Good weather today, clear and while starting off cool, getting to shirt-sleeves weather. Now, that’ll bring the rain… Yesterday was like that, with occasional and local overcast. Everywhere else got a nice sunny day.
I’ll laugh and sing if I want to, too. People can come along or not.
Did my pickups. One advent calendar, Lego, check. One squishmellow, check. Pump for the BOL. Some tools that I was looking at online but yesterday found for no money in a thrift store. Set of nice kitchen knives including Henkels and Kyocera ceramics from the same store. Fun fact, you can clean up the small nicks in your ceramic blades, and sharpen them, with a diamond “stone”. I use an inexpensive flat plate with diamond dust impregnated to quickly clean the edge and put the bevel back. Easy and keeps a midly expensive blade working longer. Digital handheld scanner, new in box. Don’t know if I’ll keep it or flip it. Some other stuff for here and for there ended up in my truck too.
Dinner was from a local japanese takeout. I STILL haven’t found anyone who makes a katsudon. CRAVING IT. This place has a katsu plate which is not the same thing at all.
I love western culture and living in a first world country. I’m going to miss it even more than I’m already starting to in the coming years.
Today I’m doing auction stuff, organizing and testing mostly. Then pickup D1 from school and go shopping for books. I’m NOT taking her to B&N. We’re hitting the thrifts and maybe Half Price Books. Passing our culture to the next generation is important. My culture reads books. Lots of books.
Speaking of books, picked up one nursing book and one on steam generation and steam power, emphasis on theory and practice, written for the skilled trades in the late 1800s. Realized that I can move a good chunk of my reference library to the BOL! MOAR BOOKS!!!!
Peter at BayouRenaissanceMan notes that there is a list of prescription drugs that .gov lists as being in short supply. I posted to a similar list before wuflu, but it’s here somewhere. Be interesting to see what’s changed. One other use is to see if your Doc is substituting an available but less effective med for the one that would be preferred, if it were more widely available. Work the system and get extra of what you need. Expect to pay for them yourself. You are worth it.
And for Pete’s sake, and for your own, stack stuff up.
n
re discussion of political moderates, don't forget the people who just want to be left alone. They'll complain that taxes are too high, the roads are bad, and that politicians just can help but sticking their noses in where they aren't needed, but they'll mostly just live their lives. They'll get pissed off at either side equally for making themselves unignorable: if conservatives blunder into a foreign war or if liberals blunder into a foreign war or if either gets too much in the way of people living their lives. For the past couple decades it's mostly been the liberal side being annoying, but in the past the right was the offender.
The "leave me alone"ers probably have some vague leanings one way or the other but probably won't get involved in politics beyond voting once in a while … until someone won't leave them alone.
How do we categorize these people? They're not "middle of the road" in trying steer a compromise path between the extremes. They're not "independents" who almost always vote for the Democrat candidate.
61F and pretty dang damp this am. "Time to make the donuts…"
n
It isn't the doctor making the substituions, it is your insurance company and pharmacy, particularly "CVS Healthcare".
Though I suspect the HEB pharmacy mis-dosed one renewal for my BP pills.
I meant to link this yesterday…
74% Of Americans Think They Will Be Involved In A War Within 12 Months
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/74-americans-think-they-will-be-involved-war-within-12-months
–these sorts of things can be self-fulfilling prophesies.
— reality check against the possibility of being in an echo chamber.
n
The most egregious of these people was our own plugsy McSpongeBrain, the President of the United States of America. “You’ll die without the vax” “You won’t get sick if you get the vax” “You don’t need to mask if you get the vax” “You can get back to your life if you get the vax”
And on the CDC, don’t forget they stealth edited the meaning of vaccination. Gee, I wonder why after all of these years.
Quick stop at WalMart on the way home from work yesterday. Most things were stocked to normal levels, though the shredded cheese cooler stock was low. I did a price comparison of a couple items purchased yesterday and in September 2021.
