Today should be mid-80s, sunny, and dry.
Yesterday was beautiful like that, and I didn’t do or think of anything worth writing down.
Today I will work my list. After sleeping in. I’m so tired I can’t think straight and I’m falling asleep at stop signs. So I’ll skip my non-prepping hobby meeting and sleep.
It’s a bit worrisome how tired I was this week… we’ll see if plain old sleep helps.
Then I can get back to stacking…
nick
You grew up? What’d you want to go and do a dang-fool thing like that for?
Voice of experience perhaps?
It is good to stay young, do young things while avoiding “Hey, watch this”. I don’t feel 70 although I have no idea what 70 is supposed to feel like. I certainly don’t look or feel like my grandparents appeared at my age. May be a perception issue. But I also avoid mirrors lately.
Just watched “Cheaper by the Dozen” with the kids. The fairly new one, with Steve Martin as the dad, and Hillary Duff as the second oldest daughter. Good fun.
Steve Martin? No “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”? Or “Three Amigos”?
Both PG. To his credit, even when Martin made bad movies, he chose fairly clean material. Though, you may not want the kids picking up the Three Amigos salute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw7p7tAdVuE
“Roxanne” is more adult themed, but it is Martin’s best film IMHO.
And if Steve Martin is in town playing banjo, take the kids. He is very serious about the music, but the show has a lot of comedy.
When we saw the banjo tour, my only disappointment was the puckered sphincters at The Britt cutting the band off at midnight, before “King Tut”.
Starlink beta expands to parts of Germany and New Zealand plus more of the UK. Details at 11 minutes and liftoff at 18 minutes. Sixth use of this booster rocket.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4sWbTfrzj8&feature=youtu.be
You grew up? What’d you want to go and do a dang-fool thing like that for?
Well, I am 5′-15″ tall. Stole that from a SIL who says she is 5′-13″. Stunning Irish redhead!
I don’t make any claims for maturity.
Awake. Vertical. 73F and part sun.
Feel pretty good. No coughing yet today. Funny that the coughing seems to come when I’m at my desk all day and tired.
Like Robin Williams, I find Steve Martin to be a bit hit or miss. He has trouble with staying in character and not going for the joke. FWIW, I think The Birdcage was Robin Williams’ best film ever. He actually plays a character, and not a comedian doing a skit, and he’s brilliant. Nathan Lane is incredible too. The subject matter might not appeal to you, but the performances are special.
Time to get some food into the kids and myself.
n
@JimB
“Well, I am 5′-15″ tall. “
If that’s your height from your 20’s, you might want to check it again. The only thing hiding my high-miles spinal compression is the thick soles on my New Balance.
Why you should NEVER, EVER, use a UPS:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ovh-data-center-fire-likely-caused-by-faulty-ups-power-supply/
If that’s your height from your 20’s, you might want to check it again.
Of course I have shrunk. Haven’t checked very carefully, but I have used my eye level as 6′ to guesstimate heights (how tall was that robber?) About a year ago, I checked some height in my shop, and something seemed wrong. I grabbed a steel tape and realized my eye height was no longer 6′. I don’t remember what it measured, no doubt a result of brain shrinkage. 🙂
Hah – now that’s funny. I reached my full ignominious 4’ 11” at 13. Maybe I should claim 59”? Nah – still sounds short.
I adore that movie. I lost track of how many times I read Cyrano de Bergerac, far better love story than R&J, though of course the language in R&J is incomparable. I agree that Martin did a very fine job in “Roxanne”. By far my favorite film that he did.
I filled three tall and three short bookcases with books unpacking yesterday. I think I‘ve unpacked about a third of our total boxes. Another 20 or so boxes of books to go. I don’t know where they will go. This is after purging. Jeez.
Child had a grand time with records and cassette tapes yesterday. I had a grand time listening to dead friends, including those who drew me to Alaska originally.
