Hot and humid, another sunny day. It got pretty dang hot yesterday. I was sweating and pretty dehydrated after working at my storage unit for over an hour. I had some water with me this time, and that helped.
I took a pickup truck load to the auctioneer, and picked up a lot to flip to my “non-prepping hobby” guys ( I hope) on Saturday. I will be picking up a few things for the BOL today, and heading up there Saturday afternoon. I was just too tired and had too much to do here to head up yesterday.
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The post title is about what we are facing and what I think you need to get through it, besides massive stacks of course. There was a shortage of used vehicles, and I bought a truck. There is a shortage of rural properties, and I bought a nice one. There are ongoing shortages of food, cleaning supplies, parts, construction materials, and skilled labor. I’ve had a chance to buy some, and am still waiting for that chance for others.
What let me get what I wanted was knowing what a good deal looked like, having the resources available to act immediately, acting immediately, and a willingness to compromise on what I was getting.
We’re still in a period where you can get what you want, maybe even precisely what you want IF you can search for it, and wait for it to become available. And if you can afford it… but that is rapidly becoming less common, and NOT being able to just walk in and get what you want, right here and right now, is becoming the norm.
We have a culture of abundance. We are entering a phase where some things, many things, are no longer abundant. That is a pretty big change and one that some people are going to have a hard time accepting. It’s going to be critical for your own success at seeing this through to the other side to recognize the change in our reality, and to develop new ways to deal with that fact.
It may mean carrying more inventory than you are used to, either at work or in your domestic arrangements. A full and deep pantry is going to ease a lot of misery around shortages of foods. Adequate spares for your critical systems need to be on hand, and not in someone else’s control. You may need to plan ahead, order early, and you may need to pay immediately, rather than on the terms you are used to. That means having access to more cash or bigger credit lines than you might have had last year. And it means accepting less than you would really like, because that’s what IS available.
That last point is going to be really hard for some people. The personality that likes to research thoroughly before a purchase, that likes to mull over a decision, is going to suffer if they don’t change. Do the research, make the decision, but then act decisively when the opportunity presents itself. Be open to alternatives.
And be open to alternative sources. The secondary economy is booming. Resellers are making hay. Used, damaged, fixable, or cleanable may be your best choice. Traditional retail and traditional supply lines will not be able to supply all your needs. Start exploring your other options now, while there is still time to climb the learning curve.
Finally consider the changes in culture. Respect for the law and for law enforcement is crumbling. Violence is increasing and occurring in areas that were formerly safe. Some people LIKE chaos and strife, it breaks down social norms and increases their freedom to do what they like doing. Some of them like hurting other people, taking their stuff, and destroying whatever strikes their fancy. Some people will go along to get along. It won’t matter to you if they guys running the roadblock are doing it for love or to feed their family, you lose either way.
It’s going to get tough, but we can get through this.
Stacks of stuff will help.
nick
68Fand 99%RH this morning.
Predicted to be like yesterday though.
We’ll see!
n
Are the people in Coffeeville still at it?
I read that trans women have a high rate of breast cancer, so not a bad thing. Of course, their chance of ovarian cancer is pretty low.
Today is Thu. It says We’d in the title.
What? How? Un possible!
Fixed. Thanks.
In my defense, it was late last night, and actually still wednesday when I wrote that…
n
@Nick
Excellent header. Thanks.
if you need gas to get to work, you might want to put some in a shed… price controls almost always result in shortages.
n
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/05/12/pumping-inflation-not-oil-biden-yanks-multiple-oil-lease-sales-n468817
Fucking traitorous scum.
Well, no. Sort of. The locations that are indexing the site are not just that location, but other data centers around the US, and some in Europe. So trying to block those guys by location is just a ‘whack-a-mole’ effort prone to failure.
Daily visits usually average about 3-4K over the last 30 days. Tuesday peaked just short of 6K, but down to 2K the next day. That’s a visitor load that should be easily handled, even on a shared server, except…
Each page load requires a query to the comments table in the database. There are over 187, 500 comments in that table. (You guys sure talk a lot around here.) Haven’t found a way to make those comment table queries to be quicker to finish.
Adding a caching system is not the answer. The last one I tried caused an issue with the cookies that you all complained about – a hidden ‘feature’ of the caching settings. And it didn’t seem to make a page reload any faster. I haven’t found any caching plugin that will work on just the comments.
I may ask the folks on the WordPress StackOverflow for ideas. One solution would be a dedicated and faster server, but that is a significant increase in the cost of hosting here.
Site responsiveness has been very poor today. I’m getting a lot of ‘sit and spin’ on reloads, or changing pages. Stopping and trying again will usually get a much faster load. FWIW.
