Cool and damp. Because it’s winter in Houston, but I haven’t looked at an actual forecast.
Yesterday’s travel was uneventful. Walked through security, although one of my boots got selected for additional scrutiny… and that did delay me slightly. The club was mostly empty, the airport was not crazy busy, and the plane was full.
I’ll do a longer post with some other observations that I didn’t want to write about on the phone, with swype doing its best to reduce my trenchant observations to gibberish… but here’s a hot wash…
MIL- starting to feel sorry for her. She drives everyone away with her insistence on forcing reality to match the picture in her head, and ends up with nothing. And she’s a kook. The special all day pie baking (with the grandkids) resulted in a burned pumpkin, a kinda tasteless pecan (she halved the sugar and doubled the pecans- because she thinks pecan pie is too sweet), and a delicious apple. She did the apple first and her fussiness drove the kids out of the kitchen afterwards. So she ended up baking pies no one ate, without the grandkids involved. (And fwiw, she’s normally a good cook, if she avoids all the fake low fat crap).
Travel- mine was ok. I was borrowing trouble apparently by thinking it would be hard. I GUESS the days we traveled made all the difference, although I’ve not seen any of the normal T-giving stories about cancelled flights and stranded passengers, in massively crowded airports. Were the airport numbers down? Several articles that did mention numbers conflated driving with flying, so I didn’t see anything real definitive.
COVID and hospitals- one of my wife’s relatives runs ‘stuff’ at [a big hospital that saw a lot of chinaflu patients] she had lots of interesting stuff to talk about. They’ve had 0 wuflu patient days, although the trend is up. They have only a few corona-chan patients at the moment. Like my client’s hospital, they are seeing sick people for the first time who are MUCH further along in the course of their disease than “normal” because those people delayed seeking treatment due to winnietheflu. This is bad. Their treatment is more invasive, more costly, and more often has a bad outcome.
Economy- looking through the supermarket ads in the local paper, the prices weren’t THAT much higher than here, although they were higher, what was missing was meat on sale. They had only one variety in the one store circular, petite sirloin tips, which I never see around here, and it was as much as top sirloin at my local grocery. The other store circular mentions a few cuts of meat, not on sale, just priced, and zero mention of grade. Could be ‘value’, could be prime, you couldn’t tell from the ad. Based on price I’m gonna say they were all probably ‘value’ grade. Also missing were any special deals, like ‘get a free ham with xxx dollars of groceries’, or ‘buy a turkey get a ham’. I saw both of those promos in previous years here in Houston. Very little seafood in the ads, and nothing premium or “high end”. Considering the area, that is particularly weird.
The cousins (younger than me and my wife ) are all gainfully employed (or in school) and agreed that some stuff was crazy high, like used cars, rental cars, and food. One’s in home health care, one is in mental health in schools, a couple were teachers or worked in a school district. None of them see any shortage of work in the future for their fields, especially when it comes to the special needs industry or diabetes.
One uncle had the coof a month ago, and “thank god I was vaccinated or it might have killed me.” I’m pretty sure everyone there was vaxxed, although some that I KNOW were, were reluctant.
The few places we went all had signs saying masks weren’t required if you were vaxxed. No one was checking anything or even asking though.
Gas was $3.44/gallon +- 10c
————————-
It’s good to be home. I’m sleeping late in my own bed. Maybe I’ll make waffles later.
And I’m definitely going to be stacking more food.
(you should too)
nick
Got the last of the Winter-prep done. The plumber came by – without notice, communication is not this guy's strong point – and attached the two outdoor faucets that are part of the grill- and seating area that I built over the summer. I hooked up the corresponding electrical outlets, finished the part of the rock wall that hides the pipes and conduits, etc, etc.