Why you should NEVER, EVER, use a UPS…
…And a testament to the best laid plans. When I laid out a lab, we were required to put large battery backup power systems in a separate building. Easy out here in the boonies, but not in an urban setting. Modern UPS are designed to be as safe as possible in regular spaces, but Murphy lives and rules.
So many reminders here. Cloud. Redundancy. Insurance. I wish that company and its customers the best under difficult circumstances.
Not sure if I saw this here or elsewhere…
https://www.google.com/search?q=starlink+train&oq=starlink+train&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l9.5099j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Like Robin Williams, I find Steve Martin to be a bit hit or miss. He has trouble with staying in character and not going for the joke. FWIW, I think The Birdcage was Robin Williams’ best film ever. He actually plays a character, and not a comedian doing a skit, and he’s brilliant. Nathan Lane is incredible too. The subject matter might not appeal to you, but the performances are special.
Robin Williams needs the right director. Mike Nichols kept a lid on things for “The Birdcage”. I also thought George Roy Hill handled Williams well in “The World According to Garp” even though the movie failed to live up to expectations.
Williams rocks improvising for Kenneth Branagh in “Dead Again”, but *everybody* brought their A game to that set.
Speaking of DST
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2021/03/also-heh.html
@dkreck:
It’s a tired joke. I’ve been seeing it for years.
It’s also wrong. That’s not Stonehenge, it’s Avebury, some few miles away, and probably even older. Avebury is not as impressive as Stonehenge, because you don’t get the enormous sarsen Trilithons. The geometric precision is impressive, though. The megalithic people had an obsession with making the circumference of a ring equal to 3 times its radius, which means these rings are not circular, despite first impressions. It’s a subtle point, but I recommend Thom & Thom, Megalithic Sites, for an exhaustive treatment.
They were also astronomers of no small achievement. Most of the rings memorialise an astronomical alignment, often pointing to solar or lunar risings and settings at the equinoxes. These can be used to date the sites, to about 1750BCE or so.
G.
A frequent earworm for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJJ-ZLdrTwY
Car salesman just called “to see how things were going”. Truck is still available… no mention of a price reduction.
carvana has a 100 day limited power train warranty. carmax = 90days. Tommy Vaugh Ford = zero normally but they did offer me “lifetime” limited (very- no turbo) powertrain AT THEIR DEALERSHIP. Nope. Not doing that.
n
How does one fire take out multiple data centers? Unless they aren’t different buildings, and there is a translation issue?
The sort of UPS they are talking about in that article is probably as big as a couple of refrigerators, and not at all the sort of thing you or I would use.
I wonder if they were using lithium batteries? But even lead acid batteries will offgas if charged improperly. Interesting to see what the root cause was. The maintenance activity preceding the fire is suggestive but not proof. And you have to wonder why TWO UPSs went up, if only one was serviced. Not much to burn in a normal UPS. The batteries are USUALLY sealed lead acid, or AGM, so off gassing isn’t normally an issue, and the switchgear doesn’t normally arc. On big inverter drives I’ve seen the huge caps fail and catch fire, but even then the fire is very limited and small and the cabinet usually contains the fire. Smoke goes everywhere.
I’m gonna guess- lithium batteries in the absence of any other info. Thermal runaway….
n
I often sing the Toys R Us jingle, but I say “I got a lot of nifty sh!t that I can play with…”.
Been singing it that way since I was a kid.
The oscar mayer song haunts my kids too. It’s the only way I know to spell bologna…
n
We still haven’t hit peak stupid, but we’re certainly on our way…
n
Starlink beta expands to parts of Germany and New Zealand plus more of the UK. Details at 11 minutes and liftoff at 18 minutes. Sixth use of this booster rocket.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4sWbTfrzj8&feature=youtu.be
These launches are becoming commonplace. Amazing.
