Cool, damp, overcast. That’s my best guess for the day.
Sunday was nice. A bit on the damp side, but shirtsleeves and sunglasses weather.
So naturally I was at my secondary cutting up shipping crates and throwing out obsolete trade show booth parts. I got there and my neighbor had a huge commercial style grill set up and was getting meat ready… For the next 4 hours my brain was marinaded in the smell of grilling meat. Neighbor had some sort of party/family get together that involved a dozen kids, a whole lot of chicken, really loud tejano music, and a tiny bouncy house, with appropriate numbers of adults. Looked like a parole meeting for the parents honestly. Not a mask anywhere to be seen, not even worn badly. It was in a space open to the outside, but it was typical hispanic get together. They are not, in general, stand offish or ‘reserved’ when in family groups.
On my drive home I saw several other large groups having outdoor parties.
I made a bunch of space but still have a long way to go. Forklift could fit if I had to move it today. There is still a lot to be gone through and gotten rid of, and there is a whole bunch of shuffling around that needs to be done, but progress was made.
Progress being made is good. Groups gathering is bad. Yes, I’m saying that flat out. Take the time to read Aesop’s report from the front line. He’s ground truth/boots on the ground in Cali. Yes, he can be an alarmist. Yes, his language is ‘salty’ and he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. But you can either believe he’s making the whole thing up (which doesn’t fit with the previous 6-7 years I’ve been reading him) or he’s telling the truth and it’s grim. Not seeing it where you are? Awesome. Hope that continues to be true. Remember though back a few months when all the rural and semi-rural areas were saying it was a nothing burger? Most of those same areas are seeing plenty of cases now. Sooner or later, it does get to where you are. I don’t usually put pull quotes in my actual post but here are a couple…
“Nameless SoCal Hospital is full, bottom to top, wall to wall. “
“ER is holding ICU patients, now for multiple days. Entire ER is now set up for COVID isolation, which is running 75-90% of patients seen, 24/7. And those are only the ones too sick to send home. “
“Morgue overflow conex cold storage is now full of corpses. “
“We ran out of body bags day before yesterday, so until we got more, deceased patients had to stay in occupied rooms. Even with getting decedents out, new dead are piling up faster than we’re getting old ones off to coroner or mortuaries. “
“Between staff shortages and actual sick staff, we’re starting the day with 50% staffing in some units, and it’s virtually impossible to get hired guns to come in. Everyone is over this, and all they get by picking up registry work or extra shifts where they work, is more sh*t sandwich, every day, into infinity. And you can’t spend bonuses if you’re dead.
And in L.A. County, everything I just wrote? Worse. Squared.”
“We’re all dreading what happens when we get the Christmas/New Year’s Stupidity Surge, 3-5 weeks from now, but it’s definitely coming.
Things are spiffy where you are? Outstanding. Goody for you. No, really. Hope your luck holds.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing from nurses who blog in other states, e.g. Texas, that they’re getting, now, what we had here in Apr-July, and hospital manglement (not a typo. -A.) there learned nothing from what happened in NYFS, NJ, Atlanta, Nawlins, or CA, and accordingly planned for no such thing.”
Ordinary care is not available at his hospital anymore. They are one step away from disaster triage and rationing care.
Say whatever about whatever. Masks, Fauci, overreach, lies, models, whatever. For SoCal at least, the disaster is HERE. All the other stuff no longer matters. Once the hurricane arrives, all the models, storm tracks, colored charts, mean nothing. All that matters is getting through and then the recovery. That’s where SoCal (LA and probably Riverside) is right now. Everyone else is probably going to get there sooner or later. Knowing what we know from round one, even if it happened only to ‘other people’ and not you, what are you doing to be ready when the storm gets to your area?
I hope everyone here has been using the hiatus to build up their stocks. There is zero reason to be caught short again. It’s time to be ready to pull back in, limit your exposure, and get ready to ride out the next wave. Cali is leading the way- and not in a good way. There is very little reason to think your zip code will protect you.
Avoid crowds. And keep stacking.
n
Yeah, I read Aesop’s post. Sounds like a little bit of Hell on Earth, especially for people wired to help others. It’s real. But here, where we are? No real impacts, outside of the overall degradation of the American economy. Oh, and the constant quarantines of Pugsley for being too near a classmate that is (now) over the ‘Rona.
Honestly, makes me feel very grateful that I’m here, and not there.
