Thur. Mar. 4, 2021 – I’m gonna be busier than a one armed paper hanger…

National forecast has Houston in the clear for at least a couple of days.   That will be great as I need the clear weather to move stuff around and work outside.   Today should be nice.   Yesterday started cool but ended nice and sunny.

I spent the day doing stuff- took daughter #1 to get her braces tweaked.  Then I stopped at the HEB after taking daughter one to school.   Added some food to the pantry and shelves.

Met the A/C guy and got that sorted out at the rent house.  Found several other things there that should probably be done soon, but I’ll try to push them off.  Picked up from one auction.   It was radios, hand sanitizer, and toilet plumbing supplies.

I’ve got stuff listed in two local auctions, and more at each auctioneer waiting to be listed.  I’m hoping to get a whole bunch of stuff to the new auctioneer this week, but she just closed an auction and won’t be done with pickup until Saturday.   She may not want my stuff until next week.

While doing all that other stuff and the normal stuff, I’ve got to get my Expy to the shop.   It stalls out at idle after running for 15 minutes.   It’s pretty consistent and it’s not the cold or the battery at this point.   It needs to be smogged and registered too.   THEN I can get the Ranger smogged and registered, maybe get the windshield replaced, and if I’m really ambitious, install a radio.  I’ve got a bunch of stuff to install in the Expy too.  Dash cams don’t do you any good sitting at home in a box.

Before you know it, hurricane season will be rolling around.   I would like to have the vehicles all in tip top shape before then, and the whole house gennie installed, and the plumbing for the hot water heater and master bath done.   Oh, and the A/C here at the house needs to be replaced too.  We’ve been lucky and have deferred it too many times.    Lots of stuff to do to Casa de Nick before it gets hot.

I’m going to have to figure out where the extra time is going to come from.

“First invent time travel”…

All this while a global pandemic continues, inflation starts to take off, our freedoms get further restricted every day, and the battle lines continue shaping up.

I better get started.   You probably should have a list too.  Stuff to do, and stuff to stack.   Time is flying by, get started on something.

 

nick

85 Comments and discussion on "Thur. Mar. 4, 2021 – I’m gonna be busier than a one armed paper hanger…"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    40F and 95%RH this morning. I think that is the coldest it got overnight too. Plenty cold enough for me….

    Glad I haven’t put the garden in yet.

    n

  2. Clayton W. says:

    51F and I’m headed to bed. Early to bed, I haven’t done, but the early to rise bit happens every day… I guess that’s why I’m not getting the traditional benefit…

    Worms?

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    Early to bed, and early to rise
    Makes a man Healthy, wealthy, and wise….

    -Ben Franklin

    Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
    I think I’ll eat some worms….

    -Amer. Trad.

  4. dcp says:

    ” The early worm deserves the bird. ” — Robert A. Heinlein

  5. dcp says:

    “Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In the Morning”

    YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71smG5d29to

  6. Ray Thompson says:

    Car stops can be dangerous for cops

    For everyone. I was once pulled over on I-640, it was night, unmarked vehicle, before cell phones. I rolled the window down part way. When the person approached they were not in uniform. I asked for identification. The person said they needed to see my identification first. I said “no, I want to see your identification”. The person refused. I rolled the window up, started my truck and left heading for the first exit with a well lit convenience store. I went inside and called the police. The other vehicle never showed up. One week later the person was caught.

    Another time I was on the interstate, fairly congested, no real safe place to pull over. I turned on my flashers and drove probably another four miles before I found a wide spot where I pulled over. The officer asked why I took so long to pull over. I told him that I wanted him to be safe and felt that this was first spot where it would be safe for him to do his job. He asked for license, registration, insurance and went back to his vehicle. Came back in a couple of minutes, gave me my paperwork back, told me thanks for being concerned about his safety, for me to drive safely and continue on my way. I have no idea why I was pulled over.

    I do everything I can to make certain the officer has nothing to fear and I have nothing to fear. Works best for everyone involved. However I will draw the line at having my rights violated. I admit to nothing and will never consent to a search of the vehicle. There are a few bad officers that will find something that in some cases was in the officers pocket before the search.

    If he asks, tell him you saw this on “Adam-12”.

    You have something against “CHPS”?

    Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
    I think I’ll eat some worms….

    -Amer. Trad.

    Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
    I think I’ll eat some Tide Pods….

    -Amer. Trad.

    Fixed it for you.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, Survivalblog.com is shutting down comments. They cite the rise in trolls and spam, and off topic/thread drift (although they don’t call it that) and they posted some stats.

    Comments Statistics

    SurvivalBlog has been posted daily since August of 2005. But the Comments feature was relatively new. Just as a “FYI”, here are some statistics on our archived Comments, since we started allowing them in April of 2017:

    Approved Comments: 78,943
    Manually flagged by the editors as spam: 4,396
    Automatically flagged as spam by Akismet software: 912,120
    Comments deleted by the editors for various reasons: 406 (.051% of comments)

    As a comparison, here are the numbers for Daynotes, starting in June of 2011–

    Approved Comments: 151,540
    Manually flagged by the editors as spam: some small, very small number
    Automatically flagged as spam by Akismet software: a huge number that I can’t find at the moment
    Comments deleted by the editors for various reasons: tiny number approaching zero

    I know that somewhere on the site controls Akismet tells me how many comments it’s blocked but I can’t find it for the life of me…

    As far as deleting comments, the commentariat here is very well behaved, and is a community, so there are very few reasons for deleting anything. I feel very fortunate that this is the case, and have been hesitant to ‘spread the word’ because I don’t want that to change. Too many of the places I used to comment have had problems and had to shut down or restrict commenting. Commenting is the biggest part of Daynotes now, and I can’t think what it would be like without the constant conversation.

