Cooler, rainier, and more of a mess than yesterday? Maybe. Yesterday ended up being in the low 70s with rain off and on all day. It was cooler for the stuff I needed to do, but the 100% humidity made it just as miserable as if it was hot.
Yesterday, I parked the child and the dog so I could do several hours of continuous and uninterrupted work. I was able to get some done, but it’s grains of sand on a beach…
Small steps are still steps, right??
Today I’ve got my monthly non-prepping hobby meeting. I’m probably taking child two with, as she doesn’t want to ride with mom to get child one from GS camp. Oh, what a *joyous* noise there will be in the house again, as the two sisters pick up where they left off. Child two will sit quietly and read during the meeting, she’s accompanied me before. She even sometimes takes an interest in the meeting. Of course the old guys are all charmed by the power of ‘teh cute.’ It’s a potent force to unleash on what is basically a room full of grandfathers.
Maybe I’ll get some more work done in the afternoon, if only around the house. That will depend mostly on the weather.
Doggie continues to grow. He’s noticeably longer than he was. He’s got the power of the cute too. Grown women collapse in spasms of baby talk and scoop him up to snuzzle with him. Men too. Perhaps it’s because he’s a bit of pure joy and love in this crazy sour world? Don’t know, don’t care, as long as he’s licking my nose.
Don’t forget to stack some stuff for your four legged friends. And if you already are, keep stacking!
nick
Good thought. Have to vac seal some kibble and see what the real shelf life is.
“Ford secures chip supply for waiting F-Series pickups”
Well, that is good news.
If there really was a shortage and not because Ford was playing games to move the 2021s in a burst of sales activity.
The company and dealers have successfully raised used (1-2 year old) prices on the basic models far above original MSRP and created demand on the high end which most buyers will have to finance on 72 or even 80 month loans — good for Ford Credit.
Whether or not the Tonytruck lays an egg when it premieres, Ford can’t get the EV F150 out in volume until the Spring.
Here’s the clueless
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/07/today-i-learned-that-people-exist-who.html
maybe the just should go to a JC first and take accounting 1A
FBI Seizes “Fully Constructed” Lego Model of U.S. Capitol
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/fbi-seizes-fully-constructed-lego-model-of-u-s-capitol-at-home-of-alleged-january-6th-rioter/
Thank God they didn’t have to put them together to reveal…
maybe the just should go to a JC first and take accounting 1A
The Federal Student Loan program finances Obamacare. The sky’s the limit. Banks just collect a fee for handling the paper.
On the upside, any talk of student loan forgiveness actually means monetizing the debt which could open a huge legal can of worms going back to the moment Uncle Ted assumed room temperature and made Reconciliation the necessary mechanism to pass the bill. Forgiveness can’t happen with a stroke of Plugs’ pen as has been discussed many times of the last year.
We had to pass the bill to find out what was in it. Nationalization of student loans made the “Affordable” Care Act revenue neutral for the Parliamentarian to give her approval to the tactic. The political problems with the trick cut both ways.
Speaking of “teh cute” …
Let’s speculate on what Nick’s non-prepper hobby is. Wrong answers only.
My guess: Elvis impersonators, crooning and grinding their hips while dressed head-to-toe in sparkly outfits.
@brad, (from last night) that story about your wife’s computer almost sounds like some sort of third party exploit. MS just doesn’t behave that way in my experience. Anyone else here ever had that happen? And, could she Alt-tab past it? Don’t forget Alt-F4 to kill it if it refuses to give up the focus. I would report it to the MS Knowledge Base site. Never did that, but they are good at explaining things. I see user questions answered all the time. I would be suspicious of that computer until I knew more.
TigerDirect B2B seems to have some deals on small APC UPSs and Samsung SSDs:
https://www.tigerdirect.com/
I haven’t bought anything from them in ages, but get their daily emails along with all the other ecommerce emails that roll in to the email address I use for orders. They also frequently advertize refurb computers. Never bought one from them, but nice to look. I have never had a problem with any order. YMMV.
Reminds me. I ordered a housewarming gift through Amazon (yeah, I know, but darn convenient) a few days ago. It was for a relative who moved into an apartment over a retail store in a small town. They only gave my wife their PO Box number, and said they had received packages sent to it. They said they get a notice in the box to pick up the package.
