Warm and damp, chance of rain. Didn’t rain yesterday, although it felt pretty dang humid. Threatened to rain all day, with only local and occasional clearing skies. Cooler than normal for this time of year, seems like. Makes me wonder about how hot this year will be.
Did my weekend ‘home’ stuff, did my pickups, did some other small errands. Gas at Costco was $2.45/gal. It was $2.65/gal across the street at the big HEB. HEB usually has very competitive prices, so I expect they are typical or low for the area. Didn’t do paperwork. If it’s going to rain today, I’ll do it today. I didn’t want to waste any good outdoors days.
Blueberry bushes *cough* sticks *cough* are still ripening. Apple tree has leaves. Peach tree has leaves. Grape vines have died way back. Initially they were leafing out to within about 6 feet of the end, but now the old growth is all dead and the only leaves are near the roots, on new growth. Citrus in pots set a couple more fruits, and this time I put bird net over them and the fruits are still there. Citrus in the ground is dead. I had hoped, but the bark is coming off the grapefruit, and the orange is dry and brittle. The Meyer lemon wanted to come out of the ground when I bumped it with the lawnmower. Damn. Damn. Triple damn.
Wretched tomatoes are FOUNTAINING out of the ground. They’re like giant weeds, huge and spreading. The fruit sure is tasty, and Child1 was puzzled by the red color and the taste. She’s never had anything but store bought, that she can remember, and these are SO MUCH better. I admit to some jealousy at how easy my wife has had it with the tomatoes.
Given my proven (lack of) gardening skills, either she needs to take over completely or I need to keep stacking cans. Funny thing, the other night when child was asking the pointed questions about food and post-apoc survival, my wife asserted that we would plant a much bigger garden in the yard, not just the raised beds, but that the soil wouldn’t be as good so we couldn’t expect great yields. She’s been thinking about it, clearly. That was almost as shocking as anything she’s said since the lockdown started. I need more seeds. Lots more.
——————————————————————————————
I’m wondering if FedGov and local forces know something they’re not telling us. In the last week I got invitations to continuing ed classes through both my local cop volunteer group, and through the national public safety group I belong to for additional counter-IED training. The classes are in June and July so I guess the threat isn’t imminent, but still, weird timing.
I signed up for both, one local in person, and the other one a webinar. Demand was high as they filled almost immediately. Things that make you go “Hmmmm”.
—————————————————————————————–
If you needed more reasons to stack it high, I hope you found them. Let us know how your garden grows… and… Keep stacking.
nick
————(((((((((((((((((PING)))))))))))))))————- DadCooks, welfare check. Drop me an email if you aren’t feeling sociable… flandrey @ aol. com
Inflation fun report:
$6.48 for an 8 pack of standard size cans of DelMonte green beans, up from ~$6 for 12 when Sam’s had them in stock last year.
What was surprising is that this Sam’s was around the corner from the Cotton Bowl*, not exactly the best neighborhood in Dallas, where we took my daughter for the first Pfizer shot yesterday.
*For those of you unfamiliarEven the Cotton Bowl isn’t played there anymore. With high school football stadiums running $80 million plus in this state, the Cotton Bowl is a relic.
@Nick
Some good comments last night on hoarding and price gouging.
LegalZoom might be a good option. I used them to set up my LLC.
I listened to the well narrated and digital audio version. Excellent listen on the road/walking.
Observations from the Dallas trip yesterday:
The third-world invasion is a lot more obvious in Dallas than in Austin.
About half the crowd in Buc-ee’s Temple were not masked last night, but I’ve never seen signs in Buc-ee’s enforcing a mandate.
Business traveler restaurant chains are an endangered species.
The Sam’s Club/Walmart vaccination effort is a cluster you-know-what, with the licensed pharmacists press ganged into providing shots between filling prescriptions. The trip was almost a wasted day when my daughter did not arrive with photo ID.
Heading to Arlington, we noted Allison signs on a warehouse complex, to me a sure sign of where GM is headed with regard to the fancy transmission they developed with Ford, even in the 1-ton pickups.