    Some other stats–

    Of the 151540 comments, over 8000 are mine with my current screenname, with another 2256 under my other screenname, and there is another version with 3200 comments. And possibly one with over 10K comments by yet another screenname variation.

    Of the 3568 posts, over 1100 are mine.

    I don’t have a good way to tally comments for other people but several frequent commentors have more comments than me. Lynn has over 17K under just that screenname, he had 4700 under another name. Greg N has over 10K. RBT had 9700 at one point, can’t be sure of the total.

    Lots of commentors with between 5000 and 10k, lots between 1K and 5K

    Lots of new-ish up and comers too 🙂

    In other words, this place IS the comments and I can’t see that changing any time soon.

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    @steveF, about 5 years ago you were talking about a girl with a crazy mom who you were caring for when the mom flaked… whatever happened with that?

    n

  9. Chad says:

    It feels like it helps that this place isn’t branded as a survivalist blog or any other narrow focus. Over the years it’s focus has drifted back and forth from computer hardware, libertarian politics, astronomy, chemistry, border collies, weapons, and survivalism/prepping. But, even those would be categorizing it too much. I like the variation and I like that the variation doesn’t attract some single-minded crowd of commenters. Honestly, if all we ever talked about on here was prepping I would have drifted away by now.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    The officer asked why I took so long to pull over. I told him that I wanted him to be safe and felt that this was first spot where it would be safe for him to do his job.

    Tow truck companies in a lot of states have successfully lobbied for “move over” laws which are increasingly viewed as a source of revenue, complete with law enforcement traps.

    When in doubt about local law, as soon as you see the lights, if you can’t move over to the next lane, slow down to 20 MPH under the limit. The laws are in effect as long as the lights are on, regardless as to whether any official activity is taking place.

  11. JimB says:

    Comments, YES!!

    Best site I have ever found. Almost a family, in the greatest sense. Thanks.

    11
  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    @chad, yep, we can’t have ‘off topic’ or thread drift because we don’t have topics!

    I think of most days’ posts as “something to toss out to get the ball rolling” and there are plenty of days when not a single mention of the post topic even comes up in the comments… usually because someone comments on a problem or issue that they are having and that’s what gets the energy of the group. [or possibly because my issues aren’t that compelling or as interesting as I might think 😉 ]

    My actual posts are usually something to do with prepping though, because that is the focus of much of my actual life, when it’s not kids, and it’s a wide and fertile field to plow… and it’s relatively easy to write those posts.

    n

  13. Ken Mitchell says:

    You’re correct, except that the California DMV went into lockdown shortly after the WuFlu hit, and hadn’t re-opened before I left. And the PREVIOUS owner had lived in Hawaii.

    Ray Thompson asks: I wonder how the previous owners accomplished that little feat. Most states require the vehicle to be registered and insured in the state where the vehicle will be primarily used. They might have been in a little bit of trouble with insurance refusing to pay if they got into an accident.

    It’s an RV; they had planned to use it “all over”, and ended up mostly camped in Oregon. They were residents of Hawaii, and the RV was REGISTERED in Hawaii, even though it was never actually IN Hawaii.

    I bought it in California, and got it insured there, and last August, used it to move us here to Texas. (How else do you move halfway across the country during COVID, with too many cats and too many guns? No hotel would have accepted us.) But we’re now living in Texas, and the RV is here in Texas, and as of today, it’s REGISTERED in Texas, and has Texas plates. And the Hawaii plates are retired to a place of honor on my garage wall, next to the Philippine plates. 🙂

    And my wife, who is somewhat crazy for the color purple, was ecstatic that you could get custom Texas license plates IN PURPLE! (This is the woman who practically bought out “The Purple Store” at the top level of the San Antonio River Walk Mall the last time we were here, in 2003.)

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    WRT ham radio plates in Texas,

    As you will notice the form allows you to get identical Amateur Radio Operator plates on up to three vehicles, with the requirement that the vehicles all 3 need to be registered to the same licensed Amateur Radio Operator.

    So plates for both of my trucks, but not the wife’s minivan… if I decide to do it.

    n

  15. Harold Combs says:

    I do everything I can to make certain the officer has nothing to fear and I have nothing to fear. Works best for everyone involved.

    Reminds me that our current puppet president said that telling your children to keep their hands in sight and act politely when stopped, was a racist thing and he would never tell his kids that. Well dummy, we always told our kids that. It’s only common sense.

  16. Chad says:

    I do everything I can to make certain the officer has nothing to fear and I have nothing to fear. Works best for everyone involved.

    When I get pulled over I like to fire a couple of shots into the air to let the officer know I have a gun… That way there’s no surprises. 🤣

  17. JimB says:

    …with too many cats and too many guns?

