Sat. Jul. 2, 2022 – Ah work, I could watch it all day…

Surely it won’t be hot?  Oh right.  Texas.   Maybe not quite as hot as Houston, but probably into the 90s at least.  It was surprisingly nice here yesterday, after the rain stopped, and a beautiful evening and night.

The sky is so dark and full of stars, I’m definitely going to have to learn some more about it.  Add it to the list.

 

Unfortunately the list is already long and I’ve got to work on it today.   Family arrives around 10 or 11am.   I will start by hearing about the last week at camp.

Then the work starts.   Oh well.   Life is toil.

Always be working to improve your position.

And stack some things.  LOTS of things.

nick

54 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Jul. 2, 2022 – Ah work, I could watch it all day…"

  1. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    Of course, no other states honor my PE (Professional Engineers License) from the Great State of Texas.  I am registered in Texas, since 1989.  To work as an engineer in any other state, I must be registered in that state also, following their rules, taking their tests, etc.

    Thermo iz diffrunt in other states.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Of course, no other states honor my PE (Professional Engineers License) from the Great State of Texas.  I am registered in Texas, since 1989.  To work as an engineer in any other state, I must be registered in that state also, following their rules, taking their tests, etc.

    IIRC, the EIT is accepted across state lines. The FE is the test every undergrad should take as soon as they finish the ABET-specified core. 

    The FE is a beast if you have been out of school and away from the material for a while. My undergrad institution used to require every student to at least take the test, but, after a while, the scores got embarrassing to the department so the requirement was dropped.

    For the record, my score was 87. At the time, Fluids was 15% of the exam and I’d never seen that material so that section of the test got “Christmas treed” after I went through and cherry picked obvious answers from formulas in Lindberg’s review book. A passing score that year was 72 with half of the test being rudimentary TVM problems — “What is the present value of $1000/year income for 10 years in a 5% bank savings account interest rate environment?”

    5%. Ah, the 80s.

    My best friend in EE school scored a 75 despite her much better GPA than mine. The quip was, “Standardized tests favor white men.”

    Whatever. I passed well into the 90s percentile. I keep that paperwork safe just in case, but getting a PE has never come up.

  3. Nightraker says:

    These folks are NOT going to become engineers:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HusMMz1-8sg

  4. Greg Norton says:

    For the “Ruh Roh” section of this space – I had a six month old Crucial memory stick go bad in my daughter’s computer. Six months!

    Fortunately, Crucial has a lifetime warranty and honored the replacement policy without me having to dig the receipt out of my email archives.

    I always burn-in new systems with the torture test in Prime95 from Mersenne.org, running the tests at least over night. The memory passed at Christmas.

    When I kicked off the test yesterday, the program halted almost immediately with a rounding error and a detailed analysis using MemTest revealed more than 100 bad locations in the 16GB RAM module.

  5. Ray Thompson says:

    Thermo iz diffrunt in other states

    Indeed. Here in the hills of East TN some energy measurements are in MPUs (Moonshine Proof Units).

    Spousal unit has had a terrible cough from a cold for over a week. Doctor says it has to run its course. Then wife came down with pink eye, a side effect of the cold according to the doctor. He was kind enough to see her on short notice, as in less than 10 minutes, outside his office. One of the perks of being a long time patient I guess. Or he was really afraid of spreading it to his office. The short ability to see the doctor was good. What she has is apparently highly contagious, so I have to be very careful. Using lots of hand sanitizer and keeping my hands away from my face.

    I really despise this small town for its water service. There are only about 1,600 customers on the system and it an expensive system. Water coming out of the waste treatment plant must be fit to drink and that takes lots of processing. There is also a bond issued on the plant which must be serviced. Some help from the state, but still expensive.

    My water bill for last month was $158.00. Forty of that was for actual water, another $85 for waste disposal. Some minor charges for garbage and leak insurance. Here we get charged for sewer based on water consumption. I am having to keep the pool topped off due to evaporation which is not helping the costs. Plus we had three female visitors from Norway for 10 days. Long showers and hair washing.

