Wed. June 2, 2021 – ah, the sweet smell of __________

By on June 2nd, 2021 in culture, gardening, personal, prepping, WuFlu

Tuesday was a pretty nice day weather-wise after all. Never rained again after the early morning showers, and eventually got nice and clear, with a beautiful sunset. It stayed reasonably cool in the shade too. Even though the long term national forecast shows us in the rain zone for the next three days, I’m hoping today is nice too. I really want to take the kids to the pool and run some errands.

I spent yesterday continuing to chip away at the pile and the list. I’m making slow progress. I need a few hours to take stuff to the auctioneer though and to get it out of the house.

There is a massive bowl of tomatoes on the counter, despite my wife turning into one of those people who push fresh veg on everyone they see in the day. Even if I liked tomatoes, we have too many, but ironically, not enough to make sauce. This is why I only plant a couple of tomato plants every year. Oh well, it is making her happy as she loves them. They are super tasty, but I think a slice a week is the appropriate amount…

Because I was home with the kids, I did instacart for the groceries. Lots of stuff out of stock, but that could be because we’re coming off the long weekend. Meat prices are high and likely to go higher if we get a real shortage from the cyber attack on a big processor. If you’ve got a freezer full, you are looking like a hero. If you are still filling your freezer, think hard about grabbing some meat right the heck now, in case this attack turns into a longer disruption. Any upset in the just in time system takes a while to recover from, and I think we’re about to get a lesson in that. One of the reasons to prep is to have enough food put by that you can ride out temporary shortages and price fluctuations. The difficulty then comes if it’s not temporary and you haven’t restocked at all, then you have a big hit or you do without when prices are still high. There are trade offs to every approach. Find a strategy you are comfortable with.

This also goes to knowing what stuff costs. It’s hard to know if beef is cheap or dear this week, if you don’t pay attention to normal variation, and the cost of routine items. Even with big purchases like my truck, it was much smarter to shop for a few weeks, and recognize a great deal when it came my way, than my initial urge to buy the first suitable truck I saw at a reasonable price.

When it comes to things I think I will want later, or that I know I’d like to have, I start watching prices as soon as I can. Then, if and when that thing becomes available, I can jump on a deal, or let it go to the next guy. One thing that I learned now that I’m mostly shopping in the secondary market- it will distort what you are willing to pay. I’m finding that there are items that I would have gone to a thrift store to get (most of them have the same sorts of things most of the time) but now I will wait until I see them for even less in the outlet store. I think the price at the thrift store is too high šŸ™‚

The opposite can happen too. When I was traveling for work, and living in hotels, if I bought a drink in the bar that was less than $12 I was a happy boy. Whooo hooo, cheap cocktails! Of course they weren’t cheap by any objective standard, but they were a lot cheaper than most nice hotel bars or ‘date night’ restaurants. I just got used to paying the high price. I’m sure California works that way for everything… and the people who move here certainly think that housing is insanely cheap compared to there. I know I did back in the day.

There are a lot of economic factors that can enter into your decisions about what to stack and how much. Commander Zero has been looking at gold, guns, and greenbacks and has a different idea than far too many of the commentors seem to have, and it’s one I share. Better to have spent the money and have the stuff, than not to have spent it, and not have the stuff. Better to have saved some money for needs or opportunities later on, than spend every penny today.

Finding the balance between spending and saving, between stacking against a possible need, and saving for a possible opportunity, will come down to your personality, your goals, and your view of the future. I think it’s better if you make those decisions after some thought, but don’t let that keep you from acting.

Whatever comes, having some stuff to give you time and options, and having some resources to take advantage of opportunities or sudden needs will serve you well. Keep stacking.

nick

103 Comments and discussion on "Wed. June 2, 2021 – ah, the sweet smell of __________"

  1. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    Slice some tomatoes and run them through the dehydrator.

  2. ITGuy1998 says:

    I made a Costco trip yesterday with the intent on purchasing one item – water. Since his T1D diagnosis, my son has developed a love of Propel water (flavored water, no carbs or sugar). Costco has the big multi packs and it’s the cheapest option, so I stock up. I loaded up six packs in the cart. I also grabbed a 6lb pack of ground beef and 2 bags of cranberries (they were 5 bucks each, a good price). You can never make it out with just you list items…

    In other news, the boy is in his second week of gainful employment at a fast casual restaurant. He’s making $9 an hour and has no expenses. I’ve told him I would pay for his gas and insurance through college. He is going to have to start putting some money towards insurance though. A month ago, he had a minor accident backing into another car in the school parking lot. Still waiting on insurance to determine fault. There was no damage to his Tacoma. the Camry has paint damage on the bumper/rear quarter. He is going to be responsible for any price increases levied by insurance.

    This weekend we are sitting down and beginning his first of many financial education discussions. He’s naturally a saver, so it should be easy to get him to put 15% of his check into a Roth IRA.

    Oh, and I’m trying to not be too easy on him. The good life is dependent on him continuing to do his primary job, which is to keep his grades up in school. He’s known since elementary school that as long as he maintains a 3.0 in college, I’ll pay for it. The way he’s going, he will get a full merit scholarship to his top three choice schools. Maybe I can use that college fund towards a Porsche….or more likely food the way things are going.

  3. pecancorner says:

    Tomatoes freeze really well, if you don’t want to can them. To peel first: simply drop them whole into boiling water for 30 seconds, then dip them out into a bowl of ice. Make a slit in the skin and it peels right off, leaving whole tomatoes. Put them into a zip lock or freezer container, and voila! Happy wife! šŸ™‚ Let the girls help with the project. If you want to vacuum pack them later, you can just put the zip lock into the vacuum bag.

    drwilliams is right that they are delicious dehydrated, too. Get them crispy and the kids will probably eat them like candy.Ā  I have not been able to get them to store well for long after drying, even vacuum-packed or with oxygen absorbers.Ā  If drwilliams or anyone has a suggestion, I’d be grateful to hear it.

    ITGuy, it’s good to hear your son is doing well. Thanks for the update. Any tale of the young learning how to handle the things life throws at them is cheering for all of our future.

    Another good thing: this veteran served with my son in Iraq.Ā  My son says he’s not exactly “homeless” as he lives in a trailer, but otherwise an accurate article:

    https://www.wbir.com/article/news/community/homeless-veteran-sacrificing-his-own-needs-so-nobody-in-his-community-goes-hungry/51-d1db6abf-b63a-4daa-a3a4-9315f309d8bb

     

  4. pecancorner says:

    @pecancorner

    33kWH=3300 WH

    divide by 720 hrs in 30 days

    45.8 Watts average each hour.

    drwilliams, thank you! Ā  Comparing with what others have posted, that is pretty low, but I expected that…. we don’t have many gadgets, our fridge is small.

    We were surprised when we first began using the window A/Cs, as opposed to Central.Ā  We always thought they were less efficient, but apparently not, since we can control them completely.Ā  The only oddity is, we had to replace the one in the living room last summer, and it seems that it may use more power than our old “inefficient” one did. When I went to buy it, it was the only “non-smart” one in stock… all the others would interface with a smartphone.Ā Ā  The old one, the push-button on switch stopped working, but it still works if one can get it turned on.

  5. Ray Thompson says:

    Ray just hit 100K miles on his F-150

    Well, actually about 99.2K. Close enough that the service changed the coolant and the plugs at the service. $15 a plug. Labor was costly as getting to the plugs is not easy. Bummer.

    Iā€™m rarely above 2000 rpm

    Regular driving I am also rarely about 2K. Towing is a different story. Most of the time I am close to 2.5K, on hills about 3.5K. I don’t spend a lot of time at those RPM’s. The system rarely gets out of 5th gear when towing. Towing is hard on the engine and transmission. I get the engine serviced every 5K with an oil change even though 7.5K is recommended. I also get the transmission serviced every 50K which includes a fluid and filter change. Did I mention towing is hard on a vehicle?

