Cold again, and clear. Got pretty chilly last night, it was 40F at 11pm and got colder. Which is good, as I had food in coolers outside, because I don’t have room for it in the freezers or fridges. All pre-cooked, nothing raw.
HUGE pile of stuff moving to the BOL, and it’s only the beginning and the basics.
HUGE pile of stuff still to move. Current plan is wife takes the loaded minivan, I load tools in my pickup and pull a small trailer (5×8) that is loaded up. I’ll either try to make another round trip, coming home Sunday night, then loading and driving with the trailer back up Monday, only to return the trailer in Houston Monday afternoon, and drive up with the loaded pickup on Tuesday, or I’ll call for an extra day and stretch that out by a day. Either way, I’m back and forth a couple of times in the next few days.
I don’t know why anyone (**wife** **cough**) is surprised by the amount of stuff, it’s like moving a whole household (eventually). I think in her mind it’s like going to a B&B, or a vacation rental, where all the stuff is already there. Nope. They did leave some stuff, but we won’t be sure what until we get there, and it’s not going to be linens and silverware.
Add the tools to do the work needed, and the beginning of some preps, and it’s a HUGE pile of stuff.
It doesn’t all have to go up this week but we are supposed to live there for that time.
No internet or cell service on site is going to make posting here problematic.
My current plan is to set up some automatic posts to get the day started. If I can, I’ll edit those to be more relevant but they’ll at least be up. I won’t be commenting during the day much, so play nice. I should be able to get some internet at some point, and when I’m home between trips. One of the first things I will be doing is trying out a couple of cell boosters and that may solve the issue. We’ll see, I guess.
I’m dreading the work, but excited for the opportunity.
Y’all get your stuff stacked up!
nick
Oh yeah, since it’s been almost exactly two years, I’m dropping the wuflu tag from here on, unless the post or comments actually have something to do with wuflu. Like maybe Justin Bieber’s young and fit wife being hospitalized with a sudden ‘brain injury’.
It is 34 F out here on the West side of the Brazos River. The dog and cat went outside, the cat stayed out for 20 minutes. There is a lot of frost on the roof and the backyard. Unreal temperatures for middle March in south Texas.
Cold here in Conroe, 27f according to the thermostat in the house. A smart thermostat gets weather information from somewhere. Will be staying here today with the departure for San Antonio tomorrow morning. Hope to leave early, maybe by 6:30 to avoid some of the Houston traffic. Will probably get routed down I45, I610 around over to I10, then on to San Antonio. With a stop at Bus-EE's should be about a six hour trip.
@Nick: Good Luck, stay safe working at a new place.
You may have already tried this, but repurposing an old satellite TV dish, pointed at the best local cell tower with a phone at the focus might give you some phone/internet reception.
With Verizon and an iPhone there is even a utility that shows signal strength in db, or used to be. Not sure if it’s carrier dependent.
Android devices can download SatStat from FDroid. One of the screens displays cell tower and nearby WiFi signal strength.
Rural areas of Texas tend to have lousy reception unless the carrier is AT&T thanks to a combination of legacy Cellular One and SW Bell tower sites. Even then, things can be iffy outside of a town environment.
If you haven't seen Buc-ee's during a holiday period, be prepared for the madness.
Spring Break + SxSW + March Madness. Plus, Luling is a Central Texas BBQ mecca, and this is the first March in two years to not feature mask kabuki outside of the Socialist strongholds in Austin and San Antonio proper.
The Chipotle where I took my son last night still has mask required signs up at the entrance, being within the city limits, but no one was playing along except for the staff.
The Fedex nearby finally got rid of their signs and stopped enforcing the kabuki rigidly. They will still look at you weird if you walk in without a mask, but enforcement was probably hurting business.
Well a combo of things means a late start today.
@Ray, Sunday traffic in Houston should have been very light.
This being older is hell on a body. I'm sore and didn't do anything beyond lifting and toting.
I better start hustling.
31F early this am, 63F atm.
n
"I just had a chance to meet with the ambassador from the EU. We talked about the fact that you’re seeing the continued rise of authoritarians and thugs across the world. And we have our own, right here, in the state of Texas."
