Cool-ish. Damp. Houston is on the edge of the storm zone in the national forecast, and then in the middle of it later. I’m not thrilled with the idea, although I acknowledge that we need the rain.
I spent yesterday doing a few things. Not what I mostly wanted to, but I did move a couple of things to the ‘done’ column.
One was hitting up Costco. I let the papergoods drop to low levels here at home. I’ve got more, just not here, so it was well past time to hit the store.
Prices are up, and there are things that are missing. My favorite microwaveable cheeseburgers were not in the freezer. There were a couple other things too, but most of my staples were there. They had reasonable prices on some beef steaks, but they were higher than they used to be. They had spiral sliced ham for the first time in one? two? years. The listed price was more than double what it used to be, but they were doing $10 off each ham. That brought it down to only about a third more than it was. I will try to get back and get some more before the promotion ends.
The price for Krusteze Pancake mix has risen from $5.99 to 8.99 for the same size bag. Oddly, australian lamb and canadian maple syrup have stayed the same price for years with only minor fluctuations. The selection of rice and the quantity in the store were both reduced, but the price is only up 20-30%. And lo! they had both M&M candies and M&M Peanut varieties in stock. They’ve only had one or the other for a long time.
Charmin blue was $25 a bale. Charmin USED to be $18 on sale. Bounty paper towel is playing games with sheet size again. They are now offering “longer” ‘selectasize’. The “smaller” sheet is almost as big as a normal sheet used to be. I’ll be back to ripping sheets in half again if this continues.
I was happy to see a lot of my normal items were on sale. Next month it will be a different set of items, and I’ll stock up on those then.
To put all this food somewhere, I bought another freezer. This one is an upright and will go to the BOL. It was an estate buy, and was only $80. Costco did have one 7cuft chest freezer in stock at $269. Lowes had a few at a similar price, so they are available again, just not as cheap as they used to be. Which is the story for a lot of things these days.
I originally titled today’s post “Persistence” and was going to talk about that. It needs a bit more thought and some more work though. Maybe later.
Today will be more of the same, some housework, some prep for a weekend at the lake, some messing around. And in the evening, I’ll go see the hour I missed of the kids’ show.
And I’ll be stacking things. You should be too.
n
Go to Trader Joes in North Austin. You’ll see all the liberal stereotypes. Life imitates art.
Interesting event last night. There was a natural gas leak across the street from my house. Guys showed up at 8:00 PM to do the repairs.
Someone called the gas company because they drove by with their window down and smelled gas. I had been occasionally smelling gas when I mowed and just thought it was engine exhaust. The leak had been going for some time.
They find the location by driving down the street using a laser device pointed out the window. Really sensitive. Guy said it could detect gas in my house through the window from the street. They punched a hole in the dirt and stuck in a probe to get closer to the source. Eventually bringing in a backhoe to dig up the area that had been isolated.
The leak was found in a supply line to the building across the street. They sprayed soapy water on the pipe to find the leak. A really slow leak as it was barely bubbling. It was classified as a level 1 leak, repair immediately, as it was close to my water line and apparently could migrate into my house along the water line. Based on the level of the leak that would have taken years. Still a level 1.
They cut out the section of pipe after first clamping a device on the supply line that pinched off the gas. Effective as no gas leaked out. The repair the pipe by melting in a new section. The ends of the pipe are trimmed, the edges heated, then pressed together, for 15 minutes.
Same method they use on the 10 inch water lines used by gold miners to supply water. If Goldrush is watched you know what I am saying.
They finished up at 10:30 PM. All the workers are on overtime, all of them on call for emergencies. The leak, being a level 1, was considered an emergency repair.
Updated W11 on both of my systems to 22H2 without issue yesterday. Both had been on hold because of some compatibility problem between 22H2 and an audio driver. My Surface laptop was affected. One would think that testing would on Microsoft devices, for Microsoft software, would be high on the list. I guess not.
Now I have to install a couple of additional updates to Office 2016 and dot net. Strange that I had to reactivate my copies of MSOffice after installing the update.
73F and damp this morning. Dramatic sunrise, lots of pink orange and red. Bus was 15minutes late and the driver was new. Can’t get any help these days, forget about “good”.
Just got a spam call on my “land” line. Freaking 8 am and the spammers are already bothering people. Crown me king and I’ll start EMP’ing call centers.
n
Oops, freezer was $75, plus tax and fee, so $95 total.