    Maintenance is the key to a long power train life. Relatively cheap compared to the alternative. I have a friend with a Ford something. I call it the zit-mobile. It was severely damaged by hail, dents everywhere. Insurance totaled the car, he bought it back for a very small price, scrap value. Keeps driving it. It has 320K miles on the vehicle and it still runs well. Regular maintenance. Only issue is that he cannot get collision or comprehensive insurance as the car was totaled. He still washes and waxes the car.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    I thought it was just the Trump loving, God fearing, white redneck racist china flu deniers that didnā€™t want the jab???????????? When the hell did it become a ā€˜communityā€™ to be embraced by the prog-left?

    The left has a long tradition of antivax sentiment, particularly on the West Coast.

    Go back to the Measles outbreak in the Portland metro in 2019 — where one of the hot zones in the pandemic was my wife’s former place of employment in Vantucky — and cases in the community happened among antivaxxers on both sides of the political aisle whose beliefs centered around questionable immunization practices by Kaiser twenty years ago and/or objections for religious reasons.

    Suspicion about the vaccines for the Wuxu Flu in the African American community is off the charts, including among educated/experienced medical professionals who work with my wife, hence the weird “This is our shot” meme in the Walgreens commercials.

    Psst, Progs, including Walgreens management, “Hamilton” memes only work on virtue signaling white people who actually went to see that show.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    72F and 90%RH at 830am, but the sun is out and the sky has blue in it.

    Tired. Had bad dreams. Woke thinking I smelled gas. That is not the first time I had that dream, and it must have been a dream. No where else in the house smelled anything but normal, and the bedroom didn’t smell like gas either once I got back. Weirdly specific dream and it got me out of bed.

    n

  8. Chad says:

    In other news, the boy is in his second week of gainful employment at a fast casual restaurant. Heā€™s making $9 an hour and has no expenses.

    The restaurants around here are BEGGING for help and paying 16+ teens $12+/hour. My daughter has two 14 year old friends working at the local McDonald’s franchise and they’re both getting paid $10/hour and that’s at 14. So, if he’s only getting $9/hour then he may want to shop around a little. The whole country is hard up for restaurant and other service industry workers, so he should let that demand work in his favor.

    We were surprised when we first began using the window A/Cs, as opposed to Central. We always thought they were less efficient, but apparently not, since we can control them completely.

    Unfortunately, not always an option in newer housing developments as window air conditioners are similar to above ground pools and clothes lines. That is, commonly forbidden by covenants. Well, at least the ones where the box hangs out of your window. The ones that just vent out the window but most of the unit sits on the floor are probably fine.

    Maintenance is the key to a long power train life. Relatively cheap compared to the alternative. I have a friend with a Ford something. I call it the zit-mobile. It was severely damaged by hail, dents everywhere. Insurance totaled the car, he bought it back for a very small price, scrap value. Keeps driving it. It has 320K miles on the vehicle and it still runs well. Regular maintenance. Only issue is that he cannot get collision or comprehensive insurance as the car was totaled. He still washes and waxes the car.

    One thing that drives me crazy with pick-up trucks is that after all of these decades of them existing they still rust like crazy around the wheel wells and in the back bottom corners of the cab. Especially, in Northern or Coastal states. It’s absurd. Frequent washings and drain holes don’t do much to prevent it either. They have the materials to eliminate the problem they just don’t.

    Psst, Progs, including Walgreens management, ā€œHamiltonā€ memes only work on virtue signaling white people who actually went to see that show.

    LOL. True. They can applaud the racial diversity (and jabs about slavery) in Hamilton as much as they want, but at the end of the day the theater is packed full of upper middle class white people because that’s who spends $100/seat to go watch plays/musicals.

    On a side note, my daughter and her circle of friends were obsessed with Hamilton for most of last year and over the winter. So, despite having never actually seen it I have just about every song memorized. It’s pretty catchy stuff.

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Maintenance is the key to a long power train life. Relatively cheap compared to the alternative. I have a friend with a Ford something. I call it the zit-mobile. It was severely damaged by hail, dents everywhere.

    A non-turbo Taurus/Sable from either the original “Atlanta” era or Mulally-driven rebadge of the 500/Montego made in Chicago should go a long time just with oil changes. If the transmission fluid has never been changed in 300k miles, doing it now absent a problem would be asking for trouble.

    Ford designed the fleet cars’ drivetrains to be maintained by complete morons at depots, for whom an oil change *with* swap out of filter would be a half day job on a city payroll.

    The current Exploder cop vehicles have a separate engine not available to consumers.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    On a side note, my daughter and her circle of friends were obsessed with Hamilton for most of last year and over the winter. So, despite having never actually seen it I have just about every song memorized. Itā€™s pretty catchy stuff.

    The music was everywhere over the last few years, particularly among high school band programs.

    The last regional band competition we attended had a few schools doing “Hamilton” shows, but the afternoon was stolen by the UTSA band’s “demonstration” performance of Adele’s “Skyfall” theme.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    LOL. True. They can applaud the racial diversity (and jabs about slavery) in Hamilton as much as they want, but at the end of the day the theater is packed full of upper middle class white people because thatā€™s who spends $100/seat to go watch plays/musicals.

    Ever since “Phantom of the Opera” toured the first time, seeing the touring company of a big show shortly after winning a bunch of Tony awards was a kind of status thing up until last year.

    Regional performing arts centers are going to be in serious trouble long term, much more so than Broadway. I already get regular beg calls from the Paramount/State in Downtown, asking me to buy tickets for Zoom shows.

    Geesh. Seriously?

  12. Ed says:

    Speaking of window air conditioners, GE has apparently bought out Haier and their super quiet Serenity line of window a/c units.

    My local Loweā€™s had a GE rebadged Haier Serenity 6200 for about $330 last time I was in there, $50 less that I paid for the original.

    These are quiet enough that you can spend a few hours a few feet away and not have your ears ring afterwards. You can have a radio on low volume and hear it, converse in normal voice.

    I replaced an older window unit in my west facing home office, and am considering purchasing another.

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    ” my daughter and her circle of friends were obsessed with Hamilton for most of last year and over the winter. So, despite having never actually seen it I have just about every song memorized. Itā€™s pretty catchy stuff.”

    –my daughters were playing it at volume for over a month. The bass line is pretty repetitive, and the tempo is pretty consistently “driving” but there isn’t much of interest to me in the music. I like a bit more subtlety in my musical theatre.

    n

  14. Greg Norton says:

    Speaking of window air conditioners, GE has apparently bought out Haier and their super quiet Serenity line of window a/c units.

    Haier bought out GE appliances five years ago. The logo on an appliance is now no different than the recycled Polaroid or Bell&Howell brands.

    I don’t know where Haier makes the appliances, but I saw a GE “Cafe” refrigerator in Home Depot last weekend with a pricetag of $4000 — pretty steep for white goods Hencho in China. Even Hencho in Mexico would make me wonder, but, to be fair, our $350 Kenmore-badged Whirlpool from a factory in Mexico has been decent since the primary fan, a $29 part if I have to DIY, was replaced.

  15. Ray Thompson says:

    Woke thinking I smelled gas

    My wife says that to me all the time.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    Getting white collar workers out of their jammies and back to the office will be the biggest economic challenge post-pandemic. Places like Citibank have known for at least a decade that “working” from home doesn’t get a lot of actual work done. State and local governments like Texas’ are learning the lesson the hard way.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/return-to-office-employees-are-quitting-instead-of-giving-up-work-from-home

  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    Haiar has plants in the US mid-South iirc.

    They just took over the plants when they bought the business.

    n

  18. Ed says:

    Haier bought out GE appliances five years ago. The logo on an appliance is now no different than the recycled Polaroid or Bell&Howell brands.

    I donā€™t know where Haier makes the appliances,

    Ah, I didnā€™t know that. Ā Mine does say ā€œmade in chinaā€ on the nameplate.

  19. Chad says:

    Places like Citibank have known for at least a decade that ā€œworkingā€ from home doesnā€™t get a lot of actual work done.

    I don’t know. I think being at the office gives the appearance of work and not so much the actuality of it. It also creates a lot of additional stuff that looks like work but accomplishes little. Like a bunch of side meetings about projects that nobody would have bothered you with when you were at home. But, since you’re at the office it’s easy to do and then it looks like everyone is working and collaborating when really they’re just spinning tires in another “meeting that could have been an email.” However, since everyone is in slacks and collared shirts and trapped in the same building we all get a warm fuzzy about the work that is supposedly getting done.