The royal family is a mixed bag, but I put zero credence in the blatherings of Harry and Meghan. He is, and always has been a useless frat boy. Then he went and married a fame-and-fortune seeking twit. I expect any unpleasantness they experienced was the royals helping them decide to GTFO.
So now how are they supposed to continue in the lifestyle to which thay have become accustomed? Tabloid-level crap, like Oprah interviews. Which only pay if they deliver tabloid-level dirt.
“Roxanne” is more adult themed, but it is Martin’s best film IMHO.
Yes, it is. But “Parenthood” is a strong second. And so are the remakes of “The Father Of The Bride” parts I, II, and III (not so good).
“GARY NORTH’S TIP OF THE WEEK
Here is a site that lets you discover the odds of an algorithm getting your
job.
https://willrobotstakemyjob.com
Is it accurate? Time will tell.
I wonder if they used artificial intelligence to come up with the formula for
ranking the risk of each career category.”
48% for computer programmers. Huh, as if any AI could understand our spaghetti mix (mess) of C++ and Fortran. 1.3 million lines of code at the latest. Shoot, even we don’t understand it and I have been working on it for 35+ years now.
It was a huge datacenter. Four buildings on the harbor of Strasbourg, one destroyed, one damaged, all offline. They even brought in the harbor’s fire boat to fight the fire. 464,000 domains offline.
“Sittin’ on the dock of a bay
Watchin’ the servers burn away”
I think it is inevitable that Harry (simp) and Meghan (cray-cray) divorce. What then for Harry, crawl back to the Royal Family?
“Four buildings on the harbor of Strasbourg,”
–that’s nuts. Data centers are designed not to burn. The floors are metal and concrete, the walls steel stud and drywall, and where was the fire suppression system? There just isn’t that much flammible material in a data center.
Unless those were repurposed buildings? Are euro datacenters are built to different standards?
n
I filled three tall and three short bookcases with books unpacking yesterday. I think I‘ve unpacked about a third of our total boxes. Another 20 or so boxes of books to go. I don’t know where they will go. This is after purging. Jeez.
I have almost come to the conclusion that I should only save books that I will possibly read again. That would drop me down to a thousand books or so from the current four or five thousand sitting in boxes in the garage.
Can’t leave this one out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQwJdXFQlU
Of course today they couldn’t say “sissy”.
I pulled all the prog/lefty scifi from the late 90s and early 2000s. Other than China Meiville it had no resale value, even in 1st edition HB. That should tell you something.
I’ve been buying books though. Reference library. “rebuild civilization” library (kinda, sorta). Fiction library (someone dumped a few dozen classic scifi paperbacks at good will. I couldn’t say no.) Cookbooks (I’m a sucker for vintage cookbooks, before all the diet cr@p. I hate being scolded. and I love the collections of everyday recipes from churches, schools, and service organizations.)
I actually like to read the recipe books in the smallest room. There is a surprising amount of humor embedded in the ones I like.
n
Armor Hotdogs– I forgot that jingle but could sing along. Early childhood programming, it works. They also wouldn’t say “fat kids” or even “skinny kids” let alone tough or sissy…
n
Taxpayer money, in cash accounts, and yet …. “it’s gone.” Just like that.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/we-expect-worst-german-towns-lose-millions-greensill-bank-collapse
“I should only save books that I will possibly read again. ”
–that is my main strategy with fiction, but I do have a couple that I’m saving so I never buy them again. There is one in particular that I’ve bought several times over the years because the cover and blurb look good, and I forget some that I’ve read (makes re-reading them more fun!) I save that one so I never make the mistake of buying that piece of krep every again.
And there are a couple of authors I save for the same reason.
n
They’re up to 1200 satellites after today’s launch.
