same problem – I wonder how many do?
How Disney thinks they can get away with something like that, is just baffling. Aside from the negative publicity, they are entirely likely to be liable for a multiple of the royalties owed.
At some point, the lawsuit could turn into a class action if they are stiffing several authors.
We are officially owners of the house I’ve been chatting about.
Working in the kitchen today awaiting delivery of a 10 yard roll off. Carpet / linoleum removal commence tomorrow.
I’m sitting beneath a Berns Air King model 305B home intercom / radio master controller. It powers on however makes no sound. One of our “later” projects will be to restore functionality to this nifty thing (if possible).
http://twogeeksandadog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AirKing.jpeg
Yabba Dabba Doo.
We are officially owners of the house I’ve been chatting about.
Working in the kitchen today awaiting delivery of a 10 yard roll off. Carpet / linoleum removal commence tomorrow.
What was the previous owner’s pet situation?
Replace it and use the wiring for a new system. You will spend a lot of time and unless you have schematics and are good with electronics it will be a tedious project. If you know someone good with electronics they might be able to help.
The power supply capacitors are probably shot. They can be replaced but that may involve all the units. Or it could be a blown fuse, amplifier transistors shot, etc. If the radio does not work the problem is in the head unit, the one in the photograph.
Then again, it could be as simple as the breaker has been thrown. First thing is check for power.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L9HLKDX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_UabUFb72T4QYB?psc=1&tag=ttgnet-20
Here is a Bond Omega “homage ” for a reasonable price. Seiko quality movement.
There are any number of Japanese engined, Chinese designed “microbrand” watches at affordable prices. YouTube is full of “reviews “. See Just One More Watch channel.
Kinda like FLASHLIGHTS.
Sam’s Club run today to grab soda and backfill canned goods.
TP and paper towels going out the door in almost every cart, Member’s Mark brand only. Limit 1 of each per transaction.
Canned good and meat supplies were decent. Full pallet of dried beans in 12 lb bags where that space has been empty before. People aren’t worrying about eating?
One canned good change to note — green beans are now 8 pack instead of 12. Same price.
On the way back, I noticed the local Catholic church had a line of cars stretching out of their driveway and down the street. At first I thought that school let out early, but then I saw kids at PE. Then it struck me — food bank for the holiday.
Pretty nice cars in line. I know there are people who genuinely need help, but the one constant with this pandemic situation is selfish behavior.
Speaking of FLASHLIGHTS, while at the local Wally World (WalMart), I went over to the camping section and picked up a handful of the $1 LED headlamps, and the $1.00 LED FLASHLIGHTS.
They will go into the ‘power outage’ box, which will be on top of the fridge for easy access.
I also have two plugin outage FLASHLIGHTS (similar to these https://amzn.to/32YRzfN ) that are in the main living area and master bedroom. They provide enough light during the start of an outage to get me to the power outage box.
And two lantern LED FLASHLIGHTS (similar to https://amzn.to/2IU1exi ) that were bought at Costco. Takes 6 “D” batteries, but they last a long time. Those are placed in an easily accessible area, and I use one to light up the living area during a power outage, and the other to light up things when I drag out the generator. (I have extra D batteries available.)
Generator in the garage, with a cord long enough to reach to the bypass switch at the main power panel.
So, the procedure when the lights die (which happens 2-3 times a winter here, due to windstorms and all the trees around here in the Olympic Peninsula in WA):
– wall flashlights kick in
– enough light to get to the ‘outage box’ in the kitchen (as well as having little LED FLASHLIGHTS in common areas)
– headlamp if needed
– position the main lantern light in the living area (den)
That’s good enough for a short-term solution. If the outage lasts longer than an hour, then Phase 2:
– lantern light and headlamp on, then go to the garage
– roll up the garage door (manually)
– position generator in driveway (there’s a thick cable lock attached to the generator and the roll-up door tracks to prevent it wandering away, although that’s not likely in my neighborhood)
– hook up power cord from generator to bypass panel
– fire up the generator (three pulls, since the battery died, but it starts up nicely), wait for it to stabilize
– go to bypass panel and flip the 6 switches, which provide necessary circuits (fridge, freezer, oxygen machine, den, LED TV and DirecTV, cable modem). Generator load about 2.5KW.