    I think there’s a LOT of truth to that line from Office Space, “…Iā€™d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.” At least at home they can use that time getting other stuff done, but at the office they’ll just be clock-watching.

  20. Nick Flandrey says:

    I agree, there is a lot of dead wood in most organizational trees.

    In good times, there is room for non-productive people. In bad, well, not so much. And the least capable fight the hardest to stay.

    n

  21. ~jim says:

    Dehydrating tomatoes made me think of a serendipitous accident which came about baking apples stuffed with butter, raisins, sugar and spice (cardamom, mmm!) in the microwave. If raisins get nuked all by their little lonesome they get crisp and crunchy instead of sticky and gooey. I suppose one ought to be careful though, they get extremely hot in the process and I imagine could easily catch fire. Tasty though!

    Do I get official Old Fogey status if I don’t know who the hell Hamilton is?

  22. Mark W says:

    33kWH=3300 WH

    33,000 WH, surely. The rest of the math was correct though.

  23. Greg Norton says:

    I think thereā€™s a LOT of truth to that line from Office Space, ā€œā€¦Iā€™d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.ā€

    That is probably true in jobs which involve hands-on coding, particularly in the 90s. “Office Space” was based on Mike Judge’s experiences working at DoD contractors in Texas in the 80s/90s.

    At GTE, circa 1999, pre-Verizon merger, we considered the film to be a documentary.

  24. Brad says:

    Real work at the office – it depends. My time flying a desk for USAF, well, me and most of my coworkers could have disappeared, taken our counterparts at the contractors with us, and productivity would have shot up.

    In subsequent jobs, I’d say about 50% of time is productive. I hate meetings and office gossip as much as any introvert, but they do actually have a (small) purpose, usually when you trip across information that no one thought to mention.

  25. Greg Norton says:

    I donā€™t know. I think being at the office gives the appearance of work and not so much the actuality of it. It also creates a lot of additional stuff that looks like work but accomplishes little.

    When I worked for the Death Star, I participated in the development of the VPN software that enabled “working” from home at a lot of big companies, including IBM. About 15 years ago, serious cost-benefit analysis was done at a lot of those places which showed hard numbers against the employees being effective at home, but, at that point, the Work From Home Mafia was firmly entrenched and accustomed toĀ  spending daylight hours on weekdays at Costco and soccer games so management decided that limiting the practice among newer employees would be the best way to end it.

    The pandemic undid all the progress which was made. Big companies are going to be really under pressure now since a lot of the vaunted tax breaks to attract tech firms facilities to particular cities away from San Francisco or Seattle in the last decade are tied to workers being physically present at least three days a week, building “communities” or, at a minimum, generating sales tax revenue at local restaurants and “quick errand” stores sufficient to cover the concessions.

    (I know that was the arrangement for CGI when I worked in Belton. The city did not want to offer tax breaks to end up with the office looking like the Stratysis building across the street, featuring an empty parking lot except for company BBQ events.)

    In theory, getting people back in the office in sufficient numbers shouldn’t be difficult. A large number of what, on the surface, would be white collar jobs amenable to telecommuting can’t be done from home on a practical basis except in an emergency, particularly work with resources on secure networks which should not be connected to the Internet except with serious remote protocols — RDP, PPTP, TeamViewer, and AnyConnect do not fall into that category IMHO — or supervisory positions where hourly employees require monitoring to verify that the job gets done.

  26. ITGuy1998 says:

    The restaurants around here are BEGGING for help and paying 16+ teens $12+/hour. My daughter has two 14 year old friends working at the local McDonaldā€™s franchise and theyā€™re both getting paid $10/hour and thatā€™s at 14. So, if heā€™s only getting $9/hour then he may want to shop around a little. The whole country is hard up for restaurant and other service industry workers, so he should let that demand work in his favor.

    I have no doubt he could probably get more elsewhere, but is it worth it to slave at McDonald’s? If you need the money, I guess. He’s enjoying it so far, and they keep him to 20 -25 hours a week. Not a big deal right now, but important for the school year. It’s nice to know he has options if it doesn’t work out there. The greatest benefit of this is to help drive home the notion that working that type of job is not a good option for the long term.

  27. ITGuy1998 says:

    Where I work, not quite a fortune 500 company, the mask mandate has been dropped if you are vaccinated. It’s on the honor system. Teleworking is still in force, though when the mandate of essential personal was lifted last week, there were definitely more people in the office. There will still be a large group permanently teleworking, and a big group splitting time. I still get to split time. I look at it as a perk, but I try not to abuse it.

    We will stay with the teleworking model, as our company is annoyingly woke. We are also in the beginning stages of planning a new building for our local office. In our current setup, everyone has a real office with a real door. This is, in part, a legacy of our old company, which was acquired by our current masters. The new space is being setup with lots of buzzword spaces – shared spaces, conversation pods, etc. Unless great justification can be made, only managers will have offices. There will be lots of screaming, I’m sure. Luckily, my 7 employees will all have offices. They will be in a closed area, but they are used to that anyways.

  28. Greg Norton says:

    The greatest benefit of this is to help drive home the notion that working that type of job is not a good option for the long term.

    My son needs to learn this very soon so we are pushing him to get a McJob. He just got his license at 19.

    He takes community college classes, but is not directed towards any one goal.

    He is fortunate that Obamacare allows him to stay on the health insurance until he is 26. I was booted off my folks’ policy at 23, while still looking for the first career job, but, to be fair, replacing coverage with a $5000 deductible/$2 million lifetime limit “If the worst happens…” plan at BCBS in the early 90s was only $50/month. Imagine!

  29. Nick Flandrey says:

    I paid cash at my dentist for my primary health care for years in the 90s. So yeah, I didn’t really have any care, although I could get ABX if I needed them.

    The world has changed since then, but there are still a lot of people flying naked.

    n

  30. TV says:

    Do I get official Old Fogey status if I donā€™t know who the hell Hamilton is?

    No, I think “newbie” applies since the play is about Alexander Hamilton.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    I paid cash at my dentist for my primary health care for years in the 90s. So yeah, I didnā€™t really have any care, although I could get ABX if I needed them.

    The world has changed since then, but there are still a lot of people flying naked.

    I paid cash at the dentist in Florida until we left in 2010. Same guy for 40 years, and he gave me a 15% discount on any serious work, which was only necessary once. Two checkups a year were cheaper than insurance through our jobs. He retired — to a beach house with requisite infinite pool and boat — soon after we left.

    We’ve had coverage in WA State and Texas through my wife’s jobs since that time. For us, it is prepayment for checkups, and the analysis always has to be done as to whether to carry coverage.

    Dental care and insurance aren’t yet areas where the government meddles much so things are still relatively affordable if you find the right dentist with a conservative approach. Ask friends/co-workers if you are new to an area.

    And it isn’t just old guys. Our current dentist is female and younger than us.

    I’ve done the “flying naked” thing with healthcare coverage when I started with the Death Star 20 years ago, but I wouldn’t recommend it today. I agreed to accept the job without benefits since my wife’s would kick in at her new job a month later, but I had an appendicitis scare one afternoon. At the time, it would have been a $10-20k education; I don’t want to think about what it would cost these days.

    The Death Star was really tight with white collar employees coverage in the late 90s/early 2000s before the SBC buyout. They never stopped houding my father-in-law about covering my sister’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy and delivery, technically his dependent at the time, but I will concede that he committed outright fraud.

  32. lynn says:

    @Nick, here you go. A 7,583 ft2 two story home for sale with a 3,750 ft2 multipurpose building behind it, all on one acre. This is around the corner and down the way from my house.
    https://www.har.com/homedetail/0-grande-gables-dr-richmond-tx-77469/2401681?lid=6148340

    Only $1,100,000.

    Just ignore the railroad tracks behind the multipurpose building. We only get an average of 38 trains per day.

  33. Greg Norton says:

    I agreed to accept the job without benefits.

    BTW, I did eventually get benefits from The Death Star, but not until the following tax year.

  34. Greg Norton says:

    Just ignore the railroad tracks behind the multipurpose building. We only get an average of 38 trains per day.