And the rocket’s first stage successfully landed on their droneship.
https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-starlink-satellites-and-expands-international-service/
@brad:
I agree. But before you condemn him for this latest escapade, remember that he was an Apache weapons officer in the UK Army Air Corps, and actually served in a war zone (I misremember whether that was Iraq or Afghanistan, but it’s well documented. Check out “Captain Wales”) This is of a piece with the tradition that Royals serve their country, often at peril of their lives – Prince William: RAF helicopter pilot, Search and Rescue; Prince Charles: RN small craft commander; Duke of Edinburgh: RN officer in WWII. Even HM the Queen: RAF Auxiliary in WWII.
I also agree that Meghan is a publicity-grubber (comes of being an actress, but the spotlight of publicity is less bright for thespians) but you should also remember that the senior Royals live in a goldfish bowl. Their entire lives are lived in the full glare of publicity from all over the world, and “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” applies. It is arguable that the relentless pursuit, by the paparazzi, of his mother was instrumental in her death.
I’m of the opinion that this is a bad thing. We should let them have a private life. Thank $DEITY I’m not in that position. In fact, the less people know about me, the better I like it.
G.
The three acre wooded parcel on the lake is probably off the table. The water in front of the property is probably only a few feet deep most of the time, and could be much less if there was a drought. On the other hand, there is a small cabin, septic, and power already onsite. Looking at the topo though, it might have a wash running thru the middle of one half, and it’s pretty flat and low, which might make most of it unbuildable.
It’s pretty clear that the very first house on that lake that we looked at, while it needed remodeling and had plenty of stuff that needed fixing, or needed work, was on a great lot. We’ve got a lot better idea of comps, and reasonable pricing, and what features make a good lot and a good location on the lake. If that first house came back up, or one very much like it, I think the wife would pounce.
n
The royal family is a mixed bag, but I put zero credence in the blatherings of Harry and Meghan. He is, and always has been a useless frat boy.
That man was a British Army helicopter pilot for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan under an assumed name before being outed as a royal. He did not have to do that and I admire him for it.
“I also agree that Meghan is a publicity-grubber”
–from my distant view, and having worked with ‘celebrities’ of all stripes, I think she made an order of magnitude error. I think she expected some increase in celebrity, but was thinking along the lines that she knew (distantly) ie. Hollywood. That’s at least one order of magnitude from B list TV actress, and the Royal Family is probably two orders.
And sometimes shining a bright light on an object reveals that there is no there there….
n
(leaving aside the male thing of what’s ok for ‘a bit of fun’ is vastly different from what you might want traditionally in a spouse, and extremely different from what you want in a potential head of state.)
“That man was a British Army helicopter pilot for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan under an assumed name before being outed as a royal. He did not have to do that and I admire him for it. ”
–wasn’t that the heir? Or did they let him do that because he was the ‘spare’…
I never cared enough to keep track.
n
Dilbert: Disinfecting Keyboard
https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-03-13
Oh my. Backup ???
“War Games Showed US Would “Lose Fast” Against China If It Invaded Taiwan: US General”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/war-games-showed-us-would-lose-fast-against-china-if-it-invaded-taiwan-us-general
Simulations are rarely realities unless you are using first order data. But, simulations do point a direction. And in this case, that direction appears to be not good.
China really wants to control Taiwan. Badly. Maybe enough to piss off the world.
“That man was a British Army helicopter pilot for a decade and did two tours in Afghanistan under an assumed name before being outed as a royal. He did not have to do that and I admire him for it. ”
–wasn’t that the heir? Or did they let him do that because he was the ‘spare’…
I never cared enough to keep track.
n
Yup, he was the spare. And he knows it from birth. Might affect the way he thinks about things. And now he is no longer the direct spare.
“Gun trumps taser – also, Nashville needs to brace for social unrest”
https://gunfreezone.net/gun-trumps-taser-also-nashville-needs-to-brace-for-social-unrest/
Why did this happen ? She made this into a tragic event, the officer did not.
Good video from an officer involved shooting
https://gunfreezone.net/gun-trumps-taser-also-nashville-needs-to-brace-for-social-unrest/
He lives, she dies. Note that she had enough left in her to drive away AFTER being fatally shot. She could have continued the fight and hit the officer with the car.