– close garage door
– in the house, turn on one fixture that is not on the generator, so I can know when the power is back on.
– Sit back and congratulate myself.
This all worked last week. Except for the part when I forgot to turn the gas valve to the ‘on’ position. Had lights (all lights in house are LED) and watched TV and had internet, while the rest of the neighborhood was dark. Outage lasted 5 hours.
Been through the procedure several times over the past few years. Generator always gassed up (with Stabil), two spare 5 gallon gas contains (with Stabil) ready as needed. Rotate the gas once/year into the cars.
I read more and more Great White Carbuncles like John “Lurch” Kerry are signing on to “The Great Reset.” I can hear Billy Gates cackling in Mr. Burn’s voice: “Excellent, Lurch.”
LET THE GREAT RESET AND HEELING BEGIN!
I have not figured out what “The Great Reset” is yet. I keep on reading the article and saying surely not. That is just good old fashioned Marxism.
https://summit.news/2020/11/20/john-kerry-says-great-reset-is-needed-to-stop-rise-of-populism/
“As we have exhaustively documented, “The Great Reset” is merely the latest incarnation of the agenda to centralize power into the hands of a tiny elite, disenfranchising Americans, lowering their living standards and forcing them to submit to a social credit score system that will eliminate all privacy and personal autonomy.”
Congrats!
Congratulations, Jenny!!!!! May God bless your family’s life in this home with joy, fun, peace, and contentment! 🙂
I’m sitting beneath a Berns Air King model 305B home intercom / radio master controller. It powers on however makes no sound. One of our “later” projects will be to restore functionality to this nifty thing (if possible).
http://twogeeksandadog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AirKing.jpeg
Neat. Do you have a fire extinguisher ?
This all worked last week. Except for the part when I forgot to turn the gas valve to the ‘on’ position. Had lights (all lights in house are LED) and watched TV and had internet, while the rest of the neighborhood was dark. Outage lasted 5 hours.
Our cable internet from Comcast, ok Xfinity, apparently only has about a two minute UPS on the pole about 300 ft behind the house. I need an backup internet if we ever get a generator.
“Fascist governor of New York angry some LEOs respect the Constitution”
https://gunfreezone.net/fascist-governor-of-new-york-angry-some-leos-respect-the-constitution/
“Gov. Cuomo can’t get sheriffs to enforce 10-person cap on Thanksgiving dinner”
Nice governor you’ve got there. If I were him, I would stay out of dark alleys. Shoot, I would stay out of well lit alleys in NYC if I was him.
BTW, this is a preview of El Presidente Kamala Harris. I was discussing this with my Dad this morning and we both think that she will order the USA military into the field to enforce her executive orders. Both of us think that the USA military will tell her to go pound sand.
We are officially owners of the house I’ve been chatting about.
Working in the kitchen today awaiting delivery of a 10 yard roll off. Carpet / linoleum removal commence tomorrow.
Congratulations ! Good luck in selling the old house. Hopefully your sales market in Anchorage is as hot and heavy going as the local market here is.
“Floyd County, GA Terminates Election Director After Statewide Audit Finds ‘Thousands’ Of Uncounted Votes [VIDEO]”
https://100percentfedup.com/floyd-county-ga-terminates-election-director-after-statewide-audit-finds-thousands-of-uncounted-votes-video/
I believe that this is the THIRD county in Georgia to find uncounted votes. Either the vote counters are incompetent or we have a conspiracy here. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action is the old saying.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“American Ingenuity in times of Covid Dictatorships”
https://gunfreezone.net/american-ingenuity-in-times-of-covid-dictatorships/
“6 people are allowed for Thanksgiving, but 30 are allowed for a funeral.”
“So I will be having a funeral for my pet turkey who will pass away on November 26.”
“Refreshments provided.”
This all worked last week. Except for the part when I forgot to turn the gas valve to the ‘on’ position. Had lights (all lights in house are LED) and watched TV and had internet, while the rest of the neighborhood was dark. Outage lasted 5 hours.