I like it when Butto shoots himself in the foot. After the retracting the “damn right we’re gonna take your AR15s”, he should look in the mirror.
I think, could be wrong, if you run for office and collect a pile of campaign donations, what is left after the election goes in your pocket.
So Burrito Beto (white on the outside, full of brown stuff inside) can make all the noise and promises he wants as long as the rubes keep giving him that sweet sweet cash.
Win or lose, his bank account wins.
Spouting off at SxSW is free publicity.
On stage at SxSW with the founder of the Texas Tribune. Robert Francis had a like minded interviewer throwing softball questions in front of a receptive audience, with coverage provided by … The Texas Tribune.
The Dems are maintaining a proud tradition of loon candidates for Governor in Texas.
And, as this situation illustrates, The Texas Tribune is no more objective as a source of information than The Gateway Pundit.
Robert Francis never has to worry about where his next meal is coming from. His father-in-law, William Sanders, is a filthy rich real estate developer.
Sanders is either a billionare or 100-millionare depending on who is doing the counting, but, regardless, Robert Francis hasn't had to sweat a real job since marrying Sanders' daughter, Amy.
BTW, what brown stuff on the inside? He’s fourth generation pure Irish-American, mostly Texas born but with a small detour in the family tree through Georgia.
Arlo And Janis: Lost An Hour Of Sleep
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2022/03/13
Arlo ain't lying.
Good article has side by side picture comparisons demonstrating "shrinkflation" in consumer products:
https://allnewspipeline.com/Shocking_Visual_Essay_Of_Mass.php
Really? He's full of BS.
Doh! I thought you meant Robert Francis O'Rourke's Mexican heritage.
(Hint: not a drop)
I don't have a speck of Mexican and when I lived in the Valley random folks would walk up speaking what passes for Spanish there.
I tan real brown. 🙂
Well, finally off.
Robo post tomorrow am, most likely.
Talk amongst yourselves…
n
>> Good article has side by side picture comparisons demonstrating "shrinkflation" in consumer products:
https://allnewspipeline.com/Shocking_Visual_Essay_Of_Mass.php
So it appears that the term "shrinkflation," in terms of consumer products, came into use in 2015, so they've had plenty of practice doing this.
https://www.pfhub.com/shrinkflation-coke-pepsi-shrinking-soda-cans-and-cost-more-1555/
Buddy doesn't like me being out of his sight. Silly beagle. Are all beagles so clingy? He howls and barks and wants outside right now if I go somewhere. He seems to know driveway announcer. I can tie him out on the side porch and he's cool while I'm doing whatever.
Ok.
I need cat food. A few bags of salt for the water softener would be handy. Plus a bag of dog food. Tractor Supply offers "curb side pickup". No charge.
Salt is a buck or so less per bag at Wally World but they don't like folks bringing in dogs.
Six bags of cat food, four of salt, and the dog food deleted because what's the deal with $18 to ship to store and an $18 credit?
I'm somehow a "Preferred Plus Neighbor". It seems complicated. You get a birthday gift of some kind and a couple of days of free trailer rental. We /have/ trailers already.
You want to use the home made 4×6'ish? Or the 6+ wide x 10 or 12 with the drop gate? Ain't much but it'll carry a Yanmar tractor or a Mahindra Max. Or the cow hauler that's big enough to carry four critters? Tarp that sucker up and it's almost a like a U-Haul enclosed trailer. With Nick's moving stuff that would be right up his alley but he has to come get it. And bring it back.
I liked the old e-mails with 10% off your purchase. That was simple.
I'll cover the passenger seat of the truck with an old blanket and take goofy dog along. I can pick-up a bag of dog food then. One bag in a cart or on my shoulder compered to all the rest /and/ with a beagle sniffing everything and hopefully not peeing all over the place? Yeah, Curb Side it is.
The Plan is to take crushed cans and some other scrap to the recycle place. Then to Tractor Supply. Maybe to Dairy Queen for some french fries. Depends on how he acts and traffic. Got to spoil the mutt, right?
