Wed. May 4, 2022 – Star Wars Day

By on May 4th, 2022 in personal

Hot and humid, slight chance of rain today.  Yesterday was very nice, although hot and humid.

I didn’t do any work in the attic, as it was 90 degrees out, and hotter than that in the attic.  And I am regretting that decision today.   HVAC guy is supposed to be here at 730AM to begin the rip and replace.  Right after getting the kids out the door, I’ll be up in the attic clearing a path for the work.

I don’t know what the day will be like, I won’t have air conditioning at home, so I probably won’t stick  around.  I might head to my secondary location and load up the portable A/C units to bring back, so we can be cool this evening if the guys don’t get finished.  I definitely have some pickups to do as well, in the early afternoon, and there is always some auction stuff to get sorted and organized.  If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.

All that adds up to short shrift today.

Stack something, even if it’s just a bad attitude.  And may the Force be with you.

n

 

80 Comments and discussion on "Wed. May 4, 2022 – Star Wars Day"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    76F and 96%RH, so basically perfect weather to not have any A/C….

    I’m up and moving but I am not loving it.

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    I came home, and was interrupted in my toilet usage by the sight of brown awfulness in the bowl. It was dreadfully clear the toilet wasn’t operating according to spec. I’ve spent most of my life cleaning poo, so no biggie. Grabbed our horrible plunger and got to work. Cleared the bowl with a minimum of fuss.

    Have you used a snake on all of the toilets since moving into the house?

  3. Pecancorner says:

    Did you know that you can buy a plunger decorated to look like a golfing putter? Or a toilet seat wrapped in deep shag carpet? Or tabs to fasten to the seat so you need not dirty your delicate appendages by lifting the toilet seat by your digits?

     A sink was slow while the visitors were here. I said “there’s a sink plunger in the kitchen under the sink.”  Our guests all came to see… they thought we had a special gadget made just for sinks.   

    Nope, just a plain plunger, on the handle of which I have written “Sinks Only”.    😀

    Have you used a snake on all of the toilets since moving into the house?

    Unfortunately, that sink continues to not drain, despite my best efforts to clear it with drain cleaner.  Do the little sink-sized  snakes work?  I’m thinking I’ll have to call the plumber.   

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Unfortunately, that sink continues to not drain, despite my best efforts to clear it with drain cleaner.  Do the little sink-sized  snakes work?  I’m thinking I’ll have to call the plumber.

    Watch a YouTube video on removing the stopper from the sink and use a drain auger.

    I recently cleared 25 years of gunk from one drain. The original owners of the house were Indian and the wife’s long black hair was coming back up in the auger coils near the end of the cleanout.

    I have a manual auger. 

  5. Pecancorner says:

    Watch a YouTube video on removing the stopper from the sink and use a drain auger.

    Thanks!  Now that I’ve watched a video, it makes sense.  Ours is like that, and I could not figure out why the stopper wouldn’t come out. Every other sink I’ve had, the stopper was easy to remove. 

    Now to get a drain auger.  

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, I’ve moved my internet and networking rack to the other side of the attic.  The crew has removed the old unit and is pulling out duct.  Still relatively cool in the house.

    n

  7. Jenny says:

    Toilets / drains / snaking

    We haven’t snaked the toilets. Great suggestion and thank you. 
    When I replaced the upstairs bath sink, I pulled a long dry dead snake of hair, same diameter as the pipe and a full 18” long, from the pipe where it joined the wall. Epic. 

  8. SteveF says:

    For slow-draining sinks, I find it a better bang-for-the-buck to remove the u-bend and pull out the globs of hair. YMMV, especially if your pipes are old and don’t come apart easily.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

     Father in Law had a toilet that never really flushed well.  He finally got the urge to replace it, and the plumber found a ball point pen in the drain.   He’d lived with it for more than a decade and just put up with it.   

    n

  10. Mark W says:

    Is that the same guy who said yesterday, that Delaware has never had a Senator? Talk about sponge brain.

  11. Paul Hampson says:

    A sink was slow while the visitors were here. I said “there’s a sink plunger in the kitchen under the sink.”  Our guests all came to see… they thought we had a special gadget made just for sinks.  

    I had a guest that used the plunger on the bathroom sink that was draining slowly.  Blew the trap off and water was everywhere.
     

  12. lynn says:

    For whatever reason, I wind up doing quite a lot of the low skill humble home maintenance tasks.

    I came home, and was interrupted in my toilet usage by the sight of brown awfulness in the bowl. It was dreadfully clear the toilet wasn’t operating according to spec. I’ve spent most of my life cleaning poo, so no biggie. Grabbed our horrible plunger and got to work. Cleared the bowl with a minimum of fuss.

    Somewhere in the garage we have three decent low effort plungers. Can I find any of them. Nope. So I’ve got this useless sink plunger doing doodie in the bath. Since some of my best beloved’s can’t regulate how much tissue they use when they do their business, and dare not touch a plunger lest they burst into flame, I plunge the toilet every few weeks.