Lazy weekend, visit from elder son. Read some books, ate too much – altogether a pleasant Christmas. Younger son is coming this week with his girlfriend, to stay a few days. (Both self-quarantined a few days before visiting.) We don’t know his girlfriend very well, despite the fact that they’ve been together for a year. So this will be a nice opportunity to get to know her. OTOH, we have little idea what her interests are, and with the lockdown, options are rather limited at the moment. Hope she likes Winter hiking 🙂
Yeah, I expect infection rates will be through the roof in early January. Vaccinations can’t come fast enough.
One minor example from here: Anyone arriving in Switzerland from the UK must go into quarantine. In our region, 200 UK tourists “disappeared” from quarantine this weekend. They flew in, didn’t fly out, but no one knows where the hell they are. They are apparently too important for such plebian restrictions. I hope the authorities find them, and absolutely pound them with fines, or even a bit of jail time.
It is an odd situation. For those of us lucky enough to be unaffected, it all seems a bit unreal. For those in the midst, it’s an unending horror film.
The good news is that they are discovering more and more about prevention and treatment. For example, vitamin D seems to be incredibly important. The death rate, as a proportion of people who have the disease, is a lot lower than it was last Spring.
Stay healthy, and avoid being around anyone who is part of the Stupidity Surge. Oh, and here’s wishing everyone a Happy 2021 – may it be much, much better than 2020…
My doctor told me to start vitamin D several years ago. One tablet twice a day. Plus I drink vitamin D reinforced milk.
Neighbor had some sort of party/family get together that involved a dozen kids, a whole lot of chicken, really loud tejano music, and a tiny bouncy house, with appropriate numbers of adults. Looked like a parole meeting for the parents honestly.
FOMO!
The same demographic staffs the healthcare system in overwhelming numbers below the physician level around here and, I imagine, more so in California. In this situation, it is a vicious feedback loop.
What happens happens at this point. We take precautions, but there is nothing we can do about half of the population possessing below normal intelligence.
25,000 deaths without comorbitities? The number from undiagnosed aortic aneurysm run about 10,000 a year. Bam! No precautions prevent that.
25,000 deaths without comorbitities? The number from undiagnosed aortic aneurysm run about 10,000 a year. Bam! No precautions prevent that.
Remember, John Ritter was within walking distance of a hospital ER, filming a TV show at the (now former) NBC Burbank complex, before his untimely demise. Short of living and working *in* the hospital — where he was born, BTW — it wasn’t possible to better his odds of survival and he stilll died from the aneurysm regardless.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9091781/Death-Nashville-Christmas-bombers-father-fueled-5G-conspiracy-theory.html
=-so, lone gunman. Good news. But already one copy cat, and how many more like him are out there? Or others who now see a target they didn’t see before?
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9092691/Nashville-bomb-Cops-identify-driver-truck-PA-telling-people-evacuate.html
=-so, lone gunman. Good news. But already one copy cat, and how many more like him are out there? Or others who now see a target they didn’t see before?
The switch buildings have a lot of empty floor space these days. The Nashville AT&T building obviously had a lot more going on than telephone and Internet connections.
COVID ain’t so bad if you don’t get it.
“COVID ain’t so bad if you don’t get it. ”
–and that is the public policy issue in a nutshell.
n
That is a lot of new guns sold. Some of those checks covered multiple gun purchases too.
n
@john, the problem for Modern Mayberry will be when they get 7 ICU cases, with only 6 beds available. It doesn’t take much to overwhelm rural regional med centers. Then those beds are tied up for 3-18 days, or possibly even more, and everyone else needs to go somewhere else or do without. But you know that, and I’m preaching to the choir.
n
–and that is the public policy issue in a nutshell.
The public policy issue is that sick people need to stay home. The only way that can be accomplished is to crush the economy eliminating all the FOMO venues, but, as you saw this weekend, private parties will be an order of magnitude tougher, maybe even impossible.
Contrariwise, 35 million is the gross NCIC/FBI background checks. KY or TN runs all their CCW permit holders every month regardless of gub shop visit among other corrections. Still, a helluvalot of weapons sold. NSSF.org , an industry trade group, has adjusted numbers if you poke around.
Just to confuse things more:
https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/cdc-6-percent-covid-deaths?amp=true
I don’t know who to trust. That Gateway Pundit article didn’t seem to have a link to the CDC report, and I could not find the report on the CDC site.
I posted this by accident in yesterday’s comments.
“Authorities in Maryland raced to stop a mother and her son from getting on a plane to Puerto Rico after their test results came back positive.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/people-with-coronavirus-are-still-getting-on-planes-no-one-knows-how-many/
My doctor told me to start vitamin D several years ago. One tablet twice a day. Plus I drink vitamin D reinforced milk.