    The BNSF grain and coal trains ran non-stop to the ports loading barges bound for China when we lived in Vantucky, and I heard the rumbling all the time despite living almost a half mile from the closest section of track.

    OTOH, soundproofing must be possible because the neighborhoods near the train track were among the most desirable and most politically connected in the region, home to many HP and Fisher employees. Of course, it was still Vantucky, and that isn’t saying much compared to the rest of the county, with the alternative being beautiful East Portland/Gresham across the river, complete with the taxes … and the train noise echoing across the Gorge.

  35. lynn says:

    Bujold really stepped in it with ā€œGentleman Jole And The Red Queenā€.

    Book after book in the series had consistent 70-80% 5-star ratings from the faithful, then the stinkerooo got 49%.

    Itā€™s the last book in the series. Literally no place to go except fill in between previous books.

    You do realize that more than half of the authors on Big River would do anything to get half of their 1,176 reviews as five stars ? In fact, the same authors would also do anything to get more than 100 reviews.
    https://www.amazon.com/Gentleman-Jole-Queen-Vorkosigan-Saga/dp/1481482890/?tag=ttgnet-20

    And yes, Bujold is woke.

  36. lynn says:

    Getting white collar workers out of their jammies and back to the office will be the biggest economic challenge post-pandemic. Places like Citibank have known for at least a decade that ā€œworkingā€ from home doesnā€™t get a lot of actual work done. State and local governments like Texasā€™ are learning the lesson the hard way.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-01/return-to-office-employees-are-quitting-instead-of-giving-up-work-from-home

    Apparently many of the work at home people were actually working from Jamaica and the Virgin Islands.

  37. paul says:

    You were on your parent’s policy?Ā  Yeah, how’s that work when they have TriCare?

    Anyway.

    The converted 7-Elevens and such worked fine for me in the early ’80’s.Ā  Get a bad cold, see a Doc, get a prescription and a pat on the back, pay $35.Ā  Add on $15 for the pills.Ā  Seemed to work just fine when you just need to see a Doc every other year.Ā  And Western Auto was across the street…. šŸ™‚

    Dental?Ā  Dr. Wilbur took payments.Ā  I forget what my root canal and crown cost.Ā  I do remember riding my bike from work (8600 block of Research) on payday out towards Cedar Park on US183 to make a payment.Ā  Every week for a few months.Ā  I didn’t have a car yet, so about 1982 or so.

    Looking at the nerves he pulled out of the tooth was pretty cool.Ā  All four wiggled like worms.Ā  And never so much as an ache after the permanent crown was installed and my gum healed.Ā  I don’t understand the entire “root canals are horrible” thing.Ā  My wisdom teeth cutting through hurt a lot more.

     

  38. Greg Norton says:

    You were on your parentā€™s policy? Yeah, howā€™s that work when they have TriCare?

    My father worked for Ford, which had decent benefits for the white collar employees well into the 90s.

  39. lynn says:

    We will stay with the teleworking model, as our company is annoyingly woke. We are also in the beginning stages of planning a new building for our local office. In our current setup, everyone has a real office with a real door. This is, in part, a legacy of our old company, which was acquired by our current masters. The new space is being setup with lots of buzzword spaces ā€“ shared spaces, conversation pods, etc. Unless great justification can be made, only managers will have offices. There will be lots of screaming, Iā€™m sure. Luckily, my 7 employees will all have offices. They will be in a closed area, but they are used to that anyways.

    I don’t care if you have a 5 ft by 8 ft office, you need a freaking door.

    And I have seen people have a fistfight over a window office. And she won.

  40. lynn says:

    The greatest benefit of this is to help drive home the notion that working that type of job is not a good option for the long term.

    My son needs to learn this very soon so we are pushing him to get a McJob. He just got his license at 19.

    He takes community college classes, but is not directed towards any one goal.

    He is fortunate that Obamacare allows him to stay on the health insurance until he is 26. I was booted off my folksā€™ policy at 23, while still looking for the first career job, but, to be fair, replacing coverage with a $5000 deductible/$2 million lifetime limit ā€œIf the worst happensā€¦ā€ plan at BCBS in the early 90s was only $50/month. Imagine!

    Most of the Millennials are scaring me. They have no ambition whatsoever. Half of them do not even date, including my kids, 34 and 37. I blame video games.

  41. Chad says:

    Do I get official Old Fogey status if I donā€™t know who the hell Hamilton is?

    No, I think “newbie” applies since the play is about Alexander Hamilton.

    IIRC, Lin-Manuel Miranda read the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and got the idea to make a musical out of it. It’s turned out to be shockingly popular.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    Apparently many of the work at home people were actually working from Jamaica and the Virgin Islands.Ā 

    The WiFi where we stayed in Florida in March was overloaded from about 6 AM until 9. Once they got the Outlook mail and calendar updates for the day, the rest of the daylight hours could be scheduled for recreation around any Zoom calls.

    All of the resort’s high end “beach cottage” accommodations were booked for the rest of the year. I joked to my wife that the Hertz bankruptcy was probably being run from the cottages, but then I realized I probably wasn’t too far off from the truth.

  43. lynn says:

    “Biden administration stalls ANWR oil work, possibly for years”
    https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/14204477/biden-administration-stalls-anwr-oil-work-possibly-for-years

    “Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued an order June 1 suspending all activities related to leasing for oil exploration on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) pending a comprehensive new environmental analysis.”

    Now Biden has shutdown the ANWR drilling in Alaska.

  44. ~jim says:

    IIRC, Lin-Manuel Miranda read the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and got the idea to make a musical out of it. Itā€™s turned out to be shockingly popular.

    Ah, thanks. Sounds like this generation’s version of _Les Miserables_.

    ***

    My cousin’s son, also 19, took welding classes and is now making moreĀ messing around with stainless steel than his dad, a nurse. Seems JEP was right when he said a skilled trade, even that of plumber might not be a bad idea.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    IIRC, Lin-Manuel Miranda read the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and got the idea to make a musical out of it. Itā€™s turned out to be shockingly popular.

    Who doesn’t have a musical these days?

    “Springtime for Hitler” worked for The Producers. “Springtime for Trump” would be a blockbuster in this town.

    Fran Drescher was working on a musical of “The Nanny” pre-pandemic. Reading between the lines on several interviews with her I’ve seen/heard over the last year, whether or not it would work is secondary to Drescher needing to get the script done before she can listen to any pitches about reviving the show, which has proven to be very popular on a home video re-release box set in the Trump era — Trump was a guest star several times.

  46. MrAtoz says:

    Now Biden has shutdown the ANWR drilling in Alaska.

    That’s ProgLibTurd speech for “the study will take an infinite amount of time” and will employ hoards of PLTs with benefits, pensions, etc., with the outcome of nope noway not gonna drill already determined. I hope potential Redumblican candidates for POTUS keep a list and issue twice as many EOs as plugs in his first 100 days.

  47. JimB says:

    Maintenance is the key to a long power train life. Relatively cheap compared to the alternative.

    Always worked for me. For your tow vehicle, I would recommend a good baseline oil analysis. I have never done that, but have read it can be useful. You will have to read up on the pros, cons, and methods. Problem is, then you have to do regular tests to establish a trend. I always found it cheaper to buy oil and stay ignorant.

    Your engine gets a lot of thermal stress when towing, especially the oil. All my experience dates back before synthetic oils, and is useless for modern additive packages. But, I can say that 5k miles, with only half of that actually towing, is a lot, even if your towing is in cool weather. Double check your owners manual. Chrysler recommends 3k max for taxi service (prolonged operation in stop and go traffic,) “less” for towing, but all manufacturers have been pressured by the EPA to reduce waste oil generation. I have that first hand from Chrysler engineers. Their running joke is that the conditions for those “normal” 7.5k operating conditions never actually occur in real driving. Maybe Ford has access to better oil. šŸ™‚

    One thing I did was to watch oil temperature, but again I wouldn’t know the limits for modern oils. I can say that some modern heavy duty equipment keeps oil temperature in the 180-220F range. That is probably impractical without a large thermostatically controlled oil cooler. And don’t forget, that is bulk sump temperature. The temperature near the piston rings can go much higher. You have a small engine working at high average BMEP.

