Rainy and wet, with an unknown number of bad things happening overnight. Unknown because I was asleep, and if I don’t directly experience it, it must not have happened, right? Oh, yeah, that’s not how my team thinks.
Spent the day doing auction stuff, while waiting for septic service guys and foundation repair guys to call back. The good news is I have an appointment to meet the septic guy on site – Thursday. I can even sleep in my own bed, and drive up there for the meeting. And if the toilets flush and the shower drains flow, I might stay up there and work. If I can get the foundation guy there during that time, I’ll feel like king of the world.
Today is pickups and a lot of driving around. Lots of stuff for the new house, some ham/radio stuff to use and to resell, and various bits and pieces. I have an item that I sold 16 days ago, shipped USPS Priority Mail, and it still hasn’t been delivered. It showed as “unknown” until today when it popped back up in the system in St. Louis. Hopefully it will be delivered in a day or two. The buyer has been very patient. He didn’t even let me know it wasn’t there yet until a couple of days ago. I was going to ship replacements today, but since it popped up, he said to hold off on that. Mail is getting weirder, and not just for me.
Breakdowns in previously reliable services are just one of the signs of a slow collapse. If it’s really happening, you’ll be responsible for more and more of what USED to be provided by others, or you’ll have to be content with whatever you get, whenever you get it. Think about the systems and what you can do to replace them or smooth the ups and downs. I’ll look at this in a bit more detail later but my mind is foggy today.
Stack stuff you will need for infrastructure or services, even if you don’t put it into use today. Stack it high.
n
I saw a post about a couple of surveys that was kind of amusing.
They asked people one question. But there were two versions of the question, and they compared the responses. I'm paraphrasing, but basically:
or
Amusing but expected: the first question was overwhelmingly "yes", while the second was overwhelmingly "no". The point of this was to point out how little people actually think about issues. Imposing a no-fly zone means shooting down Russian aircraft, so of course that would be seen as an act of war. Providing massive quantities of munitions is already treading a very fine line…
Currently 70F and raining. Lots of quick and small lightning flashes.
Funny that I took a week off of sitting in this chair and typing, but as soon as I started back up, my RSI in my wrist started right back up. It's the opposite of carpal tunnel, but the symptoms are similar. Main cause was years of running a staple gun in Hollywood, but it's aggravated by mousing around and typing.
Probably also the changes in weather don't help.
Little aches and pains, they're like trading cards for the old…
n
Looking at the radar, the line of storms is moving diagonally from SW to NE and the whole freaking line is passing over my neighborhood. Again. Like usual.
Everything from downtown east should be fine. Well, except that all the rain falling on the NW ends up running down thru Houston to the SE… flooding as it goes.
n
Thunderstorms and hail in Katy at 6:00 AM. Quite dramatic.
Other than DoD contractor C-suites and pinheads like the advisory board at my last job — which, BTW, includes a few names who signed that letter stating that Hunter's laptop was a hoax — who in the US really wants a war where we shoot at Russians?
That part of the world has 1000 year grudges only the people who live there completely understand. The last 25 years of Dems poking around in places like Ukraine and Kosovo have brought us nothing but grief.
And I saw a story the other day that the Chinese haven't forgotten the accidental embassy bombing. If we don't understand European the grudges, we *really* don't get the Asian thought process wrt that kind of situation. I gave up on ever comprehending more than about 1/4 of what the in-laws got revved up about when we lived in WA State, but I learned how to smack 'em figuratively if they stepped across a line.
That's brilliant! I'd no idea they made such a thing.
Ergonomics are your friend! A new chair, a new posture, or a new keyboard might do the trick.
I manage a lot of that by holding the keyboard in my lap, leaning back with legs stretched out and propped up, so that my arms & wrists are both straight and supported, and shoulders relaxed.
The newest thing is my doctor wants me to have the monitor up at eye level so that my neck is not bent. I may have to get a wireless keyboard to attach to the laptop, to accomplish that.
Big rain and crashing thunder with tiny hail, but then it blew thru. Sun is poking out, and it's just distant rumbling…
My rain gauge says 1.8inches since midnight.
the local flood gauge says 1.78 inches in last 24hrs.
We have several of the Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse kits sold at Sam's for ~ $40. They work well, even with bus-powered KVM switches.
I plug one into the USB-C dock we have for various Thunderbolt/Lightning capable machines around the house. Zero problems using MacOS, Linux, or Windows.