    Most small towns in this area are facing the same issue. Oak Ridge has an even bigger problem in that decaying lateral lines to the houses must be replaced, by EPA order. This cost for replacement is entirely the homeowner’s responsibility. Some people are facing $5,000 bills to have the lateral lines replaced.

    My aunt and uncle had a place close to RichH, Beckett Point in Port Townsend. The road to the left just before going down the big curve to the point. RickH knows where it is. Second to last house on the road. Beckett Point is a private community where the land is owned by the corporation. Lots are leased to the homeowners. My aunt and uncle had a 100 year lease. Everyone was on a septic system years ago.

    When my aunt died I really wanted to keep the place. Outstanding view of the bay. But the EPA and Washington state was forcing the corporation to install a sewer system. Expensive with lots of pipes and lift pumps. Each lot was being assessed a $25,000 fee to pay for the system. My aunt and uncle owned two lots. I was facing a $50,000 expense which was money I did not have. I had to sell.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    These folks are NOT going to become engineers:

    To quote the late, great Ted Knight, “Well, the world needs ditch diggers too.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRGRvE_Wqg

  7. drwilliams says:

    Two claims that come up frequently and are the subject of greenie falsehoods:

    Extreme temperatures linked to nearly 1 million deaths

    Guest Essay by Kip Hansen – 30 June 2022

    One of the amusing things we see right off is the use of Large Numbers:  15,431,532 deaths, 2.9 billion person-years of risk.  Well, they have a huge population over a very large area (1.5 continents) over 13 years during which 15.4 million people died.   But what of the results?

    The excess death fraction of total deaths was 0.67% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58–0.74%) for heat-related deaths

    The excess death fraction of total deaths was 5.09% (95% CI 4.64–5.47%) for cold-related deaths

    Bottom Line: Excess Death Fraction for cold-related deaths is 7.5 times higher than for heat-related death.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/06/29/extreme-temperatures-linked-to-nearly-1-million-deaths/

    Cold kills more than heat. 

    2. Heat waves are more frequent

    Well, no.

    Here’s the money graph:

    http://icecap.us/images/uploads/HEATWAVEINDEX.jpg

    Every time someone claims “xth hottest year on record”, pull this graph out. Fact is that the 1930’s had the three hottest years on record in the U.S., as defined by a rational meaning of “hot”. Huge number of high temperature records set during those years.

    Four things you need to know about temperature measurements: 

    Temperature measurement in the U.S. is centered at airports because air temperature determines airplane lift capability. See Chuck Yeager’s bio. These measurements were never intended to track climate.

    UHI (Urban Heat Island) is real and has repeatedly been shown to have a larger trend than “global warming”. Take it out, and global warming largely disappears. UHI tends to increase nighttime temperature as concrete, asphalt and buildings absorb and retain heat, so “warming” is often not a function of increasing daytime temperatures as much as nighttime.

    Another factor that tends to increase nighttime temperatures is water use. Water lawns, raise the humidity and radiation to space is decreased, keeping the temperature up. 

    The U.S. temperature data set is corrupted by UHI and by global warming zealots in the woodpile (Hanson and Schmitt, to name two) who have “corrected” corrupted the historical temperature record to suppress historical temperatures and increase warming trends. When you see temperature graphs showing warming the first question should always be “Is that from a data set that has been adjusted?”

    Back to the graph above.

    Take a look at this page:

    https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-waves

    Here’s the EPA being dishonest. Note the absence of a graph?

    The full takedown of heatwave claims is here:

    http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Are_heat_records_increasing.pdf

    (HT to Dr. Jerry Pounelle, who related a specific story more than twenty years ago that caused me to look past the headlines. )

  8. brad says:

    Regarding numbers and statistics: I really dislike articles that use specific numbers. For example, “123 people died from X”. Is that a lot? Not very much? Are we talking about 123 out of a group of 1000, or 1 million? What’s the usual number?