Wife and I sat with our attorney last year to get a trust put together. We had unusual situation with foriegn bank accounts, a UK pension, and oil lease income. It was well worth the $1800 we spent. As al. Our assets were in the trust when she passed nothing really changed financially. I am now the trust manager and that will pass to my son when I go.
The one trouble I am having, is getting her death certificate so I can file for her insurance. I called the funeral home Friday and they said the Dr hadn’t yet signed the certificate, after 3 weeks! Doctors apparently have their own schedule.
“Doctors apparently have their own schedule.”
–and may not realize the added burden it places on you. Everything takes longer than it should and they have a built in excuse this year. Do what you can.
n
I don’t know why anyone would want to be a pharmacist. None of them ever look happy, and all of them appear to be understaffed and over worked. Combine that with having to essentially work retail and yeah, no thanks.
71F at 930am after a really ‘gully washer’ of a downpour. We got .75inch of rain in about 10 minutes, and the power blinked several times. One of the city rain gauges says the nearby bayou got 1 inch in 10 minutes. Seems to be quieting down now.
Looking at the map, a little cell passed right over the house. We’re in a gap between a lot of big looking stuff that’s queued up all the way down to the border. I’m guessing we’re gonna get a lot of rain and thunder in the next 8 hours.
n
Greg, why did you have to drive so far for a vaccination?
Greg, why did you have to drive so far for a vaccination?
My daughter is 15 and needed the first Pfizer shot. The only place we found the vaccine with available appointments this weekend was the Sam’s in the sketchy part of Dallas.
With both kids, CA transplant parents of friends planning birthday and graduation parties next month are insisting that everyone show up vaccinated. No word on whether the cards have to be on a lanyard.
Which reminds me — my other observation about Dallas I almost forgot — more In-n-Out Burger outlets, even in iffy neighborhoods. Thank Toyota and AT&T
I would have, and in fact have, told my daughter, “Sorry, Sweetie, but I do my best to keep you away from religious extremists.”
I would have, and in fact have, told my daughter, “Sorry, Sweetie, but I do my best to keep you away from religious extremists.”
Requiring it of 14-15 year olds is tough at the moment. Moderna and Johnson and Johnson aren’t cleared for the age group since the companies didn’t think about studies with the death rate under 16 being much lower than risk from the shots.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the parents weren’t themselves religious extremists being Prog. The requirement isn’t being done as much out of legitimate health concerns as much as practicing their orthodox beliefs.
All praise Joe and Kamala.
Why would your daughter want to have friends that put her health at risk?
—the author and others complaining miss the point, the advances and contracts are PAYOLA, bribes seeking favor, NOT payment for work with an expectation of commercial success. Category error.
n
Why would your daughter want to have friends that put her health at risk?
I wouldn’t care if the vaccine was readily available to the age group at the CVS on the corner, but we had to scramble and burn a day getting a first shot.
Just don’t have an event until Fall. This pandemic has seen too much “You Aint’ Got No Ice Cream”.
A grifter of a different kind. B-list actress looking for a shortcut to fame. She has achieved notoriety instead. No longer having a royal role, they will both fade into obscurity in a few years.
She’d best rake in the dough while she can.
“I ain’t sayin’ she’s a golddigger, but I don’t see her with a broke n*****…”
–or at least that’s the way the press has covered her. Certainly based on what I’ve seen and in her own words and behaviour, I don’t think we’d get along.
n
This is the pair of boots I got yesterday, and why they are worth re-soling
…
https://builder.wescoboots.com/StockBoot.aspx?id=Jobmaster_rsv
n
added- wish I’d bought the other pair too
here comes the next boxcar in the train of storms…. rumbles just rumbling…
n
They didn’t do studies on those under 16 for a number of reasons:
– kids are effectively a different species when it comes to drugs
– it would have required a study just as large as the adult studies. They had their hands full with the adult ones, which were really large
– doing adults first checks for side effects not seen in the phase 1 studies, plus waiting for deployment into millions of adults will surface the problems quite effectively
So, prudence (and as you pointed out the low death rate among the young) and resource constraints argue for waiting. They are now doing studies on those over 2, btw.