I note the violence, shooting, soft rioting, and other lawlessness involved in Spring Break. I note that what was something mostly white college kids did, if they could afford it, has turned into something else. I also note that in every video of a shooting, one demographic is prominent, and it's not one that has a culture of quiet study…
Avoid crowds. Avoid crowds of certain kinds of people* in particular.
n
*(the kind with little regard for law and order)
He's putting words together mostly coherently in this clip but he's also slurring…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/03/coming-joe-biden-casually-says-russia-planning-cyberattack-united-states-video/
n
Anyone here ever try the OMEALS prepared food?
https://omeals.com/
https://www.amazon.com/OMEALS-Self-Heating-Portable-Meals-6-Pack/dp/B07GWZLCG7?tag=ttgnet-20
Costco online has their bundle on sale…
n
The C-suites just spent a week at SxSW getting the pitch for cr*p security services over shots of Pappy Reserve from salespeople at companies like my last job … or Solar Winds!
Biden is probably slurring less and more coherent than anyone at the sales pitches last week, vendors or customers.
My wife spent 24 hours sitting on a concrete floor at LaGuardia last Saturday desperately trying to find a flight to Austin after the pilots “timed out” due to schedule and weather delays. Every single flight into Austin from the Northeast was booked. Even Orlando flights weren’t in as much demand.
From yesterday…
When I was 20 I drove from Travis AFB (in California about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento) to Omaha, Nebraska, without stopping for anything but snacks and gas. In retrospect, it was monumentally stupid. It took like 27 hours. At the time I was a smoker, so I probably burnt through 4 packs of cigarettes on that road trip and gallons of Mountain Dew.
I once did a thousand-mile day to make up time for an emergency. During one two-hour stretch, I didn't drop below [redacted] mph. Don't ever want to repeat that.
IIRC, the FAA limits you to an 18 hour "crew duty day" or something along those lines. It can be extended to 24 hours for military when needed. The clock starts ticking when you arrive at the first aircraft that day for preflight. There’s no way to stop or pause the clock except for the FAA defined 12 hours of mandatory "crew rest." It's been a lot of years since it applied to me, so the regs may have changed or I may remember them a little bit wrong.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10636817/Lunchflation-stings-workers-office-paying-11-bowl-salad.html
Yeah, things are more expensive, but the quote above is gold. Is it really that hard to feed yourself? Really? I must have super powers, because I bring my lunch from home almost every day.
I am quite the opposite. I go out to eat for every workday lunch. I see my lunch break as just that – a break. I have no desire to sit in a cubicle or a breakroom eating out of a lunch bag in the same office I'm already spending 8+ hours in. Likewise, I'm not about to sit in my car in the office parking lot and do it either. Get me the hell off of the property and away from those faces I have to see all day. I frequently meet friends or family for my lunch. My lunches are wonderful affairs involving a full service restaurant and a lot of laughter and conversation. I also have a flexible employer, so spending 75 to 90 minutes at lunch is shrugged off so long as the projects get done. No way would I give that up to microwave last night's leftovers and eat in front of my computer. Does it add up? Sure it does. However, I'm lucky enough to have a salary that permits such a splurge. Some people dump a ton of money into golfing, or happy hour, or whatever. I put that social spending into workday lunches. Honestly, eating lunch at the office just sounds depressing as hell.
@chad, I was that way with my food per diem when I used to travel all the time. Some of the guys would eat bologne on white bread and drink cheap vodka in their rooms to save the money, but I always spent every dime of mine. The IRS considers any you don't spend as taxable income anyway, and eating well was a comfort on the road.
I sometimes shudder when I think how much money the booze cost over the years, but I don't do that often. I realize I'm the sum of my experiences and would be a different person today if I had different experiences. I generally LIKE who I am today. That wasn't always the case, see the excessive boozing for a symptom…
n
sun's out and the itsy bitsy spider is climbing….
n
Miami Beach Spring Break is mostly non-students looking for an excuse to create chaos.
Daytona Beach the weekend of Memorial Day, "Orlando Invades Daytona", is similar, with the same demographic involved.
Our Goobermint just can’t get out of “Team America: World Police”* mode. Why does our motto have to be “We export democracy…at the end of a barrel.”
*Get the X-rated version for a laugh.
Home, thank God, home at last. Some statistics from the truck system.