Seems like whatever is causing the delays grabs something and then it’s stuck until it completes, but the same action that doesn’t get stuck goes thru right away.
n
It could be an internet router between you and the website also. I have seen this prolem many times when my primary internet was having problems but my phone showed there to be zero problems.
Gas shortage for Memorial Day!
Stretch isn’t going to get that through.
As Clear Channel learned with their “gas shortage” in Central Texas Labor Day Weekend 2017, the damage doesn’t stay limited after the panic buying sets in. Once the San Antonio radio station employees starting having problems getting to work, the Gas Buddy ads disappeared from the air that week.
Volume for the holiday weekend was 50x normal. That’s a lot of gas going somewhere.
Note Stretch or anybody in the goobermint talking cutting gas taxes? That would be the last thing a goobermint creature would suggest. “Well, we need that money to pay for staff to impose price controls on YOU.”
Breaking Cat News: Elvis Missed Georgia
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2022/05/12
Oh yeah, definitely a Siamese. Our 15 lb Siamese male sat in the kitchen last night for ten minutes last night and meowed at me. I know that game and did not pet him. He wanted me to go get Mommy. If I had petted him it would have been swipe with claws and teeth.
You know, my neighbors are promoting envy in me and I do not even like taking care of horses. Miserable creatures that go feral if you do not talk to them and give them treats every day.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/5942-sagamore-bay-ln-richmond-tx-77469/2401184
Volume for the holiday weekend was 50x normal. That’s a lot of gas going somewhere.
The average amount of gasoline in a city dwellers vehicle is about a ¼ tank. Start a whisper campaign and the amount goes up to ¾ tank in a hurry. That will drain the station gas tanks in a flash.
We waited in line for an hour on Labor Day to fill up. before heading home. People were camped at the entrance of Costco’s outparcel station across the street, but the gas pumps were shut down for the holiday
On the way back to Austin, we noticed that all 240 (?) pumps at Buc-ee’s New Braunfels were covered.
Buc-ee’s.
I read that trans women have a high rate of breast cancer, so not a bad thing. Of course, their chance of ovarian cancer is pretty low.
Guys getting breast cancer is about 1/1000 the rate of women getting breast cancer. I have actually met a guy who had stage 1 breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. 1 of 11 women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.
My wife had breast cancer at age 47. Her sister had it at 65 (a tumor in both breasts). Three of her aunts (two paternal, one maternal) had breast cancer at ages 45 and 65 (second time), 62, and 65. One of her first cousins died of breast cancer at age 49. One of her great grandmothers died of breast cancer around age 50 from family lore.
Breast cancer is deadly serious for women. Not so much for men.
I may ask the folks on the WordPress StackOverflow for ideas. One solution would be a dedicated and faster server, but that is a significant increase in the cost of hosting here.
My fully managed dedicated web server is $300/month at https://www.pair.com . I would advise not managing it yourself as they can be quite a time thief.
I am amazed how quickly the shared server runs myself. I was forced off mine back in 2005 or so by DNS attacks from Iran.
“Prosecutors Pursue Inquiry Into Trump’s Handling of Classified Material”
https://dnyuz.com/2022/05/12/prosecutors-pursue-inquiry-into-trumps-handling-of-classified-material/
The feddies are desperately trying to sully Trump’s good name with the flyover people in the USA. The feddies don’t realize that they would have to have a good name themselves in order to prosecute for political reasons. The flyover people will just ignore the feddies.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
if you need gas to get to work, you might want to put some in a shed… price controls almost always result in shortages.
n
I was storing gasoline in my garage queen but I forgot to put in stabilz. Still, the garage queen is running just fine on it and I filled it up last in Aug 2020.
But trans men have a high rate. Might be higher than women. Something about the hormones.
Bloom County: Who Is Driving The RV ?
https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1987/04/08
Oh yeah, the self driving vehicle has been wanted for a long time.
“$2,985,636,000,000: Federal Tax Collections Set Record Through April”
https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/2985636000000-federal-tax-collections-set-record-through-april
“(CNSNews.com) – The federal government collected a record $2,985,636,000,000 in total taxes in the first seven months of fiscal 2022 (October through April), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.”
“Before this year, the most taxes the federal government had ever collected in the first seven months of a fiscal year was fiscal 2021, when it collected $2,320,127,490,000 in constant April 2022 dollars.”
And Biden, Warren, and AOC say that we are not paying enough taxes for all of their schemes.
“Biden Disinformation Czar Demands Power To Edit Other People’s Tweets”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-disinformation-czar-demands-power-edit-other-peoples-tweets
Wow, that is bold.