I didn’t see much point in getting a vax myself, and I see even less reason to get my kids this particular vax. Until it’s as well known as the flu shots, I’m going to push to hold off. Kids don’t get the flu shots, so no need for this one in my book.
n
Another power blink. Freaking infrastructure is not what it should be.
n
I have had a small number of flu shots, many years ago. Stopped after I read that a regimen of certain supplements, including vitamin D, is effective against all flu strains, not just the few in the vaccine. All I did was add D to my usual regimen.
I took the Moderna vaccine to protect my 99YO aunt. My wife was going to try just getting frequent tests, but that didn’t work out, so she took the Moderna vaccine with me. She had a moderate lingering reaction that has responded to antibiotics prescribed by her doctor. Not sure if some of what she has was caused by the vaccine; two effects definitely were, but the third is a mystery. I had essentially no reaction.
Went to a lunch event yesterday and brunch with friends this morning. Essentially no masks outdoors and inside the restaurants. This in spite of our be(-)loved governor’s delay of indoor mask lifting until June 15.
He is trying everything to overcome the recall. So far, his only remote possibility of success is Jenner’s intention to run. Some view this as a poison pill. I saw a TV interview, and Jenner said some good things.
He is trying everything to overcome the recall. So far, his only remote possibility of success is Jenner’s intention to run. Some view this as a poison pill. I saw a TV interview, and Jenner said some good things.
The money/tech people in CA support Newsom. That’s all that matters. They’ll find the votes.
The same people turned on Grey-out Davis 20 years ago. My personal theory is that the “it” moment was the dark airport and hotels in San Jose on the morning of the iPod introduction.
I flew in to San Jose from San Diego around 7 AM that day, one of the early commuter hops. Pitch dark terminal except for the emergency lights. It was a trip watching the rental car people using a flashlight at the counter to leaf through a three inch dot matrix (!) printout of the CA reservations to find my car information.
I didn’t see much point in getting a vax myself, and I see even less reason to get my kids this particular vax. Until it’s as well known as the flu shots, I’m going to push to hold off. Kids don’t get the flu shots, so no need for this one in my book.
I get the impression that we will be the only family meeting the Prog parents standard of the kids being fully vaccinated by mid-late June for the social gatherings.
They always know they can count on us to do the right thing.
So, prudence (and as you pointed out the low death rate among the young) and resource constraints argue for waiting. They are now doing studies on those over 2, btw.
I believe that, at this point, the shots are all considered EUA which limits the mandates the Feds can issue such as requiring proof of immunization to board an airplane.
I did the taxes at olt.com again. Free. They were on the IRS list. Anyway. With rounding up and rounding down. we’re getting $545 back. $545.28 was withheld.
So, being bored, I decided to check my status. By the way, the field you enter your expected return? 545 fails. 545.00 works. Go figure.
Why is my deposit this coming Wednesday $546.26 ? They are giving an extra 98¢ ?
The same folks that hit me for almost $110 penalty back in ’84-ish because I underpaid 9¢ ? Yeah, I transposed from the work copy to the “pretty” copy and reversed a couple of numbers. Something like .45 instead of .54. I admit my error. The penalty, yeah, a bit extreme.
So, we are being experimented on. Yes?
I got curious about the “Choas Monkeys” book after all the fuss, and when I went looking on Amazon, I discovered I had downloaded in into my Kindle stash over a year ago.
Gotta work on the book backlog with the next trip.
https://news.yahoo.com/chaos-monkeys-author-calls-apples-000800266.html
@nick, do you still have access to carfax reports?
So, we are being experimented on. Yes?
Have you seen the vaccination rates for Taiwan?
Based on 30 years of experience with my in-laws’ superstitions about doctors, I can tell you exactly why the percentage is so low, but the country has been heralded for “following the science” and keeping the bug from spreading among the population.
@alan, I had an exploit that worked some of the time. Post the vin and I’ll try it.
n
@nick; thanks.
VIN: JM1BM1M71G1312570
@alan,
I will try a couple of other carfax attempts, the first one failed, but vincheck.info has a bunch of free info on that vin.
n
@alan, I couldn’t make any of them work. Sorry.
n
Hmmm. It’s been a day and I’ve seen no verification of a “successful” mars landing by the red chinese yet…
Mars is hard.