    @Jenny, for the better or worse of it, you are the engineer of the house !

    And get one of these toilet snakes. “RIGID K6P 6 ft. Toilet Auger”.  They are the best at cleaning at plugged toilet.  But, you have to store it outside.   When you drill into the poo, it gets inside the auger.  

         https://www.homedepot.com/p/RIDGID-K6P-6-ft-Toilet-Auger-56658/303528922

    BTW, if the plug is further down the pipe, you will need a powered 50+ foot auger.  I hope not but here is a good start on one.

        https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Drain-Auger-Tool-Only-P4001/206405601

    My plumber buddy uses the $500 version of this tool with the 100 foot cable to clean stuck tampons out of drain pipes. You would not believe his stories.

  13. MrAtoz says:

    -stuff like this is exactly what leads to roundups and camps, political prisoners and gulags.  We are being warned.

    Is that the same guy who said yesterday, that Delaware has never had a Senator? Talk about sponge brain.

    plugs is literally fading into dementia daily. His handlers must be chuckling in the background with that mad scientist laugh. They just hand him the talking points of the day he he reads them off the teleprompter. This is also the guy who wanted a Constitutional Amendment against abortion. I guess he evolves to whatever the base polling indicates for that day.

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  14. lynn says:

     Father in Law had a toilet that never really flushed well.  He finally got the urge to replace it, and the plumber found a ball point pen in the drain.   He’d lived with it for more than a decade and just put up with it.   

    n

    One of my kids flushed a McDonald’s happy meal figure in the downstairs toilet 30+ years ago when we lived in a two story house.  We lived with it for 4 or 5 years before I pulled the toilet to find out why it was frequently overflowing.  Found the toy figure in the toilet trap.  Plus, it had a broken flange.  So I got to cut out the old flange and put a new flange in.  One of those projects that was going to be a morning and turned into a weekend.

    Reminds me of an old saying, “Don’t remind your significant other of house problems every three months.  They will get to it eventually.”.

  15. paul says:

    Someone, JimB ?, recommended “Biz” for the laundry, I bought a bottle.

    I don’t think I did that. My wife uses OxyClean but I don’t think Biz.

    Hmm.  I thought it was you.  Maybe it was Harold.  Thank you to the guy that suggested the stuff. 

  16. Nightraker says:

    Speaking of toilets and prepping…  Keep at least one spare flapper for each toilet and a fill valve or two.  They are inexpensive and indispensable when you need one.   Aerators, faucet rebuild kits, stem washers, shutoff valves, drain parts all come to mind as easy to obtain today but perhaps not as simple tomorrow. 

    @paul. I don’t remember who suggested Biz either, but your testimonial induced me to order a supply.

  17. lynn says:

    Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last night by a reputed trans man with a gun and a knife.  The trans man was taken away by LAPD in a ambulance with a broken arm.

        https://deadline.com/2022/05/dave-chappelle-attacked-onstage-hollywood-bowl-1235015840/

    This is not cool.  I do not agree with with everything Dave Chappelle says but he should not be physically attacked.

    Hat tip to:

       https://www.drudgereport.com/

  18. Denis says:

    I am finding the discussion of blocked drains morbidly fascinating. What is wrong with your plumbing on the other side of the ocean? In half a century on this mortal coil, I have needed to use a plunger precisely once, and that was in a fancy high-rise apartment in NYC, where my spouse, unaware of the fragility of US drains, used her normal portion of toilet paper. The plunger was available upon application (read “tipping”) to the liveried doorman.

    Maybe you need to move to the Greco – Turkish mode, with an adjacent bucket for the non-fecal solids…

  19. paul says:

    That’s a great idea for toilet flappers and the like.  I do have a couple of boxes of PVC pipe joints in various sizes.  Not a lot of CPVC joints.  I have some pipe.  And glue, don’t forget the glue.  Things to cut pipe with… beyond using a box cutter.  It’s not a “stock up for Great Depression II” thing.  It’s a “ya, I need one of this and if I mis-measue and have to start over let’s just buy a couple of extra parts”.  Save a return trip to the store.

    I’m good for aerators.  The current water softener kicks ass compared to the previous unit.  Cost less than the direct replacement from Lowes as a bonus.  Fleck.  I bought it from a company selling on eBay.

  20. lynn says:

    “Backblaze Drive Stats for Q1 2022”

        https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q1-2022/

    “The greatest teacher, failure is.”1

    “As of the end of Q1 2022, Backblaze was monitoring 207,872 hard drives used to store data. For our evaluation, we removed 394 drives from consideration as they were either used for testing purposes or were drive models which did not have at least 60 active drives. This leaves us with 207,478 hard drives to analyze for this report. The chart below contains the results of our analysis for Q1 2022.”

    WD drives are freaking amazing.  But some of the HGST (a sub of WD) drives are concerning.