Been through the procedure several times over the past few years. Generator always gassed up (with Stabil), two spare 5 gallon gas contains (with Stabil) ready as needed. Rotate the gas once/year into the cars.
What if you get a one week outage ? A two week outage ?
@lynn …
I live in a residential area, so because of the high concentration of housing, it is unlikely that a power outage due to wind or trees will be very long. Our longest since we’ve been here (6 years) was 12 hours. Most are under 6 hours; the utility district here is pretty responsive.
There are other more rural areas around here, served with just one main line, that have had longer outages (Marrowstone Island) of more than a day. If I lived in such an area, a propane-powered generator would have been installed.
If the rotating blade device has some excrement hitting it, then I’m out of luck. As is the wife, on a full-time oxygen generator.
“Dominion Voting ‘Lawyers Up’ Before Abruptly Backing Out Of Pennsylvania Fact-Finding Hearing”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dominion-voting-lawyers-abruptly-backing-out-pennsylvania-fact-finding-hearing
“Dominion Voting Systems Thursday night abruptly backed out of attending a fact-finding hearing that was set for Friday morning with the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee.”
“At a press conference Friday morning, State Govt Committee Chair Seth Grove said the 1.3. million Pennsylvanians who used Dominion’s voting machines have been “hung out to dry and slapped in their faces.””
Why is the FBI not rampaging through the Dominion Voting Systems offices and grabbing everything in sight ?
Plausible-sounding explanation of why that doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t implicate the vote counts in 3 … 2 …
@lynn …
What if you get a one week outage ? A two week outage ?
I live in a residential area, so because of the high concentration of housing, it is unlikely that a power outage due to wind or trees will be very long. Our longest since we’ve been here (6 years) was 12 hours. Most are under 6 hours; the utility district here is pretty responsive.
There are other more rural areas around here, served with just one main line, that have had longer outages (Marrowstone Island) of more than a day. If I lived in such an area, a propane-powered generator would have been installed.
If the rotating blade device has some excrement hitting it, then I’m out of luck. As is the wife, on a full-time oxygen generator.
Yeah, I have been sitting on my buttocks not doing anything about the power outages since I cannot build a long term plan. After hurricane Ike in 2008, we did not have power in our home for three days. We did not have power in our offices for two weeks. So we grabbed all the computers from the office and moved the business to our home. The place looked like a spider web with ethernet cables running everywhere.
Some of the extreme areas in Houston did not have power for up to six weeks. Some of the central areas, River Oaks !!! (very expensive area), did not have power for four weeks. One guy in River Oaks had a natural gas powered generator and his neighbors ran extension cords to his house just to plug in their refrigerators. When he got his several thousand dollar natural gas bill the next month, he sent each of his neighbors an invoice.
Since my bug out place is only four miles away from my house, I am hoping that one of the two will have power. What I really need to do is get a 20 kw natural gas generator with an automatic transfer switch. Any day now.
Consider the marine version of Stabil. Has the ability to absorb much more water and is really designed for wet environments. Unfortunately, the marine version of Stabil will set up after about three years so don’t buy large size bottles unless it is needed. I would go through a large bottle every year. After I sold the boat the stuff I had left over basically solidified.
I have several analog watches that I have collected over time. A few of them have dead batteries. No ambition to replace the batteries.
I have a watch from Bohler in Kaufenburg Austria. Specially made for the factory to give to guests. I was fortunate to be a guest.
I also have a real, as in made in Russia, from a Russian sub commander, sub commander watch. Generally given to sub commanders by the Russian leadership but I suspect can be bought by anyone. Fairly unique. Goes well with my Russian Sub Commander hat (same one Sean Connery wore in The Hunt For Red October) in my possession. Complete with the commander insignia fastened to the front. They were given to me when the Y12 plant had some foreign visitors and the wife and I hosted a Russian scientist, who was a former sub commander, in the house for a couple of weeks.
The turboenkabular threw a sprocketrod on the framshaft?
Lucky you. You have the high power model with the extended backup option. My internet, TV and phone goes down the minute the power goes.