Coffee Creamer – $5.19 both dates.
Bag of shredded ColbyJack cheese – $5.34 both dates.
Dunkin Caramel flavored coffee – $6.78 September 2021, $7.72 yesterday (actually increased in December). 13.86% increase.
Ice Cubes gum – $2.98 September 2021, $3.48 yesterday. 16.78% increase.
A small sample set, but still some data points.
I wish WalMart would let you download a csv of all your purchases. It would make price comparing much easier. Wait, I think I know why you can't do it…
Don't forget the winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated. Considering the way things actually played out, did they try to backtrack on that, memory hole it, or claim credit for deaths not being as bad as the senile kiddie fondler predicted? I haven't been paying attention.
Aren't trains one of the most efficient ways of transporting goods? Like, pounds of cargo per gallon of diesel?
Chad, that question comes down to "yes, but", with a lot of qualifiers. Pushers of train transport leave out the energy involved in getting the freight to the trainhead and loading semitrailers or containers onto and off of the flatbeds. If a semi is transported by truck, simply hook up the tractor and drive directly where you want to go. Train pushers also don't include the energy and other cost involved in maintaining the tracks. True, there's also maintenance required for roads but the roads can be used for many other purposes, which defrays the cost when it comes to freight transport.
That’s an excellent point, and there are likely a *lot* of people like that. Politics is more and more intrusive, and eventually the leave-me-aloners will be forced to get involved.
“re discussion of political moderates, don’t forget the people who just want to be left alone. They’ll complain that taxes are too high, the roads are bad, and that politicians just can help but sticking their noses in where they aren’t needed, but they’ll mostly just live their lives.
That’s an excellent point, and there are likely a *lot* of people like that. Politics is more and more intrusive, and eventually the leave-me-aloners will be forced to get involved.”
This +1,000,000.
I suppose there's variation depending on what's being transported. For consumer goods, it has to get offloaded from the container ship in Long Beach (for example), loaded onto a train, transported, offloaded onto trucks, then driven to the final destination (give or take a warehouse layover or two). However, for coal, it is loaded directly onto trains, transported directly to the power plants, and dumped into those huge coal piles you see. So, the latter is probably a lot more efficient than the former.
I guess they’re only moderates or Independents as far as the MSM and various campaigns are concerned if they’re voting. If they are just not participating at all, then they basically don’t count to anyone as they cast no vote one way or the other. Which probably why so many polling results start off with, "In a recent poll of registered voters who say they plan on voting this November…"
I got a call that was a hit piece disguised as a political poll.
Question one- how likely are you to vote? Very Likely, somewhat likely, likely, maybe won't, def won't…
Answer One- I am going to vote.
Sir, are you Very Likely, somewhat…
Me- stop! I AM VOTING. None of those answers are AM VOTING. Use your brains.
??but sir???
VERY LIKELY.
Question Two- how likely are you to vote for Lacey Hull if you learned that she had an affair with a staffer?
F#ck you. I don't care who she sleeps with.
Are you very unlikely, somewhat unlikely….
STOP. I will vote for her.
Good by sir.
n
She also led off by saying the "poll" would only take one minute. you can hardly recite the very, somewhat, etc in one minute, so the whole thing was most likely to plant the idea she's a whore in peoples' minds.
Seeing things like this is WHY I take the calls.
n
Actually it is large ships that are most efficient. However getting a ship to Phoenix is still a major problem.
With regard to road maintenance, damage to roads is a power function of weight. IIRC, 80% of road damage is attributed to trucks.
I’m looking forward to sharing the road with 40 tons driverless trucks running on algorithms written by the same folks that brought us every buggy pos software that has blue-screened, “unexpectedly” failed, lost the printer, and bloated 10000% while struggling to find a doubling of functionality.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10517519/Bob-Sagets-family-trying-prevent-details-cause-death-public.html
I wonder what the real story behind his death is? Surely he didn't have dirt on Hillary or Bill…
Autoerotic asphixiation, I'll bet.