  21. paul says:

    I am finding the discussion of blocked drains morbidly fascinating.

    Same here.  Most of the problems seem to involve women with long hair and a lack of drain screens to catch  hair shed in the bath.

  22. lynn says:

    “If You Don’t Want an Emperor, Stop Giving Him Your Money” by Simon Black

        https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/if-you-dont-want-an-emperor-stop-giving-him-your-money-35315/

    “Elon Musk may be the richest man in the world, but he has a long way to go before he catches up with Jakob “The Rich” Fugger—a powerful merchant banker who lived in the 1500s.”

    “Fink’s net worth, compared to Fugger, is a paltry $1 billion. But his firm, BlackRock, controls more than TEN TRILLION in assets.”

  23. RickH says:

    uh…..most of the toilet blockages in my house are the result of a large volume of ‘natural material’ during some ‘sessions’.  But easily unblocked with the efficiency of a ‘double thrust’ style plugner.

  24. Nightraker says:

    Well, if you want a plumbing nightmare tale…

    Once upon a Super Bowl Sunday,  the on call maintenance man got a 911 call from a resident at the far South complex for a plugged toilet.  Grumbling,  he stopped to charge a replacement and took the long ride South.  When he arrived he found an inebriated bunch of fellers enjoying the game.  The offending appliance was full to the top, and the crowd gave him a full round of laughter.  

     Very,  very gingerly, he disconnected the offensive device and lifted it onto a cart.  The internal trap precariously sealed the contents.  

    Wheeling the delicate object back thru the living room and party, a slight jostle caused… DISASTER.  Now the maintenance man had HIS laugh.

    😛

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  25. paul says:

    One more and I’ll stop praising Biz.  

    Wal-Mart doesn’t sell sweaters anymore.  Going to Austin and dickin’ around in Macy’s or various predecessors does not appeal.  Although lunch at Taco Cabana….  🙂   Carne Guisada and a Tecate every time.   No, the traffic in Austin sucks too much….  

    I wear fleecy sweatshirts as sweaters.  Not expensive.  Definitely not stylish.   Amazon delivers.  A couple of weeks, a month max, per sweatshirt before I get a clean one off of the shelf. 

    Today’s Fun With Laundry involved four sweatshirts and my zip-up hoodie.  Detergent and a shot of Biz.  The wash water was well, yeah, dirty clothes and all, but not as filthy as if I had just changed the plugs on a 360 with leaky valve covers filthy looking as when washing t-shirts.  No Downy was ever used on  today’s load.  Rinse water looked clean. 

    Crazy Maytag “commercial duty” machine turned my zipped-up hoodie right side out.  And one of the sweats.  It does it to socks, too.  My Kenmore never did that.  

  26. Greg Norton says:

    “Fink’s net worth, compared to Fugger, is a paltry $1 billion. But his firm, BlackRock, controls more than TEN TRILLION in assets.”

    Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett dictate the country’s energy policy for the benefit of their railroad. They’re more dangerous than Black Rock or Vanguard leadership.

  27. Ray Thompson says:

    What is wrong with your plumbing on the other side of the ocean?

    We’re just bigger assholes over here.

  28. paul says:

    Up the page someone said they were pulling tampons out of the drain pipes.  What the heck?  That’s just sloppy pipe gluing.  

    Have you seen the boxes of waxed paper at the deli that work like a box of Kleenex?  They sell aluminum foil the same way.  Handy stuff. 

    So after my motorcycle wreck Mom and Dad sold the first house they built and never quite finished and we moved to an apartment in town.  Something about indoor plumbing.  And a cripple on crutches getting through the mud to the outhouse.  I think.  I was addled, I cracked my helmet when I landed, still ain’t right. 

    You know women get synced?  Great fun!!! Run on tampons!!! It was a use one take two for later thing.  They would search each other’s dressers looking for a hidden stash.   I clued in on that and yep, take two when I went to the bathroom.  Hid them all over the place.  Between sofa cushions, in the silverware drawer, anywhere. 

    My Dad figured out what I was doing.  Stern lecture and he started laughing.  Which with my Dad was something very cool.   Heck, I could tell by smell when the festivities were about to start.  So yeah, some preemptive stashing happened. 

    Anyway.  During “that time” Mom almost always came out of the bathroom with a foil wrapped package.  I never noticed either sister doing the same.  

  29. Jenny says:

    @NightRaker

    The internal trap precariously sealed the contents.  

    Wheeling the delicate object back thru the living room and party, a slight jostle caused… DISASTER.

    It’s gross, but I generally bail enough of the mess out first to plunge without blorping fecal matter onto the floor and myself.

    tampons

    My father cured all of us of putting anything but toilet paper and our own workmanship down the toilet by having us take care of the toilet whenever it was plugged. I’ve taught my ten year old how to use the plunger, though we did it on a clean bowl.