AIS (Ass In Seat) time: 58:15:22
Gallons of Fuel: 152.1
Miles Driven: 2960.9
Total spent on fuel: $576.13
Lodging Cost: $996.53
Total spent on food: $348.83
Graceland: $160.00
Lot of driving. 14 days on the road. Seven nights in hotels, six nights in private homes. Well, sort of. Two of those nights were in an AirBnB which I count as hotel, some would count as home. Taketh thy choice.
To each his own. I like to get to work early, get my stuff done, then go home. I'm lucky to have a schedule that is 0630 – 1430 straight. I use lunch as an opportunity to get out of the lab and check email/light reading. My schedule started this way due to the need for school carpooling in the afternoon, but I like it so much I've kept it. I'm home by 1500.
It's also not about money, but about what I'm eating. I've been a fairly strict low carb person for almost 10 years. I can do it at restaurants, but it's much easier to do when I make it myself. My wife is also a tremendous cook, and often makes enough for a day of leftovers (unless the teenager is exceptionally hungry that evening). I like leftovers.
Excessive socializing is not even in my vocabulary…but hey, everyone's different.
My problem, now that I am retired, is that the lunchroom is too close to my 'workspace' (my living room recliner with my laptop).
The fact that I also do the grocery shopping would seem to mitigate that problem. As long as I avoid the cookies/chips/snacks aisle. I am not always successful in that avoidance.
It does help that the grocery store is 25 minutes away. Along with all the fast food places.
Avoid crowds. Avoid crowds of certain kinds of people* in particular.
n
*(the kind with little regard for law and order)
I'm sure I've posted this before, but it's worth repeating: The Talk: Nonblack Version.
Oreo promotion endcaps at the end of the cat food aisle?
Don't laugh. I've posted before about the first weekend after Costco's lawyers' liquor deregulation rules went into effect in WA State that I noticed Fred Meyer's placement of Jack Daniels on the end of the pet care aisle, just before the shelves of kitty litter.
Sadly, I didn't think to grab a picture.
My guess is that they were short on space. Of course, it could have been a weird data mining correlation. Walmart has one that ties beer volume to diapers.
In the ongoing quest to find all of her father's assets, the wife just found out that her recently passed away (18 months ago) father owns 107 shares of Berkshire Class B stock.
Make a list of your assets for your inheritors ! And she has no idea where the share certificate is of course.
"Coal plant owners seek to shut 3.2 GW in PJM in face of economic, regulatory and market pressures"
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/coal-plant-owners-seek-to-retire-power-in-pjm/620781/
What could go wrong ?
When ERCOT allowed Vistra Energy to shut down 4 GB of coal plants in Texas in 2017, ERCOT was fat, dumb, and happy. Then Feb 2021 freeze happened and we all froze in the dark.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/vistra-closes-three-coal-plants-texas/
Speaking of freezing, I broke down and built a fire. It's 50F, dark and overcast, and going into the 30s tonight. I am tired of being cold, and opening the oven door didn't do the trick. We have electric heat in the bedrooms but I don't want to stay in bed all day LOL
I had thought we'd had our last fire for the season. This is the second time this month I've cleaned out the stove “for the end of season” only to have to fill it with ashes again!
Oh, cr*p! If the certificates predate the BNSF merger, when Buffett split the B shares, then that would mean she actually inherited 50*107 shares of BRK-B, currently at 349.30, roughly $1.8 million.
Buffett swore he would never split the 'A' shares, but he fudged on the 'B' shares to make life easier for the index funds holding BNSF, which was itself a Fortune 500 company prior to the acquisition.
Buffett will tell you that the stock is overpriced right now so you want to get the paper situation resolved. If I had to guess on a price point where he will have the specialist step in to defend it if necessary, it would be around $200.
And when Buffett signals the specialist to defend a price, it is like a mother lion defending cubs.
Pearls Before Swine: Delaware Wear
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/03/22
Dad pun's rule !
Of course, if your wife really inherited that much in BRK-B and decides to hold onto it, you'll soon realize why everyone who holds the 'A' or 'B' shares, as well as the financial press in general, worries about succession.
@Rick
Sadly, an umbrella over the cart doesn’t seem to keep the donuts out. I have to quarter them so the calories leak out, and then it’s always a struggle to get the coffee ratio right.
I see that Coke Blak is back as Coke Coffee meh I roll my own tyvm
Dadgum internal error got me again ! I need to remember to always COPY before posting !
Oh, cr*p! If the certificates predate the BNSF merger, when Buffett split the B shares, then that would mean she actually inherited 50*107 shares of BRK-B, currently at 349.30, roughly $1.8 million.