    If they fail to put the numbers in context, it’s lazy, sensationalist journalism. Since numbers are almost never in context, well…

  9. drwilliams says:

    @Ray Thompson

    Here we get charged for sewer based on water consumption. I am having to keep the pool topped off due to evaporation which is not helping the costs.

    If you don’t know offhand, check to se if you sewer fees are based on year-round usage, or if winter is used as the baseline. The latter takes out the summer usages for watering, car washing (minor) and swimming pools.

  10. Pecancorner says:

    Then wife came down with pink eye, a side effect of the cold according to the doctor. He was kind enough to see her on short notice, as in less than 10 minutes, outside his office. One of the perks of being a long time patient I guess. Or he was really afraid of spreading it to his office. The short ability to see the doctor was good. What she has is apparently highly contagious, so I have to be very careful. Using lots of hand sanitizer and keeping my hands away from my face.

    Ouch! I hope she is better soon.  That reminds me.  Our pharmacist told us about Similasan Pink Eye Relief. It’s over the counter.  Paul was having to get a prescription a couple times a year, but since we got this, it always clears it right up.  We start the drops in BOTH his eyes as soon as he notices one eye itching or feeling like there is sand in it. 

    For prepping purposes, it’s a good medicine to keep on hand.

    Maybe someone can edit this link so that the site can get the commission:

    https://www.amazon.com/Similasan-Relief-Drops-33-Ounce-Bottle/dp/B000GCLR8Q/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3JFDCQ4PA0F3V&keywords=Similasan+Pink+Eye+Relief&qid=1656765118&sprefix=similasan+pink+eye+relief%2Caps%2C625&sr=8-2&tag=ttgnet-20

  11. Ray Thompson says:

    For example, “123 people died from X”

    In my small town that would be a lot in 10 years. In Chicago probably a normal month of gun gang violence.

    Here’s the money graph:

    Climate change is almost 100% about transferring money and power. There is little accurate science involved. Almost all studies start with a result, then look for numbers and events to support the result. Conflicting data points and events are rejected as irrelevant.

    How many thousands of studies have been done, with large grants, to prove climate change? How many opposing studies have been initiated to disprove climate change? The ratio is probably thousands to zero.

    Al Gore has made millions on his global warming campaign. According to Al Gore by now all the ice caps would be gone and people would living in deserts across the entire U.S. We should all be dead. Instead Mr. Gore is living large in his multi-million dollar mansion with A/C set on 68 and using private jets to travel.

    Yes, we should responsible in our use of resources. We should cut down on pollution. We should also not being stupid stuff and untested things to mess with climate. Climate is a huge energy engine driven by the power of the sun. For man to think they can substantially change that process is foolish. Climate changes, that is what climate does.

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    If you don’t know offhand, check to se if you sewer fees are based on year-round usage, or if winter is used as the baseline.

    Based on monthly usage. There is no winter baseline. A significant penalty for water plans. No one waters lawns because it would be very expensive to do so.

    I pitched a fit at a city council meeting, even made the lead story on the nightly news. I was told that if a winter baseline was used then the fee for the sewer and water would have to be increased and the cost would work out about the same.

    The city was forced by the state and EPA to rebuild the sewage treatment plant. Very expensive. It would have bankrupted the city if not for some bonds that were issued plus a grant from the state. The federal government, the EPA, being the driving force behind the upgrade, did nothing to help.

  13. Clayton W. says:

    Two claims that come up frequently and are the subject of greenie falsehoods:

    Look at you using actual facts!  Bravo!

    I HATE the fear mongers. Grrr

  14. Pecancorner says:

    Our city water has the same trouble Ray’s does.  There are about 100 houses on our system. Our basic bill is $125 a month for water, sewer, garbage. $35 of that is toward paying off the millions of dollars it cost to put in the sewer system that is a catastrophe.   Our water is billed for every gallon over the basic, so if we have visitors for a weekend, it goes up $10 or $20.   When I have a garden to water, it’s an extra $50 or so each month. We do not water the grass.  The water is pure well water so there’s very little actual expense – it’s all in the sewage treatment. 