    @Denis

    morbidly fascinating. What is wrong with your plumbing on the other side of the ocean?

    My father would say we are all full of (swear word redacted). It does seem to be a common ailment. Maybe our toilet paper is overly robust. Maybe we are, as my father would assert, simply full of (swear word redacted).

    @Paul

    blew the trap

    Yikes! What a wreck. I prefer to have as little under sinks as possible, because water always wins. I’ve completely lost that battle in the new house. The next water leak is going to be horrible.

    On my to do list sometime in the nearish future, this year or next, is to learn to work with copper pipes. I’d like to know how to make an efficient and secure solder, and possess the ability to do simple repairs to our plumbing. House is 55+ years old and will need more extensive upkeep than our previous home (still built in the 1960s but smaller and simpler). I’ve learned how to install a bathroom sink and toilet, and can swap fixtures on sinks. That was all plug and play. I’d like to know how to do more complex operations.

    Domestic engineer – I like it.

  30. MrAtoz says:

    On my to do list sometime in the nearish future, this year or next, is to learn to work with copper pipes.

    That’s something on my list too, Ms. Jenny. I also want to get a slab of sheetrock to practice repairs on. I have a project to move all my network gear to a little used linen closet. I want to run cat from cameras and Apple TVs to the closet. Replace the door panels with dark mesh for cooling. Mount the router on a bracket outside the closet, but up high. Sigh, it’s getting hot in the attic.

    Added: move the incoming coax and modem to the closet.

  31. lynn says:

    Up the page someone said they were pulling tampons out of the drain pipes.  What the heck?  That’s just sloppy pipe gluing.  

    My plumber buddy has a lady customer with three teenage daughters.  He has begged them to stop flushing tampons.  The mom swears that nobody is flushing tampons.  So about four or five months ago, she called my buddy in for his normal monthly sewage pipe cleaning.  He pulled 31 tampons out of her pipes.  He put all 31 tampons on the tailgate of his truck and called the mom out to look at them.  She went back into the house cussing up a blue streak and screaming at her daughters.

  32. lynn says:

    “Fink’s net worth, compared to Fugger, is a paltry $1 billion. But his firm, BlackRock, controls more than TEN TRILLION in assets.”

    Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett dictate the country’s energy policy for the benefit of their railroad. They’re more dangerous than Black Rock or Vanguard leadership.

    Blackrock and Goldman Sachs own most of the windmill generators in the USA.  They got the Congress to give them all of these special capital tax credits and operating cost credits.  Between the two of them, they have got a sweet deal going where they break even when the windmill barely makes power. 

  33. lynn says:

    “9 Major Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 11 Now”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/reasons-to-upgrade-to-windows-11-now

    “A slick new interface, better security, updated apps, and info widgets are just some of the perks of upgrading to Windows 11. Here’s why you should do it sooner than later.”

    Not yet for me.

  34. Geoff Powell says:

    @lynn:

    9 Major Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 11 Now

    3 reasons not to upgrade beyond Win7 –

    • TIFKAM
    • 10 and 11 are permanent betas
    • Telemetry

    And that’s with 10 seconds of thought. I’m sure there are more.

    @rick:

    thanks for bulleted list.

    G.

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  35. Ray Thompson says:

    I’d like to know how to make an efficient and secure solder

    Clean the pipe and connection with emory cloth. Use flux. Use a MAP Gas torch, not propane. MAP burns hotter. Make the physical connection. Heat the exterior pipe portion of the joint. Apply solder to the joint so the solder flows into the joint. Wipe with a wet cloth before the solder hardens. Get bandaids because you probably burned one or two fingers. Keep a container of water to splash in case of fire.

  36. lynn says:

    “Viasat Tries to Delay Second-Gen Starlink Network With Environmental Review”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/viasat-tries-to-delay-second-gen-starlink-network-with-environmental-review

    “Viasat is urging the FCC to initiate an environmental review over concerns the second-generation Starlink network will cause light pollution in the night sky.”

    Here we go again.

  37. lynn says:

    3 reasons not to upgrade beyond Win7 –

    • TIFKAM
    • 10 and 11 are permanent betas
    • Telemetry

    And that’s with 10 seconds of thought. I’m sure there are more.

    @rick:

    thanks for bulleted list.

    G.

    We are not having any problems with Windows 10 except my old Fortran compiler debugger that was built on Windows NT 3.51.  My eight PCs running Windows 10 Pro x64 are running just fine.

    What does TIFKAM stand for ?

  38. Geoff Powell says:

    @lynn:

    What does TIFKAM stand for ?

    The Interface Formerly Known As Metro. 

    You will remember that the Win 8 UI was originally called Metro, until M$ were sued because someone else (I misremember who) had trademarked it.

    G.

  39. Geoff Powell says:

    TIFKAM

    And I could have sworn that that acronym was a Register-ism. It’s typical of their snark. But seemingly not. It appears to be quite well-known, especially to right-pondians.