Sure enough, Amazon would not accept a PO Box. Got their street address. Just for grins, also put the PO Box in the “apartment” field. Nope. Took it out, and OK. Got a notice from UPS that the item was “handed to recipient” or some such. Haven’t heard from the recipient yet.
Today’s addressing schemes sometimes baffle me. I have no experience with PO Boxes, but have friends and relatives who have “box” schemes that are not USPS. They get all mail through those addresses. Never sent them a package, but they say it works. I need an administrative assistant. 🙂
Then I am in serious trouble
ifwhen the FBI raids my house. I have Lego models that would make an agent absolutely giddy. Bulldozer, crane, rotary excavator, bucket excavator and a couple of planes. Imagine the carnage I could plan with all those models as a guide.Ray, just teading about all that heavy equipment scared me. 🙂
Seal two bags, one with an oxygen scavenger and one without. I suspect there’s lots of fat in kibble that’s liable to go rancid.
Let’s speculate on what Nick’s non-prepper hobby is. Wrong answers only.
Bored retired fork lift operators.
@brad, are you saying that before this update login to the computer was via a local user account but after the update login was via a Microsoft account? If so, that’s very troubling. Do you have the update number?
… who make Lego forklifts and drive them around a sand table, moving soda cans and such. That’s why Nick occasionally needs to buy stuff for the hobby, to build bigger and better Lego forklifts.
Non-USPS mailboxes are “Private Mail Boxes” (PMB). One popular provider is UPS at their UPS Stores. Address is the store’s street address plus “PMB” and the box number. A hash mark can be substituted for the “PMB”.
So: John Smith, 123 Main St PMB 456, New York, NY 10001
John Smith is the recipient who is renting the box from UPS.
123 Main Street is the UPS Store’s address.
PMB 456 is the mailbox inside the UPS Store.
USPS ignores the recipient name and the PMB 456 and delivers all mail addressed to 123 Main Street.
UPS Store employees sort the mail into the appropriate boxes.
This gets you a street address that will (theoretically) accept packages from all carriers.
USPS rules say the PMB or # is mandatory but many people ‘cheat’ and use “Suite” instead to imply a real ‘business’ office and not a UPS Store. From what I’ve heard, most of the time USPS does not enforce the rules. One confusion can occur when the UPS Store is in a strip mall and it also has a Suite number.
Not really, they said that one guy’s back of the envelope on the carbon emissions drop due to the pandemic was equivalent to that amount of a carbon tax. I’m skeptical.
That said, a carbon tax is much, much preferable to cap and trade, which the Democrats love. They probably love it because they can play games with the cap allocations to favor certain industries.
From what I can tell, only if you tell it to.
Non-USPS mailboxes are “Private Mail Boxes” (PMB). One popular provider is UPS at their UPS Stores.
Didn’t know that. Learn something every day.
I think I was actually referring to those gang mail boxes in newer neighborhoods that take the place of delivery to the house. They are actually USPS, but the address is the house afdress.
Then there are really small towns, where people have to pick up their mail at the Post Office whether or not they rent a PO Box. They don’t have delivery to their houses, because they also aren’t rural route customers. Their address is also the house address. Know someone in a tiny isolated California town like that. They say the PO is only about 100 yards from their house.
Barbie doll swap meet. Learned about it while getting a mani/pedi.
I drove a forklift for a while back in the day, everything from 4000 pound electric, to the big 30K pound capacity Hyster… which I had up on two wheels in the back of the warehouse. I can’t convey just how scary that is….
Or that when you need to move a 40K pound steel coil, you can put 10K pounds of steel on the back of the 30K Hyster and ‘skid’ the coil around the warehouse…picking it up just enough to move it.
n
We buy our kibble from Costco. Comes in 40 lb “sealed” heavy plastic bags. Not good for storage though as the bags are micro perforated.
https://sameday.costco.com/store/items/item_115063502
“Ford secures chip supply for waiting F-Series pickups”
Well, that is good news.
If there really was a shortage and not because Ford was playing games to move the 2021s in a burst of sales activity.