    The terrible part is that it’s not a real sewer system, but each house has a tiny 100 gallon tank with a grinder in it that empties into the sewer when full.   When ours went out last fall, the city didn’t have the new parts to repair it and it took them 7 weeks to get the new part. In the mean time. we had to ration our water use to keep it from backing up into the tubs and the city guy had to come out every other day to force it to drain.  It was truly awful.   

    The sad part is that when the city made this choice about 15 years ago, they had the option to just put in new septics for everyone. But they chose badly.  

  15. MrAtoz says:

    You wanna see vindictive, here our goobermint at work:

    Hi, Mr. Ray

    EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Has VA Suspend All Benefits of Jan. 6 Prisoner

    plugs should just declare all WHITEYs! traitors to the FUSA and take away all goobermint benefits.

    Plus, the guy has been held 475 days. For what? Thank you for your service, loser.

  16. Ray Thompson says:

    they had the option to just put in new septics for everyone. But they chose badly.

    Actually probably not. The EPA is forcing most sewer systems out of existence if there is any way to install a sewage system. Especially for municipal water systems. People in my city were “forced” to connect to the sewer system when it was installed. There was no other option. Each house had to pay $1,000 to connect to the sewer system. My perfectly good septic system had to be abandoned. I did not own the house then but records show the connection.

    I know the septic system was abandoned because the old tank was located by accident. I needed to have my water line replaced with copper replacing the old plastic line. The backhoe fell into the old tank. I did not have to pay the cost to extract the backhoe. I did have to pay the cost to fill the tank with rock and gravel. That was supposed to have been done when the tank was abandoned. Fortunately the connections to the city services are out the front of the house as was the old septic tank.

    The septic tank for my son’s house is in the front yard. They have water in the neighborhood, but not sewer. The city where he lives is being forced to install sewer systems and are slowly working through the area. His connection fee will be almost $2,000, mandatory, no exceptions. He is not happy.

    You wanna see vindictive, here our goobermint at work

    I am not surprised. My dealings with the VA have been less than pleasant. The veteran is always presumed guilty from the start. The amount of effort to provide proof of a service-connected condition is daunting. It usually requires an independent letter from a couple of other doctors, at the veteran’s expense.

    It took 15 years to get my hearing loss and tinnitus claim approved. I had to file three times. It was quicker to go with the VA on the denial, then start the claim again. To continue the appeal would have taken many more years. The last time I had letters from two doctors both stating my hearing problems were most likely service connected.

    My claim on my back has been in review now for seven years. There at 72,000+ people waiting before me. I will move up the list when I reach 75. That will be 10 years in appeal. The VA option is to wait the veteran out as the veteran will die first.

    When I had my knee replaced, under the VA, I was never told that I would get an increase in my disability rating. I was never told I would get 100% disability for six months after the surgery. The VA knew, but never informed. I found out by a chance meeting with my county VA service representative.

    To find some way to deny, or remove benefits, is not at all surprising. I have been told that when I ask for an increase in rating that the VA may decide I have gotten better and reduce my benefit. It is a crap shoot when asking for an increase in rating of an existing condition.

  17. MrAtoz says:

    The VA is not there for the Vet. The “Iron Rule” has taken hold. The VA is there for the VA.

    The Social Security Agency is the same way. It is up to you to dig, and dig deep, to find the benefits you are entitled to have. You should just be able to put in your SS and ID yourself and every benefit you are entitled to should pop up.

    One thing I need to look up for my milspec bennies, is if cremation is covered. The VA may say, nope, only a dirt burial is covered. At an exorbitant price so they can skim some off the top.

    The VA still sucks for retirees who make money. “You are too rich, go away.”