@SteveF:
As seen from the right-hand side of the pond… Given the tendency of some Americans to reach for a lawyer at the clank of a split molecule, instructing a brief, just-in-case, is a prudent act.
Whether that implicates the vote counts is a whole other matter, but again from my right-pondian viewpoint, the optics aren’t good.
G.
Where I lived in Oregon there was one main line serving the entire valley. It crossed our property in the middle of a field. One year the power went out for down lines. The ground was too wet in the fields for equipment to get in and repair the lines. On our fields a truck tried to get in and promptly got stuck. It required a large bulldozer to get the truck out and that did not happen for a week.
It was not uncommon in the winter for use to lose power for a week at a time. We had no generator. Just used FLASHLIGHTS. We did have a gravity feed oil stove with a cooking surface. Water was fed from a spring on the hill thus no pumping necessary. So we had warmth, food, and water. Food from the freezer and refrigerator were transported to an outside structure where it generally stayed below freezing for weeks. But that was not a lot of food. Most of our food was canned and stored in a building designed for storing food such as potatoes, onions, and other such supplies.
Sleeping was in an un-heated part of the house under a lot of blankets. Baths and showers were non-existent other than using a sponge in a pan of hot water. It wasn’t fun, but it was doable. The stove was the critical element.
“Why is the FBI not rampaging”
–you mean the FBI that conspired against OrangeMan? THAT?! FBI?
After Ike we were without power for 14 days. Our 3500w gennie ran like a champ. It’s just a pain to fill it every 12 hours. This time we have that gennie, a 3000w Honda inverter, and (if it was connected) the natgas whole house… And batteries, inverters, and solar panels.
BTW, just because you can’t run forever doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prep for a reasonable time.
n
Our cable internet from Comcast, ok Xfinity, apparently only has about a two minute UPS on the pole about 300 ft behind the house. I need an backup internet if we ever get a generator.
Huh? When our power goes out, the cable internet lasts as long as the UPS on my router and cable modem inside the house has reserve power.
Is your area heavily segmented for TV service?
And he got through that without laughing! Or even smirking!
The government probably put in an order for 100K.
@Greg
The local cable modem place (Wave Broadband) has an office just down the street, about 1/4 mile away. Brick building that I assume has the infrastructure and a generator, I assume. After modem restart during generator use, the lights were flashing as normal, and was working normally.
The circuit for the cable modem happens to be on a circuit that is powered by the generator through the bypass panel. It’s on the other side of the bedroom wall. The bedroom is on a bypass panel circuit to provide power for my sleep apnea machine. And the oxygen generator for my wife is also on a bypass-panel circuit. Both circuits were chosen for the bypass panel due to those requirements.
As for Stabil – I just buy the little quart size. I put the purchase date on it, and discard if too old or looks bad. Not sure if the last one I bought was marine-grade.
As for the stored gas, I try to rotate it once a year. Might be time to do it again. Add new Stabil on each gas can refill. Not a big fan of those stupid nozzles on the gas containers. But use them rarely enough that I haven’t been motivated to replace them with easier nozzles.
As for ‘prepping for a reasonable time’ – I think I am covered. Two five-gallon cans of gas. One Champion 5-6KW generator. Doesn’t seem to use much gas for the outages I have here. I refill after major use. Think that the generator could even handle the small space heater we’d use in the Den. That’s where we stayed during the time when the house heating system died last Feb. Kept us warm enough.
BTW, just because you can’t run forever doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prep for a reasonable time.
Yeah, I know. I’ve got everything we need for a power outage except power generation. And getting natural gas pulled over to the back of my garage is going to be a 200+ foot pain.
Our cable internet from Comcast, ok Xfinity, apparently only has about a two minute UPS on the pole about 300 ft behind the house. I need an backup internet if we ever get a generator.
Huh? When our power goes out, the cable internet lasts as long as the UPS on my router and cable modem inside the house has reserve power.
Is your area heavily segmented for TV service?
No idea. I just know that three of the four lights on the cable internet modem turn off fairly quickly during a power outage.