Same here. Districts are begging for bus drivers. Horrible job with miserable kids misbehaving on busses. Go to the parents and the response is always my kid is great, it is the other kids starting problems. Then show the parents the security video. They still will not correct their child’s behavior.
Some days it is necessary to just cancel the bus route for the day. Parents must get their kids to school as a missed day is not an excused absence. Happens to other districts in the area.
The pay is only $90.00 a day, get started at about 6:30 am, finish at 8:30 am, start again at 3:00 pm, finish about 5:00 pm. A lousy schedule for low pay. I get $70.00 a day for subbing and much less hassle. College degree gets $90.00 a day, teaching certificate gets $100.00 day. Little wonder no one wants to drive a school bus.
School districts and taxpayers need to wake up. If they want the services they are going to have to pay. The large Texas districts could shave a million or two off football stadiums and pay bus drivers. Some larger districts here such as Memphis and Nashville could do the same.
$80 million dollar football stadiums are just a symptom of a bigger spending problem in Texas schools.
That reminds me – I have a sample ballot with all of the local ISD trustee (school board) incumbents’ names circled to vote “against”. Today is the last day for early voting.
We are 800 yards from the “middle finger” of Austin that extends up into Willamson County to catch the tax base of the semi-stealth Applied Materials facility not far from my house. For some reason, the political spam callers think we are inside the city limits so the phone calls are non-stop every election season.
I have developed this tactic on land line phone calls. I get caller ID on my TV. If the number is flagged as spam, I answer and quickly hang up. If the number does not display a person’s name, I answer and say nothing. I wait for them to respond. If they do not respond I just leave the phone open until they disconnect.
If they respond my first question is “who is this?”. If they start some spiel about being from some organization, I immediately hang up. Others may get a little further until I recognize a spam call and immediately hang up.
Calls on my cell phone are tied to my contact. If the number is not in my contact list, I terminate the call immediately. If they call again, I block the number.
I despise political calls. Apparently protected speech even if they are spewing a bunch of lies.
I get emails from political groups with an unsubscribe link or button. Most don’t work. Others consist of the entire email being a graphic with what look like links to unsubscribe but are not. I have my email set to NOT download images. I would like to know what sleaze bag organization sold my email address.
I highly suspect Amazon of selling the email addresses. Harvesting my information for the nefarious benefit of themselves at the expense of me. Selling email addresses should be illegal, punishable by a slow boil in a pot of lye for the CEO, CIO, and all top-level managers.
I applied the Win11 22H2 update this morning – 20 minute install. No issues so far.
Ask for forgiveness, not permission…
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/twitter-employees-file-lawsuit-claiming-mass-layoffs-violate-federal-law-requiring-notice
WRT spam calls: When my phone buzzes and shows “SPAM”, I tap the answer icon and immediately respond “ You have reached the number that your computer has dialed, 867-5309, I’m Benny”. They always hang up and never talk to me.
I want them to call 1900-mix-alot and kick them nasty thoughts, but only if they have ‘back’.
n
Are 900 numbers still a thing?
n
Some have already been fired for “policy violations” which are incredibly easy to prove in the age of Internet access at work. God only knows what the people in the San Francisco office would do thinking they were “safe”.
Most employment in the US is “at will” meaning either party can terminate the employment immediately.
Canada requires 2 week notice*, so even if you are fired, you come to work. It also meant that you couldn’t just quit and walk away. You owed your employer those weeks. Practically speaking, who would want a guy like that around?
n
Involuntary terminations in Texas which are not layoffs require a reasonable cause which will stand up in a tribunal hearing with TWC in order to avoid an unemployment insurance payout.
Most fired employees get the hearing at a minimum, and their are two additional layers of appeal beyond that.
>> Some have already been fired for “policy violations” which are incredibly easy to prove in the age of Internet access at work.
Despite the inconveniences, work remained only on the work laptop and personal stuff on my personal laptop. Was good to have friends in the right places that “suggested” what Big Brother actually had eyes on. (Usually more than what was rumored at the water cooler.) All of which was covered by the code of conduct that you were required to sign every year. Penalties for violations were ‘up to and including immediate termination of employment.’
THERE are. Friggin autocorrect.
When I worked at the bank in San Antonio anyone that quit or was terminated were immediately escorted out of the building. Two weeks pay was still provided in either situation.
