Fantastic day here in the north, sunny and clear. Hot and humid later, but probably not as hot and humid as Houston. I’ll find out when I get home.
Met with the electrician yesterday. Our next step is to talk to the provider, a co-op, and determine how much capacity we can get, schedule, etc.
He’s proposed a couple changes that would let us do the work for the service and the septic, while taking longer to do the work on the grounding and outbuildings. All the old will come out, and new will go in. Except for wiring inside the house, that will stay but have grounds added, I think. He’s pretty sure we’ll find the buried electrical when we start trenching for the septic 😛
Oh yeah, when I fired up the mower a huge doe ran across the yard. She looked pretty panicked. Did I mention she was huge? Mmmmm, tasty deer…
Watered the garden. No sign of raiders yet, but no shoots either.
I’ve got a couple of things to do here today before I can leave. I need to remove the paneling around the current breaker panels so the electrician can see what he’s working with to land in the new panel, and I’d like to plant one more row of salad veg, with some squash, pumpkin, and watermelon. That may not get done, if it’s hot or if I run out of time.
Gas was $4 at costco and there were weekend long lines at 1pm on Thursday. I saw it as high as $4.39 at the HEB next to the freeway. My 260 mile round trip costs double what it did a year ago.
Refilling all my hurricane gas storage will HURT this year.
Stash some stuff, stack some more stuff.
n
I’ve shared before my observation that The West Coast has a personality type I call “Church Ladies Without Churches”. And lest you think me sexist, I believe men can be Church Ladies and are often the worst examples.
Dana Carvey did not grow up in The South. My in-laws have a house in what was formerly the middle class neighborhood in California where his family lived. That character originated there.
My in-laws sphincters are so puckered, the husband had a plug-in vacuum he used on the minivan daily. God only knows what he does to their Model Y Tonymobile.
Of course, that’s Number One Son, a whole different category but the lumber inserted similarly deep so that you still smell the sawdust on their breath.
And lest you think me racist with that one, my wife got a lecture from Number One Son “Boss Cousin” on how the Number One Son game works not long after we moved to Vantucky.
When my wife took her Exploder in for another recall yesterday, she didn’t see any of the new Maverick hybrid pickups stashed in the fleet/demo area like we did last time. The dealer inventory was all big F150 and Expeditions up front.
Bet those are moving like the proverbial ice water in an Alaskan winter right now. Ford toes the line on the agenda so Dearborn only has itself to blame.
I can get 28 MPG hwy out of the Exploder, no EcoBoost V6, so we are still taking it on our trip planned for the 4th. We had to get the recalls taken care of before then.
LOL. Gaypox:
GAYPOX
WTAF spreading among Gay, Bisexuals and “men who have sex with men”. A new category.
Jankowicz And Cawthorn taught us a lesson. Don’t put your laundry on social media.
Following recommendations from here, I watched Ghost Busters Afterlife last night. Kept to the basis of the original with very little wokeness, so enjoyable. Thanks
We joked that the “useless” guns in the evidence room were the same ones Spielberg removed from the last DVD print of “ET”. Reitman the Younger knows.
Wokeness is done except for what couldn’t be reshot after “Spiderman” surprised Hollywood. The new commercial for “Top Gun” has a scene inside what looks like Kansas City BBQ, complete with bra collection.
There is already a Monkey Pox vaccine. Or is it a mRNA based mecho-gene- splicing pseudo-vaccine?
guess we can thank BillyG for that. Who knew.
LOL. SpaceXXX:
A SpaceX flight attendant said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence.
I hope Monkey Pox isn’t involved.
The only mRNA vaccines approved are the Covid jabs.
A treatment regimen exists for Monkeypox as well as a vaccine not based on questionable technologies.
It appears that Boeing pulled off a mostly successful launch of the Starliner so Tony needed to steal the spotlight back.
I noticed P. Diddly Bush went negative in the campaign for the Republican nomination for Attorney General of Texas last night during the local Faux News. He must be losing. Every commercial break.