Anyway, just in time, because Winter is here. Light snow today, then heavier snow is forecast every day next week. So those freshly installed faucets have now been drained and will sit empty until Spring…
My wife is off to help out at a Christmas market. Most little towns here have a market near the beginning of advent – many cancelled this year (again) due to Corona, but our town is going ahead. I'll go up later, drink some coffee, eat some cake and generally pretend to be sociable…
@Nick: I don't know how one can help people like this. My mother wasn't a lot different. She wanted to be easy to get along with, but the harder she tried, the harder it was to put up with her.
Her specialty was this. Us: "Hey, we're going to cook dinner – anything particular you'd like?" Her: "oh, anything is fine." Us: "ok, then we'll do some XYZ." Her: "Oh, no, not that." Rinse and repeat: food, outings, games, you name it. The result was that none of us – not even the kids – enjoyed being around her more than a few days at a time.
In the end, I think you just have to let people be people. If they wind up isolating themselves through their behavior, there's not really a lot you can do…
She's not a little child. She can live with the consequences of her words and actions. She's either choosing to act the way she does or she's failing to exercise self control to tamp down the words that come naturally. Cut her some slack if she's sincerely trying but failing but otherwise she deserve any sympathy if no one can stand her and she's alone.
Aldi run yesterday to see if I could score one of the boneless turkey breasts they featured in their ad this week. No luck there, but they didn't lack for bone-in turkey breasts or whole turkeys — Butterball brand.
So much for the local Faux News attempt to create a turkey shortage. I'm sure HEB had sufficient stock.
Aldi also didn't lack for their store brand hams for Christmas.
Our local HEB had plenty of turkeys. We gave thanks with in-laws. Turkey courtesy of Bill Miller's BBQ.
About fifteen years ago we heard about a restaurant in a small town a bit less than an hour away. The chef was a refugee from Hurricane Katrina, and after spending a couple years in the area putting a Cajun spin on local food, he opened his own restaurant in a small building (it would have been "historical" except that was pretty much true of the entire town) on main street. We visited half a dozen times over two years or so, and when they moved to a larger town and a larger building the food was just as good.
That year they offered turducken for Thanksgiving and Christmas. That dish had been the centerpiece of John Madden's Thanksgiving Day feast for years, and he always raved about it. They were quite pricey, but I ordered one. The consensus was underwhelming. Good, but not exceptional. Worth it for the novelty once.
This year I made lasagna.Two pans–one to eat, one to freeze.
I have achieved verticality for the day.
Grey and overcast 60F outside, 64%RH.
Only moderately stiff and sore after the plane trips, uncomfortable bed, etc.
Need to continue getting stuff out of the house to make room for the tree.
Shockingly, wife and kids are home today with nothing on the calendar.
n
>> Shockingly, wife and kids are home today with nothing on the calendar.
You could put them to work trolling the web for PS5s to flip – looks like they're going for $1,000+ on eBay (vs. $500 retail).
Wife was at Costco yesterday around early afternoon. Said it was normal weekday crowded. I presume any BF crowds had already come and gone for any in-store specials. They had though run out of pecan pie. Likely she will attempt the 'pie run' again today.
ADDED: Gas was $3.37 at Costco, wait was 10 minutes.
Well that was fun. While the dog and the people were not in the yard, something with teeth and claw reduced the local bird population by a very messy '1'.
Don't want the dog in the mess, so teh daddy gets to shovel and rake…. only crunchy and pointy bits left, but it must have been a decent sized bird from the size of the debris field. Couldn't really guess what it might have been.
while [people and dog = 0] do
hunt
kill
scatter remains as a warning
end
n
Maybe the neighbor threw his turkey carcass over the fence.
My inlaws always talk about a turducken at this time of year, but they aren't into the social aspect of a DIY event — the real point of making it the centerpiece of a holiday meal — so it would have to come from a specialty store or a restaurant.
Even then, I don't think they are into the concept of eating it as much as talking about it.
I joke that the next time they bring it up, I'm going to go "Epic Meal Time" on them. Why stop with three birds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xc5wIpUenQ
"I like that animal."
What? No hummingbird?
No wet markets in Toronto like the one in Wuhan.