    Register-ism – a coinage of the UK IT news site, The Register, motto “Biting the Hand that feeds IT”

    G.

  40. Jenny says:

    “I’m sure as a women in IT for many years you have important perspective to share with her.”
    I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.  A well meant comment to me earlier today.
    I can think of only once or twice where being a woman was a problem, and it would have been a problem regardless of the industry because the characters in question were jerks. My physical strength stopped being an issue when CRT monitors and monster printers went out.

    Otherwise, no, no I don’t. Because if you work hard and know what you are doing, no one cares. It’s irrelevant.

  41. MrAtoz says:

    That’s something on my list too, Ms. Jenny.

    I have the category torch Mr. Ray mentioned. I got it to practice bending glass tubing. I haven’t got to that yet, either. Dang it! Not enough time in the day!

  42. Geoff Powell says:

    The Register

    Let’s try that again. The original was turned into an in-site link.

    G.

  43. Jenny says:

    @Ray
    Clean the pipe and … splash in case of fire.

    Thank you sir! Sounds simple, which means the devil is in the details.

  44. PaultheManc says:

    @Jenny

    I have been reasonably proficient with copper plumbing, but gave up when Pex piping became readily available. So much easier, flexible and quicker.

    Did a complete house in 2013 with Pex, including central heating.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    We are not having any problems with Windows 10 except my old Fortran compiler debugger that was built on Windows NT 3.51.  My eight PCs running Windows 10 Pro x64 are running just fine.

    New hardware doesn’t run Windows 7 regardless. 

    Redmond handed the surplus laptop vendors free licenses for Windows 10 to install on anything that met the minimum specs.

    I would still suggest having the intern work on getting your product running under Wine on Alma Linux or one of the other RHEL 8 clones that took over for CentOS.

  46. Greg Norton says:

    “I’m sure as a women in IT for many years you have important perspective to share with her.”

    I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.  A well meant comment to me earlier today.

    The “many years” part is really close to the line, especially if it came from someone younger.

    I don’t post everything I’ve done with regard to the previous previous job after being fired for using the naughty words, but lets say I’ve explored some options short of spending any money on a lawyer and still managed to rattle a few cages.

    In retrospect, I regret letting the situation slide when, interviewing one girl for the company, who had a big embroidered CHOICE pillow on her couch in the background, I asked if there was anything she wanted to know with me not being from management, and she responded, “What are the age ranges in your group. I don’t just want to work with old guys.”

  47. lynn says:

    “HVAC System Uses Only Outside Air”

        https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/hvac-system-uses-only-outside-air

    “Braun and a research team have proposed a system that combines specialized membrane technology with existing HVAC systems that removes moisture from outside air efficiently, making 100 percent outdoor air systems economically feasible.”

    I like this idea.  I hope that they can get it to work properly and that the water vapor selective membranes work for a long time (10+ years) without replacement.

  48. lynn says:

    @Jenny

    I have been reasonably proficient with copper plumbing, but gave up when Pex piping became readily available. So much easier, flexible and quicker.

    Did a complete house in 2013 with Pex, including central heating.

    My plumber buddy is a big fan of Pex.  He likes the fact that Pex can go through many freeze cycles without damage.  He is also a big fan of compression fittings, he does not like sweated copper fittings in walls of houses due to the fire danger.

    We are going through terrible problems with copper pipe in our area.  Most of the copper pipe from 2000 ??? to 2010 ??? in the Gulf Coast came from Mexico and has several fixed pinhole leaks per linear foot in it.  The fixes are working their way out over time and start dripping slowly.  I had two of them in the previous house.

  49. Jenny says:

    @Greg

    Comment came from a slightly younger person who I think genuinely meant it as a compliment and sincerely believed I had good stuff to share by virtue of my experience and biology. I speculate he figured I must have suffered as a woman in a male dominated industry. And assumed that the young women he thought I should chat with could be given advice to mitigate her imagined future suffering. I hope I’m wrong. Because yuck. What a gross thing to believe.

  50. Greg Norton says:

    We are going through terrible problems with copper pipe in our area.  Most of the copper pipe from 2000 ??? to 2010 ??? in the Gulf Coast came from Mexico and has several fixed pinhole leaks per linear foot in it.  The fixes are working their way out over time and start dripping slowly.  I had two of them in the previous house.

    Sounds like Hecho en China drywall at work. It out-gasses and corrodes copper like mad. We are really familiar with that in Florida.

    Same time frame.

    Tampa had a big drywall plant that supplied the peninsula, but the mucky-mucks in the city decided that the facility was unsightly, being located between the business district and entertainment area. They pressured the company to move elsewhere before the bubble started.

    When the boom times came Florida needed a lot of drywall in a hurry, and China was happy to oblige.

  51. Mark W says:

    Apparently that sponge brain trump said today that he gave Javelin missiles to Russia!

    LOL!

    Oh never mind, it was Biden. 