Your post-apocalyptic vehicle?
Lots of wind this morning. I thought I had won a small wind turbine generator set this week, but there was something weird in the closing and it seems that I didn’t. The wind off the lake and up the hill is pretty strong and very regular. It would deff do for suplemental energy.
a bit of overcast messing with my sunny day atm, gonna load the truck and head out shortly.
n
I paid $3.89 at Costco on Wednesday, May 18th. It was 9 AM and there were probably 20 other cars filling up or waiting to. That’s about 18 more than there normally are on a Tuesday morning. I happen to work like two blocks from that Costco, so filling up there is easy and convenient. If the lines aren’t too long I’ll fill up or top off there.
The people that spend $4 in gas making a special trip to Costco to save $4/tank mystify me. If you’re in the area for other reasons, then sure, why not? Driving roundtrip just for a tank of gas? Do the math first. I have a 16 gallon tank. Costco is 13.4 miles from my house (let’s pretend I don’t work right by it). My car averages about 23 MPG. That means it’s going to take about 1.17 gallons to make a roundtrip to get gas at Costco. At $3.89/gallon that’s $4.56 in gas to get to and from Costco. If I arrive with a completely empty tank and put a full 16 gallons in I’ll save about $3.20 over the $4.09/gallon gas costs at other stations. So, spend $4.56 to save $3.20. Makes total sense. lol
I paid nearly $6 / gallon Wednesday. That was for premium. Regular was $5.40 I think.
We will be paying over $6 / gallon for regular pretty soon I expect.
They have to keep jacking it up until you’re BEGGING the current administration for an alternative/greener solution. 🙂
Houston metro has a bunch of costcos. One is ~3 miles from my house and I drive by most days while doing other things. Most weeks I pass within a mile of at least three other costcos. Between the per gallon savings and the 1% rebate at the end of the year, it’s totally worth it to concentrate purchases there.
What caught me off guard was tolls. One month I did a LOT of driving across Houston, and I had over $120 in tolls.
n
Exactly. Most of the general public doesn‘t understands basic math. Same idea spending 10-20k more on a new electric car. They will likely never recoup the extra cost in energy savings.
Oh, and saving “just” $4 per tank means I essentially get a free fillup every x many tanks…
Now I get what you mean. Growing up near the state line, I knew people that would drive to Indiana to buy gas without Illinois high tax on it. Some of them drove too far for it to be economical, but with some it was also an anti-tax thing.
n
Mid 40s gusting into the mid 50s this morning in the CA. high desert. Cats are hiding under the bed…
“Energy savings” is a rationalization for buying a Tonymobile or Jesus Truck.
My wife’s nephew asked my mother-in-law to sell her Seattle rental house to buy him a Tesla Model X to “save on gas”.
I’d say he was pulling her leg, but he’s the one who wants to drop out of the Army, get an MBA from UT or UW, and become a tech manager with the background of an undergrad J school degree.
I’m vocal that I don’t support the kid with that scheme. He will be in town next week to work my wife. We’ll see what he’s driving.
This is true, but we’re doing it anyway. I figure we’ll save between 1.5k and 2k per year in fuel costs. So, say 15k over the life of the car. Maybe just barely a break-even.
Late last night (around 11:00pm PDT), the hosting folks at Dreamhost have moved the site content to a different, faster server. (The database is on a separate server.)
Theoretically, this should improve response times. We shall see; I’ll be monitoring it. And hoping that the 500 errors go away.
Note that the IP address of the server changed, but the name server is set to Dreamhost, so there should be no DNS issues.
Agreed. My next car might be an electric, but it won’t be purchased on the expectation of saving money over a gas car.