    Can’t have too many of one. Hint: some cats like being the only cat. 🙂

    …next to the Philippine plates.

    Never been to the Philippines, but have known a few ex-natives. Hope it was fun.

  18. RickH says:

    @Nick:

    Detailed Akismet spam-catching stats are on the Settings, Akismet pages.

  19. RickH says:

    Them gnats might not be gnats …

    a [MIT] team that’s invented a new microdrone — not quite as tiny as a mosquito.

    “The weight of this robot and the physical size looks pretty much like a dragonfly,” he says.

    https://www.npr.org/2021/03/04/973610866/dont-swat-this-bug-it-might-be-a-robot-on-a-rescue-mission

    These drones have wings like a dragonfly, not spinning rotors. Interesting video on in the story. Note the scale during the video. These still need external wires for power, but an interesting technique use to ‘flap’ the wings, and the flexibility of the wings that allows them to flap like an insect.

  20. ech says:

    Bill Gates put a tracking RFID in the ‘cootie’ vaccine

    The password is 666BillG666.

  21. Brad says:

    Honestly, if all we ever talked about on here was prepping I would have drifted away by now.

    This place feels to me kind of like an evening drinking a beer with friends. Conversation wanders over all sorts of topics. Sometimes serious (like back in OFD days) , sometimes not. Sometimes you listen, sometimes you want to get something off your chest. Just pleasant…

    12
  22. ech says:

    Well, SpaceX did stick the landing. But it’s clear that the landing gear failed, leading to an uncontained fuel/oxidizer leak, a fire, and the explosion. This might set back their test program – besides the obvious stuff of testing the belly flop entry approach and landing maneuver, they had test patches of heat shield material on the structure in various places – you can see them at dark areas on the shiny skin. Those are probably worthless to examine now that they have been subjected to an explosion.

  23. lynn says:

    “The Global Inflation Nightmare That You Have Been Warned About Is Here”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/global-inflation-nightmare-you-have-been-warned-about-here

    “Global food prices are going up, and the timing couldn’t be worse.”

    “In Indonesia, tofu is 30% more expensive than it was in December. In Brazil, the price of local mainstay turtle beans is up 54% compared to last January. In Russia, consumers are paying 61% more for sugar than a year ago.”

    “And as Albert Edwards has pointed out, annual inflation in cereals has hit 20 percent, which represents “the highest annual rise since mid-2011 when the Arab Spring was in full flow!””

    Yup, basic food prices are going up. And the farmers are still getting hosed. Their cost of machinery has doubled in the last ten years with all the new emissions equipment on their farm equipment. Breaks down like crazy and requires extra fuel to run.

  24. lynn says:

    “Watch SpaceX’s starship successfully launch and STICK THE LANDING — then explode :(”
    https://breaking911.com/watch-spacexs-starship-successfully-launch-and-stick-the-landing-then-explode/

    Apparently flying rocket ships is HARD !

    Well, SpaceX did stick the landing. But it’s clear that the landing gear failed, leading to an uncontained fuel/oxidizer leak, a fire, and the explosion. This might set back their test program – besides the obvious stuff of testing the belly flop entry approach and landing maneuver, they had test patches of heat shield material on the structure in various places – you can see them at dark areas on the shiny skin. Those are probably worthless to examine now that they have been subjected to an explosion.

    Is that what happened. Crap, that looked bad. And lost their static research data to boot, that sucked.

  25. lynn says:

    I don’t have a good way to tally comments for other people but several frequent commentors have more comments than me. Lynn has over 17K under just that screenname, he had 4700 under another name. Greg N has over 10K. RBT had 9700 at one point, can’t be sure of the total.

    I’ll try to cut back, it is not easy as I have a lot of venting to do.

  26. Greg Norton says:

    Yup, basic food prices are going up. And the farmers are still getting hosed. Their cost of machinery has doubled in the last ten years with all the new emissions equipment on their farm equipment. Breaks down like crazy and requires extra fuel to run.

    And the farm equipment is “licensed”, not purchased, which must be serviced by authorized factory techs *only*. It is a sensitive issue with the doctor down the street who has a farm he works on weekends out beyond Temple.

    The last time I filled our rice bin, the cost was $28/bag at HMart, up from about half that just a few years ago. As a “rich” American, that kind of inflation is annoying, but imagine the impact in places where that is a weekly income.

  27. lynn says:

    @Lynn
    I sincerely hope you are:

    a) NOT working alone

    b) tethering yourself to the rail on the lift

    My 82 year old dad called me this morning and lectured me about working alone. In fact, he wants me off the boom lift permanently. Not gonna happen. I am only 60 and I’ve got things to do.

    I replaced one more metal halide light fixture inside the warehouse this morning. Looks awesome ! I’ve only 2 more inside lights and 3 more outside lights to go out of the 16 total.

  28. CowboySlim says:

    From lynn, yesterday:

    Apparently flying rocket ships is HARD !

    It’s like all else, they depend on the people involved knowing adequately.

    There were no failures of those when I was working on the launch team. Ih the GPS device in your car or hand works, looks like I made no fatal mistakes. Worked on the Delta II ELV from ’97 through ’02, propulsion system engineering.