I used to have an ongoing competition to come up with the most pointless or embarrassing way to be killed. (My favorite, which was my own: Picking your nose while driving when all of a sudden the airbag deploys for no reason, driving your finger into your brain and killing you.) I stopped that a while ago partly because of being busy and partly because real life kept exceeding imagination.
@SteveF, that one about airbags makes a point few imaginations would imagine. 🙂
He was probably up to something kinky, but the family needs the royalty stream from "Full House" to continue undiminished by a scandal. MeTV just picked up the series.
It is actually a bit of an inconvenient drive to go from Saget’s last venue on the Universal Orlando property to the hotel where he was found, the Ritz Carlton.
The producers of "How I Met Your Mother" destroyed the syndication value of their series, much like the show runners of the original "The Wonder Years". Saget’s voice work there is probably returning limited revenues.
He was still getting paid as Exec Producer on the reboot too. which I've mentioned the kids love.
n
My first thought was "covid shot" –> brain aneurysm, but the massive impact thing is def weirder.
"Hey Robin, so I tried this one little trick… and now I'm here!"
n
Probably more like, "Hey, David Carradine, remember that trick you told me about with the ropes? Darndest thing …"
I don’t know what Saget’s politics were, but the former Orlando Police Chief, Val Demings, is the favorite to take on Little Marco for the US Senate seat from FL. Any ties will be exploited and information leaked.
Val Demings husband is the current Orange County “Mayor” if the Ritz is outside the city limits, which is possible.
(T)he death of Canadian democracy
Things could be getting sporty sooner than we think–and not just in Canada.
— the horribly obscure word that no one could possibly know?? Caulk.
FFS.
I guess the Obamma era “Cash for Caulkers” program didn’t make much impression on the babies playing wordle.
n
Lacey Hull is a Republican, and Texas has quasi-open primaries. It could be a primary challenger or the Dems making trouble.
That reminds me — I haven't seen any George P. (Diddly) Bush for Attorney General commercials.
"US accuses financial website of spreading Russian propaganda"
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-coronavirus-pandemic-health-moscow-media-ff4a56b7b08bcdc6adaf02313a85edd9
"WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies."
"The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia."
Yup, a continual attack on the conservative media. Is there any constitutional amendment that this administration has not attacked yet ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
March 9 headed to Texas for possibly one last trip. Nephew, a state trooper, living in Orange may be reassigned to Brenham which will change our plans slightly. We will be stopping in Baytown, Pearland, Conroe, San Antonio, Boerne, Austin, Round Rock, Bryan and Valley Mills. Some of the stops will be overnight, some for just a few hours. Valley Mills and Bryan are the longest at two days and three days.
Driving of course in the Cowboy Cadillac. Wife wants to visit her mother's gravesite to make certain the stone is correct. We are visiting her nephews and a niece, her brother, a friend in San Antonio. I will visit my brother in Valley Mills.
Long trip as we don't plan on getting back until the 23rd of March.
Of course we will experience fine dining at Whataburger and Taco Cabana. Will avail ourselves of the Buc-ee's in Katy and use the car wash. Katy will not be the only Buc-ee's we visit. Their BBG pork sandwiches are actually quite good.
And in other news. I have been to the VA audiology center five times for my right hearing aid that quits working. Once it was sent to Denver who screwed up the programming. Two times to have the receiver replaced. Another time it was sent back to the manufacturer and only worked for a couple of months. The VA refuses to replace. This time it was sent back to the manufacturer asking them to replace all the electronics. In my mind that is basically the device. The manufacturer finally said they would replace the entire hearing aid with a new device. I guess there is some kind of warranty that the VA has to use as I do not have access to that information.
I told the VA this time that since I am allowed to lose one hearing aid within three years that the VA will replace, if this does not fix the problem I will lose this hearing aid and let the VA replace the device at their cost. I suspect that may have motivated the VA to get the manufacturer to replace. Or not. Maybe even under warranty. Maybe under some other power as the VA buys thousands of these devices from the manufacturer.