Oh Joy:
Oof. The Jackery 2000 solar “generator” once again won’t charge. No matter what source I use I only get 0-4W on the screen. I assume the charge controller is shot. I only charged it once via the mains. The literature says charge to 100% with the mains the first time. Since then, I’ve only attached the panels and rarely get over 500W in with a limit of 800W. Their tech, at least on the 2000 (which has been out of stock for over a year) sucks dead bunnies. I’ll send them an email requesting a RMA. Support is in China, so I need to be precise in my email for their translation software.
In case I haven’t mentioned it, don’t buy Jackery. There are plenty out there with better reliability.
Energy savings” is a rationalization for buying a Tonymobile or Jesus Truck.
My wife’s nephew asked my mother-in-law to sell her Seattle rental house to buy him a Tesla Model X to “save on gas”.
I’d say he was pulling her leg, but he’s the one who wants to drop out of the Army, get an MBA from UT or UW, and become a tech manager with the background of an undergrad J school degree.
I’m vocal that I don’t support the kid with that scheme. He will be in town next week to work my wife. We’ll see what he’s driving.
Wow, that was bold. I would have never asked my grandmother to buy me a $75K car. He must be a real pampered guy.
As has been noted before, most of the “action” around here is in the comments. I really feel like RBT’s Memorial Daynotes would better fit the format of phpBB or other message board CMS better than WordPress blogware. It would also add a lot of features for commenters. Keep it simple. Only Nick (and any deputies he annoints) can author new posts, but everyone can comment (reply to it). Just my 2¢. IIRC, RBT’s Daynotes were in an Ikonboard message board solution for quite some time (or, at least the comments were – the daily entries were static HTML). Blogware is well-suited for anonymous wanderers to leave the occasional comment, but message boards seem better when the commenters are regulars.
>>https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-paid-250000-to-a-flight-attendant-who-accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5
I guess when you’re the richest man in the world “no” is not in your vocabulary. Of course, plenty of “professional” ladies he could have arranged for for less than $250K that would have been happy to provide whatever he desired.
We have 1 mph with gusts to 10 now in Huntington Beach, CA. Dog wants to go for a walk.
He’s Number One Grandson among the offspring of my mother-in-law’s two children, my wife and her sister. It confers a certain status.
A Model X, the one with the gull wing rear doors, is a $100k+ vehicle.
Ah, Jay Leno. Living the well-deserved life. I always enjoy his YT videos. He is like a little kid with his enjoyment. “A calming vehicle.” Yes! That’s why I like some of the older ones. Someday, maybe, I will get something pre-war.
Almost didn’t follow that link. Thought it might be one of those crappy Hollywierd movies.
Watched Grand Prix for the first time the other night. Kinda good. I enjoy anything James Garner is in, but there wasn’t enough of him. Loaded with good actors and extras, however. Had to remind myself it was 1966 a few times. John Frankenheimer did a good job, especially for the tech of the time. Imagine putting a movie camera (certainly NOT a 70mm camera) on a fragile race car! Sound mixing won an Oscar, deservedly so. The marching bands were especially well done. Watched it once, and that is enough for me. I seldom watch movies more than once, and still prefer the movie house.
@Jenny,
“Downton Abbey” this weekend?
If you are not a fan but still want to sit in the theater for a couple of hours, this is possibly the best summary of the show I’ve ever seen.
https://vimeo.com/36876238
“Hot. Way Hot. Annnnnnd the Other One.”
Spike TV. Even basic cable of 10 years ago is now part of a bygone era.
Freefall: Puppeting Your Body
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3800/fc03750.htm
Nope, no puppeting my body when I am asleep.
Ah, Jay Leno. Living the well-deserved life. I always enjoy his YT videos. He is like a little kid with his enjoyment. “A calming vehicle.” Yes! That’s why I like some of the older ones. Someday, maybe, I will get something pre-war.
You know, the first thing that struck me about that vehicle is that if Jay came to a sudden stop, one testicle would be on one side of that vertical steering column and the other testicle would be on the other side of the steering column. Seatbelts were invented for a good reason and should be retrofitted to all vehicles.