A dose of 5000 IU per day might be adequate. Actually, your blood level needs to be xx. I’m away from my references. D toxicity is now known to be much less than once feared. I believe there is a discussion and links on Dunteman’s site
Other than about 45 seconds to drop off an Amazon return at our local UPS store (with an N95 mask on) I really can”t remember the last time I was in a retail store. Everything now is either Amazon deliveries, Costco deliveries (thru InstaCart) or curbside pickup (to-go food, groceries, Ace/Lowes/Home Depot, etc.)
Go read aesop’s report from the ER at his hospital, or wait until tomorrow morning and read my link. Ask yourself “IS THIS NORMAL?” Is it NORMAL to run out of body bags? To have your whole hospital overrun with sick people? To have beds in the hallways and to fill up refrigerated trailers because your own morgue is full and the county and funeral homes can’t take the dead away fast enough? To start shifts with only 50% staffing? Is ANY of that NORMAL?
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/12/anecdotally-keeping-it-real-yo.html
The latest numbers that I can find for Cort Bend County are 120 people in the hospitals here with Covid (Nov 12). We are a county of 820,000+ people. That hospitalized number of infected is minuscule. We have had around 300 people die with Covid in FBC in 2020.
https://communityimpact.com/houston/sugar-land-missouri-city/coronavirus/2020/11/13/fort-bend-county-coronavirus-hospitalizations-rise-nov-6-12/
Are the lockdowns worth the cost to our society and businesses ? I say no.
And the number of Covid infected in Orange County Hospitals is 1,957 with a county population of 3.2 million. Also a very small number. I call some chicken little screaming at the sky there.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/coronavirus/orange-county-continues-to-set-records-for-covid-19-hospitalizations/2493532/
Minnesota lawmakers say coronavirus deaths could be inflated by 40% after reviewing death certificates
The money quote from State Senator and Dr. Scott Jensen:
“For 17 years, the CDC document that guides us as physicians to do death certificates has stood, but this year, we were told, through the Department of Health and the CDC, that the rules were changing if COVID-19 was involved.”
“If it’s COVID-19, we’re told now it doesn’t matter if it was actually the diagnosis that caused death. If someone had it, they died of it,” he said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/coronavirus-death-certificates-minnesota-inflated
Coronavirus in one state (145)
The latest installment in an excellent series, with a video clip of Franson and Dr. Jensen (a real MD). Author Scott Johnson has asked the questions that the media lapdogs have refused to ask (with one exception). When they tossed him out of the state-conducted briefings, he had to go to court to get back in, and again, the media lapdogs sang with the crickets.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/coronavirus-in-one-state-145.php
“It’s going to be a cold, dark, and hungry future”
https://gunfreezone.net/its-going-to-be-a-cold-dark-and-hungry-future/
“Park Science Building, Bryn Mawr College, November 9th”
“Some professors have even agreed to accept what they call “strike work”—conversations with friends and family about racism, diary entries, time spent watching anti-racism documentaries, and so forth—in lieu of actual course work, even in math and science programs.”
“I’m reminded of how the Nazis set about to eliminate the work of Albert Einstein and other Jewish scientists as Jüdische Physik.”
“Park Science Building, Bryn Mawr College, November 9th”
Bryn Mawr tuition/room/board for this academic year is $70,000.
“Graph Showing Difference In Case Rates Between Florida and California Is a Wake-Up Call for America”
https://redstate.com/brandon_morse/2020/12/28/graph-shows-lockdowns-of-california-causing-covid-to-thrive-while-free-florida-is-far-better-off-n300807
“For some perspective on how totally & completely the masks & public health interventions in California have failed, here are non-population adjusted hospitalizations in CA vs. Florida & Texas COMBINED”
“Even though FL & TX are significantly bigger, CA’s still doing much worse”
Either the 40% Hispanic population of California is more subsecptible to the Covid or the lockdowns in California are causing more Covid.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Trump Signs COVID-19 Relief Bill With $600 Checks, Asks Congress To Approve Increase Later”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-signs-covid-19-relief-bill-600-checks-asks-congress-approve-increase-later
“President Trump on Sunday signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package which will include $600 direct checks checks, abandoning his immediate demand that Congress go back to the drawing board and provide $2,000 checks, and instead encouraged them to vote on a separate bill to “increase payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000.””
“”I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits, stop evictions, provide rental assistance, add money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution, and much more,” Trump said in a Sunday night statement.””