The company and dealers have successfully raised used (1-2 year old) prices on the basic models far above original MSRP and created demand on the high end which most buyers will have to finance on 72 or even 80 month loans — good for Ford Credit.
Whether or not the Tonytruck lays an egg when it premieres, Ford can’t get the EV F150 out in volume until the Spring.
Ford is extremely resourceful. I suspect that they threatened IBM. If not, they are having the chips made by somebody else and paying through the nose.
Ford cannot have trucks not being sold. They are the bread and butter of their central core.
Whether or not the Tonytruck lays an egg when it premieres, Ford can’t get the EV F150 out in volume until the Spring.
But they will delver the F-150 Lightning in quantity. Once they get those assembly lines and parts delivery systems setup, Ford can churn out almost a million vehicles a month.
BTW, I have been doing some thinking about the F-150 hybrid versus the F-150 lighting. I think that the F-150 is a risk if you ever travel. Or if you ever pull a trailer for a distance. Unless, you have a 600 mile battery.
I can’t even imagine how much torque that thing must have had, to pop up on two wheels when drag racing behind the warehouse.
*But they will delver the F-150 Lightning in quantity.*
And it will probably sell.
I recently talked to a friend of a friend involved in testing an early prototype Lightning. He couldn’t say much because of non-disclosure, but he did say:
“…without a limiter it might snap your neck!”
Ugh. 109F in the shade right now, and 10% humidity.
@Ray Thompson
Did you notice the Twitter thread in the link where the guy said he had a Lego Death Star?
~Jim
Good idea re oxygen absorber.
Let’s speculate on what Nick’s non-prepper hobby is. Wrong answers only.
My Little Pony stop motion animation.
Let’s speculate on what Nick’s non-prepper hobby is. Wrong answers only.
It involves fuzzy material and sewing. That’s enough details for me. (Maybe even too much detail.)
I drove a forklift for a while back in the day, everything from 4000 pound electric, to the big 30K pound capacity Hyster… which I had up on two wheels in the back of the warehouse. I can’t convey just how scary that is….
Or that when you need to move a 40K pound steel coil, you can put 10K pounds of steel on the back of the 30K Hyster and ‘skid’ the coil around the warehouse…picking it up just enough to move it.
n
We dropped our 48 ft 28,000 lb gooseneck trailer one fine July day in Monahans, TX. Broke off one front leg and bent the other so we could not jack it up. We went down to the drill pipe yard and hired the pipe forklift to lift our trailer back up and put it on our fifth wheel. Those 30 ft long forks had no trouble picking up our 28,000 lb trailer and putting it where we needed it.
Yes. Unless he installed motion tracking lasers I am not impressed.
Ugh. 109F in the shade right now, and 10% humidity.
94 F and feels like 90% humidity from the five inches of rain yesterday. 73 F in my bedroom sitting area watching The Tomorrow War. At least it quit raining for a day or two.
The Kamel on why voter ID laws are wrong: “People in rural settings would have to photocopy their ID to send in. There isn’t a Kinko’s or OfficeMax nearby to copy stuff.”
The Kamel is so dumb I don’t think he/she/it is even Human. It’s 2021, not the 1800’s. Jeebus. This is so stupid you can’t even make it up. My favorite comment is: most people still ride donkeys and only have three teeth in rural communities.
Hi, Mr. Ray
The biggest fork lifts I have seen are the ones used at sawmills for truck delivery. The pick up the entire truck load at one time and easily move the logs around. Probably 40 to 45 thousand pounds, or more. Massive machines. Dealing with not only the load but significant length.
Somewhere in the US is the worst doctor in the US. I hope you have an appointment with them on Monday. Donkeys and three tooth. Geez. I have four teeth and a horse, dipstick. 🙂
I’d rather a donkey than a horse. I had a donkey, he was, wait for it, a Smart Ass. The neighbor’s horses seem pretty stupid… and skittish.
Reminds me of an old joke.
How do we know the toothbrush wasn’t invented in (fill in your unfavorite place?) Because if it had been invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush.
His hobby? Rhythmic gymnastics!
Beating the dead horse thing…. batteries.