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    Fed FINALLY prepares crackdown on rocketing inflation: Central Bank tees up biggest rate hike in 22 years while selling off $9trillion bond holdings as US braces for spike in borrowing costs

    • Fed will announce its new policy on interest rates at 2pm on Wednesday
    • Central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates by half a percentage point
    • Also expected to begin reducing the size of its $9 trillion balance sheet
    • The long-awaited moves are intended to battle inflation which hit 8.5% in March
    • Markets will be watching closely for signals of the future rate-hike path
    • Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been under pressure to act on inflation for a year 

    By Keith Griffith For Dailymail.com and Reuters

    Published: 10:05 EDT, 4 May 2022 | Updated: 11:08 EDT, 4 May 2022 

    The Federal Reserve is widely expected to get tough on inflation at its May meeting on Wednesday, after consumer prices surged for more than a year and the central bank was accused of dragging its feet.

    In a 2pm announcement that is the most anticipated monetary policy announcement in years, the Fed is expected to raise benchmark interest rates by half of a percentage point, taking the target rate to 1 percent. 

    The central bank is also expected say it will begin the process of reducing its $9 trillion balance sheet, which ballooned during the pandemic as the Fed gobbled up bonds to pump money into the economy.

    A 0.5 percent rate hike would be the biggest single rate increase since May 2020, but the increase and balance sheet tightening have been widely telegraphed by Fed policymakers and are already priced into markets. 

    On the other hand, markets will be watching Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s 2.30pm press conference, and could react swiftly to any signals that the rate hike path will accelerate this year. 

    quoted to see what happens in the next hour.  I’m pretty sure that  hikes are NOT already fully priced in.

    n

  53. Alan says:

    >> plugs entered the office as a wasted, shattered old man.

    And Kamel entered as…umm…err…gee, so many choices… 

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  54. lynn says:

    “India Wants Russia to Discount Its Oil to Below $70 a Barrel”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/india-wants-russia-discount-oil-051409619.html

    “The South Asian nation is seeking Russian cargoes at less than $70 a barrel on a delivered basis to compensate for additional hurdles, such as securing financing for purchases, in high-level talks between the two countries, said the people, asking not to be identified as discussions are confidential. Global benchmark Brent is currently trading near $108 a barrel.”

    Welcome to doing business with India.

  55. JimB says:

    Regarding Windows 11, I will stay with 10 as long as I can because my hardware isn’t compatible. But…

    I went through most Windows versions over the years. When I got to 2000 it was the best I had ever used. When XP came along, I viewed it as a minor internal upgrade with a new UI. Also, Microsoft added activation, and I would not stand for that. I was traveling overseas, and depended on a notebook computer. I shuddered to think what might happen if I needed to reactivate, and might have to make an expensive phone call.

    I began to look for alternatives, and that led me to my Linux distraction. At first, Linux was a finger poke in Microsoft’s eye, and it worked well enough on that notebook. Meanwhile, I stayed with W2000 on my main machines far too long. Eventually, I converted to Linux on all hardware, and was exclusive for about six years. I had lots of problems.

    Meanwhile, I supported XP for a volunteer organization. My counterpart at HQ was a good guy who was total Windows, even his phone. He taught me some things, but mainly XP just worked. My work consisted of troubleshooting everything except XP. You might think I learned, but it took way too long. Eventually, Linux became too cumbersome for me, but especially for my wife, who needed Microsoft Office for VBA compatibility. I bought her a notebook with a clean OEM install of W10. It worked, period. It continues to work. I should have known. I converted myself back to Windows, because I don’t want to run different stuff on our network, and because I like to run what my wife does.

    Now I will be faced with another Windows version that violates my feelings. What do I care about Hollywierd’s control? Will I go back to Linux? Nope. I will wait until W11 is mature (might be already, but not likely.) I will get new hardware if necessary, and move on. I have learned my lesson. Jerry said software never wears out, and he would prefer to keep something forever. I agree, but the world doesn’t like that. I am done fighting: life is too short, and the fight isn’t worth the effort.

    BTW, for those who disagree, I understand. Some people like Fords, some like Chevvies, and some like Peugeots. All are right if they are comfortable. Me, I like sailing on the water. Vive la difference.

  56. Alan says:

    >> BTW, if the plug is further down the pipe, you will need a powered 50+ foot auger.  I hope not but here is a good start on one.

        https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Drain-Auger-Tool-Only-P4001/206405601

    My plumber buddy uses the $500 version of this tool with the 100 foot cable to clean stuck tampons out of drain pipes.

    Sometimes getting your snake down the vent pipe is needed, of course that requires getting up to your roof.

    The most common clogs I’ve seen are grease, hair, feminine products and “flushable” wipes. Better to put those wipes in the trash.

    For preventative maintenance I use a gallon of this stuff twice a year. Does it work? Haven’t had any clogs for a long time. YMMV.