PS5 is all about You Ain't Got No Ice Cream right now. The Japanese market isn't thrilled with the machine, and the software selection is still limited after a year, mostly PS4 titles supported with backwards compatibility.
Sooner or later, people will figure that out. I guess it works well as a BluRay player.
The futures price of crude oil dropped over $10 per barrel to $68 yesterday. Just enough to destroy any serious interest in investment of new drilling and wells if this price continues for a while.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CL%3DF?p=CL%3DF
My brother sold his bank (37 branches) a week ago to an Arkansas bank. He is not interested in making any more oil and gas loans. I suspect his new employer feels the same way. There is lots of new infrastructure going in (pipelines, storage, LNG liquefaction) but not much new oil and natural gas sources.
Winter is coming. I hope that the world has secured enough heating sources. These foolish renewables people keep on thinking that renewables can provide energy in the quantity and reliability that the proven fossil fuel and nuclear industries can. They are wrong. And the world uses energy for heating more than anything else.
"The futures price of crude oil dropped over $10 per barrel to $68 yesterday. Just enough to destroy any serious interest in investment of new drilling and wells if this price continues for a while. "
Yeah, I noticed the immediate drop in prices at the pump. /sarc off
On a Twitter thread attacking criticism of Biden's kungflu performance as "lacking context":
Chris Harkins @CJHarkins89
Replying to @samstein
I’m sure he’s trying his best, if he knows he’s the President.
10:17 AM · Nov 27, 2021
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/11/27/sam-stein-says-wall-street-journals-claim-that-biden-has-done-no-better-than-trump-regarding-covid-lacks-any-real-context/
"The futures price of crude oil dropped over $10 per barrel to $68 yesterday. Just enough to destroy any serious interest in investment of new drilling and wells if this price continues for a while. "
Yeah, I noticed the immediate drop in prices at the pump. /sarc off
I remember pulling up to the gasoline pumps in 1973 and 1979 trying to buy some gasoline. No gasoline was available at any price. I remember living in London in the summer of 1973 with rotating blackouts due to fuel oil and coal shortages.
There is not any shortages today. Not yet. Biden's bag of dirty tricks should hit us in about two years. But not today, not yet. Enjoy unlimited fuel and electricity while we have it.
"Biden's bag of dirty tricks should hit us in about two years"
Just about right.
I read "The Mandibles" over my 'vacation'. The author looks like a freaking prophet 6 years later.
TP shortage, inflation, collapse of US power overseas. Rise of china and other asians. Spot shortages in the stores.
Gold confiscation comes next in the book. My wife thinks that would start the shooting war if they try it.
n
I read "The Mandibles" over my 'vacation'. The author looks like a freaking prophet 6 years later.
TP shortage, inflation, collapse of US power overseas. Rise of china and other asians. Spot shortages in the stores.
Gold confiscation comes next in the book. My wife thinks that would start the shooting war if they try it.
n
You are talking about this book, right ? "The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047". I have yet to purchase and read it.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X//p?tag=ttgnet-20
My son thinks that the rest of the nations on Earth are getting a crypto currency ready to replace the Dollar.
Eh, they've been trying to replace the dollar for decades. Wake me when something catches on.
Also, your son's predictions, at least as reported here, don't have a notably high accuracy rate. He beats the climate scientists, though, so there's that.
"My son thinks that the rest of the nations on Earth are getting a crypto currency ready to replace the Dollar."
I've see some arguments that cryptocurrency "mining" is roughly equal to the energy used.
If that is true, then most of the governments of the world will let their citizens/serfs die hungry in the cold and dark as energy resources are deployed to "create wealth" for the masses.
Classical economics says wealth can only be created three ways: agriculture, mining, and manufacturing.
>> Yeah, I noticed the immediate drop in prices at the pump. /sarc off
I asked Uncle Joe about the high gas prices…he said not to worry, they are just, umm, you know, transitory.
"What Are the Side Effects of Booster Shots?"
