Cool and wet. We got hammered in my part of town yesterday. I had 4 inches of rain in a few hours at my house by the time I got to bed, and the surrounding area had the same or more. My local drainage ditch/creek was over the banks at the sensor location, not all that far from my house. ~4 inches in 2 hours will do that. I’ll look at the totals later today.
Did most of my errands yesterday before the rain hit. Got my local auctioneer to agree to take my first load of stuff Tuesday morning. Went by my secondary and dropped a couple of items there. Missed the school open house. Ate donuts instead of lunch. And smaller child lost at basketball (and lost a tooth, the third in a month.)
The rain started in the afternoon. We got hammered with some really hard downpour during the b-ball game, but gauges said only 0.33 inches. Then it cleared up for a while, but started hammering down again around 11pm. At 1am, several gauges in my area had over 5 inches in 12 hours and ~4.5 in the previous three. That’s a lot of rain, even by Houston standards. And it was VERY localized. Having access to almost real time data for the whole county, both channel levels and rainfall is a miracle of the modern age. I looked at the weather radar, looked at the rainfall gauges, looked at the channel levels (water level in creeks and bayous) and was able to make some very well informed decisions. One was to move my truck from the street to the driveway (up hill 18″.) I should have done it earlier as the street was flooded to the running boards. At least it didn’t flood to the floorboards. Still, I’ll have to look at the lube in the differential. If my diff has a breather valve and it goes underwater, water can get in, or so I’ve been told. Further down the street if there were cars on the street they got flooded.
Just a VERY local disaster for a few people, unless there will be more flooding downstream as all that water leaves the system… and no one cares about the tiny disasters except the people in them.
Watching the storm effects kept me up later than I wanted to be. So I’m sleeping in later too. Then smaller child and I better get some stuff picked up around the house. I’d like to get some more stuff put away, a couple of things tested and listed for ebay, and put some more things in the pile for Tuesday morning. And it’s always nicer if my wife comes home to a clean house…
I’m pretty sure at least a few of my neighbors went to bed without a care, and woke up to flooded cars or even homes downstream from me. Very personal and local disasters. Stacks of Mountain House won’t be much use, but stacks of $100 bills, paid up insurance, cleanup supplies, and other preps will. It’s not always TEOTWAWKI. Sometimes it’s just the end of this thing, right here and right now, and only for us that is the disaster we’re prepping for.
Stack something today.
nick
Glad you got your vehicle out ok. Hopefully the diff case will be watertight.
More snow here overnight. Went for a look around in the snowy woods this morning. Lots of tracks of game in the snow – interesting distinguishing roe deer from red deer, fox and boar. Saw quite a few red deer, but all too distant or moving too fast for a shot.
We got plenty of rain at 1am but I was already in bed. I need my beauty sleep for church at 830am. But not much water in my 5 foot deep ditch out front that was not already there at 5pm last night. The wife and I went for a 1+ mile walk in the rain for our 40th wedding anniversary yesterday.
And it is 71 F here at 7am. Totally overcast and very wet. Gonna be a warm one.
The wife has listed another rent house for sale in Garland, TX. Neither her nor her sister want to deal with it. Her Dad bought the duplex back in 1985. I would have sworn it wsa 1988 or so. My memory is obviously shot.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1500-maple-dr-garland-tx-75042/1589837
A teacher so nothing will come of the charges, but, obviously, the media push to freak people out is working well.
Regardless of the Supreme Court decision tomorrow, the game will be on.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-teacher-put-son-with-covid-19-in-car-trunk-to-prevent-exposure-warrant-says/ar-AASypCn
Last week’s news cycle ends at noon EST when the delayed broadcast Sunday talkshows finish on the West Coast and NFL pregame shows start.
If this keeps up, D2 will look like a hockey player or a meth head.
Or she can just move to TN and blend in with the rest.
Matrix was a brilliant move. The two sequels, ok but not as great. Making a fourth movie after all this time? Just an attempt to cash in on an old idea, rather than coming up with something new. I don't think I've read a single positive comment about the movie…
We had another pile of snow last night – about 8 inches or so, but packed hard with lots of drifts. The Ego snowblower didn't do so well this time. In the past, I've been able to clear the whole driveway with 1-1/2 charges. This time, it took 4, and the batteries were behaving weirdly. One in particular would show as empty. I'd unplug it from the machine, wait a few seconds, plug it back in, and it would say 40% charge.