  57. Alan says:

    >> Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage at the Hollywood Bowl last night by a reputed trans man with a gun and a knife.  The trans man was taken away by LAPD in a ambulance with a broken arm.

    Wait, Will Smith is trans??

  58. drwilliams says:

    A couple things to add to @Ray Thompson’s excellent summary on soldering copper pipe:

    MAPP gas is necessary because the use of lead-free solder is required in plumbing in the U.S. since the mid-80’s and that solder has a higher use temperature.

    If you are soldering around wooden framing or other flammable materials, your kit should have some sheet metal shields that you can use to prevent wood charring. 

    As previously noted during the discussions of repairing freeze damage, push-in connectors are a faster, flame-free alternative. alternative. Wise to have a few on hand.

  59. Alan says:

    >> Have you seen the boxes of waxed paper at the deli that work like a box of Kleenex?  They sell aluminum foil the same way.  Handy stuff. 

    You can get them at Costco.

  60. drwilliams says:

    I watched the PBS NOVA episode Hindenburg: The New Evidence that first aired a year ago. I recall the press at the time for the lab work done by Dr. Giapis at CalTech.

    The new investigation was prompted by film taken by an amateur with a new Kodak movie camera. Whereas all of the previously public footage had come from a cluster of newreel cameras viewing the airship bow-on, this footage was about 120 degrees around the starboard side, and showed the progression of flames down the side of the airship, and the separate gout of flame emitted from the nose. Beginning shortly after ignition, the whole sequence is just a few seconds from flame to a pile of wreckage.

    Dr. Giapis tests and laboratory reconstruction are quite impressive, and his theoretical calculation of 221 seconds to account for the 4-minute delay between grounding with the landing ropes as effectively charging a giant capacitor is attractive, but I’m left with some questions and need to track down the paper I believe he published. 

    Another instance of what I coined the term for years ago as “A Confluence of Low-Probability Events”. 

  61. Greg Norton says:

    quoted to see what happens in the next hour.  I’m pretty sure that  hikes are NOT already fully priced in.

    After hours is very limited with light volume.

  62. drwilliams says:

    I see a lot of wild follow-up after yesterday’s leak at the Supreme Court. 

    One particular chuckler is getting Jackson seated to add another vote to keep Roe v. Wade. asside from the many ways this is fatally flawed, you recall that in her confirmation testimony she hamstrung herself on this one (and, potentially, a bunch of others), as she admitted she is not qualified to define a woman. Trying to vote on that a few weeks later seems like an impeachable offense, absent a revelation from God.

    A lot of chumming the waters going on, trying to make a case for a larger pool of potential leakers than the handful of young, woke, self-importance orifices employed by the liberal justices. It’s just not likely that any of the justices, even the not-so-wise politicized Latina, is going to be sawing off a couple legs of a nice cushy lifetime appointment.

    Roberts has tried to prevent any real investigation by keeping it in unqualified hands, but he’s going to be under tremendous pressure to turn it over to the FBI. If he doesn’t, a seismic shift in January 2025 could result in a determination that the “chief” part of the job title is severable from the “Justice” part.

    The idea that Pelosi’s Pet Stasi are in charge of security in the District is frightening enough. Given the speed of PLT mob deployment last night, maybe it’s time for the Brethren to dial up their own security with the U.S. Marshalls. I wonder if any of the justices carry? One of Elon’s flame throwers on a three-point under the robe, Ceracoated and custom engraved with “Some Limitations on Freedom of Speech” would definitely start a trend.

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  63. drwilliams says:

    the dam breaks:

    Rock was one of Chappelle’s guests on tonight’s show. According to witnesses, he walked out shortly after the incident hugged Chappele and asked, “Was that Will Smith?”

    https://deadline.com/2022/05/dave-chappelle-attacked-onstage-hollywood-bowl-1235015840/

  64. drwilliams says:

    Biden was supposed to make remarks on Kent State today, but ended up humming The Theme to Billy Jack while Jill poured his Cinnamon Toast Crunch this morning.

    Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and “Fast and Furious Remembrance Day”, the latter commemorating the 2,000  military grade weapons that the scofflaws Obama and Holder shipped to Mexico to help their drug-dealing pals in the cartels ensure an orderly flow of heroin and fentanyl into the United Stated across an undefended border.

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  65. drwilliams says:

    Maybe I’ll crack out the old Harry Belafonte LP’s and have a “Cinco de Dayo” tomorrow.

  66. ITGuy1998 says:

    Zero mention of Kent State today, because, of course, why should there be? Clogged toilets, tampons, and the “previous previous“ job are far more important.

    The apple has fallen very far from the tree. 
     

    Then why didn’t you do it? Your only purpose seems to be to attack others and complain. Very sad. 

  67. drwilliams says:

    It’s only May and five teams are recruiting this guy:

    https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1521201163948933121

  68. drwilliams says:

    checking terms at an online auction:

    Please bring an appropriate vehicle and assistance to load large items. A LARGE TV or EQUIPMENT RACK will NOT fit in your Tesla or Prius, so please read the size and dimension information BEFORE bidding.

