Cold and clear today, same as yesterday.
34F when I went to bed, supposed to be LOW of 36F according to the weather liars.
Did my stuff yesterday, got most of it done. The big disappointment was the sump pump battery backup. No battery. Still, I’ve got batteries and the rest is ok.
Today the family is driving 3 hours north to look at some property on a lake. I really like the looks of the property, wooded, two lots totaling 11 acres (one on the lake, one behind that lot) right up close to a national forest. The house is really odd, and the lake has some restrictions that my wife doesn’t love. The question is, bug out location or vacation lake house? Which is primary? We’ll see. Events elsewhere may push my wife more toward BOL.
I don’t know what’s happening in DC but it’s got the whole country nervous as hell. At least the half that pays attention. LOTS of people are paying a whole lot more attention now. Several people on my rounds today were watching carefully and there is a lot of head shaking once you engage with them.
And that’s just one reason why KNOWING where you can go if you have to go is essential. Currently, I don’t plan to leave, and that’s mostly because I don’t have anywhere to go. It’s also because no matter what happens, Texas is probably a good place to be. I’m thinking Chicago, Baltimore, Philly, DC, all the usual suspects are NOT going to be good places to be. If you live in a sh!thole city, you might want to consider a plan that is just “that Bayfront motel at the intersection of x and y” in a small town 3 hours away, with a storage unit and some minimal sustainment supplies. That would be a huge step in the right direction. It might not hurt to have that storage unit in a company name, prepaid for a while, either.
In fact, maybe working out a list of what I’d stash in the smallest available storage unit would be a good idea. You can fit a lot in 4 or 8 black tubs.
Get to thinkin’. Get to stackin’.
nick
Yup, I totally agree about Big River. Big River’s first love is selling books and they do a great job of it.
I gave up on Big River for books. Too many arrive damaged, and one expensive textbook showed up with a big coffee cup ring on the first page inside the cover.
The Legend of Jeff, Family Man, Drives A Honda, Wears The Same Type Of Shirt To Work Every Day (TM) states that the ex-wife was the book person, having been a grad student of Toni Morrison. Bezos didn’t care what the online store sold as long as he could play the cash float game on the back end, and, at the time, the two major book distributors, still reeling from Barnes & Noble and Borders rolling out big box stores nationwide, were willing to cut old fashioned 30 days same as cash terms.
As the man said in “Inglorious Basterds”, “That’s a Bingo!”
It’s also because no matter what happens, Texas is probably a good place to be.
Texas or Florida. It all depends on which you see going Prog and adopting an income tax first.
Various states have ended up with income taxes by court order, and, despite a statewide ban, Seattle has tested city income taxes in state court in WA only to come up empty … for now.
@Nick – Our Sam’s Club was dead yesterday when I made my weekly run. Costco for us is a once-a-month trip anymore, but when we went last week, it was mobbed.
Dunno what to read into that. Sam’s had everything in stock, including Charmin Blue if you didn’t care about paying $1/roll.
We actually had to make two Costco runs to different stores last weekend because each store was sold out of things we needed. I understood the one store being out of SD cards after Christmas, but our usual location was out of the private label Kirkland shampoo and said they hadn’t seen any in months.
Granted, where we live isn’t Houston, but the Sam’s and Costco we frequent serve a lot of territory north and west of Austin, into Hill Country.
I still believe SLS will fly … once.
https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2021/01/16/nasa-fires-sls-moon-rocket-major-test-but-engines-shut-down-early/4163580001/
That didn’t take long, but the expected bill in the mid-2000s didn’t happen so the legislation was probably sitting in a drawer somewhere.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-15/biden-to-send-congress-bill-to-legalize-11-million-immigrants-who-lack-documentation
Roll the caravans!
Up and about. Trying to get breakfast and car ready.