Buffett swore he would never split the 'A' shares, but he fudged on the 'B' shares to make life easier for the index funds holding BNSF, which was itself a Fortune 500 company prior to the acquisition.
Buffett will tell you that the stock is overpriced right now so you want to get the paper situation resolved. If I had to guess on a price point where he will have the specialist step in to defend it if necessary, it would be around $200.
And when Buffett signals the specialist to defend a price, it is like a mother lion defending cubs.
The wife got a letter from Berkshire Hathaway today. The letter said that her father owns 107 class B shares. I suspect that is post any stock split. Although, that is an odd number for a 50 for 1 split.
The scammers are calling again about the son's house in Harris County. And mailing me letters too. They are claiming that he has not paid his property taxes. Of course, he has NINE different taxing authorities ! Good grief !
2021 Tax Rates
HOUSTON ISD: 1.1331 %
HARRIS COUNTY: 0.3912 %
HC FLOOD CONTROL DIST: 0.0314 %
PORT OF HOUSTON AUTHORITY: 0.0099 %
HC HOSPITAL DIST: 0.1667 %
HC DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: 0.0050 %
HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE: 0.1003 %
HOUSTON CITY OF: 0.5618 %
FIVE CORNERS IMPR DISTRICT: 0.1000 %
Total Tax Rate: 2.4994 %
I called him and told him again. He swears that he has paid his property taxes. I told him that the liability from the mortgage company comes back to him, they have zero liability. I also told him that they will sell him $300,000 house on the court house steps for a $10 back tax bill but he does not believe me.
I only had one 'B' share when the BNSF acquisition happened, and it split 50-1 normally.
$35,000 is still worth investigating.
They are probably mailing annual reports and need to get the address straight for those shares. I haven't received my report copy yet, but I know that the HQ staff like to get the mailings out before the beginning of April so there is plenty of time to process requests returned for credentials for the meeting in Omaha.
Even if you don't attend the meeting, in years past, the credentials were still good for discounts that weekend at Nebraska Furniture Mart in Dallas and Star Furniture as well as Ben Bridge.
The HQ staff in Kiewit Plaza is very small.
Oh, Good God, no. I haven't been paying attention to "Discovery" since getting the nastygram about my torrent activity.
If she wins in Georgia this fall, Abrams is immediately the front runner for the Dems' new Jesus candidate, whenever one is needed. 2024 is being fought now in Georgia as well as Florida.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFno2X-uAcY
A study I've been hoping someone would do. Immune response at different times post-COVID vaccine administration. Looks at antibodies AND memory cells.
https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/status/1506082155180351497
Key takeaways:
"Overall, J&J was not the strongest immunogen by any measurement, though the J&J T cell, B cell, and antibody responses were relatively stable over 6 months."
"mRNA vaccinees had substantial declines in neutralizing antibodies, which has been widely reported, while memory T cells and B cells were comparatively stable over 6 months."
From the body of the paper, emphasis mine:
So, the vaccines are giving lasting immune response out to 6 months. This explains the lower severity of COVID infections in vaccinated people.
They can, and will. However, the owner of the property has one year to make good on the taxes. Once that is done the tax sale is voided and the person who "bought" the property loses their money. Tax sales are very risky ventures for the purchaser.
>> Walmart has one that ties beer volume to diapers.
Would that be Pampers or Depends?
Sales volume of baby diapers. Apologies, I should have been more clear.
Heh. Back in my younger days, we spent a lot of time on a local lake. One friends favorite activity was putting on a life jacket and floating in the lake with a cooler of beer. Built-in bathroom. Yes, we kept an eye on him, but didn't go in the water with him…
I guess you don't like finding warm spots in the water.
For those that are interested here is a link to the pictures I took at Graceland. All were taken with my iPhone. The more I use the 13 PRO the more I am impressed with the camera.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Graceland
Stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in Memphis. Close to I40 and the Mississippi, shaped like a big pyramid. Very interesting inside.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/BassPro
Between the time change from changing time zones to CST, then CDT, then to EDT my biological clock has warped a few gears. Having slept in eight different beds on the trip it will be nice to crash in my own bed tonight.
In the ongoing quest to find all of her father's assets, the wife just found out that her recently passed away (18 months ago) father owns 107 shares of Berkshire Class B stock.
Make a list of your assets for your inheritors ! And she has no idea where the share certificate is of course.
My father drilled into me that all stocks should be held in “street name,” which means held in a brokerage account. Are you sure his stocks are not in a brokerage account?