  29. MrAtoz says:

    Rundowns of the Dumbo bill “For the People Act” are coming out online. What a piece of shite! It basically says “we, the Feds (by that they mean Dumbos), will control all aspects of voting.” This has to be unConstitutional. I believe it it passes (not likely), the States will fight it. More fuel for CWII.

  30. CowboySlim says:

    I’ll try to cut back, it is not easy as I have a lot of venting to do.

    Not to worry, I judge you as very good.

    About 20 years ago, RBT appointed me as a Super Admimistrator on the technical Forum. I did deplete one post and received a real hosing from that idiot. Well, the more stupid they are, the worse their posts and the more vindictive their responses.

    10
  31. Greg Norton says:

    Rundowns of the Dumbo bill “For the People Act” are coming out online. What a piece of shite! It basically says “we, the Feds (by that they mean Dumbos), will control all aspects of voting.” This has to be unConstitutional. I believe it it passes (not likely), the States will fight it. More fuel for CWII.

    The House is just stirring up trouble with that bill. It wouldn’t pass the Senate even with the fillibuster removed.

    September/October are going to be about it for getting anything done in this session. The concession speech in the race for VA Governor in November will mark the beginning of 2022 regardless of which party wins there. Incumbents can’t run so, increasingly, VA indicates which way midterms go.

    An establishment Dem like Terry McAuliffe returning to the Governor’s Mansion won’t be much better news for the hardcore left than a Republican winning the state.

  32. SteveF says:

    Nick, the girl’s parents are separated and divorced or in process. I’m not sure how it’s shaking out because I haven’t seen her in ages — both parents are scared of the cooooties and neither lets her go anywhere. I did get a message to her that she’s welcome to come over for a visit or a stay any time.

  33. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hopefully she gets what she needs at some point.

    n

    (yes I have been poking around in old posts. I do that.)

  34. Alan says:

    If he asks, tell him you saw this on “Adam-12”.
    You have something against “CHPS”?

    @Ray; no, no, CHiPS is cool too. Was gonna say Dragnet but figured that was too far back.

  35. Alan says:

    “It feels like it helps that this place isn’t branded as a survivalist blog or any other narrow focus. Over the years it’s focus has drifted back and forth from computer hardware, libertarian politics, astronomy, chemistry, border collies, weapons, and survivalism/prepping and FLASHLIGHTS. But, even those would be categorizing it too much. I like the variation and I like that the variation doesn’t attract some single-minded crowd of commenters. Honestly, if all we ever talked about on here was prepping I would have drifted away by now.”
    There, FIFY.

  36. Chad says:

    It feels like it helps that this place isn’t branded as a survivalist blog or any other narrow focus. Over the years it’s focus has drifted back and forth from computer hardware, libertarian politics, astronomy, chemistry, border collies, weapons, and survivalism/prepping and FLASHLIGHTS. But, even those would be categorizing it too much. I like the variation and I like that the variation doesn’t attract some single-minded crowd of commenters. Honestly, if all we ever talked about on here was prepping I would have drifted away by now.

    There, FIFY.

    I would have used the Oxford comma, but aside from that I agree with the edit. 🙂

  37. Clayton W. says:

    Was gonna say Dragnet but figured that was too far back.

    Dragnet was great! Well, as long as we aren’t talking about the movie. That doesn’t exist.

  38. Ray Thompson says:

    no, no, CHiPS is cool too. Was gonna say Dragnet but figured that was too far back.

    Car 54 is really too far back.

    There’s a holdup in the Bronx,
    Brooklyn’s broken out in fights.
    There’s a traffic jam in Harlem
    That’s backed up to Jackson Heights.
    There’s a scout troop short a child

  39. Chad says:

    No T.J. Hooker or Cop Rock? lol

    Actually, I think the first police drama I can remember watching on TV regularly was probably Hunter.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    ‘If he asks, tell him you saw this on “Adam-12”.’
    You have something against “CHPS”?

    @Ray; no, no, CHiPS is cool too. Was gonna say Dragnet but figured that was too far back.

    “Dragnet” begat “Adam 12” which begat “Emergency”, all Jack Webb-produced.

    Webb was trying to get a third “Dragnet” run on the air when he died.

  41. MrAtoz says:

    And on cue, eBay has wokely stopped all auctions/sales of the six *Verboten!* Dr. Seuss books. Nazi fcuks.

    Facists to left of me,
    Facists to right,
    Here I am, stuck in the middle again…

    11
    1
  42. Nick Flandrey says:

    Y’all read the reasons for picking those books, right?

    The only one I’ve read was To think I saw it on mulberry street…. and they don’t like that there is a “china man” changed to “chinese man” who is shown with lines for eyes, or in other words, asian features.

    “If I Ran the Zoo,” two characters from “the African island of Yerka” are depicted as shirtless, shoeless and resembling monkeys. ” Um, anyone looked at africans?

    –with no mention of what was objectionable, “The other books that will no longer be published are “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.””

    and in typical lefty fashion, find one thing wrong and reject all of it.

    n

    added–

    “The decision to stop the publication of some Dr. Seuss books helps revive a debate over classic children’s titles that do not positively represent minority groups.”

    –well along the lefty progression. Tolerance, acceptance, preference.