Surely at tleast one democrat from an industrial union state would vote no on amnesty. Unless like the catholic church they see the future as latino?
n
Retired to my bug-out location. Living nextdoor to Memphis was getting scary and I wasn’t looking forward to crossing the Mississippi in a SHTF situation. Now I’m safely in Indian country and my tribe has recently been granted extensive powers thanks to the stupidity of the congress. Essentially, we are a sovereign nation with power to tax and police our own borders. We are still trying to figure out how that all works within the framework of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a solidly red state, my 5th district threw out our last Democrat representative to congress in November. So I feel pretty secure, surrounded by like minded real people. My retirement house isn’t ideal as a survival spot. We could garden the golf course if it came to that. The MIL has a double wide on 80 acres with good well and pasture and an old garden plot if we needed. But I am past my prime for outdoor physical labor and farming is the other name for outdoor physical labor. If things get bad enough here for us to consider farming the whole country will be in flames.
Up and about. Trying to get breakfast and car ready.
Surely at tleast one democrat from an industrial union state would vote no on amnesty. Unless like the catholic church they see the future as latino?
George “W” Bush dropped the ball on getting the last “20 year bill” through. That group of “undocumented” immigrants have to be taken care of before work begins on the 2025 bill, which will address everyone who shows up once decriminalization of living here illegally happens — a lot of Number One Sons will need jobs and the tech companies want the pliant labor.
The political theory about the Dems future being latino doesn’t work reliably anymore. Donna Shalala was supposed to have a lifetime seat in Congress as her retirement plan … until she didn’t. And before her, in Florida, the expat Puerto Ricans in Orlando got really tired of Alan Grayson and his opportunist wife.
“The question is, bug out location or vacation lake house? ”
Why is this an “or” question? I haven’t been as dedicated as most of the folks here have been in disaster preps, but it would seem to me to be BOTH a vacation getaway, AND a bug-out location.
About 6 months ago, we did the most preppy thing we could; we sold our house near Sacramento, CA, and have moved to a house a little west of San Antonio. This is a quasi-rural area (even though there are McMansions being built all around this neighborhood) and I’m confident that this is an acceptable place to ride out whatever madness is on the horizon.
Now, to plant a big garden and perhaps even build a greenhouse. Because I’m still sure that we’re in for colder weather in the next few years.
“Are you enjoying the Inauguration Security Theater?”
https://gunfreezone.net/are-you-enjoying-the-inauguration-security-theater/
“30,000 National Guardsmen! ZOMG! They are preparing for an invasion from the White Supremacists!”
“Not at all. I mean, if they were expecting trouble, at least they would have a magazine in the frigging rifles!”
But I’ll bet they have a mag or four in their cammi’s.
Dunno what to read into that. Sam’s had everything in stock, including Charmin Blue if you didn’t care about paying $1/roll.
I made a Sams Club run on Friday. No Charmin Blue here. But our HEB has had plenty of the Charmin Blue over the last couple of weeks. It is obviously the TP of preference, it moves quickly while the Mexican TP sits there forever.
“‘Walls don’t work’ update: 8-foot non-scalable fence around U.S. Capitol replaced by 12-footer ”
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2021/01/16/walls-dont-work-update-8-foot-non-scalable-fence-around-u-s-capitol-replaced-by-12-footer/
That wall looks permanent. Or maybe just for four years.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Surely at tleast one democrat from an industrial union state would vote no on amnesty. Unless like the catholic church they see the future as latino?
Oh, and I almost forgot — nannies, housekeepers, and gardeners will continue to be affordable for households in the suburbs around DC and the tech hubs.
Look for Biden to pay off Amazon and Apple by opening the spigot full wide on the H-1B visas.
Does anyone remember the EE named Freest (or something close) that used to write a column in Design News in the late 80’s and rail against the abuse of the visa system to bring in engineers and keep salaries down? I’m sure I have some of those columns in a folder… somewhere.
Look for Biden to pay off Amazon and Apple by opening the spigot full wide on the H-1B visas.
Dell. The company also tried to get one of their C-suite execs elected to Senate from Texas in November, but she fell short.
Maybe third time is a charm next year and they will run MJ Hegar again for Governor.
The H1B neighborhood next to mine is even closer to the new Apple campus, however. Dell requires driving through my subdivision to reach the back roads down to the campus.
Core dumps all resolved. I can enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend without worrying about heat from management on Monday.