    I think you said you have a transmission temperature gauge. The same goes for transmission fluid. I had a gauge that had its sensor at the cooler line coming from the transmission to the coolers. This is much more sensitive than at the pan. On hills, not even towing, it would occasionally read 250F, even though the return line was just a little above anbient. Note, it did not have a lockup converter, a serious liability. I never did any towing with that truck, but it probably needed more cooling.

    Again, synthetic fluid can take more temperature than the old stuff, but I wouldn’t push it. Some synthetics (ATF+4) do not change color or get a burnt odor, even though they are shot.

    Trans fluid change interval recommendations vary from “lifetime” to 20k miles. I would not wait for miles, but would change after a trip if the temp got over 250F for more than a hill or two.

    As for change vs flush, a pan drop only gets about half the fluid unless the converter has a drain plug, rare nowadays. I think a full flush would be preferable, but some flushing machines “recycle” some fluid. I am skeptical. Many of those machines are stocked with universal fluid. I would avoid them. After the flush, drop the pan, look for bad stuff, and change the filter. For my light duty cars, I weld a drain plug in the pan and use that every 15-20k miles. Every second change is pan off to inspect and change the filter. If experience shows minimum wear debris, I will go more changes on a filter. Never risk a clogged filter, as this can destroy a modern transmission. The transmissiosn from the 1960s are much more tolerant of neglect.

    If all this seems too much, fine. Trade the vehicle at 100k or keep it until it fails. All of them do eventually.

  48. Greg Norton says:

    My cousinā€™s son, also 19, took welding classes and is now making more messing around with stainless steel than his dad, a nurse. Seems JEP was right when he said a skilled trade, even that of plumber might not be a bad idea.Ā 

    One person in my wife’s carpool has a son who did a year of welding at the community college and now works at Toyota’s truck plant in San Antonio making well into six figures.

    The son’s current responsibilities include teaching the non-Third World way of doing things at the new plant south of the border which, in theory, will eventually produce Hencho in Mexico Tacomas, enabling Toyota to expand Tundra production in San Antonio to close in on their long term goal of toppling the F150’s sales leadership position.

    Toyota currently outsells the F150 with the RAV4, but that is with an asterisk

    * Chip shortage.

  49. Chad says:

    One thing that amuses me with all the talk of demand, job security, and high pay in the skilled trades is that everything seems to agree it’s a great idea… for somebody else’s kid… not their kid… THEIR kid is going to COLLEGE… but, the trades are clearly a better option than college… for everyone else’s kids.Ā  lol

  50. Alan says:

    ā€“the .mil and .gov want to have someone else build out a COTS space based comms infrastructure for them. They even have some acronym soup to describe it, and programs with buckets of funding sloshing around. Network anywhere? something like that. In any case, they want 5G for warfighters and they want to rent it.

    Is this also on Camel’s plate? Seems Sleepy has a big “To: the VP” rubber stamp, filling her in-box (already grumblings amongst her staff about the workload) and allowing him more time for napping.

  51. Alan says:

    The Ecoboost 3.5L V6 is in its 3rd generation. The first generation had a problem with water condensing in the intercooler in humid areas. The second generation has a reputation for toughness as it uses the same block for the common (14 lbs boost) and Raptor (18 lbs boost). The third generation uses the latest manufacturing techniques of the cracked rod caps and other stuff. BTW, my buddy chipped his 2019 Raptor engine in his F-150 Limited and is running 25 lbs boost. He just hit 70K miles on it.

    Is that captured in one of the car’s black boxes, potentially voiding the warranty?

  52. lynn says:

    One thing that amuses me with all the talk of demand, job security, and high pay in the skilled trades is that everything seems to agree itā€™s a great ideaā€¦ for somebody elseā€™s kidā€¦ not their kidā€¦ THEIR kid is going to COLLEGEā€¦ but, the trades are clearly a better option than collegeā€¦ for everyone elseā€™s kids. lol

    Here is the problem. My college education for a Mechanical Engineering degree at TAMU cost my Dad and I about $10,000 from June of 1978 to May of 1982. That is room, board, classes, books. Now that cost is approaching $200,000, especially since the four year degree I got is now a five year or a six year degree. Still worth it for a Mechanical or Chemical Engineering degree. But a psychology degree ??? No freaking way.

  53. dkreck says:

    On our third day of 100+ temps in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. Daughter had complaind the pool was too cold so I put bubble wrap solar mats on last week. With the temps and the mats the pool is 90F. Should make for great night swimming. Will leave the mats off until temp drops first of next week.

    Playing in pool with grandson and made the first water test of my hearing aids. Mostly I was playing with the kid and had my head up but twice I handed him to the wife and dropped under to show him. Probably have him swimming (with supervision) by the end of summer. His mother was a real water dog by two. Hearing aids so good so far. Being rechargables they don’t have much in the way of openings. Like the old days and people would go in with expensive contacts. Idiot.

  54. lynn says:

    My cousinā€™s son, also 19, took welding classes and is now making more messing around with stainless steel than his dad, a nurse. Seems JEP was right when he said a skilled trade, even that of plumber might not be a bad idea.

    One person in my wifeā€™s carpool has a son who did a year of welding at the community college and now works at Toyotaā€™s truck plant in San Antonio making well into six figures.

    The sonā€™s current responsibilities include teaching the non-Third World way of doing things at the new plant south of the border which, in theory, will eventually produce Hencho in Mexico Tacomas, enabling Toyota to expand Tundra production in San Antonio to close in on their long term goal of toppling the F150ā€™s sales leadership position.

    Toyota currently outsells the F150 with the RAV4, but that is with an asterisk

    * Chip shortage.

    I wonder if Ford is complete with the ARM cpu port of their EMS, engine management system, yet ?

  55. Greg Norton says:

    One thing that amuses me with all the talk of demand, job security, and high pay in the skilled trades is that everything seems to agree itā€™s a great ideaā€¦ for somebody elseā€™s kidā€¦ not their kidā€¦ THEIR kid is going to COLLEGEā€¦ but, the trades are clearly a better option than collegeā€¦ for everyone elseā€™s kids.Ā 

    We’ve never really pushed our kids to go to college vs trades, but my son does need to decide on direction this summer. Community college was just a placeholder for him showing he did something this year in case he wants to go into a field where the schools will be particular about that sort of thing.

    The only “Don’t”s we’ve ever communicated are:

    Don’t go into our respective fields. Software development is a lousy place for a white male as of late, and the US doesn’t make a lot hardware anymore. The medical school loans are unmanageable for GPs who, like my wife, do not come from family money and have a genuine interest in helping people.

    Don’t go into the military with Presidents like Bush 43, Obama, and Plugs rotating into the White House on a regular basis. They’re getting progressively worse about antagonizing Russia in particular, and the whole world took a lesson from Khadafy’s fate after cutting a deal with the US to give up his chemical weapons capability to avoid Saddam’s fate.

    (At least Saddam went out with a proper show trial/hanging and not from being sodomized with a red-hot bayonet shoved up his … well, you know.)

  56. lynn says:

    The Ecoboost 3.5L V6 is in its 3rd generation. The first generation had a problem with water condensing in the intercooler in humid areas. The second generation has a reputation for toughness as it uses the same block for the common (14 lbs boost) and Raptor (18 lbs boost). The third generation uses the latest manufacturing techniques of the cracked rod caps and other stuff. BTW, my buddy chipped his 2019 Raptor engine in his F-150 Limited and is running 25 lbs boost. He just hit 70K miles on it.

    Is that captured in one of the carā€™s black boxes, potentially voiding the warranty?

    What warranty ? Ford’s powertrain warranty for the F-150 ended at 60,000 miles. He is well past that. And I’ll bet that black box captured the serial number on the chip.

    The real question is emissions. Does his truck still pass OBDII ?

    Plus he has an eight inch lift kit on his F-150 4×4 Limited with 37 inch wheels and mudder tires.

    ADD: My buddy also has a 2008 four door Wrangler jeep. He is on his fifth engine and his third transmission with over 300,000 miles on it. He is well used to breaking stuff and replacing stuff.