Shooting someone is not a magic death ray, you better be ready to KEEP shooting them if they continue to attack.
n
Over The Hedge: Trading Cryptocurrency
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2021/03/13
One of my long term investments is five acres of dirt. I am still waiting for the first crazy XXXXX wise investor to come along and pay me 10X for it.
Good video from an officer involved shooting
https://gunfreezone.net/gun-trumps-taser-also-nashville-needs-to-brace-for-social-unrest/
He lives, she dies. Note that she had enough left in her to drive away AFTER being fatally shot. She could have continued the fight and hit the officer with the car.
Shooting someone is not a magic death ray, you better be ready to KEEP shooting them if they continue to attack.
My son was in an FOB (forward operating base) on his first tour in Iraq. 40 US marines, 40 Iraqi soldiers. One of the Iraqi soldiers went crazy and emptied his AK into my son’s buddy, killing him. My son shot the Iraqi with with his 9mm Beretta, all ten rounds. The Iraqi did not go down and two other Marines arrived and shot the Iraqi with their M16s. He survived.
They medivaced the Iraqi out to a MASH unit by helicopter. The Iraqi soldier had surgery and made it into recovery. The Iraqi army took him from the MASH unit into the desert.
It took my son almost a decade to get over that. Plus the concussion he got while burning trash and somebody had thrown a gallon jug of kerosene into the burn barrel. Threw him 20 ft and knocked him unconscious.
Racism. Pure and simple.
–when you let gadgets spy on you, they might be spying for someone else too.
and remember when some fitness tracking app revealed the location of a secret military base because it showed people jogging in a square where nothing was supposed to be?
n
Cloudy with enough sprinkles that the dogs need toweling off when they come in. Not enough rain for puddles. Thermometer says 72F but with the wind it’s chilly.
The plan for supper was steak and a nuked baked potato. But Someone forgot to take the steak out of the freezer until an hour ago. So pizza tonight, steak tomorrow.
I hauled eight bags of wood pellets from the house to the barn yesterday. I even used the side by side and not my wagon. So bags off of the side deck and onto the side by side. Then from that to the stack in the barn is about thirty feet with a dog helping. I shouldn’t be this sore.
My simple plumbing project has OF COURSE gotten more complex.
Started with “just replace the low flow toilet that needs plunging several times a day.”
Got the old one off and discovered that it had been leaking. Leaking because the old lead waste pipe corroded and broke about 1 ” above the slab, so the flange was loose.
Since I didn’t want to deal with that, my wife put up the bat signal for a plumber on the ladies groups, but, as expected no plumbers until mid April…
SO off to the internet, and they make exactly what I need, but none available within 100 miles of Houston. Something that SHOULD work – well Lowes has 4 in stock. Headed over there, the place was a ghost town. They had plenty of plumbing pipe in stock too. Got my part, got some other parts to make the kludge less kludge-y and headed home.
Gonna eat dinner before finishing the install.
I had everything I needed for a normal toilet swap. Even for an abnormal toilet swap. Not quite what I needed for this though.
Glad I found the issue. It would only have gotten worse.
n
Apropos of nothing in particular:
United Breaks Guitars
That song never gets old.
Cute. I never should have started this. Mostly because this would be hard to top. Well played.
China really wants to control Taiwan. Badly. Maybe enough to piss off the world.
Taiwan would be China’s Vietnam. Invading would be the easy part. Controling would be impossile.
Apropos of nothing in particular:
United Breaks Guitars
That song never gets old.
United breaks passengers too, United drags doctor off plane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk2Y_VL5e7s
wife and child one are watching The Lost Boys. Awesomely funny vampire movie, great soundtrack.
n
and the two Corry’s
–sucks that they were being raped and abused during the whole time they were making those great 80s movies.