BTW, the most important reason is just what you are experiencing, but another good reason is to avoid the need to deliver certificates if the holder wants to sell them. That was (still is?) cumbersome. Buying or selling in street name only requires simple communication, such as a phone call. If certificates are held personally, they have to be tendered either in person or by some sort of safe transport.
When he died, my father had a small number of Chrysler Corporation shares, likely because of an employee stock ownership plan. He had disposed of all but those few, and I found them. They were pretty! I called my broker, and was told that since they were in his name, I would have to send a “Stock Power” form with the shares and a death certificate. Although it wasn’t very time consuming, it was cumbersome in the pre-internet days. I also probably had to mail them by some form of secure US Mail, but I have forgotten.
So, that's the infamous "Memphis" building.
Every time the 90s era decision makers in St. Petersburg get criticism over the design of Tropicana Field being inadequate for pro baseball, the defense is always "Well, at least we aren't Memphis."
Yes, but Bass Pro seems to be working out there. Tropicana Field is really only usable for baseball since the ground was not fully decontaminated before the building went up on the site of an old chemical plant.
My wife has the 12 Pro and ended up taking the group picture for the high school orchestra's New York City trip two weeks ago when the teachers’ digital SLRs proved inadequate.
When she first got the phone, I meant to look into the API for the VR capabilities to replace the survey equipment at the previous previous job. I believed it would work, but fortunately/unfortunately, I was fired before I really had a chance to experiment.
Credit probably would have gone to the Music Ed major anyway.
He probably sold shares one or more times when he wanted some money, leading to the odd number.
Here is a new scam:
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/22/class-traitors-why-rich-bay-area-millennials-are-getting-rid-of-their-wealth/
I was able to read that with most javascript disabled, even though it had a tag saying "subscribers only" or some such.
I guess if people get scammed out of their wealth, they are just getting what they deserve. We should take care that our kids know better than that, though. I wouldn't mind too much if my kids were overly generous with their money to worthy causes. Giving away money to poor people is like giving them fish. It is probably better to teach them to fish. Of course we have to remember:
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and dring beer all day.
At least that is a step up from ITGuy1998's pal.
Or he bought after the split not wanting to invest more than X number of dollars.
Keep us informed, @Lynn. My first question if the shares are pre-split is why he didn't buy three 'A' shares for about the same amount of money but with more perqs. At the time, the ‘A’ price was fixed at 30 times ‘B’ while now it is 1500 times ‘B’.
I believe 'A' shares get a Geico discount among other advantages.
And 'A' shares are only split by the specialist to satisfy demand for 'B' shares. Buffett will probably never split ‘A’, but who knows about his successor … whoever that might be …
It is an interesting mystery. Most long time BRK investors are a different thought process.
"Light a man a fire and he will be warm for the rest of the night. Light a man afire and he will be warm for the rest of his life."
In the ongoing quest to find all of her father's assets, the wife just found out that her recently passed away (18 months ago) father owns 107 shares of Berkshire Class B stock.
Make a list of your assets for your inheritors ! And she has no idea where the share certificate is of course.
My father drilled into me that all stocks should be held in “street name,” which means held in a brokerage account. Are you sure his stocks are not in a brokerage account?
He had about half of his stocks held in a Fidelity account. My wife distributed those to herself and her sister almost a year ago.
But he inherited quite a bit of stock from his mother. He never converted those into brokerage stocks at Fidelity. My wife is planning to split those certificate stocks between her and her sister after she sells the Carrollton house. They will get new certificates anyway as their father was the registered owner. My wife already closed her father's Fidelity account when she distributed that account to her and her sister. They both got a new Fidelity account and a Fidelity IRA with a ten year RMD.
This would have been much easier if her father had been somewhat organized and not so secretive.
He probably sold shares one or more times when he wanted some money, leading to the odd number.
Or he might have owned BNSF stock that was converted to Berkshire Hathaway stock.
The BNSF deal was complicated, 60% cash and 40% stock. Buffett has griped for decades about being on the losing end of an all stock swap for Dexter Shoe and vowed to never repeat that mistake.
https://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/financial-information/berkshire-hathaway-merger-stock-conversion/pdf/berkshire-stock-elections.pdf
The headline on the front page, and it's photos show only white people, but the actual brawls on the video don't seem to have any white people in them at all…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10640867/Fight-breaks-Spring-Break-festivities-Miami-Beach-mayor-residents-say-enough.html
-things that make you go "hmmmm".
n