The Mahindra tractor battery has died. Even with the trickle charger. Oh wait, the battery has a sticker dating it to January 2014. So it was a 6 month old battery when the tractor was bought. Kept charged? Who knows.
Shopping around and just exactly why is it so hard for a web page to show me group 51c batteries? No, I don’t need to input what vehicle it is for. No, I don’t need to see various crap that has “51c” in the part number. Wheel bearings, really?
The Wal-Mart site is wacky. Tractor Supply is right behind them. NAPA seems to have “upgraded” from a somewhat clunky but working site to “special ed” diversity. Maybe it’s me not wanting to drop $165 for a little battery. It’s not a big battery! Cut the handle off of an antifreeze jug and there you go. It’s about a third in size of a Group 27.
I finally managed to figure a decent search link. It looks like I’ll go to the local Interstate Battery shop. $115 for their cheap model. But Wal-Mart is on the way and the battery I bought for the Yanmar last year is doing well. So I might save $50.
The little trickle chargers? I have four. One for the van, the truck*, and each tractor. The riding mower gets the motorcycle charger once in a while. The Jeep is used enough to not need a charger.
*I last filled the truck with gas on the way home from Ft. Worth at Thanksgiving. Still have over a quarter of a tank.
Ugh. 109F in the shade right now, and 10% humidity.
94 F and feels like 90% humidity from the five inches of rain yesterday. 73 F in my bedroom sitting area watching The Tomorrow War. At least it quit raining for a day or two.
OK, “The Tomorrow War” on Amazon Prime is ok, nothing special. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The special effects are really good as usual for a $200+ million movie. The story is good. 54% / 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_tomorrow_war
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tomorrow_War
Whoa, they are making a sequel !
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tomorrow-war-2-amazon-chris-pratt-1234979437/
Lets see, in 2048 I will be 88 years old. I highly doubt that I will make it that far.
Paul, Go with a Walmart battery, with one caveat. I have had at least ten years of good luck with their top line (EverStart Maxx) batteries, made in Mexico by Johnson Controls. A Maxx was about $120 for a size 27, and their next model down was only about $10-15 less. The reviews I read said to spend the extra. Try to get one with an “S” after the size: Maxx-27S. That is their hot climate battery. In an open tractor, it might not matter.
You bought the Walmart $50 low price line, and I have been tempted, but didn’t buy one because it was for a car we drive on trips. I did not find any reviews I would trust. Since the one you have is good, I would try another. At such a low price, why not? Lift each and see if you can tell if one is a lot heavier than the other. About as good as any review.
I have a Costco Interstate that cost me about $85. That is the one that has the low voltage, but tests good otherwise. Real Interstate batteries have a good reputation, but are now made by, you guessed it, Johnson Controls, just like the Costco versions. I don’t know if they are any better than other major brands.
Don’t forget a core.
Regarding looking up a battery by size, that’s the way they do it now, and it sucks. I still remember buying an 8 cylinder distributor cap for a Mopar at an auto parts store. The counter-dude asked for all the details. I patiently gave them, and he got the number. As he turned to get it off the shelf, I asked him to look for any other 8 cylinder caps. He shrugged. When he came back, he said there were only ones for GM and Fords that he recognized. I told him that’s because ALL Mopars with 8 cylinders take the same cap, at least through 1975 or so, probably later. Whaddayaknow? 🙂
I got a RMA and Fedex’d my Jackery 2000 out. The warehouse is in California, but the email support is straight out of China. Their emails are obviously run through a translator.
The 2000 is still sold out, so I’m guessing they will repair my unit and send it back. Good luck to me.
plugs the pedo:
What happened to personal space? Here’s President Biden ‘making connections’ with a young girl
“Just a little closer to my …”
Why do I still have to wear a mask on commercial flights?
I did a quick search for car battery “51c”, then hit ‘shopping’ on the results, and got quite a few results – with a variation in pricing. Here’s the search URL https://www.google.com/search?q=car+battery+“51c” . (Add the last part to the URL)
Note the quotes around the ’51c’ part – that filtered out near-matches.
Some sites will accept BCI sizes.
