Forecast for today is sunny and hot. Last night was cool and wet. I guess it will depend on what blows in, or through. I need to not have rain coming down to do the things I need to do…
Yesterday the A/C guys finished about 4 in the afternoon. Inspection should be today. There are a couple of things I think they could have done better, but it is done, I didn’t have to do it, and I can tweak stuff as needed. I’ve left my network rack apart until after the inspection as it lives right next to the air handler. Better that the inspector can move and see freely.
I did a pickup, more freeze drieds. At $50-60 per bucket, it’s not a terrible deal and it will jumpstart my BOL stock up. I will have to add meat.
Found a few more things for the BOL house and dock. The current plan is to head up Saturday morning, after swim team practice. I’d rather go up this afternoon. I’ve got a full load for the truck and a load for the wife’s minivan. SO MUCH STUFF. And so much to do.
At least the A/C project here is mostly complete. That is one worry off the list. Water heater, A/C, and next needs to be the generator. Yes, still haven’t found an electrician/install company that will come out and do it after our friend got scared away. If I knew I could get a propane jet kit for it, I’d take it to the BOL, and get a bigger one for this house. But I don’t think that’s an option at this point.
I feel the pressure, but remind myself it’s a marathon not a sprint. Except if it is a sprint, ‘cuz it does feel that way…..
Get busy with your own journey, whether sprint or leisurely stroll across the heath… and stack the stuff high.
n
64F and wet. Still hoping for clear later.
n
Whoopi reappeared and Scott Pilgrim’s drummer got a promotion on the “Picard” season finale.
“Strange New Worlds” is well cast, but the new alt Trek history to explain the delayed World War III is essentially that Trumpism led to the apocalypse.
From what I understand Disney doubled down on the “Star Trek” leads for the reshoots/cameos in “Doctor Strange 2”. The Mouse probably had more riding on “Picard” and “Strange New Worlds” being received well last night than Paramount did.
Of course, the $6000/night Galactic Starcruiser hotel is an authentic “Star Trek” experience, right down to the bunk beds from the USS Defiant.
I guess the markets DIDN”T have the Fed increase “priced in”.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/rabo-last-thing-polarized-us-needs-spike-food-prices-and-collapse-401ks-itll-probably-get
n
The new chapter of rural electrification is happening here: bringing 3-phase to the farms and little communities out here in the country. They’ve been running new poles and power lines alongside the highway for months, and are now moving onto the smaller arteries. Yesterday, I saw that they have come onto the main street and are a couple blocks down from us.
From our perspective, so far it has been rather seamless, with only an occasional blip in power. My dad is grumbling that they should have done this 5 years ago, before he switched out all his 3-phase welding machines etc for single-phase!
When we bought our little house, a woman who had lived here in the 1940s during WWII came to meet us. Her family had moved here from a farm, so that her dad could work at building Camp Bowie. She said it was the first place they had ever lived that had electricity.
The EV Jesus Trucks will need 40 to 60 A of extra service to reach full charge in less than 24 hours on a home rig.
Those numbers came from GM with a 12 kW charging system. Ford’s is 19.2 kW so I assume similar requirements if not more.
And that’s not even scratching the surface of what will be required for “supercharge” stations along the highways. I assume anywhere you see a Pilot/Flying J once Warren Buffett completes his acquisition of the chain and purges the founding family from management.
The blancolirio channel on YT covered one of the food plant plane crashes. A relatively junior pilot on a delivery run for UPS (I think?) got confused by the weather and unusual approach at the nearby airport, and clipped a metal chimney that’s in line with the runway.
i didn’t see the “Travelers” resolution coming towards the end. Bringing back the Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek lore. And the folder Soong takes out was a cool homage.
I like ST:SNW . The horse scene at the beginning had me chuckling. Better than Kirk chopping wood at his cabin.
Yes, I am a nerd.
“Jar Jar” essentially did his onscreen persona from “The Big Bang Theory” which the fans grudgingly respect.
It was priced in at the support levels as in there wasn’t any for the numbers of a few weeks ago.
Let the sheeple line up for shearing.