Rick, could you get a small kerosene heater, a 5-gal jug of kerosene, and a hand pump? Not legal in all communities, if that matters to you. Not dangerous to store so long as you have a space in the garage or basement protected from sparks and extreme heat. Not dangerous to use if you’re not an idiot, and presumably anyone who’s made it past 40 is not-idiot enough.
I don’t know if stabil works with kerosene, but I’m not sure it’s needed. I had a heater for my basement in the Winter and had no trouble with using last Winter’s fuel at the beginning of the new cold season.
“BREAKING: Kyle Rittenhouse RELEASED From Jail After Patriots Post $2M Bail”
https://nationalfile.com/breaking-kyle-rittenhouse-released-from-jail-after-patriots-post-2m-bail/
“17-year-old volunteer lifeguard Kyle Rittenhouse has been released from jail after supporters raised the staggering $2 million required for cash bail, attorney Lin Wood announced on Twitter Friday afternoon.”
“Rittenhouse shot three men who attacked him during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin this summer, and video evidence confirms the teen’s defense team’s assessment that he acted in self-defense.”
Cool !
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Rick, could you get a small kerosene heater, a 5-gal jug of kerosene, and a hand pump? Not legal in all communities, if that matters to you. Not dangerous to store so long as you have a space in the garage or basement protected from sparks and extreme heat. Not dangerous to use if you’re not an idiot, and presumably anyone who’s made it past 40 is not-idiot enough.
I don’t know if stabil works with kerosene, but I’m not sure it’s needed. I had a heater for my basement in the Winter and had no trouble with using last Winter’s fuel at the beginning of the new cold season.
Please, please, please vent the kerosene heater to the outside ?
Mine was rated as safe for use in an occupied room, so long as it wasn’t too small or too tightly closed. Two people and the heater in a 150 ft^2 room with the door closed? Something like that. Wasn’t a problem at all, as I kept it in the basement and checked and filled it in the morning before work and a couple times in the evening. It wasn’t legal in the city where I lived but several firemen told me it wasn’t a problem and that a few of them had heaters in their basements or back rooms.
A fire station was a block down from my house there and I’d sometimes chat with the firemen if they were sitting outside when I walked my dog or was walking to the butcher shop. A hospital with a busy emergency room was a block and a half up the hill, and I lived on one of the main cross streets in the city and had cops with lights and sirens go by several times a day and there was some kind of siren attached to the street poles at the corner about fifty meters from the office in my house. After living there a few years I no longer heard sirens.
I have spotted a few similar over the years. None worked well enough to bother with. The sound quality? What? Say it again, louder! Mics and speakers go bad.
Never mind power supply parts.
Anyway, the address, Chicago 18, Ill dates it to about 1966. Zip Codes, two letter state abbreviations…
A bit of poking around shows the caps go bad and the switches get dirty.
So, a future project. After you get moved and the all the rest.
I have a propane heater (Mr. Heater 18k BTU) rated for an occupied room and is very clean burning. I only use it on the enclosed porch but in an emergency I don’t see a problem using it in a room. My house is 130 years old and is far from airtight. I have CO detectors and I would crack open a window since I’m a belt and suspenders kinda guy.
The heater can’t be putting out more combustion products than my all gas stove which doesn’t vent to the outside. During big meal preparation I have had all 4 burners and the oven going at once and the CO detector doesn’t even register.
“My internet, TV and phone goes down the minute the power goes. ”
–um, that ain’t right. Once the cable co started offering telephone service the rules changed. They have to provide backup power to keep the phone part of the system alive. There should be a UPS on the outside of your house, at the telco or cable demarc. That’s if you have phone thru them. Further up the chain, the neighborhood head end should have a big battery box, and maybe a small natgas gennie. Our cable stayed up no matter what our local power did.
n
Yep.
The family house is now over 150 years old, at least the older part. My brother pumped in foam insulation some years ago and the upstairs windows have newish storm windows. (The downstairs windows still have the old wooden storms which have to be taken off each Spring. Eh, it’s a couple hours’ exercise twice a year.)