Met with the electrician yesterday. Our next step is to talk to the provider, a co-op, and determine how much capacity we can get, schedule, etc.
Hopefully your electrical coop is not a part of the Brazos Valley Coop bankruptcy.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Brazos-bankruptcy-case-set-to-open-with-1-9-16936358.php
It appears that Boeing pulled off a mostly successful launch of the Starliner so Tony needed to steal the spotlight back.
Yup, the cost was a cool billion dollars.
I cannot find a good cost for the SpaceX Dragon 2 to the ISS. But the three visitors last month paid $55 million each to SpaceX.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10702763/Space-stations-private-astronaut-team-arrives-orbiting-platform.html
He’s Number One Grandson among the offspring of my mother-in-law’s two children, my wife and her sister. It confers a certain status.
A Model X, the one with the gull wing rear doors, is a $100k+ vehicle.
I am the number one grandson / grandchild on both sides out of thirteen grandchilden. I never got anything special from either set of grandparents, including zero inheritance when they all passed.
And dadgum, that is an expensive vehicle. I assume that price is with dual motors and the 130 kwh 310 mile battery ?
The issue with using something like phpBB is that you lose the sequential display of all comments. To read all comments (which is what I like about this place), you have to read each message thread separately. That’s a lot of clicking. I think that is why RBT went to WP and it’s commenting system – too much time to monitor and maintain.
And there have been some security issues with phpBB in the past. I have used it before on other sites, and gave up on it due to security and other issues.
There is no ‘membership/login’ requirement for commenters here. There would be on phpBB. So this place is open to all that might comment, whether they are ‘regulars’ or not.
I don’t know of any ‘features’ of phpBB that would be an improvement of what is available now.
Besides, the last time I changed things here, there was a lot of ‘get off my lawn!’ complaints. <grin>
“Poland says it’s ‘open’ to the U.S. putting nuclear weapons on its soil as the country’s leaders ask for 50% more American troops in Europe and tougher action on Russia”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10682921/Poland-says-open-putting-nuclear-weapons-soil-leaders-American-troops.html
No nuclear weapons in Poland from the USA !
The bankrupt Texas utilities will get bailed out in the next regular session of the Legislature.
“Biden’s Interior Secretary Completely Clueless When Confronted with Memo From Her Department Calling for Shut Down of New Oil Leases (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/bidens-interior-secretary-completely-clueless-confronted-memo-department-calling-shut-new-oil-leases-video/
Biden must forward the zero carbon agenda at any cost !
Poland intends to prove that all of the Dumb Polack Jokes are actually true?
What’s the most dangerous event in the Polish Olympics? Catching the javelin.
“Fisking a GQ article – Why won’t men read my preachy literati bulls***?”
https://monsterhunternation.com/2022/05/19/fisking-a-gq-article-why-wont-men-read-my-preachy-literati-bullshit/
“I haven’t fisked anything for a while, but when Mike Kupari showed me this pretentious dreck from GQ it was so awful that I was legally obligated to step in and break down all the goofiness line by line. As usual the original article is in italics and my response is in bold.”
The article is at:
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/men-not-reading-novels
I know the base is the dual motor version with 350 mile battery. The $140k “plaid” decreases the battery range to 310 miles in return for the acceleration.
For that kind of money, I’d rather have one of the G Wagons I see rolling around here occasionally as grocery getters. The Germans don’t even trust Germans to build those — the factory is in Austria.
Enigma was created by a Polish company, not German. The Poles also contributed important work to cracking the system which Turing and the rest of the crew at Bletchley Park built upon.
Poland was lost to the Russians the moment John Paul II became Pope after the Vatican assassins made quick work of his predecessor. Putin does not want the headache.
“Monster Hunter Guardian” by Larry Correia and Sarah A. Hoyt
https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-Guardian-Larry-Correia/dp/1982125047?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number seven of an eight book dark fantasy series. There are many other prequels and sequels in the Monster Hunter Universe. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Baen in 2020. I will probably purchase and read just about any future books in the series.