Trump held his nose and signed this 6,000 page bill including gender studies in Pakistan.
Just wait until the bill comes due for this bill. I see a “wealth” tax in the USA future following a $1.00/gallon gasoline and diesel tax for global warming.
A $trillion here a $trillion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.
Seriously, that is $3000 per person in the US. And I don’t assume that *everyone* gets a check. A few seconds of research shows everything from foreign aid to building museums. In other words, 80% pork. Shameful.
The bill was a two in one package, the coronavirus stimulus combined with the annual government funding.
President Donald Trump signed the massive $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law Sunday night…
Trump also took umbrage with certain [pork] items that were actually from the omnibus spending package and which he had requested in his annual budget to Congress.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/27/politics/trump-relief-bill-christmas-eve/index.html
That’s cute, citing CNN as a source for a claim. You might be better off using one of Nostradamus’s quatrains, as it would be less likely to be a deliberate lie.
It is a separation, proximity issue. Typically, they live 5 to a bedroom, or garage.
“Either the 40% Hispanic population of California is more susceptible to the Covid or the lockdowns in California are causing more Covid.”
—or voluntary measures are more effective than mandatory measures that are ignored and subverted. TX and FLA both have large hispanic populations. Houston is 40% so that isn’t likely a differentiator.
@lynn- your point about # of hospitalized cases needs two caveats – it’s not the number of hospitalized vs the population that is the point aesop is making, it’s people needing hospitalization and ICU patients vs AVAILABLE hospital and ICU BEDS, with the consequences of filling all the ICU and ER beds with covid patients, for weeks on end; and the second is “at this time”. He says that TX looks to be headed the same way as CA, just starting later. We are still trending up. If we continue trending up, we will get to the same point Cali is at eventually.
The disaster has arrived in CALI. Unless we (and by we I mean everywhere else), start trending down, we will all get to the point Cali is at eventually.
Going way back to March, the point of all the countermeasures is and always has been to do only one thing, manage the number of really sick people entering our medical system to keep it from being overwhelmed and destroyed for everyone else. Everything else is just crap that accreted around that one idea. Just because the accreted crap sucks doesn’t mean the goal was wrong.
Mandatory anything is only as good as compliance rates. Magazine confiscation in NY and NJ? Nope, almost no one turned theirs in. Bump stocks? Anyone see piles of them at .gov appointed turn in stations? Sign up for obaaama care? MORE uninsured than before last time I looked it up. Duke Leto Atreides (among other, including real people) said “never give an order you know will be disobeyed.” Cali and the other states gave orders they knew were not going to be obeyed and they eventually used up all their voluntary compliance good will.
I’m going to keep doing my damnedest to keep from adding myself to the infected numbers for as long as possible. Everyone else SHOULD be doing that too, but for various reasons, they aren’t. I can’t and won’t force them to, but I think it’s stupid to risk it cavalierly.
I point to Aesop as ‘ground truth’ for LA and Riverside* County, in Cali, where they have lost control of the spread. If anyone reading this FROM THE SAME AREA has an alternative view, I really want to hear it. I find it relevant because there are a LOT of areas of the US and the world where the numbers suggest they are about to lose control of the spread. Some subset of the infected population needs hospital intervention, and some subset of that needs ICU level intervention. As the infected population grows, so does the size of the population that needs intervention. That is simple math. Our ability to provide the intervention is limited. When we hit that limit, additional care will be unavailable even for people that are NOT covid patients.
The long term effects on our healthcare system of burning out Drs, RNs, and other staff are going to mean shortages for a long time, because it takes a long time to replace them and the pool of candidates is not infinite.
n
* probably Riverside because it’s close enough for all the stuff he does, and he specifically separates LA county from where he is.
It’s not number of hospital or icu beds, it’s number of dedicated covid-19 beds vs the others. If you have 5 ICU beds you can’t use 3 for covid one day and 2 the next. Covid patients are put in specialy segregated wards to prevent spread of infection. So you can have a full ICU but empty covid ward or vice versa.
Rural hospitals send covid patients to larger, city hospitals because they don’t have resources to dedicate beds to strictly covid patients. Isolation wards eat up precious real estate in hospital wards. Oklahoma Methodist has an entire floor dedicated to covid and it’s never been near full.
Seriously, that is $3000 per person in the US. And I don’t assume that *everyone* gets a check. A few seconds of research shows everything from foreign aid to building museums. In other words, 80% pork. Shameful.