I've been keeping them in the garage, which doesn't freeze, but does get pretty cold. According to the manual, the batteries should be fine down to 0C (32F). But still, I brought them in to warm up before the last round, and they seemed to do better.
I'll try having them at room temperature for the next snow storm, and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise, well, the batteries have a 3-year guarantee…
Ever since the Wachowski brothers became sisters, Hollywood has been ready to celebrate one of their projects as "the best movie ever".
Warner desperately needs another franchise to replace Harry Potter. Rebooting the movies while Rowling is alive to cash checks will give them no end of grief.
Figure another 10 years before they try to reboot Harry Potter with a sequence of films made simultaneously with “The Cursed Child” playing timey-wimey games.
Of course, Netflix could beat them to the idea with what seems to be taking place in the “Army of the Dead” series.
72F and 97%RH this late morning… final rainfall at my house was 4.41 by my weather station, by the official creek station it was 4.76 inches. Looking at channel depths this morning, the huge bolus of water was absorbed by the system all the downstream monitors are in the green. The one most affected by our neighborhood rainfall peaked at 4am, up about a foot from the start.
Most of Houston got very little rain yesterday. Downtown got 0.0 inches. We got almost 5. That is Houston's crazy micro climates at work.
Looking at the radar, the t-storm line today is south of the city, moving NE and drifting E. When they train up, they tend to parallel the coast, and run diagonally from SW to NE, and often that line goes over both Lynn's and my house.
n
And congratulations to Lynn and the boss for 40 years of marriage. That is quite an accomplishment.
n
Also, "Cobra Kai" kinda-sorta works following a longer hiatus after the last film in that franchise. A lot of the 80s and 90s catalogs at the major studios are going to get a second look even if the product gets tossed out on streaming.
Credit Sony again.
Ha, ha. Jerry Rivers has COOOOOVVVVVIIIIID!
How does that humble pie taste?
After mocking and threatening the unvaxx'd/unclean, he is astounded. I guess he didn't get the word the mecho-gene-splicing pseudo vaccine doesn't keep you from getting COVID. Not a real vaccine until the CDC changed the definition of vaccine. He called it a pandemic of the unvaccinated in July last year. What say you now, dooshnozzle? He was *boosted*. Maybe he should have gotten three boosters.
Happy Anniversary, Mr. Lynn. MrsAtoz and I hit 31 years next month. Time flies when you are working your ass off.
Cheapskate. At least spring for the Blizzards at Dairy Queen. 🙂
SWMBO and I racked up 40 years last year (late July) It was a quiet affair – just a celebratory meal.
And as I repeatedly say, "I don't know how, or why, she puts up with me."
G.
We'll hit 50 this year
here – hold my beer.
So much for putting up with, on both sides.
Old joke. Change numbers as needed.
"Been married for 47 years. Happiest 20 years of my life."
Not recommended to state around your spouse. In most cases. In my case, it results in another eye-roll.
I also use the one Bob used, refer to her as your first wife. Never gets a laugh from her. Humorless.
Congratulations, Lynn and Mrs Lynn, and to all others. 🙂
Paul and I will celebrate 31 years this April. Another old joke:
We've been married 30 years. It feels like only 30 minutes …. underwater.
😉
Wife and d1 are headed home. Soon the pack will be whole again.
74F and DAMP. I moved my expy off the front lawn and back to the street. i'll probably still get a nastygram from the HOA for the 8 hours it was there. Depends if busybody was out "surveying the damage" or not.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10382715/Man-charged-buying-gun-Rittenhouse-takes-plea-deal.html
–and may have the felony charges dismissed without the deal. That would be the best result.
The article STILL tries to spin the facts, despite the very clear result of the trial.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10382127/Canadian-military-officer-calls-probe-ground-zero-Covid-outbreak-Wuhan-games.html
more conspiracy theory becoming conspiracy fact?
And no one thought to mention that when wuhan first entered the news as a hotspot of a new illness? hmmm.
Strange that.
n
We had another pile of snow last night – about 8 inches or so, but packed hard with lots of drifts. The Ego snowblower didn't do so well this time. In the past, I've been able to clear the whole driveway with 1-1/2 charges. This time, it took 4, and the batteries were behaving weirdly. One in particular would show as empty. I'd unplug it from the machine, wait a few seconds, plug it back in, and it would say 40% charge.
I've been keeping them in the garage, which doesn't freeze, but does get pretty cold. According to the manual, the batteries should be fine down to 0C (32F). But still, I brought them in to warm up before the last round, and they seemed to do better.