I got out in ‘16 and stayed out. What I couldn’t get out I put in a capital preservation, guaranteed no capital loss, but lock in 90% of any gain once a year vehicle. I’m losing money on my cash due to inflation, but I’m not losing money on my retirement due to speculation and rumor or dirty financial ‘engineering’ finally coming to light.
n
Pearls Before Swine: User Survey
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/05/06
Yup, that is about as useful as a typical user survey.
Dilbert: Dave’s Urban Culture
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-05-06
Oh yeah, Scott Adams is going there. I wonder how many newspapers have pulled him this week ?
“Gov. Greg Abbott wants to challenge SCOTUS case requiring states to educate all children”
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/Texas-Greg-Abbott-free-public-education-17150281.php
“The Republican leader said the prospective overturn of Roe v. Wade sets the table for Texas to ‘resurrect’ a challenge to Plyler v. Doe (1982) requiring states to offer free public education to all children .”
Wow, Abbot is living large this week also. If successful, we would lose half of the students in public schools in Texas (SWAG).
The new chapter of rural electrification is happening here: bringing 3-phase to the farms and little communities out here in the country. They’ve been running new poles and power lines alongside the highway for months, and are now moving onto the smaller arteries. Yesterday, I saw that they have come onto the main street and are a couple blocks down from us.
From our perspective, so far it has been rather seamless, with only an occasional blip in power. My dad is grumbling that they should have done this 5 years ago, before he switched out all his 3-phase welding machines etc for single-phase!
One of the serious problems of three phase electric supply is if the power pole drops a phase or two (one of the phase fuses blow). Any three phase equipment will die from overheating soon thereafter. My parents have three phase at their house. Their pole blew a fuse about 7 or 9 years ago. Their main air conditioner was three phase, they now have a single phase main air conditioner.
Recent episodes of “South Park” have gone there. Scott Adams is just drafting.
I figure he saw the new episodes which included the St. Patrick’s Day “special”.
Recent episodes of “South Park” have gone there. Scott Adams is just drafting.
I figure he saw the new episodes which include the St. Patrick’s Day “special”.
The new Dilbert black character on black and white newspapers looks horrible.
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/05/03/dilbert-presents-black-character-gets-dragged/
Adams was calling for DeSantis impeachment over the Disney standoff in Florida. The papers in that state will give him a pass, having always preferred DeSantis’ “urban” opponent in 2020.
The Florida media would still prefer to have Andrew Gillum in office, despite the meth and male hooker rumors being proven as true.
From Warren Buffett’s Miami TV station:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VQONUxf8CA
A good step to get rid of freeloaders. Non-residents should pay for school to educate their kids.
I wonder if that precedent covers all of the Oregon parents I saw dropping their kids off at WA State Schools when we lived in Vantucky.
Despite being in a built-out school zone for 20 years prior to us arriving, our elementary school had nearly 100 kids in portables, half days on Wednesdays, and delayed start kindergarten every school year.
Agree.
On the other hand, when going to school at La Joya, there were kids that were actual Mexicans. They stayed with their childless aunt and uncle during the week. Hey, aunt and uncle were paying property taxes.
Oops! I was wrong about the new electricity coming down our street. It is coming down the highways and the arteries, but it is not on our road yet. They are moving down 1467 South, but have not yet started on 1467North.
What they are doing on our road looks the same at the beginning, except today they have finished one and the holes they are digging are not for new electric poles … it’s new gas line.
So the state and big utilities are doing all kinds of infrastructure for our benefit. The Federal government must have given them some money.
Thank you for the warning. When/If we replace anything, we will try to stay with single phase.
@Pecancorner – you ought to contact your local utility company to get/keep informed of their plans for your property.
Info might be in the next bill as an insert.
“Boeing Exits Chicago as City Wrestles With Crime, Exodus”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-exits-chicago-city-wrestles-220441683.html
“The planemaker said Thursday that it will shift its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, from Chicago, a move that would put Boeing near federal government decision-makers in Washington.”