  57. Alan says:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/now-your-last-chance-opt-out-amazon-sidewalk

    ā€“first Iā€™m hearing about this. Why would you let them that far in in the first place?

    Sidewalk is a stupid idea, for so many reasons. First, using peopleā€™s bandwidth, largely without their permission. Second, liability questions for illegal content. Third, the spectrum is already crowded enough, without adding a zillion more ā€“ entirely random ā€“ hotspots. Fourth, what data will Amazon be collecting from this, and why should they have it? Fifth, sixth, seventh ā€“ there are lots more reasons this is dumb.

    All that said, from what Iā€™ve read, you can always turn it off through a settings menu somewhere. I donā€™t have the details, and canā€™t look, because I donā€™t have any Amazon devices beyond a Kindle. The looming deadline is only for the initial activation.

    Why let them in? Probably because you agreed to in some TOS fine print that no one reads.
    So then they’re not using your bandwidth without your permission.
    What data will they collect? As much as they can. Why should they have it? Jeff needs to recoup the divorce settlement.
    You turn it off via a setting in the Alexa app on your phone. Strangely, mine was already set to off, but will check it again in a few weeks.

  58. lynn says:

    “Fatherhood: you did it very wrong. (So much stupid concentrated in one event.)”
    https://gunfreezone.net/fatherhood-you-did-it-very-wrong-so-much-stupid-concentrated-in-one-event/

    “MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) ā€” A 10-year-old boy has been shot and wounded after homeowner mistook his paintball gun for the real deal.”

    “Michael Williams, 26, told Opa-locka police his son begged him to drive by a home where young people were gathered Sunday night so he could fire his paintball out the window, according to a police report released Tuesday.”

    “Wait one minute. This ā€œfatherā€ thought it was a good idea to allow his son to do a mock drive-by shooting? Is he stupidly insane? What kind of crap is he teaching his kid? Is this like a Father-Son bonding thing? ā€œDaddy Took Me To My First Drive-By.ā€ ?”

    The drive by father is so lucky that the homeowner only fired one round and did not empty the mag.

  59. lynn says:

    “Conservative Twitter underestimates this statement by Biden”
    https://gunfreezone.net/conservative-twitter-underestimates-this-statement-by-biden/

    “The point of this mendacity is simple, to justify the weaponization of the entirety of the intelligence, counter-terrorism, federal law enforcement, and local and state law enforcement communities against predominately white, middle and working-class, Middle-Americans, the Trump demographic.”

    “First step in removing the undesirables is to demonize the undesirables.”

    It is becoming clearer that Biden is going to try a gun grab.

  60. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder if Ford is complete with the ARM cpu port of their EMS, engine management system, yet ?

    It should be fairly straightforward if they didn’t put any custom silicon into the PowerPC-based chip.

    Big *IF*. Go back 15 years, and everyone was enamored with the concept of the Cell CPU used in the Playstation III. I doubt the power of that chip was ever fully tapped before Sony abandoned development for the platform in favor of going AMD x86_64 with the PS4 and PS5.

    Cell was a Hot Skillz for a while even though no one outside of the game companies or Sony really knew how to marshall data out to the auxiliary cores.

    I run the same core in my home server as TSMC cranked out for Sony to go into the PS4. The Cell easily outclasses the chip in the successor system, but writing the software is fiendishly difficult and a generic core offers access to the benefits of the current “arms race” between the two leading open source compilers targeting x86_64. Plus, plenty of developers are available with assembly experience.

    I’m guessing Visteon/Ford got help from Motorola and IBM implementing that controller and software. Maybe even Apple.

  61. Greg Norton says:

    The drive by father is so lucky that the homeowner only fired one round and did not empty the mag.

    Especially in Opa-locka given the time frame.

    That isn’t far from where the “banquet hall” shooting took place last weekend.

    Not a totally terrible neighborhood, but anywhere in Dade is Amish Country.

  62. MrAtoz says:

    It is becoming clearer that Biden is going to try a gun grab.

    The ProgLibTurd Utopian dream come true. plugs may well abdicate to The Kamel ’cause she be black.

    I miss tRump.

    tRump 2024!

    3
    1
  63. JimB says:

    Is that captured in one of the carā€™s black boxes, potentially voiding the warranty?

    I only have a couple of minutes, but first, it is probably not a “chip,” rather a software mod. There is no black box, just the various computers on a bus. Warranty has been answered, but probably detectable, except a dealer wouldn’t look unless building a case for fraud. They usually just overwrite with the latest; the tuner will overwrite back. Maybe the game has been upped.

    Emissions test? On this engine, temporarily installing OEM software would make it moot, but it was once popular to have modded soft- or firmware that detects an emissions test and makes the car look stock. Where did you think Volkswagen got their idea?

    Hotrodding can be done without wrenches.

  64. MrAtoz says:

    I’ve started my next step in solar power discovery. I plunked down a shirt(-r)load for a Jackery 2000 Explorer with four 200W SolarSaga suitcase panels (been saving my pennies since it’s announcement). March was “Jackery” month and I sat at the Mac when they activated. Sold out in 10 minutes, but my finger was fast enough to reserve one. So far it will run my Dometic cooler for at least three days. I’ve charged all my eGo batteries off it. It will charge from 25% to 100% in less than three hours with the four panels. Runs my InstantPot and induction cook plate no problemo.

    I wanted something mobile when I go on my “pine tree diet” with Euell. It will charge and power the Dometic at the same time. Next experiment is to leave a couple panels out in parallel, cable fits under the door, run the Dometic full time and see what happens.

  65. JimB says:

    Iā€™ve started my next step in solar power discovery.

    Hey, neato (fogey speak for cool.) Dare I call you green? Haven’t seen a picture, so probably not. Say hi to Euell.

  66. JimB says:

    Just looked up that Jackery unit. Pretty slick. I have seen something similar being hawked at Costco.

    Details aside, quiet: worth a LOT. I am amused at the ads that treat them like gensets: push button start. Really?!

    Although I have a generator for my house, I plan to replace it with small off grid capability when I go solar. I just need to add a small battery and pick an appropriate inverter with a charge controller and grid tie and independent modes. Won’t be portable, though. Euell will have to visit me. About midnight.

  67. MrAtoz says:

    Hey, neato (fogey speak for cool.) Dare I call you green? Havenā€™t seen a picture, so probably not. Say hi to Euell.

    My picture is in the Rogue’s Gallery post Bob did before he passed. OFD, DadCooks, Ray plus others are in there.

    Not really Green. If I had a big ICE gennie with unlimited free fuel, I’d already be out in the boonies with Euell’s Ghost. I’m not unsociable, but, dang, most good size cities are going down hill fast.

  68. Ray Thompson says:

    You turn it off via a setting in the Alexa app on your phone. Strangely, mine was already set to off

    Do you really believe the setting is “OFF”? Silly you. Amazon and Google are going to steal your information any way they can. Get caught? Oops, a misconfigured software bug (really a feature), sorry people. Here is $0.29 off your next $1,000.00 order.

    9
    1
  69. SteveF says:

    Half of them do not even date, including my kids, 34 and 37. I blame video games.

    Young women (in the US, anyway) have ludicrously high expectations. I’ve heard many people observe that 80% of women are competing for the top 10% of men. That qualitatively fits what I’ve seen myself in coworkers, daughters of neighbors, and such.

    Many men in the US are steering clear of marriage and even any dating more serious than occasional booty calls. Between the aforementioned female pickiness, crap economic prospects*, and a severely slanted legal system, it’s very hard to find and keep a serious girlfriend and a foolish risk to marry or shack up.

    Video games aren’t the culprit in millennials not dating. Video games are the consolation prize for a rigged game which isn’t worth playing.

    * Don’t believe the lies. Once you normalize for career choice, hours put in, and productivity, women make considerably more than men on almost all jobs. And that’s once you have a job. Men, especially younger (less skilled) and older (more expensive) men have much more difficulty getting a job than equivalent women.

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    MrAtoz, which dometic do you have? There was some discussion over at Peter Grant’s, and I suggested looking at dometic, someone else posted the link I put up here a couple of days ago.

    Dometic is the king of the ‘van life’ market, that much is clear from the ‘tubes I’ve watched.