  18. Greg Norton says:

    Al Gore has made millions on his global warming campaign. According to Al Gore by now all the ice caps would be gone and people would living in deserts across the entire U.S. We should all be dead. Instead Mr. Gore is living large in his multi-million dollar mansion with A/C set on 68 and using private jets to travel.

    A family fortune based on shares of Occidental Petroleum among other not-so-green energy investments.

    Does he actually live in Tennessee now?

  19. Clayton W. says:

    My dad lives in Newport, RI and he repeatedly tells me I am wrong about the VA.  His friends rave about the care they get.  I can’t make him understand that Flag officers are not treated like us peons.

  20. Greg Norton says:

    The VA still sucks for retirees who make money. “You are too rich, go away.”

    No one my spouse works with at the VA received stimmy checks beyond the child tax credit loan made last year.

    Think about that. Even the one year degreed LPNs on the payroll made too much money.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Does he actually live in Tennessee now?

    I don‘t know. I believe he still has his mansion. I have told the story before how I think I cost him the presidential election. Whether I actually had an effect, who knows. But I like to think I did.

  22. Greg Norton says:

    Does he actually live in Tennessee now?

    I don‘t know. I believe he still has his mansion. I have told the story before how I think I cost him the presidential election. Whether I actually had an effect, who knows. But I like to think I did.

    Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia have attracted the attention of the Locust Class members based in DC or Charlotte in the last few years as a lower cost “work from home” area. It wouldn’t surprise me if he did live there now since DC is a short hop on a private jet.

  23. MrAtoz says:

    Our Spectrum internet went out on Friday at noon. Just a blinking light on the modem “online” section. I went through the standard reboot, check cables etc., but no joy. Called Spectrum and the tech had me do the same thing. He couldn’t even ping the modem. “I have you scheduled for a tech to come out at 2:30 pm” on Tuesday the 5th, that is. Tough potatoes, all slots are taken and they don’t work on the 4th. While I’m waiting for the tech, I signed up for Google Fiber. The install is free with no contract. They even say they’ll come out before my Jul 6th appt to run the underground fiber to the utilities side of the house.  I can’t wait to see how responsive they are in getting everything working by the end of the 6th. Why not? I’ll try both, but am leaning towards dropping Spectrum. The “tough potatoes” attitude of the Spectrum guy turned me off.

    I’m living off my Mint Mobile data plan. Still have 8G left on my 10G plan for the next four days, so plenty. I already had this weeks TV downloaded to my Mac Mini server. Plus plenty of movies already on it. We binged out the latest season of “The Owl House” last night.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    82F and overcast with occasional sun, so far today.  Breeze is blowing and the lake isn’t glassy. 

    Wife and D1 are still waiting for D2 to be released from GS camp.   A starbucks stop on the way ended up costing them an early place in line, and now an extra hour of waiting.   WORK FIRST, MESSING AROUND SECOND seems to have missed them.   Lesson learned, I hope.

    Lot of big poops in the yard this morning.  Not from deer.  Hmm.  Not dogs either.

    Coffee and breakfast are done, so I better start my day.

    n

  25. Ray Thompson says:

    signed up for Google Fiber

    No brainer. If I could get Google fiber Xfinity would be gone in a heart beat.

  26. SteveF says:

    Lesson learned, I hope.

    Yah, good luck with that, cowboy.

  27. MrAtoz says:

    Arlo cams are useless without internet.

    When the Googles come, I’m going to see if they can put the fiber in a little used linen closet. I’ve kicked that idea around and want to move all the network stuff to the closet. I’d have to run an extension until I can tap into an outlet and put it in the closet. If Google will, why not? I also want to run my own POE cams and run them with Mac Mini software. The software even support an iOS app for external access. I already tested the Apple TV version and it works. I just have to get licensed software.

    Spectrum will be dropped if the Googles work out right. Saves me the trouble of moving the cable drop to the closet.

  28. RickH says:

    Maybe someone can edit this [Amazon] link so that the site can get the commission:

    That is an automatic process, due to the “AmazoLinkenator” plugin I wrote several years ago, and have kept updated. Any link that belongs to the Zon gets the ‘ttgnet-20’ affiliate link automatically added when comments (and posts) are saved into the database.