“Chicago, the nation’s third-most populous city, has seen a rise in crime that prompted its richest resident, Citadel founder Ken Griffin, to say he’s likely to move his $38 billion hedge fund elsewhere. Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and State Street shopping districts, along with many restaurants in the downtown Loop, have yet to recover from the pandemic. Even the National Football League’s Bears franchise is considering an exit to the suburbs.”
I am surprised any CEO wants to be in the Chicago area. The taxes and crime are both horrendous.
I had a black coworker, also an engineer. He’d grown up in NYC in a two-parent family, both parents professionals of some sort, well off but not rich. He’d go on about the travails of growing up black, though he’d lived in a good neighborhood, had never been arrested, had never been mugged, had never been in a fight beyond schoolyard scuffles. When I pointed out that my childhood had been more stereotypically black than his, what with poverty, working-class mother, broken family, family homelessness avoided once only by staying with friends, being hassled by cops many times*, and being alive only because I was tougher than the (usually armed) (and usually in a group) muggers who attacked me, he got bent out of the shape to the extent of complaining to management.
He got even more bent out of shape when he complained about discrimination in hiring and that’s the cause of black poverty, and I pointed out that affirmative action, or whatever it was called in the late 1980s, ensured that a number of less-qualified black engineers were employed – just look at Bonehead in the office next to yours. Do you think he’d be working here based solely on his merits? We worked for a government contractor and there were quotas – not called that, of course – for staff who were something other than white men. Ooh, did that raise a ruckus, especially when I wouldn’t back down and apologize. “Tell me which statement was untrue and I’ll retract or correct it.” “It doesn’t matter if it’s true! You can’t say that!”
* To be fair, that was largely because of my own choices. My coworker preferred to dress snazzy whereas I prefer to dress raggedy.
Chicago made a lot more sense than Seattle when Boeing first moved the HQ out of the Northwest in the 90s.
If you’ve ever taken a flight to Seattle, you would understand.
At the time, Chicago also offered a downtown airport with capability to handle business jets and “puddle jumper” commuter flights, the famed Meigs Field from “Flight Simulator”, and United was a major customer.
Ironically, Boeing took over the Morton Salt building after that company abandoned Chicago for the suburbs.
And the last time I was in Chicago, I saw a lot of United A220s on the tarmac at O’Scare.
If I had to guess, Boeing will abandon Seattle completely once the 767 tanker contract ends and the 747 line shuts down. At that point, it really won’t matter where final assembly of the carbon fiber planes take place … well, except to the union.
Boeing already has a plant in South Carolina, and, because of the tanker contract fiasco, Airbus now uses its facility in Mobile for final assembly of … A320? The writing is on the wall as far as labor costs go.
Now that Airbus Mobile opened for tours, we are going to stop on one of our trips, maybe even this summer.
Yeah, now that they’ve trashed Soldier Field and can’t squeeze any more revenue out of that monstrosity.
When I lived there I went to a Bears game at Wrigley Field. Back then Soldier Field was for high school football playoff and championship games.
“Dear Valued Customer,
We have higher than normal temperatures predicted for this weekend. ERCOT is anticipating extreme hot weather in the region from Friday, May 6th through Monday, May 9th, and may experience a larger than normal demand for power. On May 3rd, ERCOT issued an Advance Action Notice (AAN) due to a possible future reserve capacity deficiency beginning Friday, May 6, 2022, through Saturday, May 7, 2022. At this time, ERCOT projects there will be sufficient generation to meet this high demand for electricity.
May 3, 2022, 9:32:47 AM, ERCOT issued an OCN for Extreme Hot Weather with forecasted temperatures to be above 94°F in the North Central and South Central weather zones, from Friday, May 6, 2022, until Monday, May 9, 2022.
The link below is for Market Participant Communications from ERCOT: https://www.ercot.com/services/comm/mkt_notices/opsmessages
We are asking all of our customers to help their fellow Texans by curtailing their energy consumption on Friday, May 6th through Monday, May 9th between the hours of 4 PM and 9 PM.”
From my electrical service to my home account.