Now, now, no need to get upset. Their is just know need. (Feel better?)
Oops, freezer was $75, plus tax and fee, so $95 total.
Front opening or top opening freezer ? I just threw away a 5 or 6 year old top opening 5 ft3 freezer because the lid had managed to deform itself over the years with opening it 4 or 5 times a day. I replaced it with a 14 ft3 front opening freezer for $800.
We keep the daughters gel masks in there that she uses to moderate the effects of the constant migraines so we are constantly in and out. Not normal freezer duty.
I know you’re a tall dude, but how do you reach the top shelf? 🙂
I know you’re a tall dude, but how do you reach the top shelf?
Uh, it is only 68 inches tall. My memory was wrong, it is 16 ft3. They had it in stock so that is what I bought.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frigidaire-16-cu-ft-Frost-Free-Upright-Freezer-with-Garage-Ready-Power-Outage-Assurance-and-EvenTemp-in-Brushed-Steel-FFFU16F2VV/312472273
Oh wait, you are talking about the ft3 being ft ?
In my town, if you want an ambulance ride to a nearby hospital or have police show up, call 911.
“Honda Teases EVs With High-Range ‘Solid State’ Batteries This Decade”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/honda-teases-evs-with-high-range-solid-state-batteries-this-decade
“A Japan-based R&D lab is working on a game-changing lithium ion alternative, making Honda one of many automakers betting on solid state as the next chapter for electric vehicles.”
“Two big barriers to widespread EV adoption—limited range and long charging times—might be solved sooner than you think.”
“By the end of the decade, Honda plans to launch a fully electric vehicle with a solid state battery, a more energy-dense power source than the lithium ion ones used in EVs currently, Ars Technica reports(Opens in a new window). Many people in the auto industry believe solid state batteries could double range, reduce charging time, and eliminate the already low risk of battery fires.”
“”In the springtime of 2024, we will start a pilot line [for manufacturing],” Shinji Aoyama, global leader of electrification at Honda, told Ars during a roundtable interview at its Tokyo HQ. “Then if we can be successful, we believe we can launch a vehicle with a solid-state battery in the latter part of the 2020s—2029, 2028.””
Sounds like a better battery. But that is a long way away.
Just like cold fusion is just 10 years away. And has been for the last 30 years.
No mention on cost.
Same (years away) for real Level 5 autonomous self-driving on Tony-mobiles.
Or any other manufacturer at this point.
Waymo seems to be at Level 4, but the vehicles are not commercially available.
No mention on cost.
The cost should be less if the batteries do not require active cooling when half full or more.
I do note that the solid batteries still have lithium in their magic mix.
>> Not normal freezer duty.
@Jenny is the resident freezer expert.
Same for real Level 5 autonomous self-driving on Tony-mobiles.
Or any other manufacturer at this point.
Waymo seems to be at Level 4, but the vehicles are not commercially available.
I would think that Waymo would be commercializing their technology as fast as they could.
Ah, they have special (expensive !) technology added to the vehicles. And gawky looking.
https://waymo.com/
“The Oration from Union Station That Was a Desecration”
https://www.clayandbuck.com/the-oration-from-union-station-that-was-a-desecration/
“Once again, he’s lecturing Republicans on this garbage, and saying you either vote for Democrats, or you’re voting to kill democracy.”
Yup, Biden has to continually prove that he is a jerk !
“Tucker Carlson: “Standing at this monument to his own failures [Union Station], Biden proceeded to do what he now so commonly does, bark at the rest of us for our moral failures. The guy who showered with his daughter is telling you you’re a bad person.””
Ugh.
>> Oh wait, you are talking about the ft3 being ft ?
Use the tools that Rick has provided…
Oh wait, you are talking about the ft3 being ft ?
…or lose them ;p
If only there was a way to put little numbers above the text. …. or stick them down below.
Or make the print look really tiny.
>> Ah, they have special (expensive !) technology added to the vehicles. And gawky looking.
All true, but I didn’t have the option to ride in a Tesla taxi yesterday, only Waymo.
In Ontario (labour is a provincial affair) an employer is required to give two weeks notice or two weeks pay in lieu of notice. The two weeks notice is not required if the employee is fired “for cause”. If there is an employment contract (or union) then the situation may well be different. It may also be different if the work is covered by federal regulations.
If the employee is given pay in lieu of notice then they certainly are not expected to show up.