Ugg, power blinked again. I have to get the NVR pc on a working ups…..
n
Looking at the radar map, the coastal cities are getting the brunt of this storm.
n
Heading to Arlington, we noted Allison signs on a warehouse complex, to me a sure sign of where GM is headed with regard to the fancy transmission they developed with Ford, even in the 1-ton pickups.
GM may be getting back into the Class 5 and 6 truck business.
@EdH
Lots of news articles about a successful landing on Mars two days ago. Simple searching found these links to news stories.
I took the Moderna vaccine to protect my 99YO aunt. My wife was going to try just getting frequent tests, but that didn’t work out, so she took the Moderna vaccine with me. She had a moderate lingering reaction that has responded to antibiotics prescribed by her doctor. Not sure if some of what she has was caused by the vaccine; two effects definitely were, but the third is a mystery. I had essentially no reaction.
My gastro doctor told me that he is testing himself every morning. He buys his favorite chocolate marshmallow cookie from HEB and eats a couple each morning. As long as he can taste the cookies, he does not have the covid.
Ugg, power blinked again. I have to get the NVR pc on a working ups…..
n
We have been hit several times out here in west Fort Bend County. Unusual.
I didn’t see much point in getting a vax myself, and I see even less reason to get my kids this particular vax. Until it’s as well known as the flu shots, I’m going to push to hold off. Kids don’t get the flu shots, so no need for this one in my book.
n
I do not plan on getting the covid vaccine booster. That is not needful.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/11/covid-booster-shots-cdc-director-says-us-planning-just-in-case.html
“Heading to Arlington, we noted Allison signs on a warehouse complex, to me a sure sign of where GM is headed with regard to the fancy transmission they developed with Ford, even in the 1-ton pickups.”
GM may be getting back into the Class 5 and 6 truck business.
GM experienced lots of problems making the 10 speed transmission work with their software. Bigger trucks are shipping with the older designs.
They’re committed with the 1-ton trucks because they have to ship so many with 4-cylinder engines to avoid CAFE problems.
@RickH: Yep, there was an announcement.
But no pics from the surface, no video of mission control personnel jumping up and down. No reports of any telemetry of any kind from the lander.
Someone commented on how wonderful Carfax reports are a while ago. I have a different story to tell.
About three years ago, I paid for a Carfax subscription to research a 2006 car that I had already bought from a private party. While I was at it, I paid an insignificant amount more for data on two more cars. That first car was satisfactory, but I wanted to get some of its early history.
Carfax gave me the ownership history, which was fine, but the maintenance descriptions were almost useless. The car was originally purchased by a business, and the business had it maintained by the selling dealer. Unfortunately, the dealer service jargon is unintelligible to me. For instance, I wanted to know when the oil had been changed, but that critical info was not to be found. Instead, there was an XX mile routine maintenance performed, with the details that must have been manually entered in the system. Oh sure, I saw that the car had been inspected for all sorts of useless things. The tires had been rotated. The brakes had been checked, the interior vacuumed, but no useful details. About eight years of “records,” but so lacking of details as to be useless. Another reason to hate dealer service departments.
Once the car got to my town, the local independent shop did enter detailed records that matched the receipts the former owner gave me, and that was fine, but I already had that. Waste.
It gets better. It is a Chrysler product. Several years ago, Chrysler officially would not let a new owner of a used car have any warranty info or history on the car, but now they advertise free info on the entire history of the car. I bit. There was a problem getting an account set up. I tried another of my cars. Same problem, couldn’t find it. After talking to a rep on the phone, I finally got the account straightened out. No info. What? Called again. Correct, there is no “warranty” info. OK, but what about all the other info you nice folks advertised? Oh, you have to contact the dealer for that. Arrgh. Ever try to get that kind info from a dealer? For me that has always been a dead end.
The other two cars are a 1997 and a 1994. Chrysler doesn’t even have them in their system, because they only start with newer cars. So… useless IMO. Carfax didn’t have any useful info either. I already had more info from the sellers. Not impressed.
I also looked at reviews for the several competitors to Carfax. From my reading, all are worse. So much for that. Maybe I should hire a private detective. No, I don’t want that kind of info. Still… I have read that detectives can find all sorts of info, and for low prices. They apparently have subscriptions to lots of data sources and know how to use them. Instead of wearing out shoe leather, they now wear out the wheels on their chairs. Hmm.