ERCOT did hit almost 63,000 MW today. That may be a new high for May.
https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards/
“Starlink Becomes Movable With New ‘Portability’ Option”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-becomes-movable-with-new-portability-option
“But the add-on feature will cost subscribers an extra $25 per month.”
I just wish I could get Starlink for my office building.
The Henry Hub price for natural gas has hit $8.78/mmbtu and the WTI price of crude oil is $108.36/barrel. These prices have doubled since Biden took office. Not totally his fault but mostly due to his interference in the free movement and search for energy in the USA.
“’Dumbass Returns’: Netflix’s Pivots From ‘Woke’ Content To Revive ‘Politically Incorrect’ Content”
https://www.blabber.buzz/blab/pop/1037675-dumbass-returns-netflix-s-pivots-from-woke-content-to-revive-politically-incorrect-content
“Most of the original cast of “That ’70s Show” has officially signed on to return for the follow-up “That ’90s Show,” produced by Netflix.”
“Topher Grace (Eric Forman), Mila Kunis (Jackie Burkhart), Ashton Kutcher (Michael Kelso), Laura Prepon (Donna Pinciotti), and Wilmer Valderrama (Fez) are on board for the upcoming revival. Kurtwood Smith (Red) and Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty), too, will reprise their iconic roles as Eric’s parents, as well as executive produce.”
I used to watch “That 70s Show” with my kids. There was some seriously funny stuff there.
The Affirmative Action stuff sucks. At least for this white boy.
At the TxDoB, they hired a temp. Nice girl. So, I’m a “File Clerk III” for whatever that’s worth. And I get to teach her stuff. Stuff that had been added to my job, not that I minded, it gave me something to do besides reading both Houston papers and both Dallas papers and the Wall Street Journal and the Austin paper and the San Antonio paper and the Fort worth paper….. all done by Noon. Long afternoons trying to look busy…
They posted the job, I didn’t get it because “no college diploma”. I complained. Quietly. They made her full time. For like two grand + a month. A nice $700 a month more than what I was making. Which in 1985-ish was good money. And all of a sudden she had to go out on pregnancy leave.
Yeah. No. I ain’t doing her work. I was doing it, I trained her, you gave that stuff to her as part of her job and hired her for being a darkie and nope, she’s out having a baby a month later for SIX months and I’m not doing that work anymore.
It went all the way to the top of department. That stuff didn’t get done for almost a year. Not by me.
Because, hey, I don’t have a college diploma and so I’m too stupid and not qualified to do that shirt(-r).
Hey, y’all said I’m not smart enough.
When she came back to work, she was out every third day with baby problems. And yeah, no, I still ain’t doing her job.
Oh. The guy running the supply shop was niggardly with stuff. Like, “you have 3 pens and that’s all you need”. Yeah, I get that. You don’t need 16 rolls of scotch tape and 25 boxes of paper clips stashed in your desk
But having to go downstairs for a roll of scotch tape when you run out annoyed the ladies. Even for a reem of paper. I’d wander around and see/ask what they needed and when he was out to lunch, I’d collect supplies. It made then happy. I did that for almost four years. And four years after I quit, they were still missing me. 🙂
“Alito 5 Must Stay the Course” by Patrick J. Buchanan
https://buchanan.org/blog/alito-5-must-stay-the-course-159357
“In February, five Supreme Court Justices voted in camera to overturn Roe v. Wade and send the issue of abortion back to the states, where it resided until 1973.”
OK, “The Alito Five” just sounds cool. I’ll bet if Scalia was still around, he would be proud to be a part of the Alito Five.
“If the Alito draft opinion survives and Roe is overturned, pro-lifers will have many people to thank. Foremost among these are President Donald Trump, who elevated to the Supreme Court three of the five justices who voted with Alito, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, who saw to it that these three alone would make it.”
When I voted for Trump in 2016, all I expected to get was one conservative SCOTUS justice. I got three of them !!!! That is why I will vote for Trump in 2024 if he runs, he holds to his promises.
Now about that 1938 Gun Control Act banning machine guns …
The revival has been in the works for a while, but only the actors portraying the parents were confirmed.