I didn’t read Design News regularly, but I do remember the topic of immigration, visas, and foreign engineers being discussed by the senior engineers in the late 1980s. (I was a junior engineer at the time and had no opinion on foreign engineers or students.) A bigger issue was quotas (not called that, of course) for women to get into engineering and programming. This was bigger because a very high fraction of the women we found ourselves working with were grossly incompetent. And a bigger issue than quotas for American women was quotas for American blacks. Exactly one of my black engineering coworkers was competent and diligent; all of the rest were well aware that they were untouchable.
No doubt the problems with quota-enforced bozos back around 1989 would seem tiny and cute compared to today’s problems.
AT&T has finished stripping the good stuff out of DirecTV now. DirecTV will be for sale soon. Got a few bucks to spend on a dozen geosync satellites ? “AT&T TV Now Shut Down for New Customers, Merged with AT&T TV”
https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/att-tv-now-shut-down-for-new-customers-merged-with-att-tv/
“Resources for the Future Changing Attitudes Bait and Switch”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/01/17/resources-for-the-future-changing-attitudes-bait-and-switch/
“Of particular interest to me were the conclusions for the Willingness to Pay:”
““Swedish citizens are willing to pay the most to reduce emissions relative to their country’s carbon footprint: They’re willing to pay $129 per ton of emissions reductions, far more than people in China ($44 per ton) and in the United States ($31 per ton). In the 2019 survey, Chinese citizens were willing to pay a greater share of their income—as much as 0.9% for an 30% reduction in emissions, compared to 0.8% in Sweden and 0.6% in the United States. The average value all three countries place on reducing a ton of CO2 increased from 2009.””
“I believe that this report will be used as bait and frequently referenced as proof that the pubic believes that there is a climate change problem and is willing to pay to fix it.”
Here comes a CO2 tax in the USA. Just remember, the tax will be doubling each year once they get it into place. The amount of money raised by the tax is simply stupendous. If the tax is $31/metric ton of CO2 in the USA, then the additi0nal cost of of gasoline will be $0.27/gallon. Diesel will be $0.32/gallon.
The USA used 143 billion gallons of gasoline and 47 billion gallons of diesel in 2019. That corresponds to a tax of $60 billion. Just remember, the tax will double each year. Small at first and rapidly growing.
AT&T has finished stripping the good stuff out of DirecTV now. DirecTV will be for sale soon. Got a few bucks to spend on a dozen geosync satellites ? “AT&T TV Now Shut Down for New Customers, Merged with AT&T TV”
The non-stop telecom rumor is that the Uverse system will be unloaded onto Frontier, the industry’s dumping ground for territories and tech that no one wants, but that rumor has been circulating for at least as long as I’ve been gone from the Death Star, over 10 years.
If you are a Frontier customer and don’t have fiber to your house, Uverse will not supplant the cable company.
AT&T needed the DirecTV channel licenses and over-the-top service tech. They never intended to keep the satellites forever.
I just finished S03 of Star Trek: Discovery. What a lousy season and a shit-show of a finale. Every SJW, LGBTQWERTY, virtue signal you could think of was involved. Only Hollyweird would air that steaming pile of crap. The two new “non-binary” (lol) characters can’t act, but they check the Hollyweird boxes of pronouns. What a Trek disappointment. No wonder they shot Discovery 1,000 years into the future. Star Trek canon is dead.
I just finished S03 of Star Trek: Discovery. What a lousy season and a shit-show of a finale. Every SJW, LGBTQWERTY, virtue signal you could think of was involved.
Once Michelle Yeoh left, the air went out of the season.
Can you imagine Georgiou taking any grief from the green skinned woman? They *had* to get rid of her for that finale to work.
My guess is that, like “Picard” after “Rise of Skywalker”, Discovery was heavily edited following “Doctor Who” melting down in March. The addition of Paul Guilfoyle’s character seems last minute as does the finale avoiding referencing “Funny Face” (“Calypso” Short Trek), as they teased all season.
The ~55 year callback was cool, however. And it was fun to see Guilfoyle back on screen, holding his own with Yeoh while thumbing through that newspaper which merited multiple freeze frames. He should be a regular on the Section 31 show.
And would it have killed them to give us a Dax symbiant update?
Home. Putting in an offer.