That guy sat at another guy’s kitchen table to get a campaign donation, started running around with the guy’s wife, who let him drive the Corvette, had a fender bender, stiffed the victim so the cuckold had to pay for it, and then peddled a fantasy story for years about meating Jill.
(that homonym is not a typo)
Getting ready to head out and see some middle school kids on stage. I will be bringing hearing protection as it’s a musical.
n
We will temporarily close all offices for the safety of employees as well as Twitter systems and customer data.
– not overly trusting. KNows he’s the enemy.
n
Gas Furnaces and Big Brother Revisited
By Mark Krebs — November 3, 2022
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/04/gas-furnaces-and-big-brother-revisited/
The DOE is one of many government entities that needs to be trimmed with explosive charges, and is probably in the top 5.
This article is an overview of the DOE’s dishonest attempt to forbid the manufacture of non-condensing natural gas furnaces.
I haven’t looked at the details, but before this latest bit of Biden-fuhrer dry-humping of the public, the economic justification for condensing furnaces was nil below the Mason-Dixon line and questionable up to the border with the oppressed peoples of Canada.
With Bidenflation kicking interest rates squarely in the scrotes, the mere tripling of natural gas prices is not enough to change the bottom line.
November 4, 2022
Who has really been running our country?
By Brian Camenker
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/11/who_has_really_been_running_our_country.html
Are time travelers among us?
Here’s a bunch of stories with pictures of some incongruities : a man in a suit holding a cell phone on a beach in the 1940s, a woman using a mobile phone in 1938.
I am aware that there is very little demand for 14 foot tall freezers. Just funnin’. The garage ready model looks nice.
———-
Who’s ruling America? Well, the Soros organization is a reasonable suspect but the Wizards of DC are just as likely to be behind the curtain. I’d watch the movie that premised a Cabal of Ivy Leaguer members of the P*ss on the Flame Lodge.
The real problem is that the entire parasitic apparatus is just too darn BIG. Their own figures show government of all levels takes ~40% of GDP. At some point, the whole structure will die like George Washington, bled by his own doctors.
This. Government is a self-feeding monster. Every agency is all about power and control. Yes, they do fulfill a mission, some better than others. Do not underestimate though how powerful the driving force of politics is in every single agency.
Home again. Not a bad show. Sounded… ok. I put my Walker in ear noise cancelling and noise limiting earbuds for one song, and turned them up. It did enhance the vocals for me without overly amplifying everything else. My wife whispering to me was very audible. I decided that the little bit of extra intelligibility wasn’t that important, and the overall level wasn’t painful like the last show, so I listened with my natural ears. Some of the kids could sing. Some… couldn’t. But they all tried.
Next time I give my Axil’s a try.
n
–2500! not a real product
n
Early voted tonght. Got into line at 5:30 and got to the machines just before 7 PM.
The line was still 90 minutes deep when I saw the deputies close the door.
Walking into the polls, one hippie-ish woman holding a sign supporting the incumbent ISD trustees (school board) took one look at “Skippy” and proclaimed, “That line is almost three hours long right now. Maybe you want to come back Tuesday.”
“Thank you for your advice.”
You’ll takes yer medicine, Skippy, and accept that the ISD rehired the only school superintendent in Texas with a permanent restraining order. You’ll likes it too. We want to go back to normal … and toss in an amnesty while yer at it.
Mostly Republican, but I voted Libertarian for “Judge”. The Right Reverend RINO needs to go, but I wasn’t about to vote for the Dem there.
Held my nose before choosing Paxton. That nomination is partially my fault for voting against P. Diddly Bush.
Texas doesn’t need a Governor P. Diddly.
The engineering costs will have to be sunk somewhere.
In 10 years, we will see $20,000 EVs, but they will be glorified golf carts which are Hecho en China.
I find it interesting that Honda is letting GM take the hit on developing the “skate” which they will use to build their first EV.
No, Mary Barra, Honda doesn’t want to live the future. You make the EVs. We’ll keep making Civic R-types. And look, we’re so behind the times that we brought back the Integra.
–and just so we’re clear, Epstein didn’t hang himself…
n
>> Every agency is all about power and control and self-sustainance.