I'll try having them at room temperature for the next snow storm, and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise, well, the batteries have a 3-year guarantee…
Welcome to batteries in an Ice Age. Work great from 120 F to 32 F. Below that or above that, your life is gonna suck. Thermochemistry is an art, not a science. I prefer combustion type of chemical reactions.
And yes, Earth is in an Ice Age. An Ice Age is defined as when one or both of the poles are frozen. Only happens 11% of Earth’s supposed history.
Matrix was a brilliant move. The two sequels, ok but not as great. Making a fourth movie after all this time? Just an attempt to cash in on an old idea, rather than coming up with something new. I don't think I've read a single positive comment about the movie…
And they are already working on the fifth Matrix movie, HBO has a lot of money …
Ever since the Wachowski brothers became sisters, Hollywood has been ready to celebrate one of their projects as "the best movie ever".
Warner desperately needs another franchise to replace Harry Potter. Rebooting the movies while Rowling is alive to cash checks will give them no end of grief.
Figure another 10 years before they try to reboot Harry Potter with a sequence of films made simultaneously with “The Cursed Child” playing timey-wimey games.
Of course, Netflix could beat them to the idea with what seems to be taking place in the “Army of the Dead” series.
The Matrix four movie had a five minute preview of the next Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts 3 movie. Oh wait, it was only 2:37 minutes. Seemed liked five minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9dr2zw-TXQ
And congratulations to Lynn and the boss for 40 years of marriage. That is quite an accomplishment.
n
Thanks. All the honor goes to SWMBO (she who must be obeyed), she is an amazingly tolerant lady. I would have kicked my ass to the curb decades ago.
they are true believers and can't wait to pass along their mal-informed beliefs.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cdc-director-sheepishly-admits-justice-sotomayor-issued-covid-misinformation-hospitalized
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cdc-admits-61-teens-hospitalized-covid-19-had-severe-obesity
n
Not 'edibles' or 'cbd oil', COOKING oil…
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/edible-oil-prices-hit-record-high-food-inflation-worries-persist
Lotta people get their fats from cooking oil. I like peanut oil for almost everything, with a bit of avocado oil for salads in place of olive. I've got a mild allergy to olives.
Peanut oil with vitamin e added lasts a long time in the dark. It's also very reusable depending on what you cook in it and whether you overheat and burn it. I reuse for donuts several times. I keep a separate bottle for fish.
after the oil is mostly cool, I pour it thru a coffee filter, then into an old oil bottle. It flows better when warm, but is a bit more painful to handle. Right now oil is fairly cheap, but I believe in both practicing, and in being conservative.
n
Cheapskate. At least spring for the Blizzards at Dairy Queen.
I also gave her the Louis L'Amour autobiography as recommended here.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553057030//p?tag=ttgnet-20
The first "Fantastic Beasts" movie is tolerable if you don't mind the imitation Matt Smith "Doctor Who" using The Danish Girl in place of Smith because the real deal would have cost them money.
HBO Max *had* a lot of money under AT&T, but Stankey is cutting them loose with most of the debt the Death Star took on to buy the studio in the first place.
Michael Keaton’s Batman is going to be in *every* Warner flick next year.
Aquaman was in “Dune” but his character got bumped off and doesn’t return until the next book.
I’ll give them Aquaman. He was there to give credibility to one franchise canon legend about that character’s death and he delivered
I saw that discussion, thought that sounded like a good idea, and bought one for my mother to go in with her birthday presents. It's something a little off the beaten path.
@lynn
40 years
Happy anniversary – a walk together sounds perfect.
We hit 20 years recently. We started later than typical. I can’t help but wonder what our 40th could look like.
Re:Pellet Stoves.
My auger motor died last night. One year and one month on a 1 year warranty. I’d estimate less than 40 uses.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FAS2QDG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1%3C%2Fp%3E&tag=ttgnet-20
I’ve got some feelers out looking for OEM new-old-stock…the original motor lasted 30 years.
"Here We Go: New ‘Deltacron’ Strain Discovered Combines Delta and Omicron"
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/go-new-deltacron-strain-discovered-combines-delta-omicron/
Sounds ominous.
I've listened to a few more of the LL'M short story dramatic adaptation audio books. I've enjoyed every one. At about 30-40 minutes they are perfect for my drive to my client's house. I will run out of the ones I have in a few more drives. I might have to go looking for the rest.
Although I'm bidding on an estate lot with three Heinlein audio books, which would take up some of the time….
n
Sounds ominous.