  29. Pecancorner says:

    That is an automatic process, due to the “AmazoLinkenator” plugin I wrote several years ago, and have kept updated. Any link that belongs to the Zon gets the ‘ttgnet-20’ affiliate link automatically added when comments (and posts) are saved into the database.

    Oh yay! And looking at it, I see it worked like a charm. Thank you, Rick! 🙂  

  30. paul says:

    When the Googles come, I’m going to see if they can put the fiber in a little used linen closet.

    Depending on how much stuff you have, you might put in an 8×12 louvered air vent above the door.

    I’ve done that to three of the bedrooms here.  A vent over the door on each side of the wall.  Seems to help a lot with keeping air flow going when  a door is closed. 

  31. MrAtoz says:

    Depending on how much stuff you have, you might put in an 8×12 louvered air vent above the door.

    For now, I would leave the door open. My plan was to put a mesh panel at the top of the door for cooling.

  32. ITGuy1998 says:

    When the Googles come, I’m going to see if they can put the fiber in a little used linen closet. I’ve kicked that idea around and want to move all the network stuff to the closet. I’d have to run an extension until I can tap into an outlet and put it in the closet. If Google will, why not?
     

    It will depend on the installer who comes out and how capable they are.  By default, they want to put the media converter as close as they can to the outside penetration. They mounted mine on the outside wall of my office, which is downstairs. I prepared for that possibility when I built the house though. I put cat6 in that wall. I just used a 1 foot patch cable from the media converter to the wall jack, which terminated in my data closet upstairs. Googles router lives up there, which I then connect to the rest of my network. 

  33. MrAtoz says:

    It will depend on the installer who comes out and how capable they are

    Roger that. My house is single story, so I hope they will drop it where I want.

  34. MrAtoz says:

    Coming in through the ceiling vs down a wall makes it a lot easier.

  35. Alan says:

    >> Regarding numbers and statistics: I really dislike articles that use specific numbers.

    “Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

  36. lynn says:

    xkcd: The Universe by Scientific Field

        https://xkcd.com/2640/

    A little exaggeration there.   I mean, there is gotta be some time for engineering all the scientific stuff.

    Explained at:

        https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2640:_The_Universe_by_Scientific_Field

  37. Nick Flandrey says:

    Warming up here, 92F atm, and we got a short rain shower.   Mixed clouds and sun,   55%RH.   FEELS hot.

    Family made it.   Kids have vanished to air conditioned rooms with Zelda on the switch.

    I’m still working the list.

    n

  38. Nick Flandrey says:

    regarding the fiber drop,  if you have a pull string in place it will be easier to convince the installer, especially if you help guide and pull.

    n

  39. lynn says:

    “JPMorgan predicts $380 oil on worst-case Russian output cuts”

         https://www.msn.com/en-ae/money/news/jpmorgan-predicts-dollar380-oil-on-worst-case-russian-retaliatory-output-cuts/ar-AAZ6ug9

    Just remember my rule.  If there is one extra barrel of crude oil for sale in the global market, the price of oil will drop in half.  If there is one less barrel for sale than desired in the global market, the price of crude oil will double.

    The repricing of crude oil (and all other energy products) will continue until the market is satisfied.

    Hat tip to:
    https://drudgereport.com/

  40. lynn says:

    IIRC, the EIT is accepted across state lines. The FE is the test every undergrad should take as soon as they finish the ABET-specified core. 

    The FE is a beast if you have been out of school and away from the material for a while. My undergrad institution used to require every student to at least take the test, but, after a while, the scores got embarrassing to the department so the requirement was dropped.

    For the record, my score was 87. At the time, Fluids was 15% of the exam and I’d never seen that material so that section of the test got “Christmas treed” after I went through and cherry picked obvious answers from formulas in Lindberg’s review book. A passing score that year was 72 with half of the test being rudimentary TVM problems — “What is the present value of $1000/year income for 10 years in a 5% bank savings account interest rate environment?”