    I’ve got an older Coleman that is a rebadged dometic, but it’s just a portable cooler.
    n

  71. JimB says:

    My picture is in the Rogueā€™s Gallery post Bob did before he passed. OFD, DadCooks, Ray plus others are in there.

    I forgot. I had been thinking you looked like Ian Wolfe.:-)

  72. lynn says:

    Half of them do not even date, including my kids, 34 and 37. I blame video games.

    Young women (in the US, anyway) have ludicrously high expectations. Iā€™ve heard many people observe that 80% of women are competing for the top 10% of men. That qualitatively fits what Iā€™ve seen myself in coworkers, daughters of neighbors, and such.

    The wife has told me several times over the thirty-nine plus years that we have been married that I have not met her expectations. Luckily, she has drastically lowered those expectations over the years. In fact, I believe that some of those expectations are now “just breathing”.

    ADD: None of these expectations were communicated to me before our marriage. The first real expectation was that I graduate from TAMU the semester we got married. I gave it a 50-50 chance as I was taking 18 hours of required engineering courses to graduate that semester. One of the three hour courses was really kicking my posterior and dicey until the end.

    ADD2: The first expectation was that I wash the dishes when I moved her into my apartment. After three days, I got a lecture. I washed the dishes. I never washed the dishes before marriage until the pile grew to instability. Her standard was every dish washed after every meal.

  73. MrAtoz says:

    MrAtoz, which dometic do you have?

    I have the Dometic CFX3 55IM. Expensive, but MrsAtoz wants a big fridge in her Battlewagon when we travel. I’m looking for something smaller for the Subie when I’m on the road solo.

    I want to try a couple day trip and sleep in the Subie at a rest stop. Small fridge, solar, small InstaPot, etc. Got a bunch of stuff on Youtube on setting up an Outback.

  74. MrAtoz says:

    I forgot. I had been thinking you looked like Ian Wolfe.:-)

    Yep, albeit younger. Mr. Atoz has stuck with me for decades.

  75. JimB says:

    Forgot. Loooved him as Hirsch on WKRP. Carol Bruce was almost as good. Great writing and acting.

  76. lynn says:

    MrAtoz, which dometic do you have?

    I have the Dometic CFX3 55IM. Expensive, but MrsAtoz wants a big fridge in her Battlewagon when we travel. Iā€™m looking for something smaller for the Subie when Iā€™m on the road solo.

    I want to try a couple day trip and sleep in the Subie at a rest stop. Small fridge, solar, small InstaPot, etc. Got a bunch of stuff on Youtube on setting up an Outback.

    Woof ! $1,099.
    https://www.amazon.com/Dometic-CFX3-Portable-Refrigerator-CFX3-55IM/dp/B08N8G2Y1D?tag=ttgnet-20

  77. Greg Norton says:

    Donā€™t believe the lies. Once you normalize for career choice, hours put in, and productivity, women make considerably more than men on almost all jobs. And thatā€™s once you have a job. Men, especially younger (less skilled) and older (more expensive) men have much more difficulty getting a job than equivalent women.Ā 

    The mistake I made at the last job was letting the young, seemingly inexperienced female recruiter *yell* at me in the followup to the first phone screen, not thinking that it was probably part of a game to prevent any negotiation of salary, arranged by management at the company and placement firm for whom the recruiter worked.

    I also didn’t think that the recruiter and her management could be involed on a personal level with members of my management chain, something I caught hints of within a few months of being hired.

    For the record, Manpower/Experis. Never again.

  78. Chad says:

    Most of the Millennials are scaring me. They have no ambition whatsoever. Half of them do not even date, including my kids, 34 and 37. I blame video games.

    I’ve mentioned it before, but we’ve basically raised two generates now (Millennials and Gen-Z) that prefer porn to the real thing and prefer sitting in a $700 gamer chair wearing $300 headphones with a boom mic to real life interaction. I’m not even sure how you fix that.

    The wife has told me several times over the thirty-nine plus years that we have been married that I have not met her expectations. Luckily, she has drastically lowered those expectations over the years. In fact, I believe that some of those expectations are now ā€œjust breathingā€.

    Two truths:
    1. Low expectations are the key to happiness.
    2. Ignorance is bliss.

  79. lynn says:

    I want to try a couple day trip and sleep in the Subie at a rest stop. Small fridge, solar, small InstaPot, etc. Got a bunch of stuff on Youtube on setting up an Outback.

    I would get a Sprinter RV and tow the Subie. And sleep in the Sprinter.

    Nah, I would leave the Subie at home. The Sprinter can go just about anywhere the Subie can.

  80. lynn says:

    Not really Green. If I had a big ICE gennie with unlimited free fuel, Iā€™d already be out in the boonies with Euellā€™s Ghost. Iā€™m not unsociable, but, dang, most good size cities are going down hill fast.

    Buy a farm around Edna, Texas, or Ganado, Texas with a natural gas well on it. You can put a tap on the well for your ICE gennie. Better get two gennies though, that is a lot of hours to run them. You will need a backup when you are rebuilding the first one.

    My paternal grandparents had a 138 acre farm outside Pottsboro, Texas with a natural gas well. It had some liquid too using the gas lift process (modulate the well pressure from 200 to 400 psig and that allows the liquids to be pulled up). They had a tap for their house heater.

  81. Nick Flandrey says:

    Just finished watching Pitch Perfect 3 with the kids. Super funny. Much more easy and natural than the second one, which felt forced to me. Fat Amy Winehouse, oh my.

    n

  82. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, wow that is a slice of heaven, as long as your idea of heaven is a house in a cow pasture without a single tree!

    Serious nice house though. Nice outbuilding too. Kinda close to the neighbors.

    This is more my style though

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/21622-Murrell-Rd-Hockley-TX-77447/123502997_zpid/

    n

  83. drwilliams says:

    Long day. Digest time:

    @pecancorner

    I don’t cut the tomatoes thicker than 3/8″, dry them until they are very crispy, let them cool, and then stack them into a jar. Stored in the dark pantry, I have some that are 10 years old.

    @Lynn

    “You do realize that more than half of the authors on Big River would do anything to get half of their 1,176 reviews as five stars ?”

    It’s possible to be woke but not stupid enough to write a book that destroys the whole series and insults your readers. I know people that returned that book to Amazon. Stinkeroo.

    I could quote a well-known sentence as a spoiler and people would have a good handle on what was done. Instead, I’ll just recommend that anyone contemplating wasting their time should read that book first and save the time.

    “In fact, the same authors would also do anything to get more than 100 reviews.”

    The first rule is learn to write. Beyond that, it ain’t a flippin’ mousetrap.

    “And I have seen people have a fistfight over a window office. And she won.”

    I’ve seen carpenters wall off the back 4-ft of an office with a window when the future occupant didn’t qualify.

    I’ve also seen a 30-year employee relocated from a cube with a window to a windowless cube by a scum-sucking drunk that replaced a good manager.

    I don’t recall which tech bio related how people would wander into a new hire’s office and count 12×12 ceiling tile to determine the office square footage and the pecking order. I laughed myself out of bed to the wet bar. Never did figure out if I would have a) re-tiled with 10.5-in tile (first thought), b) re-tiled with 1/4-in tile, or c) coated in venetian plaster with a small sign in 10-point type “You lost when you looked up.”

    (Yeah, I would have messed with the furniture, too.)

    @Mark W.

    Yup, 33000. Went back to capitalize the “W” and didn’t notice I trunced a zero.

    @Greg Norton

    “Getting white collar workers out of their jammies and back to the office will be the biggest economic challenge post-pandemic. Places like Citibank have known for at least a decade that ā€œworkingā€ from home doesnā€™t get a lot of actual work done. State and local governments like Texasā€™ are learning the lesson the hard way.”

    I was telling people 30 years ago that if you worked in Cubeville the cable could be 12,000 miles long.

    The jammie-wearing crowd needs to be very afraid. When the various levels of government start to talk about increasing taxes, surcharges, etc., the taxpayers are going to start questioning productivity and demand pay cuts, not increases. At least as many taxpayers as I can whisper in their ears or put my boot in their butts. Too many ways to measure the non-work metric–ATT hasn’t discarded a bit for decades, and when a sabot-throwing anarchist that knows the machineryĀ  files an FOIA request for the cell-tower tracks of every exec with a guvamint cell phone, the shi’ite is going to start hitting the radial impeller.