Neither the wife nor I got a check from the first stimulus. Nor will we get a check in the second stimulus. We have worked hard all of our lives, both since we were 15, and invested our money carefully so that it generates revenue for us. As a result, no stimulus for us. Which is ok by me.
Either the 40% Hispanic population of California is more subsecptible to the Covid or the lockdowns in California are causing more Covid.
It is a separation, proximity issue. Typically, they live 5 to a bedroom, or garage.
When we first moved to Houston back in 1972, the Hispanic family living in the 2 bedroom, 1 bath house next to us had 17 people living there. My buddy Pete never went inside the house until dinner time. BTW, his mama was a good XXXX great cook. Fresh hot tortillas off the stove for all !
@lynn- your point about # of hospitalized cases needs two caveats – it’s not the number of hospitalized vs the population that is the point aesop is making, it’s people needing hospitalization and ICU patients vs AVAILABLE hospital and ICU BEDS, with the consequences of filling all the ICU and ER beds with covid patients, for weeks on end; and the second is “at this time”. He says that TX looks to be headed the same way as CA, just starting later. We are still trending up. If we continue trending up, we will get to the same point Cali is at eventually.
The disaster has arrived in CALI. Unless we (and by we I mean everywhere else), start trending down, we will all get to the point Cali is at eventually.
I don’t think so. Two million of the most affected have now been vaccinated in the USA and the vaccine spigot is opening wide open. I suspect that they will be begging us to go to a vaccine station in March.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
BTW, one of my employee’s wife, a school teacher, has just turned up with the Covid. Of course, he has it and their teenage son too. Their nine year daughter does not have it, yet. I am probably going to make him test negative before coming back to work.
Rural hospitals send covid patients to larger, city hospitals because they don’t have resources to dedicate beds to strictly covid patients. Isolation wards eat up precious real estate in hospital wards. Oklahoma Methodist has an entire floor dedicated to covid and it’s never been near full.
One of the wings of Sugar Land Methodist, a 1,000 ??? bed hospital, is dedicated to Covid. It has has never been close to full. My cardiologist says that it is very depressing to walk the halls as he is an attending.
Back at the grindstone today and so glad. Our house guests since last Wednesday are talking about leaving tomorrow. The wife does not want her sister to leave though. This orphan thing has them both freaked out.
They are talking about moving to Fort Bend County in the near future from The Colony, TX, about two miles away from us. That should be interesting. My BIL has Alzheimers (mild so far) and has not driven in two years since his spinal surgery to fuse T2 to T4.
From BH in the Fort Bend Journal:
““Pre” means before and “post” means after. To use both prefixes at the same time would be … “preposterous.””
I suspect that they will be marching us to go to a vaccine station in March.
Fixed it for you.
I suspect that they will be begging us to go to a vaccine station in March.
I suspect that they will be marching us to go to a vaccine station in March.
Fixed it for you.
Nah, that will be April when the marching starts. And as they are marching us to the vaccine stations, they will be sneaking in our homes and stealing XXXXXXX seizing our guns and ammo.
“A Tesla Model S erupted ‘like a flamethrower.’ It renewed old safety concerns about the trailblazing sedans.”
https://www.chron.com/business/article/A-Tesla-Model-S-erupted-like-a-flamethrower-It-15831399.php
“Seconds after Usmaan Ahmad heard metallic bangs in his Tesla Model S last month and pulled off a suburban Dallas thoroughfare, flames started shooting out of his five-year-old car.”
Needs more seasoning.
But you will be paying it.
As a result, no stimulus for us. Which is ok by me.
But you will be paying it.
Nah, the bankruptcy of the USA is coming. All debts will be discharged. 2030 at the latest now.
Nah, that will be April when the marching starts. And as they are marching us to the vaccine stations, they will be sneaking in our homes and stealing XXXXXXX seizing our guns and ammo.
Late February. If you want to get on an airplane for Spring Break in March, TSA will require proof of immunity, either a documented recovery or vaccination card.
Of course, cheating will abound.
Here is the CDC COVID dashboard. It says:
There are a number of reports that you can select there. At the top, this one has the weekly death certificate data. Note that it starts in February and the last 6-8 weeks are still getting data, as the footnotes say.
I’m working today, but my wife left the house, braving the Californian transplant hipsters at The Domain. She reported seeing lots of people and very few masks worn properly, no masks at all in some cases. So much for Stage 5 lockdowns in Austin.
Friends who lived or continue to live in California all say that the way to survive the $1 million stucco shack housing experience without going insane is to take advantage of the location and never be home.