“HHS Diverting $2 Billion From COVID-19 Relief To Cover Cost Of Housing Thousands Of Child Migrants At Border”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/hhs-diverting-2-billion-from-covid-19-relief-to-cover-cost-of-housing-thousands-of-child-migrants-at-border
Unreal.
“HHS Diverting $2 Billion From COVID-19 Relief To Cover Cost Of Housing Thousands Of Child Migrants At Border”
Unreal.
Visiting the Sam’s/Walmart complex near the Cotton Bowl/State Fairgrounds yesterday reminded me of our brief trip to Tijuana. We were even hustled in the parking log to buy knockoff perfume.
My wife had to be really vigilant waiting for my daughter’s shot. Along with the appointment schedule, the “line” is an interesting suggestion meant for gringos to honor, but, fortunately, a few Subcontinent and Chinese individuals showed up for appointments and got pretty vocal as well.
My wife had to be really vigilant waiting for my daughter’s shot. Along with the appointment schedule, the “line” is an interesting suggestion meant for gringos to honor, but, fortunately, a few Subcontinent and Chinese individuals showed up for appointments and got pretty vocal as well.
Two important social behaviors are taught in kindergarten. Standing in line and don’t bite your neighbor. Third world countries do not have kindergarten.
Eh? No one ever taught me that.
Would explain a lot, actually.
Italians don’t do lines well.
Man, the next county to west of us, Wharton County, got 13 inches of rain today. “Round one of rain winding down after hammering areas between Houston & Corpus Christi”
https://spacecityweather.com/round-one-of-rain-winding-down-after-hammering-areas-between-houston-corpus-christi/
“For the vast majority of the Houston area, today was pretty uneventful. Across Harris County, according to the Flood Control map, the max total was 1.64 inches along Buffalo Bayou at the Beltway. But as you went southwest along Highway 59, things escalated quite a bit. The max total in our region today was 13.47 inches (as of 3 PM) in Wharton County, just east of Ganado.”
…and here, in my little area of the ‘rainy Pacific Northwest’, clear skies and 74F today.
…although, rain is forecast for the next few days….
Hopefully the ketchup shortage will be over soon.
But then I heard this:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chick-fil-a-limits-sauce-industry-wide-shortage/
As @nick and @lynn know, trying to buy a used car right now sucks dead bunnies.
And every web developer that’s coded a ‘click here to chat with us now’ overlay that annoyingly floats right where you’re trying to read something should be drawn and quartered (present company excluded). Besides, 95% of the time no one responds when it’s a car dealer.
Revocable trusts are the way to go. Leave detailed instructions for the trustee and all can be accomplished with copies of the trust and death certificates. No probate (unless you miss any tangible assets), no probate court, no executor, all with their hand out for their slice of the pie.
Yeah, the used car market is crazy right now. All the markets are crazy.
—
Those “chat” things are probably bots. The one I tried talking to couldn’t convince me “she” wasn’t a bot.
—
I think we probably got about an inch here at the house. The weather station reset for the day and I missed it, but we got 3/4″ in that first 15 minutes, then steady light drizzle for the rest of the day. Lots of power blinking, which is very unusual for a little storm, and really, unusual for even a big storm. Neighborhood group on FB says the outages were scattered, and didn’t affect everyone in the area, which made it even stranger.
—
n
@nick; do you see this applying just to individuals or also to public corporations? Should it be okay for Home Depot to triple the price of a sheet of plywood in Houston after a hurricane?
If you have enough assets that you think you need a will then consider an estate planning attorney. Of course, you won’t be around to know how your choice panned out.
@nick; no worries. Was able to ‘acquire’ the AutoCheck version which was sufficient.
(from yesterday) And when someone with stuff decides to sell it to the people who are desperate for it, he gets accused of “price gouging”. Which is another phrase that is used to steal from people.
@nick; do you see this applying just to individuals or also to public corporations? Should it be okay for Home Depot to triple the price of a sheet of plywood in Houston after a hurricane?
Yes.
Should there be any difference between the guy on the corner selling 20 sheets in the back of his pickup and Home Depot ?