LOL to the nth power:
WH Covid team’s announcement gives a clue to just how disastrous Biden/Dems’ internal polling must be
Will plugs drop the Federal mask mandate? Me says Noooooooooo! Must control the sheeple. He'll wait until all "57" states drop mandates and then "follow the science".
You will either have a nice new expanded highway to drive on to get to Valley Mills ……. or you will need to plan an extra 30 minutes for wait time somewhere on the route for the one-lane-wait-for-pilot-car construction that has been going on along that highway for the past year.
When I went through Valley Mills last week, I managed to hit the one-lane-wait-for-pilot-car right through downtown bookended by both school zones in action. The elementary made it particularly painful… about 150 cars had to go past before we were led on, and then the reduced speed continued all the way out of town. There were only about 20 cars on our side, as we weren't leaving school. 😉
Cute little town, though. That Mexican restaurant (Los Verdes?) is one of the best I've eaten at for lunch. And have to love a place that puts a big "Home of Donnie Sadler" billboard at its little league ball field! 🙂
You'll pass at least four more Buc-ee's. They are all pretty much the same except New Braunfels, which features 200 gas pumps and the largest store building IIRC.
Katy has the "world's longest car wash".
Oops. A plugin update took away the submit button for comments. Back now.
Please resume your regularly scheduled snarky comments. Or any other ones.
The mask mandates will stay through the midterms.
Fixed the bad plugin. (OK, it was mine. It's the one that blocks bots from commenting.)
All should work OK now.
Unless you are a bot trying to submit comments. For you, not so much.
Possibly until Speaker of the House Trump starts the hearings.
Soon that will no longer be true. The Buc-ee's being constructed in Sevierville TN will be the largest Buc-ee's and the largest convenience store in the country. It will only have 120 pumps. It will be a disaster on one of the busiest intersections in TN. The main entrance to The Smokey Mountains, Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. Traffic will be backed up on the highway and possibly the interstate. There were better locations further off the interstate. The current location is owned by some indian tribe and that is the primary reason it was chosen. A "woke" decision. Although certainly better than choosing because the skin color of the owner matched the predominant skin color in the NBA and NFL. Since the land is indian owned the owners can do just about anything they want with little or no input by the state or county.
I checked Google maps and there are large traffic backups in the area. The construction is alive and well with lots of shovel leaners on highway 6. The road my brother lives joins highway 6 south of Valley Mills so it may not be much of an issue.
We are staying in an AirBnB (a first for us) that is located off highway 6 but further north into town. We will encounter the traffic when we head to the lodging for the night. It should be outside of school hours so there is hope.
There are really no hotels or (ugh) motels in Valley Mills. Waco is the closest for hotels and for some reason were quite costly, $200 a night and up. I no longer stay in lodging where the room doors are exterior entrances. I am not going to spend $200 a night unless it cannot be avoided.
There have been improvements on that stretch of road, but you really don't want to be travelling there on a Friday afternoon. Traffic backs up for miles. I still drive through there a couple times a year. I might just start taking 25W to avoid that section of interstate.
Yes. We couldn't get a rate under $300 a night in Waco a couple years ago when we needed to stay over for an early medical thing. We ended up staying at the Atria Hotel in MacGregor. Nice hotel with inside hallways. Super clean room. I think is was around $100 which was certainly fair. They also have RV parking on the premises.
The Beaver is not woke. He drives a hard bargain when it comes to subsidies and tax breaks.
The Pensacola Buc-ee's is actually just across the state line in Alabama. This was done to get Florida's mind right about gimmies even though the freeway exit lacked a lot of necessary infrastructure that was available at the next exit on the Florida side of the line, where the store was originally planned. Once the state gave The Beaver what he wanted, the long-delayed construction on the Daytona Beach store commenced.