That seems a good tip about using the UV FLASHLIGHT to check for antifreeze leaks. I’ll learn tomorrow or sometime /next/ week if dried anti-freeze glows. The truck has the “orange” coolant. Anyway, I’ll fill a few jugs with water and just drive the truck and see what happens.
The oil is clean. Whatever, it’s not worth replacing the engine.
The forecast for Thursday is interesting. “Rain showers, possibly mixed with snow showers and freezing rain before noon, then rain likely, possibly mixed with snow showers. High near 38. North wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.” The low is predicted to be 27F. Which, for me, is more like 22F most of the time….. I’m downhill from the surrounding area.
Well, I’ll rummage around for another clamp-on light and have two bulbs in the pump house.
Oh, and the scheme to use Christmas lights? My strings are C7 sockets. And, 7 watt bulbs. The “crystal” bulbs are 4 watts. Also known as candelabra sockets.
C9 were once upon a time 9 watt bulbs. Larger socket, larger bulbs. No, I don’t know why. I don’t know what uses that socket now. It may have gone the way of the mogul socket.
I followed the link the other day for 7 watt bulbs that were c9 socket. I have Firefox set to delete almost all cookies when closed. This place is an exception. I wasn’t logged in to Amazon. Yet, today, they sent an e-mail recommending C9 socket Christmas lights.
How is that working and how do I break it?
I’m working today, but my wife left the house, braving the Californian transplant hipsters at The Domain. She reported seeing lots of people and very few masks worn properly, no masks at all in some cases. So much for Stage 5 lockdowns in Austin.
What is “The Domain” ?
Nah, that will be April when the marching starts. And as they are marching us to the vaccine stations, they will be sneaking in our homes and stealing XXXXXXX seizing our guns and ammo.
Late February. If you want to get on an airplane for Spring Break in March, TSA will require proof of immunity, either a documented recovery or vaccination card.
Of course, cheating will abound.
I ain’t getting on an airplane until everyone else on that airplane has been vaccinated. I do know somebody who is flying commercial every week and he says don’t worry about it. I disagree, that air gets recycled many times, especially in old 757s where the pilot can really crank down on the fresh air coming from the 8th ??? stage of the jet engine compressor for better economy.
It’s a shi(r)ty fake shopping mall. North Austin, sort of off MoPac and Burnet Road. As in, “let’s look like old down town”. An inside out mall.
All the same crap but you get to go outside to get from store to store. And dodge cars, not sumo class size folks on electric scooters. Simply fabulous in July and August….. for some folks.
The Diversity that killed Highland Mall has yet to reach that part of town.
Does the water pump need antifreeze for a lubricant? The pump in my van does; it’ll seize up after not too many miles if I run plain water in the system.
I don’t know. I have a couple of quarts of oil under the back seat. No need, truck doesn’t use oil, just a habit. If I need to use the plain water, adding oil isn’t going make the situation worse.
Hmm.
What is “The Domain” ?
It’s a shi(r)ty fake shopping mall. North Austin, sort of off MoPac and Burnet Road. As in, “let’s look like old down town”. An inside out mall.
All the same crap but you get to go outside to get from store to store. And dodge cars, not sumo class size folks on electric scooters. Simply fabulous in July and August….. for some folks.
The Diversity that killed Highland Mall has yet to reach that part of town.
Ah, a California style mall. When my son was at 29 Palms Marine Corps Base, we took him over to movies in Palm Springs one weekend. It was August in the open air mall and about 115 F. They had water misters all over the place to try to cool it down. They did not do the job, it was still bloody hot. We were ducking in stores just for the A/C.
If I understand them car motors correctly; the bearings on a water pump are lubricated solely by the radiator fluid, which has some lubricating qualities.
Crankcase oil doesn’t get to the water pump. So if the water pump needs the lubrication from antifreeze,using plain water will not provide that lubrication (or enough of it).
I think.
Uh… I’m not right sure what adding motor oil to the cooling water would do, but I’m confident that it’s nothing good.
What I was getting at is that you should carry coolant, not just water. Water it down, sure, but if you’re losing coolant don’t replace with plain water unless it’s just a short drive or unless you’re sure you don’t need the lubricant.
‘What is “The Domain” ?’
It’s a shi(r)ty fake shopping mall. North Austin, sort of off MoPac and Burnet Road. As in, “let’s look like old down town”. An inside out mall.
All the same crap but you get to go outside to get from store to store. And dodge cars, not sumo class size folks on electric scooters. Simply fabulous in July and August….. for some folks.
That’s pretty accurate about The Domain. A California “lifestyle center”, but with a big Norstrom for the Seattle transplants working at National Instruments.