I had a battery fail in our 80 Dodge. I had bought it at an auto parts store because they had a good sale. It was still within the warranty, so I brought to the store where I bought it, receipt and all. The guy insisted on charging it and testing it, so I came back later. He said it was fine. I told him it had failed to crank the car, and it was my wife’s car, so it needed to be reliable. Could he reconsider? He wouldn’t budge. I said fine, I would put it in my PU and give the car the PU’s good battery. He lit up and ranted that I couldn’t put a CAR battery in a TRUCK! Funny, they both had the exact same engine, and took the same size battery. He didn’t even check. Sometimes I hate dealing with people.
Look Ma, I’ve been published!
Gender-affirming care, mental health, and economic stability in the time of COVID-19: A multi-national, cross-sectional study of transgender and nonbinary people
One can only hope that in a decade or two the authors will bury their heads in shame and cry, “WTF was I thinking!”
~jim
Ever the optimist
Stop motion My Little Pony… Oh my, be still my hoofs.
back from my errands.
Hot out at 97F in the sun, but otherwise pleasant. Sunny with a bit of breeze.
n
I had a battery fail in our 80 Dodge. I had bought it at an auto parts store because they had a good sale. It was still within the warranty, so I brought to the store where I bought it, receipt and all. The guy insisted on charging it and testing it, so I came back later. He said it was fine. I told him it had failed to crank the car, and it was my wife’s car, so it needed to be reliable. Could he reconsider? He wouldn’t budge. I said fine, I would put it in my PU and give the car the PU’s good battery. He lit up and ranted that I couldn’t put a CAR battery in a TRUCK! Funny, they both had the exact same engine, and took the same size battery. He didn’t even check. Sometimes I hate dealing with people.
I am wondering if I should replace the battery in my 2019 F-150 as the Start-Stop system refuses to run, it says that it is continuously charging. But it cranks the engine just fine.
I don’t know if I should mess with the warranty at the Dealership. I don’t want to blow half a day there.
Ford is extremely resourceful. I suspect that they threatened IBM. If not, they are having the chips made by somebody else and paying through the nose.
I doubt IBM has supplied the fab capacity for a long time. Even if they did, it would be strictly as a hired gun since Visteon owns the chip.
More likely, the supply problem was a FUBAR on Steelcase Boy’s part. He was shown the door for a reason.
Everybody moved their fab work to Taiwan to save money.
Danger Will Robinson!
The Tomorrow War looks so bad I might need to start shooting heroin to make it all the way through. It’s Hollywood paint-by-focus group, coupled with an editor who obviously hasn’t been taking his lithium. Between minute 14 and minute 15 I counted 27 cuts, or a cut every ±2 seconds. I’ll try to get to the 30 minute mark but I’m doubtful if I’ll succeed. Just wanted to give a heads-up before subjecting myself to more anguish in the hope I might spare someone this awful spectacle.
I read that latest Alex Verus some time ago, you had me excited that there was a new one!
n
I am wondering if I should replace the battery in my 2019 F-150 as the Start-Stop system refuses to run, it says that it is continuously charging. But it cranks the engine just fine.
I don’t know if I should mess with the warranty at the Dealership. I don’t want to blow half a day there.
Do any codes appear on the OBD feed when you hook up the scanner?
Read the codes and see what pops up in Google.
Just watched a whole auction go by, over250 lots and very few sold, and usually just for the $2 open bid. I think the seller grossed $320 for all his effort. Most of the stuff was just not great, 50c yard sale stuff, albeit new in package. This is his 4th or 5th auction with no real sales. I feel kinda bad for him, because he’s got a blurb that this is a new venture for him and his family.
On the other hand, buying is easy, selling is hard. He’s reduced his opening bids, but the stuff is still low money crap. He’s a good 40 minutes south of most of Houston (70 minutes from me), more for the north side, and his pickup time was 2 hours Sunday afternoon.
The youtube resellers make it look easy. It’s not.
n
Just watched a whole auction go by, over250 lots and very few sold, and usually just for the $2 open bid. I think the seller grossed $320 for all his effort. Most of the stuff was just not great, 50c yard sale stuff, albeit new in package. This is his 4th or 5th auction with no real sales. I feel kinda bad for him, because he’s got a blurb that this is a new venture for him and his family.