The current head game with Florida is over the Fort Myers site which has been on again/off again for nearly five years.
https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/buc-ees-cancels-plans-for-huge-gas-station-store-in-fort-myers/
Baylor basketball is expected to contend, and the first two rounds of NCAA for the region is in Fort Worth.
UT just got demolished last weekend in Waco. The alumni can’t fire basketball *and* football after only a year for each coach … or can they?
Doesn't matter to me. I know a route through backroads that will dump me out in Pigeon Forge well past a lot of the traffic. Takes a little longer, some narrow roads, but overall saves time. I also know some back roads in Pigeon Forge that will get me past some of the traffic. Gatlinburg is another story.
UT can and does. Oh, wait, you are talking about the "other" UT.
A pox on Turbotax. Cretins have rejected my return twice because they are not doing something correct on their servers dealing with calculations. My donations this year are about 8K over 60% of my adjusted gross income. We donated a lot this year because of the windfall inheritance.
I entered all the numbers correctly to match the documentation and paperwork that I have. Need to make certain my return is correct and matches in case of an audit. But Turbotax is doing something wrong. Last time I tried to file the return was rejected. The second time it was rejected and the solution was to paper file. Uh, no.
So I deleted one organization to which we donated entirely. The other organization I reduced the amount I donated to get below the 60% AGI threshold. I still get the same amount back as my donations were limited. But I basically had to lie on the return to get it accepted.
I guess if I get audited I can explain what I did and why. If the IRS auditor wants to restore the full donation it will not make a difference in the amount I get refunded. So maybe they won't care. Or the fact that I lied on the return, a federal crime, I could get sent to prison for 1-10 years. If I were to get an anal orifice auditor looking to make a name for shimself, the next 365+ meals would be at taxpayer expense.
This message needs to self-destruct in 10 seconds.
I forgot about your UT.
Texas alumni never liked the basketball coach they "encouraged to depart" last year, not long after firing the football coach over 7-4 and a mid-tier bowl game invitation.
Don't bet on that. If you have the means they expect you to pay them back.
@Ray Thompson
"Since the land is indian owned the owners can do just about anything they want with little or no input by the state or county."
If the traffic backs up on the interstate the response should be a temporary closing of the exit for new construction. Shouldn't take more than two years–rush job, yanno.
"How Magical Thinking Led America To $30 Trillion In Debt"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewtisch/2022/02/15/how-magical-thinking-led-america-to-30-trillion-in-debt/?sh=5b21a9006118
"In the Wizarding World of Washington, you can now say a multitrillion dollar federal spending bill "costs zero dollars." You can claim tax cuts “pay for themselves.” You can even say the government doesn’t need tax dollars to fund anything at all because it can just “create money.”"
Bunch of liars and thieves !
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Watched the Tucker Carlson segment, and when you put it like that….
Holy cr@p. Innocuous sounding words and a flat delivery and BAM. Pretty sweeping control of the population.
n
>> Actually it is large ships that are most efficient. However getting a ship to Phoenix is still a major problem.
Should be less of a problem once California falls into the ocean. Straight shot then down I-10 for some of those driverless semis.
>> The "leave me alone"ers probably have some vague leanings one way or the other but probably won't get involved in politics beyond voting once in a while …
Maybe they're afraid of the outcome if we had 100% turnout for every election.
Does the government up north really want to put people in a position where they have nothing to lose anymore?
Once Psaki leaves and the same thing starts here, we’re gonna get the lies dispensed by the gay Hatian woman with a similar flat delivery.
Well, if you wanted to start a bank run, telling people you are going to seize their bank accounts would be a fine way to do it.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/happening-canadas-banks-right-now/
And if you were a bank, and heard your government say something like that and still wanted to have somewhere to work next week, you might just shut off peoples' access to their accounts to keep them from leaving…. like so many have before, with just exactly the opposite effect.
Who had "Canada crashes worldwide banking" in February? Anyone?
n