*** …Lowes has 4 in stock. Headed over there, the place was a ghost town. ***
Possibly people are spending their disposable income on storm repairs rather than the usual Spring-has-Sprung stuff?
The Lowe’s here was reasonably busy today despite the fact that at 2400 ft. our spring (such as it is in the high desert) in more like mid-April, so the gardeners aren’t too busy yet.
I did see a couple of “youths” dressed in thick puffy jackets (it was shirt sleeve weather) walk out and set off the detectors. The clerk called out and chased them for about 20’, but they didn’t turn around and gave and just gave her an almost irritatedly dismissive wave – so she gave up and came back.
Second time in a month I’ve seen that, guess words gotten out about the “don’t even book them if it’s under $1,000” rule.
@Greg Norton
“Taiwan would be China’s Vietnam.”
Not for long.
No hostile media (no Walter “Brown Trousers” Cronkite”)
Supply lines 1/100 as long.
3 million in the PLA and reserves.
The largest navy in the world.
And a billion citizens that know that Taiwan belongs to them.
Wouldn’t be surprised is the Chinese don’t have a plan in place to move on Taiwan under a Plugs Ugly scenario (Plugs goes out ugly, the US is distracted, and most of the Democrat voters can’t find China on a map, much less Taiwan).
I should make a list of other possible adventures and check the odds in Vegas.
I’m just glad I am not in charge of moving the clocks at Stonehenge.
But I really don’t want to stay up until 2 AM to change the clocks at home.
I worked with a local Houston guy who was in Taiwan’s defense force. Special Forces sniper. Pretty good computer guy. If Taiwan has a bunch of serious guys like him, it won’t be a pushover.
n
“I should make a list of other possible adventures and check the odds in Vegas.”
There is some sort of online thing where you can do that. On of the other bloggers I read has talked about it, but I can’t remember the name.
n
“Brave voices utter that which shall not be said: Covid-19 was bioweapon research that got loose”
https://freedomfirstnetwork.com/2021/03/brave-voices-utter-that-which-shall-not-be-said-covid-19-was-bioweapon-research-that-got-loose
“If one were to listen to most of the “experts,” they’d believe that the novel which became known as Covid-19 was a naturally occurring mutation. But the experts who are brave enough to break from the Chinese Communist Party narrative know the truth and are starting to say it.”
Yup. And the USA has some sort of involvement in it, especially mad Dr. Fauci.
Pretty sad when we even outsource our bioweapons research.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
The world has been indifferent to China’s actions in Hong Kong, and will be even less interested in Taiwan.
[ADDED: When was the last time the CCP got any flak about Tibet?}
With Comrade Joe in the White House and Number One Son Hunter handling percentages for the family, a courtesy payment for help with “public relations during the troubling event of bringing our child Taiwan back into the family” wouldn’t surprise me. Pelosi would probably introduce the bill to give them a tax exemption.
That’s when the Philippines will start to get worried and want to open new lease discussions with the US Navy. “How about a dollar a year?”
@Lynn
Doesn’t 19 make you wonder about 20, 21, etc?
@Lynn
Doesn’t 19 make you wonder about 20, 21, etc?
Yup. I’ve been wondering when 21 or 22 will show up. And if they will be much more virulent than 19.
Yes, I am paranoid.
We survived the flight on Southwest out to Tampa. Full flight. No therm at the gate.
Driving to Orlando this evening, I noted that the Ritchie Brothers lot west of Eisney World was nearly full. The last time I saw that much surplus heavy equipment at that site was 2008, after the real estate bubble popped.
International Drive in Orlando was back to bumper-to-bumper traffic moving at a crawl. The whole country must be in Florida for Spring Break. Of course, in a month, they’ll be back in New York or wherever, telling Florida Man stories and bitching about Governor DeSantis being “irresponsible”.
Just finished watching Wandavision on Disney+. Loved it. So did the wife and daughter.