What took so long??
https://www.nfl.com/news/buccaneers-qb-tom-brady-announces-i-m-coming-back-for-23rd-season-in-tampa
And the latest in news for Wyoming preppers…
https://apnews.com/article/technology-lander-wyoming-animals-lifestyle-47a2c9bc266d5b52f724fd2126bfc366
Something was up. Gronk didn't retire, and his shoe commercials still feature Raymond James Stadium as a backdrup.
All but two of those names on the wall in the commercial gave "The American Underdog" a miserable afternoon twenty years ago, nearly ending the legend before it began but for one blown call. Six interceptions IIRC, including the first play of the game.
I doubt that's an accident.
What took so long??
https://www.nfl.com/news/buccaneers-qb-tom-brady-announces-i-m-coming-back-for-23rd-season-in-tampa
Well, the Houston Texans still have their problem child.
The owner isn't going anywhere.
The owner isn't going anywhere.
The owner is inexperienced and too trusting, not a problem child.
RIP.
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/william-hurt-dead-kiss-of-the-spider-woman-1235203576/
Within the last decade, Hurt did a really decent Richard Feynman for BBC Scotland in "The Challenger". If you are a Feynman junkie, I'd rate it as a must see both for the performance and the dramatized revelation about Feynman's role in the investigation being more about protecting Sally Ride's soup bowl … pun intended … after Ride's role as the source of the O ring leak was revealed publicly after she passed and that part of the story could be told.
Hurt's Feynman decided that he could live with protecting Ride with his reputation in the end. Unfortunately, that scene is not on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D30_3JlDfzk
“Broadcast News” is way too non-PC to play for Hurt’s obit real.
obit *reel*.
And, yes, I know — my icon wasn't right again.
It still isn’t right with this post.
@Greg:
…. Because you didn't use the email address that is associated with your 'icon' (avatar). Your entry of your email address is sometimes dyslexic ('….rotn' and '….rton') (and other variations).
All bets are off with regard to my typing if I am not on my ThinkPad.
"Greg Rotten" sounds like the villain in a children's TV show.
"Putin's forces strike close to Nato border: Explosions are heard in Ukraine's western city of Lviv that is haven for refugees fleeing war-torn nation as 30 Russian missiles hit military base and kill 35 just 12 MILES from Poland"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10607611/Putins-forces-strike-close-Nato-border-Russia-targets-military-base-20-miles-Poland.html
I've been wondering if Russia was going to go after NATO troops and supplies in Poland since they are supplying Ukraine. Looks like Russia is working up their nerve to do so.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
"Is This What Peak Oil Feels Like?" By Mike Jonas
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/12/is-this-what-peak-oil-feels-like/
"We are in a strange and rather alarming situation right now, in which major political forces are at work trying to prevent oil exploration, development and production in western nations. Not just oil, though, the attack is on all fossil fuels so it includes coal and gas. Even if the attack was on just oil it would be bad enough. The oil price (both WTI and Brent) is already above $US100 per barrel, reflecting the fact that oil demand is relatively inflexible so price reacts quickly to variations in supply. (Russia’s attack on Ukraine is playing a part, too, though the fate of Ukraine is a lot more important than oil)."
"This article is titled “Is this what Peak Oil feels like?“, because an inability of oil producers to increase the rate of supply, no matter whether the reason was political or geological, would produce just such a high oil price. What the attack on fossil fuels has done is to bring forward the date on which the inability to keep increasing the rate of supply of oil pushes up the price of oil. The high oil price and the consequent stress on global economies is just what one would expect to happen eventually if ‘something better and cheaper‘ does not start replacing oil."
The price of oil is extremely elastic.
The supply of oil is incredibly inelastic.
Peak oil? Given the turmoil with the Ukraine, I find a price of $100/bbl to be surprisingly low. That threshold has often been broken, even more often if you account for inflation.
Gas prices are up everywhere, and no one seems to really know why. Filling up our old car (the new one isn't here yet) now costs nearly $100, and it's only a RAV/4 with a 16 gallon tank. Oil prices have been this high before, but not gasoline/diesel prices. Yet it's not clear (or at least, not openly known), just where that comes from.
We will sure be glad when the Ioniq 5 arrives, and we get "gas" from our solar cells. That's going to make quite a difference in the budget.