I believe Don Stark is still alive. IIRC, he was there all eight seasons.
Trump needs to stay home in 2024. The House will turn again in 2026 if he wins, and then the Dems will be so mad that they may even run Moochelle as they’ve been threatening.
I’m already annoyed with Robert Francis on the news a few times a week. The prolonged election process in Texas makes the Dem a shadow Governor for almost a year.
@Lynn
You’re thinking of the 1934 National Firearms Act
If the leaked draft represents a majority decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dred Scott will become the second worst overturned decision of the Supreme Court*.
*Although in the latter case, the overturning was by constitutional amendment.
@ITGuy1998 “After putting in the mini split in my garage (which involved flaring the lines and putting a vacuum on the system, testing for leaks, etc) I feel confident enough to troubleshoot most hvac stuff now. I might even replace the main house units myself when its time. Once again, having separate units means I can take my time. If the main house unit goes out, it will be annoying, but I also have a portable ac unit for the bedroom if needed and a gas fireplace for the winter.”
Did you air condition your entire garage or just a portion of it like I am planning on doing (a Texas Basement) ? My a/c guy will do the mini split install for me for $700. At that point I turn it over to a pro. And I watch.
Flopsy twins:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/meghan-mccains-bad-republican-book-flops-too
When they get remaindered and fail to sell they will start showing up in bins sold by weight. That will be the time to get creative and make book art. Maybe an interactive tiling a public plaza to protect it from pigeon shiite and a video of the avian decorations.
School is winding down for the year. New to us is the annual Talent Show. Our daughter and six friends are auditioning early next year. i volunteered our house for next few evenings for practice and restrained assistance.
Kazoos may be involved as there’s not enough time to learn the music on proper instrument. Though they’ll try.
They’ve been singing the lyrics for months Henry the Eighth I Am, written in 1910, popularized by Herman’s Hermits in 1965
https://youtu.be/GisCRxREDkY
Oh Ghad….
The 50K watt station in my parents’ area was playing that song non-stop for their entire honeymoon…. so they bought the 45, and my siblings and I can sing every word… I was probably conceived with that song in the background.
‘she wouldn’t have a willy or a sam, (no sam), I’m the 8th old man, I”m ‘en-ery, ’en-ery the 8th I am…. second verse, same as the first…..”
n
It’s getting worse.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10790533/Five-children-died-hepatitis-109-cases-spotted-CDC-says.html
n
We built this house, and it came with an attached 3 car garage, side entry. We added a 4th bay. It‘s attached to the house, but perpendicular to the other garage. It is 16×26, and wasn’t finished, except for the shared wall with the house. I put in a ceiling in, which gave me a 10’ finished height and a loft above for storage. I insulated and put up and finished drywall, and painted. The mini split is in this garage. They only time the garage door gets opened is to bring in big materials or a car for maintenance. I also had the builder put a recess in the floor so my bendpak md-6xp car lift is flush. The final good idea I had when building was the 100A sub panel in the garage. It was empty when we built (builder put lights and outlets on main panel), and it now has circuits for my air compressor, band saw, table saw, welder, and a bunch of 20A circuits. Having ac and heat is almost life changing, as I spend a lot of time out there. Since it’s a smaller space, it’s force me to be organized. Unless I am in the middle of a project, I can always pull a car in. Everything is either wall mounted or on wheels.
Edging closer to Perfect Idiocy:
Democrat administration refuses to condemn leak from Supreme Court, or the doxxing of Supreme Court justices:
Samantha Power, a Biden appointed “Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development,”
Please, go help Sri Lanka figure out where they went wrong:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/
and
Biden-style braggarts preening their way to hot nuclear war:
U.S. provided intelligence that helped Ukraine sink Russian warship
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u-s-provided-intelligence-that-helped-ukraine-sink-russian-warship/ar-AAWXPmJ?ocid=uxbndlbing
U.S. intel helped Ukraine protect air defenses, shoot down Russian plane carrying hundreds of troops
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-intel-helped-ukraine-protect-air-defenses-shoot-russian-plane-carry-rcna26015
I hope the repository of DNA samples surreptitiously taken from these criminals is divided into several parts and bunkered up.