My house was about 70 years old when I bought it. Basement leaked like a sieve despite my doing what I could to seal cracks. I didn’t have the money to completely redo it, only to spray foam around the casement windows and in some of the openings between foundation and building. All of the opening windows had glass/screen storm windows but many of the windows were broken or missing, as were many of the screens. I replaced the windows as I could afford it but the tenants managed to break or “lose” them more rapidly than one would expect. Seriously, is “tenant” a synonym for “moron”? A couple of them complained about leaking windows and their heat bill and demanded that I do something about it, at which point I showed the photos of the intact outer windows and told them they needed to give me $100 per missing pane. That usually led to denials or claims that someone else must have done it. Riiiiight.
Same with me on Spectrum/Charter in SA.
–um, that ain’t right. Once the cable co started offering telephone service the rules changed. They have to provide backup power to keep the phone part of the system alive. There should be a UPS on the outside of your house, at the telco or cable demarc. That’s if you have phone thru them. Further up the chain, the neighborhood head end should have a big battery box, and maybe a small natgas gennie. Our cable stayed up no matter what our local power did.
Texas’ broadband providers have different phone service rules than phone company copper and DSL. Even AT&T Fiber has less regulation than the legacy service.
More deregulation was the price Texas paid for the Death Star to run fiber service to the pathetic extent it has to date. Otherwise, the company would have continued pretending that Uverse DSL was sufficient.
More deregulation was the price Texas paid for the Death Star to run fiber service to the pathetic extent it has to date. Otherwise, the company would have continued pretending that Uverse DSL was sufficient.
I am paying $125/month for two AT&T 12/1 mbps DSL lines at the rural office building. I also pay $300/month for five CO lines that are hooked into my 8 outside line / 32 inside line Panasonic phone switch and voice mail that I paid $10,000 for about a decade ago.
AT&T has run fiber at the front of the 14 acres that the office building is on, at the back, about 1,000 foot. They are willing to run fiber to the office for free for just $1,000/month for 10/10 mbps ethernet. Higher speeds to 1/1 gbps are available for more bucks. So far I have told them not only no, but hell no.
” available for more bucks. ”
– And they probably block ports and won’t let you run servers.
Comcast keeps trying to sell me Business internet. It’s twice the price and one tenth the speed of residential. Um…NO. Last time I emptied my mail box, there were 6-8 inches of Comcast solicitations.
n
Thank you, all.
@Greg
We assume pets. Same family in the house since it was built in 1964 thru death of last parent about a year ago. Carpet is in incredibly good shape for their age but ewww carpet. Husband has asthma so no carpet is a necessity.
@Ray @Paul
It’s largely the novelty of the age of the thing, and the pleasure of restoring cool things. We’ve got a couple friends who have good skills at these sorts of things and I think may be persuaded to help.next year maybe.
@Lynn
We are saving the fire extinguishers for when we plug in and use the in-wall toaster. Really. A toaster mounted between the studs on an outside wall, positioned where the dining room table would be. We are told it still works.
in wall toaster
in wall toaster different view
Anchorage politics – gargh it’s getting worse. I swear they’ve got a race to the bottom going on. Can’t even talk about it or my head will explode.
When words fail you there’s always … interpretive dance!
Automatic watches, like the Pagani “homage” are battery free, being mechanical, but not as accurate as a quartz. Citizen watch’s “Eco-Drive” have a solar cell for the quartz movement and take decades to go out of kilter. Many Casio’s and Seiko’s do too.
Your submariner watch sounds like a Vostok. Automatic and uses a unique waterproofing tech. Watch geeks enjoy modding ’em. Inexpensive (<$100) and quite respected and reliable. The local mall watch store replaces batteries for <$10.
Actual swiss mechanical movements have a fairly absurd price premium, but are put into scads of other manufacturer's cases for the prestige and $$. The much more affordable Japanese Seiko or Citizen's Miyota movements are ubiquitous in the "microbrand" world. Steinhart, Neymar, Helm, Audaz, Aragon, Marathon are some greater or lesser brands that make a nice piece for a fair price, usually but not always automatics.