–it is meant to.
n
Sam's run today. The soda aisle was totally out of 2 Liter bottles. Everything gone.
The aisle of late Christmas toy shipments seems to be expanding. Need a $30 "The Child" (Baby Yoda), complete with the requisite fake Williams-Sonoma cookies?
Just noticed this from the Pournelle's "Chaos Manor" Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JerryPournelleChaosManor/
The FB post has an image of the cover (movie poster?) .
RIP Dwayne Hickman. Many memories of his shows and movies.
@Nick
" I moved my expy off the front lawn and back to the street. i'll probably still get a nastygram from the HOA for the 8 hours it was there. Depends if busybody was out "surveying the damage" or not."
Water moved it.
Well, that is odd and ominous.
I have my dad's pc, which is one of the tiny 'deck of cards' very limited pcs. I like to play solitaire on it because it reminds me of him. Solitaire and yahoo chat with his cronies were his primary uses of the machine.
Anyway, he hated win10 and their flashy dumb ad riddled online solitaire. Just like everyone else does. So long ago I installed the package of win7 games that someone made work on win10.
I played solitaire last week. Then windows updated. and now that whole package is gone. Killed. No asking, no notification, just removed. Folder, start menu entry, everything. Like it was never there, even my saved games and running stats.
#FUKC BILL GATES AND MICROSOFT
MY MACHINE. NOT YOURS.
Sh!t like this is why I still hate on win10 despite what anyone else says. AND the spying. AND the forced "upgrade" to edge, which I don't use, want, or need, and can't afford the space for it. 32GB of 'drive ' space. 30GB left after formatting. 28GB of that filled with windows and other stupid MS stuff that won't install anywhere but the C drive.
So I reinstalled the package. F them.
n
___added — I’m not the only one, this vid shows
“Shows you how to install or reinstall Windows 7 versions of Games in Windows 10.
Games include, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Freecell, Hearts, Minesweeper, Mahjong, Purble Place, Chess.
This is handy if an update has removed these games”
Water moved it.
=Hah, like minds… I figured I'd tell them it floated up there and then attack them for not doing anything about flooding….
n
Interesting article about moving the fuselage of a B-52H Stratofortress from Tuscon AZ to Oklahoma City OK.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43784/heavy-traffic-a-b-52-bomber-is-being-trucked-across-the-central-united-states .
Includes lots of great aerial shots.
Any time limits on street parking?
If you've got some flood kills, I'd got out for an early morning run, chalk the tires of the HOA Stasi, and take a photo.
Same experience. What give MS the right to remove software from my machine? I downloaded again and reinstalled. I need Solitaire and Hearts when I am subbing at the school.
I go through the apps and remove as much of the MS stuff that I can. Seriously, why do I need X-Box apps? If I need them, I can install the apps. I also don't want Skype, Office (I have Office 2016, more than good enough), People, etc. Make that crap optional. I really just want the basic OS stuff and anything else I need I can install.
Ok, I played thru and it found my previous stats, so there is that. No saved games that I can see though.
User data is sacred. NO argument can be made for deleting it.
n
Interesting. The B-52 has long outlived its designed life and continues to be a useful airship. A real thumbs up to the designers of such a mammoth beast. I would have really liked to have seen the thing on its journey.
How awesome! I see the I10 sign at one intersection… surely they are not staying on the interstate? I will bookmark and watch the progress: We get a LOT of wide loads come right in front of our house because there's a low & narrow railroad bridge on the highway about 10 miles down. So we are on the detour.
Many huge pieces of equipment come past, going to places hundreds of miles away. They slow way down or even stop right out front to wait for power lines to be lifted out of the way, and to plan how they will negotiate the curve up ahead.
I saw a small fusilage the other day that was interesting mainly because it was completely shrouded. Nothing to obscure what it was, but it was all wrapped up.
@RickH
"Even with the inconvenience, people don't seem too put out by the operation. According to Purcell, they just seem excited if not stunned to see the iconic bomber on the road. "
Iconic is an understatement. There is no other piece of technology more responsible for keeping the world safe after WWII.
from the wiki entry:
"After being upgraded between 2013 and 2015, the last airplanes are expected to serve into the 2050s. "
A 100-year service life. We should levy a 99% tax on our pale sweaty billionaires just because they haven't an effing clue.
Thank you, General Curtis Lemay and all the others that had the duty, the drive, and the determination that was needed then and is so lacking now.
A recent (2011) bio is available from bookstores and Big River. I heard the author on with Dennis Miller about a decade ago driving somewhere out west.