Notice that the PrgLibTurds at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists are praising Biden’s deft handling of foreign affairs by adding time back to the Doomsday Clock:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock
Yeah, right.
During the Trump administration the PLT’s dropped it from 180 seconds to 100 seconds, and have kept it there. If Trump had pulled this kind of carp they would be shaving seconds monthly:
Funny how “atomic scientists’ can’t tell the different between actions that have no effect on carbon dioxide and active antagonism of an unbalanced dictator sitting on a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, U.S. Generals are designing a new “Wokest of the Woke” badge…
I just paid $82.00 cash to top off my F-150 4×4 tank with 21.0 gallons of regular unleaded. $3.899/gallon for cash, credit is 10 cents/gal more. Expensive ! Even though I got 20 mpg on that tank running down to Victoria, Port Lavaca, and commuting this week (the four miles from home to the office is rough).
– remember that the carbon they want to eliminate is you.
n
I got out in ‘16 and stayed out. What I couldn’t get out I put in a capital preservation, guaranteed no capital loss, but lock in 90% of any gain once a year vehicle. I’m losing money on my cash due to inflation, but I’m not losing money on my retirement due to speculation and rumor or dirty financial ‘engineering’ finally coming to light.
n
I am about 4X on the money I put in my Simple IRA via my employer since 1995. I was 6X until Netflix crashed. My partners told me that they would fund my IRA to the max annually if I took over the business in 1995 so I have been investing that money. Half in the markets and half in real estate.
I just saw a prediction on Zerohedge that the S&P is heading to 3,000 by October so going by that single prediction, the markets have another 30% to drop. I am wondering when real estate is going to start dropping, we may be seeing signs of real estate dropping right now since the 30 year mortgage rate is now 5.5%.
@lynn, I stopped at an unfamiliar gas station the other day, and the pump shut off before I had the Expy full, when the charge got to $100.
I’ve been crossing $120 at other stations.
n
I give little credence to any self-proclaimed experts regarding markets, fuel prices, and weather forecasts.
@lynn, I stopped at an unfamiliar gas station the other day, and the pump shut off before I had the Expy full, when the charge got to $100.
I’ve been crossing $120 at other stations.
n
I used a credit card in Oklahoma which shut off at $125. I used cash to top off the tank. I have a 36 gallon gas tank in my F-150.
I usually try to fill up at a half tank just to keep me full in case. And I always fill up when I reach my destination on the road so I can run home if needful without having to fill up if possible.
They’re going to start jacking cars that have filled up at the service station just so they can drain the gas.
And be careful where you park. Just a matter of time before the fuel thefts hit the news.
if you need to finish the day on an up note, go to ace.nu.mu, scroll for the
May 06, 2022 Wholesome ONT
and click to open it.
Thanks, Dave. Really needed that.
Kept scrolling and clicked the “cats love boxes” link:
https://twitter.com/TheFigen/status/1522297644596572166
“Will ‘Dilbert’ Creator Scott Adams Be Canceled Over New Character Woke Movement Will Despise?”
https://www.westernjournal.com/will-dilbert-creator-scott-adams-canceled-new-character-woke-movement-will-despise/
“Adams’ slow-motion courtship of cancellation by the left began during the run-up to the 2016 election when he a) predicted Donald Trump would win the presidency and b) didn’t seem averse to the idea. He started a podcast that skewed along conservative lines. That said, he’s still unpredictable (according to Politico, he’s praised the persuasion skills of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) but, he never repudiated Trump or the Republicans.”
One of the youtube channels I watch like popcorn is called “Just Rolled In” and it’s footage of some automobile disasters that have shown up at service facilities.
A recent one had a guy with a drilled gas tank.
They are out there stealing gas, and cat converters.
n
ah, forgot. The cleaning crew came this morning and so I didn’t get the network rack back together after the HVAC inspector left. That will be one more thing to do before we leave. We’ve been just using wifi for the last two days, but that means my cams are all down. I def want them running if we’re not here.
n