Seiko, Citizen and Casio have a huge array of models for any price point and any fashion. You'll see pics of Bill Gates (boo! hiss!) wearing a $50 Casio MDV-106 that strongly resembles an oversize Rolex. Nice watch, crazy cheap price.
Bulova's Precisionist series tend to be largish but claim to be far and away more accurate than the typical quartz unless it checks with the Ft. Collins atomic radio sync. Runs on a battery, though. Citizen owns Bulova and has come out with their own luxury priced uber accurate, solar powered quartz.
My first LED watch was a Sinclair watch kit as advertised in a 1976 issue of Mechanics Illustrated for $29.95. About $140.00 today. It was cheap cheap plastic and you assembled it yourself but I felt so cool with that black slab on my wrist.
In 1982 my parents bought me a TRAFALGAR TALKING DIGITAL WATCH for my birthday. A freaking talking watch! I wore it to the Novel OS programming class in Austin Texas. I quickly discovered the problem with talking watches. They talk. All the time. I would be working my exercises in class and my watch would pipe up “It’s now 10:30 AM” and everyone would give me a stare. I never wore it after that. Still have it in the original box with all the instructions.
“there’s always … interpretive dance! ”
—um, many years ago I was hired by a church to provide lighting for their “Christmas Show”. Which turned out to be written by the Pastor’s wife, and was, you guessed it, the story of Genesis told thru interpretive dance. Skip forward to the trial and death and resurrection of Christ, with an angelic war in Heaven featuring red faced devils in tuxedo cat suits — dancing.
My design had 96 channels of dimming, six moving lights, lasers, two kinds of strobes, fog, smoke, and haze. They hired a company to provide indoor pyro effects too.
If you’re thinking, “But Nick, that sounds more like an Easter theme”, well, what can I tell you. Pastor’s wife.
It was successful and looked good, and I went back and lit a number of other productions for them. The money was good, and the pastor’s daughter was gorgeous.
I lit it again the second year, even bigger and better! Trinity Broadcast Network came and shot it for a TV special. I haven’t been able to find that online, but some day it’ll show up.
n
@Jenny
Congrats on closing! That toaster is a hoot! My parents had Nu-Tone intercoms in a couple of their 60’s construction places. Looked like your pix. Didn’t actually get much use.
@SteveF
interpretive dance!
If it involved heads on pikes I think you might have something there.
See if your local politicians can interpret the meaning of a non-choreographed non-dancing number involving a hundred townsfolk, torches, pitchforks, and rope.
The citizen eco drive watches are nice tech but they last less than ‘decades’. Decade might be closer although you might get two. The capacitor used for storage wears out and they can be expensive to replace.
Owning a high end mechanical watch will also involve spending money on maintenance. They do need occasional service-cleaning and lubrication.
One of my problems with Rolex is that EVERYONE else made watches that look very similar. With a few exceptions they just don’t look that cool to me. The Yacht Master 40 in rose gold with black dial is an exception. I’d love one of those! (It’s ~$23K, so I’m not holding my breath.) The sales guy dragged me over to that counter when I really was just shopping for my wife. First and only rubber band.
Watchfinder.com will send you a nice weekly email with some beautiful watches in it if you sign up. Junk mail I look forward to!
n
Re: watches
I keep auto wind cheap watches in my bug out bags. I wear Timex Expedition watches because of the Indiglo(tm) feature. It’s actually bright enough to see a little in dark spaces. And cheap enough not to worry about loosing. I have an Omega for diving but I don’t dive anymore.
Living in Hong Kong, there are knock-off watch stands every block. I found it was cheaper to buy a new watch when the battery died in the old one. Still have a couple of excellent faux Rolex for fun. I would buy faux Monte Blanc pens, really good ones, for about $2 each as presents for friends and family.
I always rotate my 30 gallons of petrol every quarter so I don’t worry about Stabil. In fact, I just rotated all six cans last week when local un leaded hit $1.55 / gallon.
I only use propane in my generator so I don’t worry about my stock going bad.
Ray Thompson –
Free advice, either remove the existing batteries or throw the watches away. I lost some nice, not expensive, watches because the batteries went bad and spewed crosive goo all over the insides.