NI recruits heavily from WA State schools … or used to. I saw a lot of resumes out of that company at the last job when the meltdown started a couple of years ago after “Dr. T”, the founding CEO, retired.
I neither agree nor disagree with the 757 air system.
OTOH, many years ago the Douglas DC-8 Model 70 was going to be re-engined with the CFM56 and the cabin air pressurization syste m had to be replaced. I was assigned the task of verification of a redesigned new cabin air pressurization syste m’s functionality. I suggested modifacations which were implemented. The new system worked and was FAA approved. It was neither pilot adjustable nor did it recycle bleed air from the engine compressor.
” All debts will be discharged. ”
— not yours, not mine. No stimulus checks for this household either.
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” All debts will be discharged. ”
— not yours, not mine. No stimulus checks for this household either.
We won’t get a check. And we were stupid enough to pay off my wife’s $200k in student loans like responsible adults.
Less than two weeks into owning a new battery for my older MacBook Pro, one of the cells swelled and the computer went dead.
Lithium Ion battery qualty seems to be getting worse lately. At least it didn’t burst into flames.
Paul’s PU engine appears to be the Magnum new small block V8 family. Its water pump appears to be the conventional design, which means it has two sealed ball bearings with a synthetic rubber lip seal pressed into the housing that seals against the pump shaft. The seal keeps coolant away from the bearings. There is a weep hole between the seal and the bearings that drains any coolant that might leak past the seal, protecting the bearings. The 50% antifreeze mix coolant does lubricate the inner seal lip that contacts the coolant, but not the outer lip (if any) that faces the bearings. The antifreeze does contain a lubricant that conditions and lubricates the seal. Running pure water has been deprecated for decades, but mainly to protect the heater core from freezing when the air conditioner is run. This is possible but doubtful, but replacing a heater core is no fun on many cars. It is true that pure water can cause the seal to wear, so separate “water pump (seal) lubricant” might still be sold. Don’t bother; use antifreeze.
If Paul adds a gallon or two of water because of a leak, there is still probably enough antifreeze to lubricate that seal. My experience is that water pump seals usually fail after about ten years, even if the best antifreeze is used. I have never added any seal lubes to the coolant.
A word about pumps. The design described above has been used on all Chrysler products known to me from 1957 through 2006. I don’t know of any exceptions. I can imagine a pump, especially driven by a timing belt (less bearing load) that could use a ceramic bearing lubricated by coolant, with the seal outboard. I don’t know of such a beast, but it could put additional requirements on the coolant. Some owners manuals misleadingly suggest that water pump lubricant lubricates the pump bearings, but that is not true. Just the seal.
As for adding oil to the coolant, DON’T! I know, you wouldn’t, but just being thorough.
I sure hope those hoses fixed your leak. The fact that your oil is clean is a great sign. If your engine needs more than a pint a year (evaporation from the coolant recovery tank,) look for external leaks. I didn’t know antifreeze fluoresces with UV light. Not all does, so probably an additive.
As for an automatic transmission, the only interface is the trans cooler in the radiator. Usually, trans fluid gets into the coolant, making an oily mess. Sometimes coolant gets into the trans, and this requires a rebuild.
Remember, don’t cross the streams! (Ghostbusters) Keep engine oil, trans fluid, and coolant isolated. Lacking this, run away.
Less than two weeks into owning a new battery for my older MacBook Pro, one of the cells swelled and the computer went dead.
I hope you have a warranty. IIRC, this is one of the non-user-replaceable designs. What was that you said about disposable computers? Sorry.
My HP notebook is probably about fifteen years old (again, I’m away from my references,) and was not turned ON for about five years. I just forgot about it. I dug it out a couple weeks ago, thinking my wife might use its bag for her new notebook (nope, doesn’t fit.) Thought the original battery was a goner. Power switch was unresponsive. Plugged in the charger, and immediately hit the power switch. It booted into an old version of Mint! Battery indicator showed 0%. Shut it down, and let it charge, checking about hourly. Charger was initially drawing about 42 watts, but the Li-Ion battery stayed cool. It’s one of those user replaceable pop in units. After a while, it stopped charging. Disconnected the charger and booted it. Let it run until the battery indicator was about 80%. This took quite a while, but I didn’t time it. Wow. I never expected that. I don’t plan to ever use that computer again. I doubt anything modern would run on it. It is a Celeron something or other. Ran MEPIS great.
There is a reason it is called coolant. Down under it will be much more important to cover that functionality than preventing the mixture to freeze… I actually have not use antifreeze in donkeys years but have appreciated the coolant capabilities.