My latest Discover bill notes that the fee for late payments is going “up to” $41. I don’t know what it was, maybe $29? But they are a kind and generous company and the first late payment is free.
Add sarc tags as needed.
I’m sure there’s something in the fine print that jacks the interest rate to north of 30% for one late payment. Because why not, they already say my interest rate is 19.24% (it varies) and that’s on the same bill that says my FICO score is 793. I thought a high number was good?
No matter. I pay in full every month. I figure they make enough on me from Merchant Fees. Or they would cancel the card. Maybe they are just waiting for me to screw up and then they pounce. I know how to deal with that, been there, wasn’t fun, and that credit card didn’t get another dime. The dot.com crash wasn’t a lot of fun around here.
72F this AM. It’s now 94F. Clear skies and breezy. I opened the house a bit this morning. Upper windows in the dining room (because heat rises), the slider in the living room for exhaust and the laundry room and bathroom windows. Closed everything when outside reached 77F, same as inside. That was 10:30 ish AM and the a/c didn’t cycle until almost 2PM. Attic temp is 89F. Unlike Nick I can work in my attic all day long if needed.
Off-white, the color has a fancy name, metal roof mounted on 1x4s over the existing non-leaking roof with ¾ inch foil covered foam board between the 1x4s is something else. The price over replacing the existing shingles was maybe three grand more than what insurance covered (hail storm) but I have a hundred year (at least) roof.
I don’t see the attic at +160F anymore. I added a timer to the attic fan a few years ago because it never turned on. Didn’t use it, forgot about it actually. Switch location matters and who goes in the spare bedroom anyway? When I thought about it, I had to take a putty knife to knock out the mud dauber nest between the fan blades and housing. I know, white man’s burden or something. Check it, yeah.
Last month’s electric bill was $94.08 with all fees for 782 kWh. I remember bills for $280 with fewer fees. Double pane double hung low-e argon gas windows /do/ pay back. The “experts” are wrong. Took eight years but now it’s all profit. And no drafts!
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/05/12/pumping-inflation-not-oil-biden-yanks-multiple-oil-lease-sales-n468817
F***ing traitorous scum.
Yes they are. If they could figure out how to kill off 90% of the conservative people in the USA, I am sure that they would do it in a heartbeat.
There is a new book out from a guy whom I liked his first book, “Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas–Not Less” by Alex Epstein.
https://www.amazon.com/Fossil-Future-Flourishing-Requires-Gas-Not/dp/0593420411?tag=ttgnet-20/
“For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing–including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people.”
• “Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts.”
• “Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low.”
• “Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development.”
It will be funny if the baby formula shortage put the final nail in plugs’ coffin. Especially now that he is sending pallets of formula to illegals on the border. Who knows what he ships out of the country. Combine that with killing the life giving fuel we need to thrive and impeachment is to good for him.
I forget, is this board pro grammar fixes or anti grammar fixes ?
Oh what the heck, “impeachment is to good for him” should be “impeachment is too good for him”.
Fixed that for ya.
Please continue on.
“If anything, next week should be a good deal hotter than this one”
https://spacecityweather.com/if-anything-next-week-should-be-a-good-deal-hotter-than-this-one/
“Enjoy conditions this week, because next week high pressure is likely to tighten its grip even further on our region. We are talking highs in the mid- to upper-90s with overnight lows in the mid- to upper-70s for most of the region. Rain chances look to be close to nil until the weekend, at least. Some relief may finally come Sunday, May 22 or early the following week, but that’s at the end of the forecast window, so my confidence in conditions then is very low.”
Well, that sucks. Another 5 F and ERCOT is going to be sucking wind.
Although, I have been impressed with the 15,000 to 20,000 MW that the wind turbines have been making during the daylight hours this week. However, another 5 F and that wind will probably go away. The solar has been banging off 8,000 MW all week too, looks like the new solar farms in Texas all made it online. Supposedly, we have 350 MW of solar farms here in Fort Bend County now. Of course, the old Parish Power Plant can generate around 3,600 MW of power on coal and natural gas.
https://www.ercot.com/
The Ghost of OFD lives on in you.
My mysteak.
Who would actually pay the taxes?
Think an adjunct down at the local liberal arts college actually pays *any* Federal taxes?
If I could kill 90% of liberals in the US, I’d do so without hesitation and with no regrets afterward. Well, slight regrets concerning the 10% who slipped through.
I got a Fitbit Ionic watch three years ago. I use it only for running, as I can’t wear a smart watch at work. I got an email a couple months ago saying there was a problem with the battery, and that mist Ionic’s had been recalled. I was offered a full refund. Skeptical it would actually happen, I started the process anyway.