    5%. Ah, the 80s.

    My best friend in EE school scored a 75 despite her much better GPA than mine. The quip was, “Standardized tests favor white men.”

    Whatever. I passed well into the 90s percentile. I keep that paperwork safe just in case, but getting a PE has never come up.

    I don’t remember what I made on the EIT (Engineer in Training) test that I took in my junior year at TAMU.  I just know that I passed it.  I never took the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) test, was not required for the PE in Texas at the time.  I sent in my PE application in 1988 while I worked at TXU.  I got three or four of the vice presidents at TXU to sign it.

    What degree is your bachelors in ?

    I graduated from TAMU a little over 40 years ago. I would hate to have to take the FE now.

  41. drwilliams says:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/07/biden-administration-has-americas-most-productive-oil-field-in-its-crosshairs/

    Be better if someone sued Texas in state court to limit ozone, then Abbott’s administration could enter into a consent decree to half the amount of oil and gas production from the Texas part of the Permian basin. 

    Oil would hit $1000 a barrel and keep climbing, and the DJIA would crater and they’d stop trading in stocks.

    The greenies would get what they want, good and hard. Wouldn’t be much of a victory, since 99% of them would die freezing in the dark without understanding that oil and natural gas are somehow related to heat and light.

    5
    2
  42. lynn says:

    Our city water has the same trouble Ray’s does.  There are about 100 houses on our system. Our basic bill is $125 a month for water, sewer, garbage. $35 of that is toward paying off the millions of dollars it cost to put in the sewer system that is a catastrophe.   Our water is billed for every gallon over the basic, so if we have visitors for a weekend, it goes up $10 or $20.   When I have a garden to water, it’s an extra $50 or so each month. We do not water the grass.  The water is pure well water so there’s very little actual expense – it’s all in the sewage treatment. 

    The terrible part is that it’s not a real sewer system, but each house has a tiny 100 gallon tank with a grinder in it that empties into the sewer when full.   When ours went out last fall, the city didn’t have the new parts to repair it and it took them 7 weeks to get the new part. In the mean time. we had to ration our water use to keep it from backing up into the tubs and the city guy had to come out every other day to force it to drain.  It was truly awful.   

    The sad part is that when the city made this choice about 15 years ago, they had the option to just put in new septics for everyone. But they chose badly.  

    Having a septic system for each home is not cheaper.  My neighborhood is 550 lots with 450 homes.  We have three common wells for our potable water with a chlorine treatment system on each well.  No filtration on the water so the iron and calcium is at 500 TDS (500 ppm solids).  My plumber wants me to put in a $500 filtration system but I have not done it yet.  And the filters have to be changed every month to three months for $100.

         https://www.expresswater.com/products/whole-house-3-stage-water-filtration-system-wh300scgs

    Each home in our subdivision has their own aerobic septic system and the home owner is responsible for the maintenance.  As a result, only 3/4rs  of the systems are operating properly at any given moment.  You get downwind of them and the smell gets horrible.  Our average home out here is around 4,000 ft2 with three or four generations of people so plenty of pee and poop.  

    We have a three stage septic system (500 / 500 / 750 gallon) with a ¾ hp air compressor running 24x7x365.  I pay a company $305/year to come out three times a year to inspect the septic system and fix anything.  I get the system pumped out every other year for $680.  And I add $10 of chlorine tablets to the system myself each month.

  43. lynn says:

    You wanna see vindictive, here our goobermint at work:

    Hi, Mr. Ray

    EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Has VA Suspend All Benefits of Jan. 6 Prisoner

    plugs should just declare all WHITEYs! traitors to the FUSA and take away all goobermint benefits.

    Plus, the guy has been held 475 days. For what? Thank you for your service, loser.

    That is horrible !  How can they justify holding the guy so long without trial ?

    Can they shut down people’s Medicare also ?