Hopefully there will be a season two.
“Southwest Airlines reportedly on verge of deal for dozens of new Boeing 737 Max jets”
https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2021/03/11/southwest-airlines-reportedly-on-verge-of-deal-for-dozens-of-new-boeing-737-max-jets/
Wow. All is forgiven I guess.
They were looking at the A220 also. Is Boeing redeemed? They had 787 assembly issues too.
Most of them freak out if you leave a cardboard box in the bottom of the cabinet. There’s nothing to burn inside a DC.
@nick; is it worth a few days wait to have the ‘exactly work’ part shipped to you? As you infer a slowly leaking toilet is not a good thing.
\|/€ ¢@^ ¬®¥
Well, I’d be done if I hadn’t stopped to watch part of Lost Boys and all of Die Hard 2. Didn’t want to run the hammer drill while they were watching……….. yeah, that’s the ticket.
The less adjustable part seems to have worked well. I was able to make the lead pipe round enough for the flange to fit, then tighten the flange into the pipe, forcing it round and into the surrounding slab. It got really tight, so I’m not as worried as I was before putting it in.
That did mean the flange was 1 1/4 inches below floor level, so I have a ‘flange extension’ part that goes in, then the ‘closet seal’ (wax ring,if I was using a wax ring). The original remodel install didn’t quite get the hole in the tile round so there is a tiny bit of interference with the new flange. I will get the diamond blade on the grinder on it tomorrow. No more noise tonight.
I’ve been going REAL slow and double and triple checking everything. Usually I just slap the plumbing in, but if I mess this up it’ll probably mean cutting the slab and retiling. Not on the agenda atm.
Should have taken about half an hour to swap out a toilet. Should have taken another hour to make the repairs and finish the install. I’m a bit behind that, not counting the movie watching. About an hour more tomorrow should do it.
Only one trip to the hardware store for a plumbing project is pretty good. This part is definitely not something I knew to prep, who would have thought there was a 4″ lead waste pipe in the slab, soldered to a brass or bronze toilet flange? If the remodel had include the proper supports for the flange, and wrapped the pipe to keep moisture and sand off of it, it probably would still be good today.
I’m not a fan of plumbing, but it is a valuable skill to have.
n
Huh, finally some truth in reporting…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9357787/Cops-detain-ENTIRE-block-Antifa-protesters-second-night-chaos-Portland.html
Ah, plumbing and electrical. We have been doing labor intensive things for over a hundred years in residential construction. High time we made fittings easier to install and more reliable. Dump backward compatibility. We don’t really have it today. Yes, there are some new things, but more needed.
Watching a truly skilled crew of framers, who have worked together for a while is amazing. Unfortunately what you are more likely to see is a collection of guys, mostly hispanic, one white boss who gave up on getting the guys to do it the right way a long time ago, and a lot of half arsed work. More and more work gets pushed down to the cheaper guys, and the guys who know how to do it right leave the field for greener pastures.
There are innovations. Pex plumbing. all the plastics before that. There is a new framing style that tries to use less wood and provide better insulation than traditional techniques. Heck, drywall was a HUGE labor saver over plaster and lath. Now we have snap together flooring, engineered beams, tons of Simpson Strong Tie stuff… ICFs, panelized construction.
One of the problems with innovating is getting it wrong. Google ‘brad pitt homes louisiana’ to see what happens when you disregard local norms and use a bunch of new stuff, just cuz.
We’re already seeing a move to LED and PoE for lighting in the commercial space. One reason, they don’t have to get an electrician in to do light moves, they can use their IT staff or the LVBs (low voltage b!tches- as I was once called by a union electrician in Penn.)
And now I’m off to bed,where I hope the dreams aren’t provided by the lowest bidder….
n
MCI data center in Frankfurt DE was in an old Nazi ammunition storage facility. Hevy concrete walls floors and ceiling and nothing flammable.