F I F Y
And Mountain House is doing a discount on mre style cold weather meals.
n
Ok google is getting SCARY good.
over at zendo deb’s, https://wheelgunr.blogspot.com/2022/11/one-hit-wonders-of-1970s.html
she linked to Rick Beato’s One Hit Wonders of the 70s list. That put me in the mood to hear a couple others, namely “Billy Don’t Be A Hero”. So I searched on that and by the time I got to … be a… it filled in the song name, a few down the suggestions. The creepy part is that I wanted to hear another OHW, so typed R then U then N and “Run, Joey, Run” completed as the first suggestion. That is REALLY good inference or sorting, or prediction to come from one OHW of the 70s to another in three letters in the general search box. Scary good.
n
BTW, if you like learning about music, and the music business in particular, from someone who is passionate, engaged, and has been there and done that, you should be watching Rick Beato’s channel. It’s always interesting.
n
@Nick
Thanks for the link to the 70’s list. Perfect end to an evening of deep-diving Youtube vids of my favorite bands, with a little help from Munchen’s finest.
I was concerned about the Terry Jacks and Dave Loggins, tho. I knew that those two, followed by “Indiana Wants Me’, would require a couple cleansing shots of something. whew. close call. (Although, technically, TJ shouldn’t be on the list. He also charted with his wife under the nom de plume The Poppy Family with “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?”)
Hadn’t heard the story about Wild Cherry. Thought the Thompson Twins, might follow, but maybe I’m misremembering a song.
Dave Mason. urk. Compare and contrast with Low Spark and tell me that’s not evidence of some kind of possession.
Argent is tragicomically like Norman Greenbaum: I have both “best of” cd’s in my collection, and both could be replaced by a single 45 if they shared. Fair credit, though, Argent’s “b-sides” are not actively execrable like Greenbaum’s, about which littler said the better.
True story about Head East: They played a certain non-Great Lakes State college town (where they were hugely popular) as openers for Foreigner. A lot of tickets were sold for the opening act, and a lot of those kids didn’t give a crap for Foreigner, so they were walking out to party hardy as the “stars” took the stage, whereupon Lou Gramm got picked up by a hot mike asking “who the eff were those guys?”.
David Bowie “saved” Mott the Hoople with “All the Young Dudes”. barf. Story is that he offered them “Suffragette City” but they turned it down–their only redeeming characteristic.
If you binned the odd stuff and stuck with great guitar riffs you’d have a good playlist. I can think of a number of candidates, but a personal fave that I would nominate would be “Jackie Blue” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
btw, I’d recommend Joe Chambers’ interviews on the Musicians Hall of Fame Museum Youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MusiciansHallofFameMuseum
Got the latest December 2022 issue of Consumer Reports magazine today. It is only 60 pages and stapled. Is it dying also ?
Yeah, I’m definitely not saying that Run Joey Run, or Billy Don’t be a Hero are good songs, but they were hits.
It’s funny that Rick mentions that one being popular ‘around the great lakes.’ Foghat was big in Chicagoland. I wonder what aspect of the payola and record industry shenanigans kept bands that had big regional followings from breaking out nationwide?
FWIW, Styx and Foghat both played dances or concerts at my high school. Before I got there unfortunately, and ‘before they were famous.’
One of my long time favorites was/is Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, that morphed to just The Mellow Fellows after Twist’s passing, then to The Chicago Rhythm and Blues Kings, after a dispute over the name… they played ‘house rockin’ blues’ and were successful for years in the Chicago and southern Illinois area, but never broke out nationally. I’ve seen them live several times over the years in different parts of the country, and they have always been one of the tightest bands in show business. I’ve asked that this one be played at my funeral. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SryTW1qzxfg
In Cali, back in the day, I really liked a band called Common Sense. Terrific fun live. They had some great original numbers, played all over Cali, but just never broke thru either.
Funny how it works.
n
…would be a lot easier, if roads had actual standards. As opposed to every municipality doing its own random thing, including sometimes forgetting markings altogether, plus construction sites also doing random sh!t. Sometimes is hard for humans to figure out what to do…
Tesla is going a weird direction, though. They have reportedly decided to rely entirely on cameras, going so far as to disable the ultrasonic sensors on existing cars. That seems really dumb. Multiple sensors provide more reliable information. Just think about driving in fog or heavy snowfall. You can’t see anything visually, but other types of sensors still could.
Exciting times at Twitter. Some of the stories coming out are…interesting. Like the one about having engineers work through the weekend, to get his new blue-check implemented. Then firing some of the ones who did the work. I expect there’s more behind that story – would be interesting to know just what…