SWEET place. Some issues for my wife, but met the owner and they were self sufficient on the property, until her husband got sick. She even sold extra fruit at the farmers market during the summer.
More later, need to feed the kids.
n
Speaking of self-sufficient…
My preference would be property with a well, wood heat (need not be primary, but must be sufficient to keep people alive and pipes unburst), and enough solar panels to keep the pump running and the freezer cold. Ability to cook and such without external utilities.
Except for the solar electricity, my dad’s place has that, and it does have thousands of square feet of south-facing barn roof. I’d talk to him and his wife about buying the place, except … it’s in New York State.
I guess I need to add a criterion: not in a sucktastic location.
@Nick
Hoping that works out for you.
Just need to find more than 168 hours in the week.
@ken, of course it could be both, but a BOL needs more land and seclusion than a straight up lake house.
I’m really happy with this.
Artesian spring feeding the well, 560 ft deep, an acre of plowed and furrowed garden, chicken run and coop, smokehouse, citrus trees, berry bushes, deer, pigs, rabbits, fish….
Outbuildings.
Three electrical services. No LP or natgas though. 4G LTE and satellite, maybe some fixed wireless for internet. I can put up a good antenna for ham….
There are minuses but I can address them.
n
Sounds almost ideal. You can always buy / rent a big propane tank from a local supplier. I only run my generator on propane. MiLs house uses propane for heat and cooking.
As for internet you could always use Starlink or 5g when available.
Artesian spring feeding the well, 560 ft deep, an acre of plowed and furrowed garden, chicken run and coop, smokehouse, citrus trees, berry bushes, deer, pigs, rabbits, fish….
Oh gosh, no more feral pigs ! One of my friends told me last week that he is 31 for 33 shooting them on his 40 acres outside Richmond in 2020 and hopes to do better in 2021. I could have killed hundreds on my office property if I was willing to wait up for them.
Idiots come out of the woodworking.
“Armed conservatives converging on state capitals” they say as BLM and Antifa and The Boogaloo Boys come out to play
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/it-begins-armed-boogaloo-members-begin-marching-state-capitol-buildings
What’s up with feral pigs?
We’ve been seeing lots of feral pigs in Central Oklahoma since moving back. I grew up here and hunted the deep woods as a kid and no one ever saw wild pigs. My granddaughter has killed two with bow and arrow this year and we’ve seen several huge carcass on the roads that must have disabled a car.
Have you guys been chasing them up from Texas?
Oh gosh, no more feral pigs !
What’s up with feral pigs?
We’ve been seeing lots of feral pigs in Central Oklahoma since moving back. I grew up here and hunted the deep woods as a kid and no one ever saw wild pigs. My granddaughter has killed two with bow and arrow this year and we’ve seen several huge carcass on the roads that must have disabled a car.
There are 4 to 6 million feral pigs in Texas alone. I have no idea how many are in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The mamas mature in six months and have four to six litters of 8 to 12 pigs per year. It is a freaking ecological disaster.
The owner told me they took 13 pigs the last year that the Mr was alive.
n
@Nick: For internet, check the local electric provider. When we were househunting here in San Antonio, much of the “Hill Country” areas northwest of town are serviced by Bandera Electric Cooperative, who ALSO provides gigabit fiber to the house. Any chance your new electric service does something like that?
We ended up too close to town for that, but so far, Spectrum is pretty good. WAY faster than my DSL service in California.
Feral pigs are open season in TX, most people don’t even eat them, just bury or burn or send to the dogfood factory.
n
“Idiots come out of the woodworking.
“Armed conservatives converging on state capitals” they say as BLM and Antifa and The Boogaloo Boys come out to play”
False flag operations, just like the DC “riots”.
The owner told me they took 13 pigs the last year that the Mr was alive.
I took one pig at the office last year. The buzzards had a BIG party and ate her on the sixth day after she cooked in the sun.
There are 4 to 6 million feral pigs in Texas alone. I have no idea how many are in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The mamas mature in six months and have four to six litters of 8 to 12 pigs per year. It is a freaking ecological disaster.
Pigs are extremely smart in general, and feral pigs are mean.