Nothing wrong with Timex. I’ve got a couple in my daily rotation. Granted, my favorite is a black faced military style on a black and grey nato band. I’ve got a couple of indiglo too. Swiss Army has several basic models that are rugged and inexpensive.
On the cheap side, you want at least a japanese movement though. The china movements are getting better, but are still pretty much cr@p… Vintage Timex, if it hasn’t run much, can be very nice too. They were built rugged and sloppy so they don’t need precise and frequent lube or cleaning. They really will ‘take a licking’.
Digital can be ok too but doesn’t have the ‘romance’ of mechanical or even quartz. I wear my decade or more old G-Shock in my daily rotation. It’s the only cheap daily wear watch that I can be sure is still water “proof”.
I’ve previously shared how I ruined my “cheap” Rado quartz in the hot tub at DisneyWorld. I call it my cheap one because I got a his and hers set at a yard sale for ~$300 iirc. Absolutely genuine in the box with papers. She got divorced, wanted to be rid of the watches. She’d gotten them with an employee discount too. Cash money won the day.
At the moment, I’ve got more watches than radios sitting on my desk…
n
@Greg
We assume pets. Same family in the house since it was built in 1964 thru death of last parent about a year ago. Carpet is in incredibly good shape for their age but ewww carpet. Husband has asthma so no carpet is a necessity.
I have asthma and allergies, hence the reason we keep the steroid stock bottle at the house.
Prior to us moving into the current house, the owners had quite a menagerie living with them. Before yanking the carpet, I took a knife to any suspicious looking stained area, removed it and the chunk of pad underneath, and brushed plenty of Killz on the subfloor. The corners got cut out and lots of Killz as well.
Congratulations. It eventually does get better, but these things take time.
Watches are truly a YMMV thing. Aesthetics, performance and price are all over the map. A cell phone is a bit of a throwback pocket watch but quite suitable for many folks.
That said, I enjoy a timepiece on my wrist as fine machinery of whatever tech. Not being a suit and tie guy, I prefer a bold boat anchor and metal band on my toothpick sized arm. But that is me.
Seiko diver watches have an enthusiastic cult following. Relatively inexpensive, individually certified water resistance and excellent performance. The word “Diver” on the watch face is supposed to be only used when the watch meets ISO specs for a dive watch.
Those specs do limit some of the aesthetic possibilities, so like many similar watches of many brands, there can be a resemblance to a Rolex diver. OTOH, Seiko has models that are entirely their own aesthetic as well. I have a Seiko Kinetic GMT diver that has a unique look and a weird auto winding quartz movement. Probably my best end of the world piece.
Given the wuflu, I especially like being able to see the time without touching my phone or getting it out of my pocket.
Wristwatches were a prepper “tell” for a while, but with the apple watch and the like, lots more people wear watches now than even a couple of years ago.
n
@harold, there are a lot of fake rolexes here in Houston. The oil guys would all head for foreign lands, buy cheap fakes and then laughingly show off their “Two dollar Rolex”… The kids get the estate and don’t know any better than “Hey, gramps had a rolex”…
@jenny, you are awesome. You saw a threat coming and you made a plan and executed. Freaking hell, that’s rare. Congrats! Lots of work ahead but it sounds like it was the right thing and the right time.
Spent part of the afternoon scrapping out stuff in the driveway. Took a load to the scrapyard, and got $81. It was mostly aluminum and copper wire. Best part was that he had about 6 or 8 rolls of hardware cloth (the wire fencing with square holes) and I bought them for $3 total. If new they would have been a hundred bucks easy. I’ve been watching for some more to cover my raised beds to keep the squirrels out. Yay me!
n
@nick
Thank you, sir. I’m going to be angry about the homeless shelter driving us out of our 15+ year home for a time. Working on that – anger has its place when you can turn it productive however I don’t want to be a bitter old woman uselessly gnashing my dentures over it to my grandchildren.
I do think the new home is going to be better for us as a family. The new home feels like a “going to” versus “running from”. I’m looking forward to digging into the projects. Husband met with the tile guy today. Happy looking after they were done chatting. That was cool to see.