I filled out the form online, and in a few days, a box to ship it back arrived. I packed it up and dropped it off at UPS. That was a month ago. The tracking said there was a sorting error and the status would be updated soon. I forgot about it, and received an email last week that the watch had arrived and my refund would be processed. UPS still thinks the package is lost, btw. I was notified today that the full purchase price is waiting for me to claim in my paypal account.
I liked the watch a lot, but I got an Apple Watch to replace it. I’ve found the gps is more consistent than on the Fitbit. Also, transferring music is much easier, and quite a few of the newer Fitbit watches won’t let you transfer your own musi. You can only download from Spotify or another service – both require subscriptions, of course. I also feel slightly less violated using the Apple Watch vs the Fitbit, especially since google bought them out.
@SteveF
Get 99%and the tag fees for hunting the rest go up.
Anyone who bleats about “endangered is auto-id’d in the 1%.;
Probably get some new ones every generation—reversion to the mean sort of thing—to provide eternal sport hunting.
It might be good for the country, but I’d miss a few of my family members if SteveF did that.
Google probably didn’t want to take the chance that the battery would go all splody on your wrist.
I had an Apple Watch swell on my wrist one night while on call. No explosion but Apple still replaced the watch without any questions despite the device being two years out of warranty.
The watch was a hand-me-down from my wife. I only used it paired with my work phone at the tolling job.
I have a Garmin Fenix 5X Plus watch with a fine GPS functionality. Also, I can sync my songs onto the watch regardless from their source.
I’ve got actual watches that I wear, but I’ve been wearing the garmin vivofit. It counts steps and monitors your sleep and tells the time. I’ve really only been wearing it to get info about my sleep. It was free, so there is that.
n
I’ve got actual watches that I wear, but I’ve been wearing the garmin vivofit. It counts steps and monitors your sleep and tells the time. I’ve really only been wearing it to get info about my sleep. It was free, so there is that.
n
I haven’t worn a watch in 20 years. My wrists hurt too much from pounding the keyboards for 45+ years.
With wuflu, I didn’t want to be touching my phone all the time to check the time. Wearing a watch made it easy to see with a flick of the wrist.
n
Yeah, this isn’t good… consider that it’s what their shake and bake numbers indicate, and what they’ll admit to . The reality is much worse.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10809743/Wholesale-prices-surge-11-April-food-costs-soar.html
Gas here increased from an around town average low of $3.69 last week to $3.89 or $3.99 today. I’ve seen plenty of $4.10 prices too at the stations that are always a bit more.
n
Gas here increased from an around town average low of $3.69 last week to $3.89 or $3.99 today. I’ve seen plenty of $4.10 prices too at the stations that are always a bit more.
n
What is concerning me is the price of diesel which has now hit $5.00/gallon at many Texas stations. There is a old rule of thumb that when diesel hits $6.00/gal, the economy is truly screwed. Reputedly what really started the crash in 2008 was that diesel had hit $5.00/gallon and $6.00 was on the horizon. People can cut back their personal trips on gasoline but diesel is our primary transportation fuel and it is difficult to cut back on.
At the $6.00/gallon point the school buses stop running (the supply contracts have to be renegotiated at that point and diesel is a line item in school budgets), the trains and the truckers have to double their billing from $2/gal, etc, etc, etc. Most over the road trucks get about 6 miles/gallon of diesel so the cost of diesel alone at that point is $1.00/mile.
Losses like these change how people feel, which changes their spending, and it can turn into a self reinforcing spiral pretty dang quick.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10810299/Americans-lament-state-401k-plans-stock-market-plunges.html
From the same article, which has some really good overview once you scroll down a bit…
THIRTEEN YEAR HIGH of 1%. Think about that for a bit.
I’ll admit, I haven’t been paying as much attention as I should have and all the markets and indices are down far more than I thought. The big name stocks are hammered as well.
It ain’t good.
n
looks like commanderzero.com is having site issues similar to ours. I’m getting the ‘server not found’ error I have been getting recently here, like DNS failed, and slow loads…
n
Popo are working a bunch of high value targets this week. This afternoon they were following somebody for DEA, and after a short foot chase grabbed the guy and an accomplice. They had multiple vehicles on the ground, a dog handler, and a DEA aircraft all watching and following the guys.
Tonight they are following or looking to follow someone who they have wiretaps on, and “pole cameras” watching. Lots of resources being expended.
Surprisingly often, they don’t follow the right guy, or they never find him to follow on a given day.
—
Think about what happens when they stop doing that type of thing. Think about what happens when they point it at you or people like you instead of crims.
Hmmm.
n