Thanks for the antifreeze discussion, JimB.
My Chrysler minivan’s manual* does state or imply that the coolant lubricates the water pump, and I’ve also been told that by a couple mechanics. I’ve replaced a number of water pumps on a number of vehicles over the years but don’t recall details clearly about just what comes in contact with the water.
* I think it was both the owner’s manual and the Haynes or Chiltons.
I hope you have a warranty. IIRC, this is one of the non-user-replaceable designs. What was that you said about disposable computers? Sorry.
Non-disposable 2007 MacBook Pro 3,1 “Santa Rosa”. The battery is easy to swap out, but I think I’m done with the laptop.
I hope you have a warranty. IIRC, this is one of the non-user-replaceable designs. What was that you said about disposable computers? Sorry.
Oh, and, the battery invoice date was 12-15, still within the return policy window. The vendor wants photographic proof about the battery swelling before they will issue the RMA, however.
and
No stimulus check for me, but I get to pay a large slice of my income in taxes. (On the other hand, I still have an income, so it could be worse.)
I paid off my undergrad college loans within two years. Like a responsible adult. I didn’t have grad school loans (combination of tuition assistance from my employer and me paying my way as I went) and we paid off my wife’s graduate school loans rapidly. Like responsible adults. My sons have been paying off their loans and the one is done or almost done already. Like responsible adults.
Wow, are we stupid.
No stimulus check for me, but I get to pay a large slice of my income in taxes. (On the other hand, I still have an income, so it could be worse.)
I paid off my undergrad college loans within two years. Like a responsible adult. I didn’t have grad school loans (combination of tuition assistance from my employer and me paying my way as I went) and we paid off my wife’s graduate school loans rapidly. Like responsible adults. My sons have been paying off their loans and the one is done or almost done already. Like responsible adults.
Wow, are we stupid.
Yup, I have income so I am doing good by all standards. And equally stupid.
I did not borrow any money in the 1970s to go to school, Dad and I paid equally and TAMU was cheap back then. My first semester with room and board was less than $500. My wife, however, came with a $3,000 loan to attend Abilene Christian University that I paid off in 1984 or 1985 after much grumbling as it was not disclosed.
And then I paid for her to finish getting her master’s in Social Work from the University of Houston via the University of Arlington. Which, she has never used except to analyze me since I refused to let her work in Juvenile Probation any more and the two Homes for Unwed Mothers she worked at required the spouse to stay with the wife on weekend watches. No freaking way to spend a weekend with a bunch of pregnant teenagers* !
* at one point the group she was watching over included an 11 year old pregnant teen. Whose 17 year boyfriend murdered a 7-11 clerk one night, got drunk, and then tried to break into the home by breaking the front door down. Luckily, the door was armored and the cops arrived within a half hour after my wife XXXX fiance called them (Houston).
Lynn, I sure lead a boring life compared to you. I’m not sure to offer condolences or celebrate. Maybe both.
OTOH, we are both lucky. I for one would rather be lucky than smart. 😉
Someone I know used to say that they’d Rather be lucky than good, because no matter how good you were, if you stepped in a bucket of sh!t you weren’t gonna smell like roses. But if you’re LUCKY, you won’t step in the bucket in the first place.
n
Someone I know used to say that they’d Rather be lucky than good, because no matter how good you were, if you stepped in a bucket of sh!t you weren’t gonna smell like roses. But if you’re LUCKY, you won’t step in the bucket in the first place.
n
I seem to usually step in the bucket of ***** and usually come out smelling not so bad. Just lucky I guess.
My parents are scheduled to get their vaccine shots Tuesday afternoon. So they are getting to the … elderly … in Houston. Mom and Dad are driving in.
Wow, the moon was full, very bright, and directly overhead for our walk tonight. We almost did not need our flashlights.
“Bill Gates’ Savior Complex Spirals Out of Control, Funds Sun-Dimming Plan To Save the Human Race”
https://www.westernjournal.com/bill-gates-savior-complex-spirals-control-funds-sun-dimming-plan-save-human-race/
What the heck is wrong with Bill Gates ?
And who gave him permission to fill our atmosphere full of crap ? I vote no.
Nothing. Geoengineering may be the least economically damaging way to control AGW if we (well, China, etc.) continue to dump CO2 into the air. As the article points out, it’s not favored by the Green crowd. Why? It’s less central control over the economy.
You don’t have a vote or input. You are not the ruling class. You are merely a serf to the self-appointed lords and masters.