    2
    1
  43. Greg Norton says:

    “If I Ran the Zoo,” two characters from “the African island of Yerka” are depicted as shirtless, shoeless and resembling monkeys. ” Um, anyone looked at africans?

    The characters are at the Seuss play area at Universal Orlando IIRC. That section of the park was slated for replacement with Super Mario World a decade ago, but that change never happened.

    I’m guessing the paint cans are out today. Simply closing the play area would be tough since that’s where parents take the little kids while the bigger ones ride “The Simpsons”

  44. Nick Flandrey says:

    Sitting at my mechanic. Nite the dang truck won’t. die. Is the curse of the demo.

    N

  45. JimB says:

    My 82 year old dad called me this morning and lectured me about working alone. In fact, he wants me off the boom lift permanently. Not gonna happen. I am only 60 and I’ve got things to do.

    I’m only 75 and also have “things” to do. I don’t work alone… but sometimes it is hard. I remind myself that seemingly innocent things can lead to serious trouble, then call my wife to watch. At the very least, she can call for help. Can’t always do that, however.

    It doesn’t take an 18′ fall from a bucket lift to seriously hurt. I watched a video some months ago that dropped instrumented dummies from about 12′ to concrete. Practically all the falls were judged to be fatal. There was a lower height I don’t remember, something like 6′, and the results were also pretty serious.

    I have a rolling staircase for the new garage. You have seen these in places like Home Depot. It is about as safe as possible, and very convenient compared to a ladder. Still could fall down the stairs. The last time I fell down stairs was in high school, and it really hurt; nothing lasting, just bruises.

    I broke my foot stepping off a ~1′ stepstool in 1999. I turned as I stepped down, and forgot there was a small obstacle in my way. I got crossed up trying to avoid it, and came down hard with that foot under me. The doc looked at the x-ray and asked me how I managed to do it. I told him I really didn’t remember, but it was just one of those things. He made most of his living patching up snow skiers, and thought he had seen it all. Moral: stuff happens, no matter how careful we try to be.

  46. lynn says:

    “What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/what-lies-ahead-grand-solar-minimum

    “There will indeed be climate change in the coming decades, but for the next 10 to 40 years it is going to get colder, not warmer! The same thing will happen on the 7 other planets in this solar system, because the main factor affecting planetary temperatures is the activity of the Sun. Given that so much time, effort and money has been invested in ‘global warming’ as a premise for change in how human society is run, it is very much an “inconvenient truth” that is beginning to arrive just at the time when we are beginning to take more affirmative action on environmental issues.”

    Better start getting ready for the winter of 2021 – 2022. Might be a doozy.

  47. JimB says:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGaEM9sjVg

    Nice video of the Early Television Museum in Hilliard, Ohio. Older TV broadcasting fams will recognize a lot.

    http://www.earlytelevision.org/foundation.html
    Their old school web site.

  48. MrAtoz says:

    Better start getting ready for the winter of 2021 – 2022. Might be a doozy.

    Ha! Items that I now have:

    3 snow brush/ice scrapers
    1 SnowJoe Shovelution
    1 Little Buddy propane 4-9K BTU
    1 Little Buddy propane 3.8K BTU
    1 Little Buddy adapter for 20# tanks
    2 20# propane tanks (grill)
    6 1# propane tanks (already used one to test the Little Buddies)

    Solar Experiment 2.0 (replaces the cheapo Harbor Freight setup the dogs ruined)
    1 Rockpals Solar Generator 300W
    2 Rockpals folding 100W solar panels

  49. Alan says:

    Just got jab #1 – Pfizer. State announced this week that validating people’s co-morbid conditions would be too subjective so they switched to age groups only. Counties will come on board piecemeal but the state-run sites and the pharmacy chains switched immediately. Spent some time this morning refreshing their sites and lo and behold I managed to snag an appointment for today. Will report if any body parts fall off.

  50. Greg Norton says:

    Sitting at my mechanic. Nite the dang truck won’t. die. Is the curse of the demo.

    Cash for Clunkers 2.0 will be necessary to take the 20 year old beater trucks off the road before the Tonytruck arrives.

    My wife’s patients who work out at the factory site say The Real Life Tony Stark (TM) is out there day and night as of late.

  51. Greg Norton says:

    Just got jab #1 – Pfizer. State announced this week that validating people’s co-morbid conditions would be too subjective so they switched to age groups only. Counties will come on board piecemeal but the state-run sites and the pharmacy chains switched immediately. Spent some time this morning refreshing their sites and lo and behold I managed to snag an appointment for today. Will report if any body parts fall off.

    If you live in Florida, you could probably get one out of Publix claiming a co-morbidity if you made enough of a fuss at the right store. Age is objectively verifiable.

    My wife was surprised at the approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine since it is less effective, but I suggested it was the only way the government had to cut off arbitrage of Moderna and Pfizer shots while the methods were still being worked out to do an end run around the government controls.

    1
    1
  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    Mechanic is pretty sure my root issue is a bad cam shaft bearing. It certainly makes a loud knock if you listen for it.

    He’s going to get me pricing options tomorrow.