In Florida, out in the boonies, organizers stage Hawg-n-Dawg Rodeos, pitting feral pigs vs. pit bulls in one-on-one death matches, complete with wagering on the outcome. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the dog does not always win.
@Nick – The meat can be nasty depending on the pigs’ diet. The best wild pork comes from properties where the owners put out corn to improve the diet of the local deer. Even then, it can be an acquired taste. Pork shoulder is possibly the easiest meat to smoke — just let it sit in low heat until the fat boils off and the internal temp reaches “safe”.
Yeah who is calling them boogaloo boys and on what basis?
n
We ended up too close to town for that, but so far, Spectrum is pretty good. WAY faster than my DSL service in California.
Uverse? Yeah, AT&T DSL sucks.
Ironically, the system was developed by some of the very same people who are currently in charge at AT&T, including CEO John Stankey.
The upper management is also a lot of legacy Pac Bell, the execs that inspired “Dilbert”.
From the article I linked to…
They are anti government anarchists but the media will hide that fact
“We are out here supporting the local BLM scene” says one of the Boogaloo Boys before marching towards the Ohio Statehouse building to protest”
Following up on some items from Friday and Saturday…
(Wife reminded me that the ‘honey do’ list wasn’t getting appropriate attention)
@Harold; two reasons for still wearing a mask. So far the vaccine has only been tested to prevent you from becoming ill from the virus. There’s still the possibility that you can be infected, not sick, yet also asymptomatic and able to infect others. Until this possibility has been ruled out continuing to wear a mask will help prevent you from infecting others. The other reason to wear a mask is to help protect you from getting the virus on the outside chance that you fall into the 5 percent for which the vaccine is not effective. Best advice I’ve heard for this scenario is a well-fitted N95 mask (or similar KN95 mask). Falling under the 5 percent will be less of an issue once herd immunity is achieved.
(In addition to that IANAL, also IANAD).
IMO Zon customer service has gone downhill, probably as its costs have gone up. Impossible to email CS and the ‘Amazon Assistant’ (on-line AI bot) will try to run you in circles before letting you chat with a live(?) person.
Okay, I’ve given up hope for term limits for the congress critters, so how about a mandatory retirement age? Or for HRH mandatory retirement after reaching a certain net worth?
@JimB; you didn’t mention it but I presume your building has a poured slab floor? If so, have you considered a car lift? Much easier than a mechanic’s creeper, plus an additional parking spot in a pinch.
Impressive machines, I remember seeing them when I caught a few episodes of Gold Rush. When they had to tear up permafrost it was always “we need the D9”.
I would suggest both an estate attorney and an eldercare/Medicare attorney to help preserve/protect whatever assets you and your wife pass on.
Trust(s) would have avoided these delays – just saying for the benefit of others.
If you click through to the Bloomberg article the gist seems to be a little less alarmist than what Zero Hedge is saying…
Norwegian officials said 23 people had died in the country a short time after receiving their first dose of the vaccine. Of those deaths, 13 have been autopsied, with the results suggesting that common side effects may have contributed to severe reactions in frail, elderly people, according to the Norwegian Medicines Agency.
For those with the most severe frailty, even relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health said. For those who have a very short remaining life span anyway, the benefit of the vaccine may be marginal or irrelevant.
The recommendation does not mean younger, healthier people should avoid being vaccinated.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-15/norway-warns-of-vaccination-risks-for-sick-patients-over-80
And just saw this:
https://www.businessinsider.com/costco-closing-all-photo-centers-in-stores-february-14-2021-1#
Yup, I totally agree about Big River. Big River’s first love is
selling booksmaking money and they do a great job of it.@lynn; there, FIFY.
If you click through to the Bloomberg article the gist seems to be a little less alarmist than what Zero Hedge is saying…
According to my wife, Subcontinent, in her experience, generally expresses a preference for the Pfizer vaccine behind the Norway fatalities, and her Indian co-workers passed on getting the Moderna shot that the VA offered.
Strange brand loyalty.
I’ve still got a large cache of N95s from the Obama pandemic scare but can’t wear one with my beard. I’m wearing the outlaw bandana my MIL sewed up for me.
Don’t forget the four feral pigs on The View.