(from yesterday) And when someone with stuff decides to sell it to the people who are desperate for it, he gets accused of “price gouging”. Which is another phrase that is used to steal from people.
@nick; do you see this applying just to individuals or also to public corporations? Should it be okay for Home Depot to triple the price of a sheet of plywood in Houston after a hurricane?
Yes.
Should there be any difference between the guy on the corner selling 20 sheets in the back of his pickup and Home Depot ?
BTW, before a hurricane, Home Depot and Lowes usually bring in several 18 wheelers of plywood and sheetrock at considerable expense. And lately, those 18 wheelers are charging way more to bring a load across the USA.
Yep, if we’re gonna pretend we have a free market then we need to act like it.
Price regulation has been proven again and again to cause shortages, not abundance.
Lowe’s, Menards, Ace, or Joe’s Lumber Yard, or even Billy Bob with a trailer from OK can and should charge whatever they like. When there are too many dollars or people chasing scarce goods the price should go up until fewer people are buying. That’s how you avoid the guy buying 10 sheets he doesn’t really need “just in case”. I bought all the plywood to cover my windows after Hurricane “g” in 2008 failed to threaten Houston, at a significant discount, just weeks before Hurricane Ike HAMMERED us. HD lost their @ss on the plywood they brought in for the ‘g’ storm that year. They then promptly sold out before Ike. You don’t make money on what your don’t have to sell.
In the early days of the lockdown TPTB decided to ban the sale of N95 masks in order to prevent “price gouging” and all that happened was masks became unobtainium. People with masks just decided not to sell them at all, or to find alternate markets for them.
If you’re a gas station owner, why the heck would you come in and open the store when your own house needs work, if you know you’ll sell all your gas in an hour, and then have nothing to sell for days?
A sale is not a forced transaction, no one is holding a gun to the buyers head. If the price is too high, you don’t buy. Then the seller reduces the price if he can’t find any buyers.
Meddle with that and you create negative incentives.
n
the big box stores all bring in generators and gas cans too. Guess what the price does after the storm fizzles out? They don’t load that stuff back up and ship it home…
And all the dirty thieves who buy gennies and then return them in two weeks have to be accounted for too. Harbor Freight and the like aren’t running tool rental companies, they have to price those items to account for the fraudulent returns too.
After Ike there were entrepreneurs who were driving around with gennies on a flat bed, and electricians right there to hook you up if you bought from them. My wife’s business partner did that and was dang glad to have the opportunity to get the lights on.
Charge what the market will bear, or you think is fair, but I’d be a hypocrite to call for government regulation when I’m for small gov and free markets.
n
Also, wrt corps vs individuals, don’t forget that the customer has a memory and most of them hold grudges.
I shop at HEB for local groceries (at least in part) because of their response to disasters. Hertz car rental too, they bought the opportunity to get my first look whenever I rent by their response to 9-11. I don’t always use them if the price isn’t reasonable, and there are plenty of things I buy at costco rather than HEB, but I haven’t rented from National, or been in a Kroger store for years.
n
Am I the only person noticing that the price of used dead tree books goes ways up when the new books run out ? For instance:
https://www.amazon.com/Exo-Jumper-Novel-Steven-Gould/dp/0765336545/?tag=ttgnet-20
the big box stores all bring in generators and gas cans too. Guess what the price does after the storm fizzles out? They don’t load that stuff back up and ship it home…
And all the dirty thieves who buy gennies and then return them in two weeks have to be accounted for too. Harbor Freight and the like aren’t running tool rental companies, they have to price those items to account for the fraudulent returns too.
After Ike there were entrepreneurs who were driving around with gennies on a flat bed, and electricians right there to hook you up if you bought from them. My wife’s business partner did that and was dang glad to have the opportunity to get the lights on.
Hurricane supplies, especially generators, should not be returnable after the hurricane. No telling how many of those were run by the buyer.
“the price of used dead tree books goes ways up”
–holy cow I did not notice that.
n
@Lynn
The Jumper series has quite a following and the tech audience has the “want it now” mindset and the coin.
Amazon is dominated by the sellers using repricing algorithms and the top end is always dropshippers who have no inventory and troll for suckers.