    Stew in the crock pot, and fresh bread in the bread machine, so I’m going to drown my sorrows in carbs and meat and gravy. Nice that we still have civilization around us, so the household robots work.

    n

  53. Greg Norton says:

    Mechanic is pretty sure my root issue is a bad cam shaft bearing. It certainly makes a loud knock if you listen for it.

    He’s going to get me pricing options tomorrow.

    Good luck.

    If you decide the cost might be too much and decide to hit the market, we haven’t had any trouble with the 2016 Exploder since the throttle body went at 5000 miles. I did *not* let the salesweasel talk my wife into the EcoBoost. Instead, she has the largest non-turbo six cylinder engine you can get in the vehicle without buying the one sold to cops.

    I miss her 4Runner, but the Exploder does hold more kids and stuff. And I’ll concede that the 4Runner had the stiffer ride, something you don’t want to take on a cross country drive.

  54. Alan says:

    If you live in Florida, you could probably get one out of Publix claiming a co-morbidity if you made enough of a fuss at the right store.

    Got it at Fry’s…not the best website design – they make you schedule both jabs at the same time and they dictate the second date but they let you pick an available first date for which there is no corresponding second date which is frustrating. They also don’t put a temporary hold on the slots you’ve picked while you enter the rest of the required info (name/address/etc. plus insurance info) so when you get to the last step (affirm you’ve read the fine print) and click ‘Done’ it can then tell you, sorry, those dates are already gone (to somebody that types faster than you do). But all this development was rushed I’m sure – not that that’s an excuse for poor design.

    My wife was surprised at the approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine since it is less effective, but I suggested it was the only way the government had to cut off arbitrage of Moderna and Pfizer shots while the methods were still being worked out to do an end run around the government controls.

    Glad I got mine before any significant quantity of the J&J got into the pipeline – didn’t want to be in the position of showing up for the jab only then to find out it’s the J&J and having to say “thanks but no thanks.” What concerns me is the lower overall efficacy – while the J&J is supposed to better prevent serious cases, getting just a mild case can still result in you becoming a ‘long hauler’, which can be much worse that that ‘mild case’ that Doc Joe said not to fret about.

  55. lynn says:

    “And how are they gonna get their kombucha and Kale delivered? Oregon to ban Diesel.”
    https://gunfreezone.net/and-how-are-they-gonna-get-their-kombucha-and-kale-delivered-oregon-to-ban-diesel/

    Wow.

    I wonder if Oregon is going to ban agricultural diesel also.

  56. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/what-lies-ahead-grand-solar-minimum

    “There will indeed be climate change in the coming decades, but for the next 10 to 40 years it is going to get colder, not warmer! The same thing will happen on the 7 other planets in this solar system, because the main factor affecting planetary temperatures is the activity of the Sun. Given that so much time, effort and money has been invested in ‘global warming’ as a premise for change in how human society is run, it is very much an “inconvenient truth” that is beginning to arrive just at the time when we are beginning to take more affirmative action on environmental issues.”

    Better start getting ready for the winter of 2021 – 2022. Might be a doozy

    I look forward to hunting down the fake climate “scientists” and the greenies and feeding them into SteveB’s fuel converter with the progtards.

  57. Nick Flandrey says:

    I wonder if Oregon is going to ban agricultural diesel also.

    –sure they will. And like most lefty green initiatives, it will just move the pollution elsewhere. And increase the costs for the plebes, who can stand to use less anyway, amirite?

    They’ll be back to what they can grow locally.

    n

  58. Harold Combs says:

    I’m old enough to remember the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and what I’m seeing in America today echoes that. Children and teens were taught to hate their elders and destroy any hint of non party thought, including all texts and stories that weren’t approved by Mao. It was a terrible bloodbath and their country lost much of its history.

  59. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder if Oregon is going to ban agricultural diesel also.

    There must be something significant with the word “dealer” in lawyertalk. A farmer isn’t a dealer.

    And if you say “Its just Progs in Hippieland”, the winter wheat crop out of the Willamette Valley fed the country one early Spring not too long ago. Everyone should be concerned. One barrel of oil equals one bushel of wheat.

    A serious state successionist movement exists in SW Oregon, and 6 eastern counties are looking at joining Idaho. Salem is clueless. The politicians view of the state stops in Corvallis (south) and Vista House (east).

    The way Kate Brown became Governor in Oregon was a dry run for President Kamala Harris.

    One of the happiest moments of my life was seeing Baker City recede in my rearview mirror during my last drive out of Oregon. I still don’t know what we were thinking.

    1
    1
  60. hcombs says:

    “What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/what-lies-ahead-grand-solar-minimum

    “There will indeed be climate change in the coming decades, but for the next 10 to 40 years it is going to get colder, not warmer! The same thing will happen on the 7 other planets in this solar system, because the main factor affecting planetary temperatures is the activity of the Sun. Given that so much time, effort and money has been invested in ‘global warming’ as a premise for change in how human society is run, it is very much an “inconvenient truth” that is beginning to arrive just at the time when we are beginning to take more affirmative action on environmental issues.”

    Better start getting ready for the winter of 2021 – 2022. Might be a doozy

    Reminds me of Dr. Pournelle’s book “Fallen Angels”. A world dedicated to stopping global warming is unable/unwilling to address a mini Ice Age.