    @Chad

    “One thing that amuses me with all the talk of demand, job security, and high pay in the skilled trades is that everything seems to agree itā€™s a great ideaā€¦ for somebody elseā€™s kidā€¦ not their kidā€¦ THEIR kid is going to COLLEGEā€¦ but, the trades are clearly a better option than collegeā€¦ for everyone elseā€™s kids. lol ”

    I’d urge anyone to take a close look at what is happening at their alma mater and other traditional colleges. It’s past time to start agitating for people to withhold support and revoke previous bequests.

    A trade that is impossible to practice over the interwebz is only half of it–the kids need the reporting and interpersonal skills to take the supervisory positions unless they want to spent the rest of their lives seeing the Peter Principle at work.

  84. lynn says:

    Dadgumit, I really want my version of grep to be able to give multiple lines of response for any hits. I need the next line after a match. In fact, I would like to get the next 4 or 5 lines after a match. I am perusing five million lines of text in 700 files.

  85. lynn says:

    ā€œAnd I have seen people have a fistfight over a window office. And she won.ā€

    Iā€™ve seen carpenters wall off the back 4-ft of an office with a window when the future occupant didnā€™t qualify.

    I have seen that also !

    One of our plants was on the news on a Friday night for a major drug bust in which half of the employees (45 total people) were arrested. Management was not informed that the plant manager was in on the drug bust like the three Dallas tv news stations and their helicopters. The next month, the plant manager was 3 doors down from me with no work assignment. But he had a big beautiful window, like mine, in which he could contemplate his future. He spent a year there in his vacant office before they gave him another real job.

  86. mediumwave says:

    Dadgumit, I really want my version of grep to be able to give multiple lines of response for any hits. I need the next line after a match. In fact, I would like to get the next 4 or 5 lines after a match. I am perusing five million lines of text in 700 files.

    Just off the top of my head: grep+awk

  87. lynn says:

    I donā€™t recall which tech bio related how people would wander into a new hireā€™s office and count 12Ɨ12 ceiling tile to determine the office square footage and the pecking order. I laughed myself out of bed to the wet bar. Never did figure out if I would have a) re-tiled with 10.5-in tile (first thought), b) re-tiled with 1/4-in tile, or c) coated in venetian plaster with a small sign in 10-point type ā€œYou lost when you looked up.ā€

    (Yeah, I would have messed with the furniture, too.)

    I was promoted to Senior Engineer (junior engineer -> staff engineer -> engineer -> senior engineer) at the tender age of 27 at TXU. I had been on the Vice President’s staff for over a year at that point. My fellow engineers would wander into my 10 ft by 15 ft office with a door, look around, and ask how I got promoted so quick. I always said work hard and work smart but they never believed me.

  88. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Flip-flopping Fauci was WARNED by fellow scientist at start of pandemic that COVID may have been ‘engineered’ but he ignored it, smoking gun emails reveal”

    –say it louder.

    The lead, top of page headline on Daily Mail.

    n

  89. lynn says:

    Iā€™d urge anyone to take a close look at what is happening at their alma mater and other traditional colleges. Itā€™s past time to start agitating for people to withhold support and revoke previous bequests.

    I have been severely disappointed by what is going on at TAMU. TAMU is not the same university that I graduated from, my Dad graduated from, and my grandfather graduated from in 1932 and taught engineering drafting at for 38 years.

    And I am not happy with ASME. ASME is going whole hog on this zero carbon future thing with hydrogen. “Implementing a Zero-Carbon Policy”. “Building a New Energy System” are just some of the buzz words that I am getting flooded with by ASME.

    Just remember, “Hydrogen Wants to be Free !”.

  90. Mark W says:

    Iā€™d urge anyone to take a close look at what is happening at their alma mater and other traditional colleges. Itā€™s past time to start agitating for people to withhold support and revoke previous bequests.

    Mine back in the UK changed their shield to the rainbow colours last year, but not so far this year.

    I work in the networking field, just check out Cisco’s logo for the month. There’s nothing worse than pretending you care in some countries, but not in the countries where they throw gay people off rooftops.

    Cisco US site: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/index.html

    Cisco Middle East: https://www.cisco.com/c/en_ae/index.html

    I did a quick scan of a few other regional sites and only the US site has the rainbow logo. Is gay pride month different in other countries?

  91. drwilliams says:

    I’d say we have no shortage of “commissions” getting scheduled for Jan 21, 2023.

    If I can ask questions for one of them I will bring my own batteries and alligator clips.

  92. Nick Flandrey says:

    Both of my alma maters are going woke. One has a history as a faith based university, and even they are cramming the crep down people’s throats *ahem, so to speak*. The incoming Dean took a survey, didn’t like the results, took another, didn’t like those, and then said, we’ve got a lot of work to do reeducating you to give the right answers…

    The other one, well, they’ve been going woke for years. Killed the program I graduated from that prepared me very well for a career. Combined and renamed all the ‘schools’ like some Valley startups that renamed all their positions with “Directors of Vision” and “Chief Unicorn Activist.” The kicker is that they do real and heavy duty research for DoD and serious bio stuff too. VERY not airy fairy. I’ve excerpted some of their alumni communications here before.

    n

  93. ~jim says:

    Iā€™ve mentioned it before, but weā€™ve basically raised two generates now (Millennials and Gen-Z) that prefer porn to the real thing and prefer sitting in a $700 gamer chair wearing $300 headphones with a boom mic to real life interaction. Iā€™m not even sure how you fix that.

    My friend and I figured that out in high school: don’t masturbate. Barring that means one either improves one’s social skills by trial and error, or goes into sheep farming. Love, or hormones, will find a way.

  94. Marcelo says:

    Just remember, ā€œHydrogen Wants to be Free !ā€.

    And do Boom and fiery thingies once it is free…

  95. Jenny says:

    Second DBA I interview this morning (teleconference). I answered the tech questions pretty well. Blanked on a stupidly easy one, didnā€™t attempt to bluff. Made an apology, confessed the brain fart and moved on.

    Got a call from HR after dinner tonight offering me the position. Final talk with husband, strong encouragement from him. Pulled the trigger and said yes. More stress, more fulfilling work, six month probation, raise after probation. No impact to our finances. Many databases, MS SQL and Oracle. Iā€™m really jazzed.

    I appreciate the encouragement and suggestions, gentlemen.

    14
  96. Nick Flandrey says:

    Whooohooo! Go Jenny! So many changes, and good ones!

    I sincerely hope it’s a great fit for you and the family.

    Congratulations!

    nick

  97. Nick Flandrey says:

    Thunder and lightning getting stronger now… rumbles started around 9 or 10pm and are building. I better get the post in the bag so I can sleep easy.

    n

  98. lynn says:

    Second DBA I interview this morning (teleconference). I answered the tech questions pretty well. Blanked on a stupidly easy one, didnā€™t attempt to bluff. Made an apology, confessed the brain fart and moved on.

    Got a call from HR after dinner tonight offering me the position. Final talk with husband, strong encouragement from him. Pulled the trigger and said yes. More stress, more fulfilling work, six month probation, raise after probation. No impact to our finances. Many databases, MS SQL and Oracle. Iā€™m really jazzed.

    I appreciate the encouragement and suggestions, gentlemen.

    Congrats !

    This is your hard work paying off to get your education. Credentials are not everything but they are definitely a part of the equation.

  99. JimB says:

    Congratulations, Jenny. You have been given a chance to shine at something you clearly want to do. That desire will power your success.

  100. Norman says:

    Re grepping for previous/following lines, use -A and -B flags

    4 lines before match
    $ grep -B 4 ‘keyword’ /path/to/file.log

    4 lines after match
    $ grep -A 2 ‘keyword’ /path/to/file.log

    And combined
    $ grep -B 5 -A 2 –color ‘keyword’ /path/to/file.log

  101. SteveF says:

    Congrats, Jenny.

  102. MrAtoz says:

    I appreciate the encouragement and suggestions, gentlemen.

    Nice work Ms. Jenny!

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