  44. lynn says:

    Cold kills more than heat. 

    2. Heat waves are more frequent

    Well, no.

    Here’s the money graph:

    http://icecap.us/images/uploads/HEATWAVEINDEX.jpg

    Every time someone claims “xth hottest year on record”, pull this graph out. Fact is that the 1930’s had the three hottest years on record in the U.S., as defined by a rational meaning of “hot”. Huge number of high temperature records set during those years.

    No matter what, we are living in an ice age right now on Earth and have been doing so for thousands of years.   An ice age is defined as when one or both of the polar caps is covered with ice.  And, both polar caps are covered with ice and the southern cap ice is increasing, contrary to all of the so-called computer models.

  45. lynn says:

    “That Grey and Dreary Future” by Sara Hoyt

        https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/07/02/that-grey-and-dreary-future/

    “And since all through the 20th century — partly mind you simply by the human desire to be in with the “crowd” and to be “right” in the opinion of those with power, partly because so many people were captured by the Marxist nonsense and because those in power kept those who disagreed out — the media, the entertainment, and the general culture was heavily Marxist, the input was filtered through “capitalism bad, and it will crash and impoverish everyone.””

    “It’s time to attack the false prophets. I can’t, of course, do it alone, so I must ask that you amplify it, in words, in blogs, in stories.”

    “Let’s build a bright and hopeful future, to which we can aim our civilization.”

    Amen.

  46. Jenny says:

    Scorcher today. 79 f in the shade. Took my you g fog out herding, at 1040 am it was nearly too hot for the work!

    Got home mid afternoon, sun had been boiling down on the house and decking for hours. Curious, I used a meat thermometer on the deck rail, deck floor, and house siding. Yikes – each surface quickly registered 135 f and climbing! I decided I don’t want to know the true temperature on that side of the house. 
    uostairs was 79 f, downstairs 69 f.

    Too hot.

    Rabbits, chickens and dog’s are weathering it better than we humans.

  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, someone’s holiday at the lake ended badly.

    Two jet skis collided and they lifeflighted at least one patient.

    When I was at Lake Havasu for MTv’s spring break filming, someone died every weekend.   They would jump off a houseboat without looking below and land on a boat, or most often a jet ski would collide with something, usually another boat.  Jet skis kill a lot of kids.

    n

  48. Ray Thompson says:

    Jet skis kill a lot of kids.

    The operator fails to understand that without power there is no turning. When faced with collision the best option is turn hard with maximum power. It is not intuitive.

    I owned a wave runner, a jet ski is a different machine. I would get stopped by TVA river patrols and asked for my registration, life preserver (which I always wore), and fire extinguisher. The extinguisher was in the latched front compartment, in a tube that required unscrewing. I told more than one officer that if there was a fire I am sitting on 20 gallons of fuel. I will not take the time to attempt to extinguish the fire. I am jumping off, swimming away, and hopefully someone will see the fire beacon. They agreed but rules are rules.

    Now in TN operators born after January 12, 1989 must take an operators course to operate any powered craft on the water. I don’t know that it helps. Too many “hey bubba, watch this”. 

  49. Nick Flandrey says:

    My first day on Lake Havasu we watched a 40ft cigarette boat burn to an oily spot on the water.   

    Everyone got off ok, and that column of black smoke got them the attention they needed.  

    Someone said they didn’t run the bilge fans before starting the engines…  whoosh.

    n

  50. lynn says:

    Despite our county wide burn ban due to the extreme drought, my idiotic neighbors have been firing off mortar fireworks since dusk.   One would think but, they are not thinking.  

    I suspect that there will be many more fireworks tomorrow night, and a overwhelming amount come Monday night.  One hopes that the fire services will be unbusy as our county fire trucks only carry 500 gallons of water and can barely put out a cigarette, much less a 4,000 ft2 house fire.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    We’ve got a few people shooting money into the air, but it is a lake….

    I expect a lot more tomorrow.

    n

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