UPDATE: Warren Kozak.
Unfortunately, these days, anyone alive from that time either remembers LeMay from his poorly-considered run for Vice President on the AIP ticket with George Wallace in 1968 or George C. Scott’s thinly veiled Jack D. Ripper character from “Doctor Strangelove”.
Amazingly, the AIP ticket received 46 electoral votes.
It's not as big, but there's a YouTube of moving a Canberra from Coventry to St Ives in the UK. They took the wings off, and loaded the airframe onto 3 big low-loaders.
The English Electric Canberra (and its licence-built clone the Martin B-57) was a 1950s-built medium jet bomber, and at one time held the world altitude record.
G.
Something really cool about watching the heavy lift guys at work.
n
Yes, he said, as he stays up way too late watching reruns of "Highway to Hell" TV series (about semi-truck recovery in snowy British Columbia) on the Weather Channel. There's supposed to be a new season (season 10) of that starting tonight (Sunday) on that channel. (Also available via streaming on Discovery Channel.) . Weather Channel does delayed broadcasts; they had a 'marathon' the past couple of days showing back episodes.
IMDB shows that season 10 already starting https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2390276/ . I'll probably stay up to late watching it.
I can understand why. I am stunned that it could sell for 200K. Seems a little high to me with my limited knowledge of real estate in that area. Looks like it needs a lot of work.
Pearland PD has a drone with thermal imaging…
The scanner has them surveilling someone in an airBNB who might be "waiting for a delivery"….
Hmmm.
n
The beginning.
n
Guy has handwriting like a third grader.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10384293/Florida-man-22-carrying-homemade-bomb-backpack-arrested-fleeing-January-6-protest.html
>> I played solitaire last week. Then windows updated. and now that whole package is gone. Killed. No asking, no notification, just removed. Folder, start menu entry, everything. Like it was never there, even my saved games and running stats.
@nick, given your specific use for this PC, would it make sense to just disconnect it from the internet?
Your papers please…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/bill-filed-washington-authorize-strike-force-involuntarily-detain-unvaccinated-families-already-set-internment-camps/
Well, the team is bringing in a drone operator to overfly the airBNB to see if the guy they're looking for is partying in the back of the house.
They id'd one of the females, got her instagram, she posted a video of herself, twerking in the hot tub, and several other people were visible. They're id'ing the ones they can see now.
Social media. Nothing good comes from it.
n
(and the cop described her as "really thick, she's big".)
Wow, drone operator was called in to work and already has the drone in the air and getting pictures. And they think they may have their guy.
One guy is speculating that the group is shooting a video. Very common for rap "artists" to rent a house and shoot there. Trash the place too when the party gets out of hand.
n
@alan, I could probably leave it off most of the time. I do log on and pull down his email periodically.
n
Team PD is pretty sure the guy they want is there, they are discussing a couple of females with a bag maybe leaving and whether they should take them down. They're worried about the "ladies" (those girls, at least two of them are whores, says one of the guys…) calling someone in Memphis. They have a confidential informant in Memphis that has been feeding false info to Memphis PD.
They decided to let anyone who leaves go… one guy suggested getting a warrant if the IP address of the instagram video comes back to the house.
Hmm, they can get the IP that an instagram video came from in almost real time…
n
>> Hmm, they can get the IP that an instagram video came from in almost real time…
That, and how many other 'battles' have we lost that we didn't even know we should have tried(?) to fight? How many tech stories do we see telling us a bunch of browser privacy settings to change, only to have them changed back with the next update. Might as well take down all your windows shades and make it easier for TPTB (you HOA folks are exempt though).
Well I was putting the kids to bed and the guy must have left the house… because I could hear a bunch of radio traffic, but when I got back to my office there was only one more mention of a vehicle and a plate number then no more traffic.
That's how it goes in the real world, as opposed to TV. You don't get the voice over telling you what happened.
Interesting little bit of traffic though.
n
@Rick, I watched a bunch of these guys recovering vehicles out in the mountains and the desert
https://www.youtube.com/c/MattsOffRoadRecovery
And they're pretty entertaining.
n
I was wrong, they were still watching the house, just being very quiet on the radio. The lead guy pulled them all back to a gas station to talk to them in person, and now I haven't heard anything for a long time. Guess they called it a night.
Oh, and they got the one guy's socials… 10 instagram accounts, 2 still active, one where he says 'he's turning himself in on Monday morning but he'll be back before you know it…"
Memphis isn't NYC, I wouldn't be so sure….
n