  69. Nightraker says:

    The FED’s ½ point jump is still just p!ss’n into the wind of the 8% inflation they’ll admit.  But jumps to make a REAL  positive yield will immolate pretty much anything financial.  Still, the dollar remains the cleanest dirty shirt in the hamper.

    @Jenny:  I believe our “hero” was making haste to return to his own enjoyment of the Super Game.  I no longer recall why replacing the toilet was gonna fix a clog, either.

    Some other copper details:  Deburr the pipe end.  The emory sanding should make a bright end at least a generous ½ inch and also for the I.D. of the fitting being connected.  Allow NO water in the pipe when heating (sometimes difficult when the shutoff doesn’t).  It’ll never get hot enough for the solder to flow.  

    We didn’t “talk” about 4/19 either.  Lexington/Concord, Branch Davidians, OKC bomb. Not a criticism, just an observation.

    The Name/Email fields disappeared a few days ago and I see I’ll need to fill ’em in on the home machine.  Other posts today were from my phone.

  70. lynn says:

    Then why didn’t you do it? Your only purpose seems to be to attack others and complain. Very sad. 

    NaN is effectively sitting on his porch and yelling “Get off my yard !” when he can remember how to push “submit your comment”.

  71. lynn says:

    the dam breaks:

    Rock was one of Chappelle’s guests on tonight’s show. According to witnesses, he walked out shortly after the incident hugged Chappele and asked, “Was that Will Smith?”

    https://deadline.com/2022/05/dave-chappelle-attacked-onstage-hollywood-bowl-1235015840/

    You know, it wasn’t good enough that the trans people got Dave Chappelle’s trans friend to jump off their six story building and died.  So now the trans people are trying to kill Chappelle too.

  72. Nick Flandrey says:

    Others have already said it, but NaN, there is nothing stopping you from broaching any topic or  news you find interesting.   

    Kent state was not my circus, and not my monkeys.  OFD would likely have mentioned it, or perhaps not.   It seems almost quaint, compared to what has come since.

    It is the commentariat here that makes it what it is, join in or don’t, your choice.   I keep hoping you will participate instead of just shouting as you go by because I hope that EVERYONE will participate.   

    IDK our actual poster to lurker ratio, but I know we have more people visiting than commenting.  I’m humbled and grateful that they feel it’s worth their time to come by.    Google says 133K visits last month.  That ain’t nothin’.

    n

  73. RickH says:

    regarding copper pipe soldering with water in the pipe….I had that issue years (decades, actually)  ago during a remodel of the kitchen in my first home. This was about 1976. 

    I had difficulty getting the water fully turned off for the pipe I was soldering.  The water in the pipe was making it difficult (if not impossible) to solder the joint.

    So found a tip somewhere – stuff some bread into the pipe where the water is coming from. The bread will stop the water flow, then you can solder. The bread will flush out of the pipe when you turn the water back on.

    And agree with the need for a fireproof pad behind any soldering done in walls. They used to make them out of asbestos. Not anymore. But have seen them used in the house repair shows I watch.

  74. lynn says:

    One of my neighbors has a summer guest with babies.  Mrs. Owl is in a large birdhouse that they put up last year.  Mr.  Owl is bringing her special things daily as she is waiting for the eggs to hatch.  I would post the picture but I cannot get it to post.  So here it is via my website.

        https://www.winsim.com/owl.jpeg

  75. Alan says:

    >> Zero mention of Kent State today, because, of course, why should there be? 

    Because, of course, it’s Star Wars Day. 

  76. JimB says:

    Lynn, nice pic of that owl. We have several kinds around here. They are quiet flyers and fierce. Cute, though. Especially the little burrowing owls.

  77. Geoff Powell says:

    @nightraker:

    Allow NO water in the pipe when heating (sometimes difficult when the shutoff doesn’t).  It’ll never get hot enough for the solder to flow. 

    I can confirm this from bitter experience. At our last house (which places the event to the mid-80s) I had occasion to get some plumbing done (not by me – I didn’t do such things, and still don’t). This required a pipe joint under the floor in a front downstairs room.

    The poor plumber could not get the solder to flow when he tried to do a sweated joint. Eventually he gave up, and installed a compression fitting, instead. Worked perfectly, and for all I know, still does.

    G.

  78. MrAtoz says:

    Sometimes getting your snake down the vent pipe is needed, of course that requires getting up to your roof.

    Are you talking about The Kamel?
     

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  79. Greg Norton says:

    Others have already said it, but NaN, there is nothing stopping you from broaching any topic or  news you find interesting.   

    Kent state was not my circus, and not my monkeys.  OFD would likely have mentioned it, or perhaps not.   It seems almost quaint, compared to what has come since.

    Alma matter?

    Interesting.

Comments are closed.