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2021/booster-shot-side-effects.html
"Millions of Americans can now get their COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. As with the first round of vaccines, some people may experience a few mild to moderate flu-like symptoms after the shot."
I am still trying to decide what to do.
The russians and chinese and various other parties are already trading for oil directly in their own currencies. They have developed and deployed an alternative to the SWIFT payment clearance system.
In the book, the dollar is replaced with a currency based on a 'basket of assets'. This idea has been floated in the real world many times since I've been paying attention. It only needs to be executed.
I think people put WAY too much faith in the idea of the USD as reserve currency.
n
"I think people put WAY too much faith in the idea of the USD as reserve currency."
It is faith-based, as in, based on faith of the stability of the U.S.A.
So is it any wonder that the ChiComs and the Soviet Scum have spent years working to undermine that faith?
Not much gold was actually turned in back in 1933. It was more an excuse to drill the safe deposit boxes. Not that they need much of an excuse now — case precedent establishes property in the boxes as abandoned.
It's been said (by someone I know) that the US Dollar is backed by the US Navy.
… The US Navy which can't go a month without driving a ship into something, which doesn't have the parts to keep all of its FA-18s flying, which doesn't have the munitions for more than a few weeks of combat, and which loses 10% of its crews to sudden pregnancy when a ship heads to a conflict zone.
"A Cure for Type 1 Diabetes? For One Man, It Seems to Have Worked."
https://dnyuz.com/2021/11/27/a-cure-for-type-1-diabetes-for-one-man-it-seems-to-have-worked/
Wow. I have known three people with Type 1 Diabetes. Very devastating to them. One has died, he was ten years older than me.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com
>> I am still trying to decide what to do.
@lynn, I went Pfizer – Pfizer – Pfizer. My third was actually my 'immuno-comprised' dose so I'm still due the booster in 6 months. Might consider Moderna then, but a lot can happen between now and then…
https://nypost.com/2021/11/27/omicron-variant-symptoms-unusual-but-mild-says-south-african-doctor/
So far, so good.
IMO, the dollar is backed by the oil under the sands of Saudi Arabia (and elsewhere) and their insistence on being paid in dollars. We go to war with any nation that sells its' oil for anything else. That's the reason why the Saudi's get away with being d*cks.
If that should change, the dollar is dead.
>> Not much gold was actually turned in back in 1933. It was more an excuse to drill the safe deposit boxes. Not that they need much of an excuse now — case precedent establishes property in the boxes as abandoned.
Too bad I lost all mine in the river.
ADDED: The way things are going perhaps more investment in other metals is warranted…say like brass and lead.
We have pressured XXXXXXXXX convinced the few remaining hard currencies to go fiat. Now we have mutually assured destruction. The dollar is the handsomest horse in the glue factory. Brilliant.
h/t to ace.mu.nu
The Saturday Night Joke
Biden finally breaks down and visits a remote northern native village. With news crews following him around as they tour the place, Biden asks the chief if there was anything the people need.
"Well," says the chief, "We have three very important needs. First, we have a medical clinic, but no doctor."
Biden whips out his phone, dials a number, talks to somebody for two minutes and then hangs up. "I've pulled some strings. Your doctor will arrive in a few days. Now what was the second problem?"
"We have no way to get clean water. The local mining operation has poisoned the water our people have been drinking for thousands of years. We've been flying bottled water in, and it's terribly expensive."
Once again, Biden dials a number, yells into the phone for a few minutes, and then hangs up. "The mine has been shut down, and the owner is being billed for setting up a purification plant for your people.
Now what was that third problem?"
"We have no cellphone reception up here," the chief says.
Nah. First and foremost, that presupposes a greater degree of coordination than is possible.
Second, blockchains are a cool idea, but with very limited use-cases. Any sort of fiat currency just doesn't fit.
Speaking of PS5 arbitrage…
https://hibid.com/catalog/333386/special-edition-pre-christmas-auction/
n