Con season is heating up with events actually taking place this summer so I’m getting offers on costume items we have up for sale. Sadly, the offers are low ball, some below materials cost.
Houston has Comicpalooza next weekend if you need to get pricing ideas for pop culture stuff.
Our tentatitve convention attendance schedule is Bell County Comic Con in August and San Japan Labor Day weekend.
If you go to Comicpalooza, the people watching should be interesting, but no one goes so far that kids can’t be around. Just don’t leave the kids alone, and try not to think about what the Furry contingent does at the “after hours” events. 🙂
(From what I understand, far from living in the parents basement, many of the Furries are big money TAMU alumni.)
I am wondering if I should replace the battery in my 2019 F-150 as the Start-Stop system refuses to run, it says that it is continuously charging. But it cranks the engine just fine.
I am way past my expiration date here… old lead antimony batteries failed by drawing current, “charging,” excessively all the time. That’s why we had ammeters. A voltmeter only reads the regulated voltage when the engine is running fast enough that the voltage is in regulation. An ammeter reads the condition of the battery, assuming the regulated voltage is correct, which it almost always is.
If your F150 can actually read current, great. What it seems to be telling you is that the battery has a failing cell. It is easy to diagnose. Just take it to a competent mechanic who has a modern battery tester, and preferably doesn’t sell batteries. Lacking that, an honest one.
Look at it this way. Compared to your magnificant vehicle, a battery is cheap, and nowhere near the expense of an unexpected failure. Just do it. Given care, and not sitting on a lot for 2+ months, the new battery should delight (or light!) you for more years than the original.
Don’t feel bad. Whenever I buy a used car, especially one that passed through a dealer, I watch the battery carefully. Some get replaced reeel soon, and some last a year or so. Just the expense of saving money.
The Tomorrow War
spare someone this awful spectacle.
I’ve been sick with a head cold last four days. I like Pratt as an actor, and on cold medication the movie is moderately entertaining with liberal use of the ‘skip forward 10 seconds’ button. Healthy and wide awake? That’s gonna be a pass.
on cold medication the movie is moderately entertaining with liberal use of the ‘skip forward 10 seconds’ button.
–oh my.
not going into my queue…
n
Because we can’t count on every non-vaccinated person not to lie about it so they could skip the mask.,
The skip button is useful and recommended, esp. to bypass the schmaltz. The 1st 30 minutes were the worst and it’s got every tired trope in the book except a chase scene and a vegetable cart, but it’s still pretty much a glorified Saturday afternoon kiddie movie. 4/10
The gods must love me because I’ve happened upon the perfect anodyne to pacify the gnawing disappointment of _The Tomorrow War_.
Womaneater (1958) is a British sci-fi horror film. It features George Coulouris, Vera Day, and Peter Forbes-Robertson. A mad scientist captures women and feeds them to a flesh-eating tree, which in turn gives him a serum that helps bring the dead back to life.
I shall fall into the arms of Morpheus with the glorious satisfaction of brain cells positively and acutely distended with empty calories.
Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay! 😉
Oh, wow, so the FBI is seizing Legos, now. They just keep going from strength to strength.
Writing love letters to AOC?
He can’t keep his hands off of them, news at 11:00.
If only because of the image problems, he ought to stop. And obviously can’t. So…he’s an incurable creep.
You would think so, but I had the same dialog pop up on my system. Only my login is associated with my MS account, so I didn’t get stuck. I forgot to mention: the first question asked was permission to reset the default browser to Edge. Which we both denied, of course.
Pretty sure it’s not malware, as it did come up just at the conclusion of the normal update process, when starting the computer. Alt-Tab and Alt-F4 had no effect. We could get to the Task Manager, but there was nothing to kill – only normal Windows Services.
@Alan: Sorry, no, I don’t know the update number. I’m afraid I’m a pretty naive Windows user, since I use Linux almost exclusively. Anyway, she still logs in with her local account, but I assume this is now somehow “associated” with her MS account. Which MS already knew about, because the text-field in the dialog was pre-filled with the correct email address.
Still, it’s odd if y’all haven’t seen anything like this. I’ll have a deeper look at the computer, and run an external malware tool, just to be safe.
He left it dead and with its head, he went galumphing back…
n