  61. Ray Thompson says:

    Baker City recede in my rearview mirror during my last drive out of Oregon

    I grew up in Oregon. 147 acre ranch 14.5 miles east of Rogue River. My roots are there, graduated high school there. I have zero desire to ever go back. The likes of Kate Brown have destroyed the state. People live way out where I lived to live how they like to live. Not anymore. Too many regulations.

    People moved from California to get away from California. Then complain when others move from California. Then try and turn the place into the over regulated mess they left. Complain when people shoot guns. It’s the country, that’s what people do.

    8
    1
  62. drwilliams says:

    A conservative looks for a community of like-thinking people, and moves there.

    A progressive looks for a community with lower taxes and crime than the blue craphole they live in, then move there and start turning it into a blue craphole.

    Relatives of mine bought a horse acreage in Oregon back in the 80’s. City-bred neighbors complained when they bought a horse.

    Friend of mine left Cali for Texas, then moved to a community of like-thinking people in Idaho.

    8
    1
  63. lynn says:

    “Warren Buffett: “Retirees face a bleak future””
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2021-03-04/warren-buffett-retirees-face-bleak-future

    “Warren Buffett minced no words in his most recent annual shareholder letter (which came out over the weekend) when he told investors that “retirees face a bleak future.””

    “Buffett was referring to the pitifully low interest rates that dominate fixed income investments (like bonds and annuities).”

    Hey, what about the rest of us ?

  64. Nick Flandrey says:

    “World Ends Tomorrow- Women and minorities to suffer”…

    n

  65. Marcelo says:

    My IT hilites:

    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-brings-vertical-tabs-to-edge-89-announces-bing-search-improvements/

    Neat. Initially, as a non-collapsed panel, it uses screen space to actually have meaningful tabs displayed. Collapse the panel and then just placing the cursor on top it expands without affecting the page. I have been using something very similar in Vivaldi but for Bookmarks.

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12075/best-consumer-hdds

    Finally, a note on shucking – buying a relatively cheap external hard disk (such as the 14TB Western Digital Elements with a re-labeled / firmware-modified WD / HGST Ultrastar HC530 DC for $233), removing the internal drive, and using it in a NAS or as an internal desktop drive in the place of a more costly drive ($400).

    I think he was talking about Lynn there. 🙂

  66. Alan says:

    WRT ham radio plates in Texas,
    As you will notice the form allows you to get identical Amateur Radio Operator plates on up to three vehicles, with the requirement that the vehicles all 3 need to be registered to the same licensed Amateur Radio Operator.
    So plates for both of my trucks, but not the wife’s minivan… if I decide to do it.

    Hmm, interesting, first time I’ve heard of this practice and I’ve been collecting license plates for years. Thanks for the update @nick.

  67. lynn says:

    “Towards $100 Oil”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/towards-100-oil

    “WTI stood at $61.50 / barrel when we issued our weekly assessment of EIA oil markets data yesterday. Nevertheless, we stated that, “We might expect WTI at $64 / barrel this time next week, and $65-66 / barrel would not be surprising.” We did not need a week. Less than twenty-four hours later, WTI had surged above $64 / barrel. It could well rise far above this level, and with shocking speed.”

    $100 crude oil by Memorial Day ? Really ?

    If so, the shale oil producers will be fracking everything in sight and have oil back down to $50 by Christmas.

  68. Alan says:

    This place feels to me kind of like an evening drinking a beer with friends. Conversation wanders over all sorts of topics. Sometimes serious (like back in OFD days) , sometimes not. Sometimes you listen, sometimes you want to get something off your chest. Just pleasant…

    Seems someone copied us…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB0nC3BkzPk

  69. JimB says:

    “And how are they gonna get their kombucha and Kale delivered? Oregon to ban Diesel.”
    https://gunfreezone.net/and-how-are-they-gonna-get-their-kombucha-and-kale-delivered-oregon-to-ban-diesel/

    Wow.

    I wonder if Oregon is going to ban agricultural diesel also.

    The comments on that site say not, but who knows. The bill clearly bans SALES, but when it is implemented and successful (such always are!) it will be expanded. Meanwhile, large trucks probably have the range to fuel up before entering and last until leaving, like some do in California. Some truckers claim CA fuel is inferior, and they could be right, dunno.

    Oh, aren’t the newer trucks with the DEF as clean as gasoline vehicles? I remember a long time ago that CA said it would allow diesel vehicles (likely passenger vehicles) as long as they met the same emissions specs as gasoline vehicles.

    Yes, this does seem like Oregon is shooting itself in the foot or somewhere else that will hurt.

  70. Alan says:

    And on cue, eBay has wokely stopped all auctions/sales of the six *Verboten!* Dr. Seuss books. Nazi fcuks.

    ATM Big River still has listings for used copies.
    “If I Ran The Zoo” starting at $495. Be interested if any are really selling at those prices.
    Those bound sheets of paper won’t feed your family post TEOTWAWKI, but the gold or silver coins you could have bought now with the same amount of money just might.

  71. lynn says:

    Reminds me of Dr. Pournelle’s book “Fallen Angels”. A world dedicated to stopping global warming is unable/unwilling to address a mini Ice Age.