Attended a funeral in Hixson, TN yesterday for my (deceased) brother’s brother-in-law. Uncle to four of my nephews. Got home last night very tried so I didn’t post.
RE the comments on my upcoming Covid vaccination: I have been getting the Flu vaccination for several years. I am usually immune to most things since I played in the dirt and around a nasty auto repair shop as child. I have no ill effect from the flu shots or most vaccinations. Encountering Poison Ivy and Oak does not cause to me any problems but Sumac did this past Fall. I did have Tuberculous in Italy in 1982 but I fully recovered from that. I get sinus infections annually.
RE Big River: I’m always looking for a Book Seller but a DuckDuckGO search did not yield any useful results. ???
The shop will be an iron building 54′ wide by 36′ deep, 14′ tall in the front 16′ at the ridgeline and 10′ at the back. The left 18′ bay will have a vehicle lift, the center 18′ bay for projects and the right 18′ will have a 24′ deep clean room and bathroom (8’x8′) finished with wallboard, etc. Behind it will be 12′ (by 18′) woodshop. The entire building will be heated and air conditioned using four PTAC units – through the wall units like the ones in motels. Completed the water line layout. From the existing meter to the shop is about 375 feet since the shop is 265 feet from the street and the meter is 95 feet down the street from the shop driveway.
The family that owned the house before me put up a 6′ tall a fence up that is not on the property line. It is 74 inches inside the line at the front and 12 inches inside the line at the back. No problem with moving it; my neighbor understands why I want to, but the posts are set in concrete so it is a major chore. A friend has a tractor with a post hole attachment so that will help
@Robert V Sproul
A good non-Zon print on demand place is Lulu (www.lulu.com). Their printing costs are slightly higher than Zon (at least on my latest paperback – see my comments yesterday).
But their quaility is good. Can’t tell the difference in my last paperback printed at Zon and Lulu. Have also done several hardbound full-color full-size books, and the quality on those was excellent.
Does take some works to format content and covers (they have templates). But they do have an on-line store that will sell/print/ship your books. And an API (haven’t tried it) to their bookstore.
Of course, marketing books after you write and format them is a big effort. One that I haven’t succeeded at yet.
RE Big River: I’m always looking for a Book Seller but a DuckDuckGO search did not yield any useful results. ???
Big River is http://www.amazon.com . Apparently also known as Zon (new to me).
Sorry, Big River for Amazon is my poor joke. And I stole that from somebody else.
The hearing for my wife to become executor of her father’s estate is currently scheduled for April 1, 2021. Her probate attorney filed the paperwork back in November. This is halting the disposal of several properties and account liquidation since she cannot do so until she is executor.
Trust(s) would have avoided these delays – just saying for the benefit of others.
I have not told the entire story about my father-in-law’s estate. I probably won’t because you won’t believe me of his sheer incompetence and his sheer arrogance. Lets just say that there was a lot of yelling involved 20 years ago. And 5 years ago. The wife cleaned it all up when she activated the General Power of Attorney that he gave her.
But their quaility is good. Can’t tell the difference in my last paperback printed at Zon and Lulu. Have also done several hardbound full-color full-size books, and the quality on those was excellent.
We have had several hundred (several thousand ???) user manuals printed at http://www.lulu.com over the years. Generally, the print quality is good but they have trouble at times with the laminated 8.5 inch by 11 inch covers. And sometimes they let the ink in the printer start to fade before topping it off. But they always replace any manual that we complain about.
Of course, marketing books after you write and format them is a big effort. One that I haven’t succeeded at yet.
Try software. Things can be worse.
https://parler.com/
Sarah Hoyt has been saying the Right needs to ‘build over, build under, build around’ for a while now, maybe a couple of years? Parlar didn’t listen. Lotsa people didn’t listen…
Given the amount of data stolen from parlar and revealed by the Jan 6 analysis, I wouldn’t use it for anything at all more important than complaining that my toast was cold.
FFS people, social media is a trap.
n
Germans are getting ready to put people in camps again…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/galleries/article-9156999/Ice-blankets-Sahara-desert-snow-falls-Saudi-Arabia-temperature-dropped-2C.html
must be globall warmening
n