If you like dark fantasy then I would advise checking out this series. The first book is a riot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439132852?tag=ttgnet-20/
Julie Shackleford is a fifth generation monster hunter. Her husband is Owen Pitt who is on a international mission to close an inter-dimensional rift on a Russian island, along with the rest of the active monster hunters of MHI. Julie stayed home to deliver and take of their baby who is doing well after being delivered by one of the local Orc midwives. And she takes care of her retired grandfather and manages the MHI business. But then a monster shows up by the name of Brother Death and kidnaps her baby, wanting to trade her baby for a powered artifact that Julie is guarding for the Old Ones. And then Julie’s mother, a master vampire, shows up and wants to trade Brother Death for her grandson so she can raise him properly.
The author has a very active website at:
https://monsterhunternation.com/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,592 reviews)
The bankrupt Texas utilities will get bailed out in the next regular session of the Legislature.
Not gonna happen. Bankruptcy judges have more power than the Texas Legislature.
I saw the reference to ‘electrical coop’ and thought of fried chickens.
LOL! Good fisk. And the comments are great.
Literary fiction does not interest anyone. Never has, never will. Five will get you ten she secretly reads a Harlequin Romance every day.
*** Five will get you ten she secretly reads a Harlequin Romance every day.***
That was a (very) minor plot point in Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon as I recall.
As a matter of interest; if it won’t save money, what is the reason for an electric vehicle? If environmental, has the total environmental cost been taken into account?
Of course not. Other examples are coal fired power plants, dams, refining, nuclear generation, and many others. I will leave it to the reader to determine which side of increase/decrease each is on. You might be surprised.
Reminds me. I used to associate with a lot of Polish people. They told the same jokes, but they were about the Italians. Truth be told, both ethnic groups are very smart and industrious.
Once, many years ago, my workplace banned all ethnic slurs and jokes. Sure, it was well meant; but after a pause I started telling the same dumb jokes, but this time it was about Yankees. My boss just rolled his eyes.
It is like professional athletes on TV (wrestling, basketball, etc.) continually creating fouls to make fans think that they are actually doing right by defeating the bad guy.
“State Farm: Drivers Hit 2 Million Animals During The Pandemic”
https://www.carprousa.com/blog/state-farm-drivers-hit-2-million-animals-during-the-pandemic
“Vehicle animal collisions are on the rise, according to State Farm, surpassing 2 million in its latest 12-month reporting period. According to its new data, taken from July 2020 to June of 2021 during the pandemic, animal collisions increased 7.2% from the prior reporting period. State Farm says an increase in speeding during the pandemic could be a factor in the increased number of animal vehicle collisions.”
“State Farm lists the top 5 states in terms of animal collisions (as tallied by the number of insurance claims) as:
Yup, a deer nailed me in 2019. I could not believe it. She ran across the road and hit me in the front fender. Did $3,000 damage to my 2005 Ford Expedition. Broke her back, somebody harvested her that night as I called the game warden and she was gone when he went by about 10pm.
“Fifth Circuit Blows Up SEC Because The Word ‘Ponzi’ Is Nowhere In The Constitution”
https://abovethelaw.com/2022/05/fifth-circuit-blows-up-sec-because-the-word-ponzi-is-nowhere-in-the-constitution/
“Fresh off telling private companies employees are enjoined from enforcing any rule if an employee even asserts that it’s religious, and attempting to insert itself at the head of the Depart of defense, the Fifth Circuit Mental Gymnastics Squad offered up another perfect 10 with Jarkesy v. SEC.”
“The Fifth Circuit gutted the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, deciding that the Seventh Amendment demands that the SEC can’t use Administrative Law Judges and must send every minor securities infraction to an Article III court to get dragged through a jury trial.”
I think that this is real. I wonder what SCOTUS will do ?
The seventh amendment is “In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.” That is incredibly plain English and is why our Justice of Peace courts in Texas have six man juries.