    Yes. I am hoping that book was just fiction, not future telling.

    BTW, we are already living in an ice age. An ice age is defined when one or both of the poles are frozen. We think that this state has happened during about 11% of Earth’s known history.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_age

    What we need to worry about is a period of expanding glaciation. A mile of ice on top of Chicago would be a bad thing.

  72. nick flandrey says:

    The house I grew up in, south of Chicago, was a block south of US 6. In that area, US-6 ran along the ridge created by the leading edge of the glacier present 12K years ago*. 12 Thousand years doesn’t sound like all that long ago, in the grand scheme of things.

    What has happened before can happen again.

    n

    *and the road is named locally “Ridge Rd”.

  73. Marcelo says:

    And for all the Texans waiting on Musk:
    https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/spacex-plans-texas-factory-to-help-make-starlink-dishes-and-wi-fi-routers/
    the factory will be located just around the corner. 🙂

  74. lynn says:

    Finally, a note on shucking – buying a relatively cheap external hard disk (such as the 14TB Western Digital Elements with a re-labeled / firmware-modified WD / HGST Ultrastar HC530 DC for $233), removing the internal drive, and using it in a NAS or as an internal desktop drive in the place of a more costly drive ($400).

    I think he was talking about Lynn there.

    I haven’t shucked a drive in months !

  75. mediumwave says:

    A mile of ice on top of Chicago would be a bad thing.

    Maybe, maybe not. 🙂

  76. Alan says:

    Ha! Items that I now have:
    [-snip-]
    6 1# propane tanks (already used one to test the Little Buddies)

    @MrAtoZ; don’t forget caps for the 1 lb tanks, especially the used one.
    EG: https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Refill-Propane-Cylinder-Protect/dp/B07W12CGL4/?tag=ttgnet-20

  77. nick flandrey says:

    I’ll second that, thanks for the cap recco….

    Please also note that iirc Mr Heater recommends a fuel filter if you use the Mr Buddy with the BBQ propane bottle. I’ve read elsewhere that if you don’t use the filter, you will damage your heater.

    The filters I got were closeout at lowes or HD in the spring. They were in the aisle with BBQ stuff almost to the pesticide aisle.

    n

  78. Ken Mitchell says:

    lynn says:
    “What Lies Ahead? The Grand Solar Minimum”

    “Climate Change” is coming, but they got it right the FIRST time as “global COOLING”. I’ve been expecting 2030 to be cold, and 2040 to be coldER; that’s one of the reasons that I left California and came to San Antonio. But I _REALLY_ didn’t expect last month’s fimbulwinter. We can expect a Dalton Minimum level of cooling, and we can HOPE that it isn’t Maunder Minimum cold. Remember, during the Revolutionary War, General Washington’s troops dragged cannon across the frozen Hudson. The Hudson hasn’t frozen over since the mid-1800s. In the 1700’s, Londoners would throw “Frost Faires” and build a village on the frozen Thames. The Hans Christian Anderson stories of ice-skating on the canals of Holland? That actually happened.

    Yes, get prepared, but get prepared for COLD weather. Install insulation now, while it’s not too expensive, and make sure your fireplace is ready to use – and stockpile firewood as a last-ditch measure. And remember that our ancestors survived the mini-ice ages of the 1300s and 1400s, back before they had invented chimneys. (That’s WHY they invented chimneys.) Remember the Paul Bunyan tall tales about lumberjacks whose words would freeze when spoken, and you had to bring them in and thaw them out to see what was said? Those tall tales were created back during the cold years.

    10
  79. Alan says:

    A mile of ice on top of Chicago would be a bad thing.
    Maybe, maybe not.

    Yeah…on the plus side we won’t have to hear people complain how miserable it is living there in winter.

  80. JimB says:

    Uh, you guys and cold winters, I sympathize. We have had two slightly warmer than normal winters and two or three slightly cooler than normal summers here in the high (Mojave) desert. Catching up with averages can be unpleasant.

  81. JimB says:

    Oh, and remember, our weather forecasts always include a chance of earthquakes.

  82. lynn says:

    I’ve been letting my beard grow out to about an inch in length, normally I keep it at less than a quarter inch. Am I the only one who finds a generic paper mask irritating with the longer beard ?

  83. Alan says:

    I’ve been letting my beard grow out to about an inch in length, normally I keep it at less than a quarter inch. Am I the only one who finds a generic paper mask irritating with the longer beard ?

    I thought the Guv just outlawed masks in TX?! Or somethin’ like that… 😉
    Seriously though, I just have a ‘chin beard’ (not sure if there’s another name for it), about 3/4″ long which seems to interfere a bit with the bottom of my N-95 mask sealing properly so I do cover it with a larger cloth mask for good measure.

  84. Nick Flandrey says:

    My chin hair just folds up and to the sides when I wear the mask. I get a mask to skin seal all the way around. Of course if I don’t trim it for length, it curls up enough to tickle my lips under the mask and that drives me nuts.

    n

    added- no hair on the neck or behind the chin to interfere with the edge of the mask. No neck beard for me.

  85. Jenny says:

    @lynn

    Am I the only one who finds a generic paper mask irritating with the longer beard ?

    I haven’t had a problem -muffled laughing-

Comments are closed.