If Congress does not like it then freaking amend the USA Constitution !
I had a friend whose ancestry was Polish and Italian. He was a computer programmer. He was a state employee. He was on the short side. He was nominally Catholic but in practice more of an atheist. There probably wasn’t an insult or joke in the entire world which hadn’t been aimed at him at some point.
His was kind of a sad case, in one way. When we met he was a recent graduate, working for a small private company, and a ball of fire when it came to working long hours to finish projects on time, learning new technology to do the job, and learning in general to be a better programmer. Then he got married and not long afterward got a job with NYS “just for the benefits because my wife needs them and we’re going to have kids” even though he didn’t respect programmers who worked for the state. Within two years, though, he’d become a state employee who happened to do some programming, rather than a programmer who happened to work for the state.
I’m a car guy. I’d be like Jan Leno if I had the means. I choose a car based on my needs and how it performs to my tastes. It usually takes my a couple years to finally pull the trigger, most of that is just narrowing it down to 2 or 3 and then making the final decision. I’m kind of in that process now. The new Hyundai Ionic is interesting, but it will be a while before I can check one out. If I had to buy today, I’d go with a gently used Porsche Macan or an Audi Q5. I need something to haul the dogs and that can pull a small trailer. I am definitely not a truck guy. I have time though, as I have access to my son‘s truck until he leaves for college in the fall.
the fish stinks from the stinking head
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/05/20/report-confirms-white-house-had-advance-knowledge-of-the-nsbas-domestic-terrorism-letter-and-promised-we-have-your-back-n470933
Every time I want to kick Cocaine Mitch, I consider what having garland on the Court would have done to advance the PLT’s totalitarian objectives.
Pro-Life Activist Destroys Democrat Congressman With a Simple Question
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/05/pro-life-activist-destroys-democrat-congressman-with-a-simple-question/
https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/05/18/ncreased-testosterone-levels-turns-voters-more-conservative/
Explains a lot. A LOT.
>> As a matter of interest; if it won’t save money, what is the reason for an electric vehicle? If environmental, has the total environmental cost been taken into account?
Saves money on maintenance and service. An ICE drivetrain had ~2,000 moving parts whereas an EV has ~20.
Only routine maintenance on my LEAF is tire rotations and wiper, cabin air filter and tire replacements. All but the tire replacement are easily DIY tasks. And here in the desert it hardly rains so the wipers last for quite some time.
I also use the one pedal regenerative braking so I expect the original brake pads to last the life of the car.
Whew, what a lot of driving.
Made my rounds and made it home. Then dinner, etc. Finally get to sit down for a bit before bed.
n
@Greg
No movies this weekend. Too much on my plate. Downton Abbey probably not gonna be one I watch. I’m contrarian – series was so popular ill snub the movie -laughter-
I worked hard today. I’d already scheduled today off work so I could address the messy front yard. Though the letter made me want to blow off the work and go see a movie. I had a quick breakfast and got to it. Bunch of stuff to dump and donated. Bunch of stuff gotten rid of on Craigs list. Bunch of stuff brought in house and if not put away at least in the same room as where it’ll be put away. Moved all the clutter from in front of the garage. All the clutter from by the driveway. Got the substantial clutter on the covered front porch under control and organized so no longer visible from street.
There’s substantial pile of planting stuff, chicjen / rabbit stuff, plywood and boards still to address. Visible but somewhat concealed by a large spruce tree and chicken coop. I’ll tackle that next week.
Also added a cage to rabbitry so I could split the juveniles. Gave the pregnant does due next week straw and set up their nest boxes. Cleaned the rabbitry. Got rid of some manure on craigslist. Set up a second watering system for the juvenile cage since it’s out of range of the pvc water system.
Tool shopping, didn’t buy. Also cleaned house, plus dishes and laundry. I’ll sleep well tonight, I was moving and physically working for 12-13 hours straight.