Cold again, and damp up here at the BOL. Supposed to be clear for a few days. Yesterday was, and sunny. Warm enough for a jacket while throwing a lure into the water…
Didn’t catch anything.
Broke a little concrete. About 15 ft2. ‘Bout all I could do at one time. I’ll pick it up and maybe break some more tomorrow. Spent some time considering what earth needs to be moved where in the front and side yards. That’s what prompted me to get started breaking the slab of patio in the side yard. It has to be reduced at least a foot, maybe 2ft, and re-graded, while still keeping the plumbing under the dirt. I won my roll of soil stabilizing geotextile, so I think I’ll over dig the sand, put down the geotex, then cover with clay mix from the front yard to bring it to finished grade. There will have to be machines involved at some point. The geotex might help stabilize and won’t interfere with anything we’ll do in the future, so not much of a risk and minimal cost.
There is still a lot of concrete to move and a lot of dirt too. Oddly, I’d almost swear that someone took one or more of the giant root balls I had dug up from the shrubbery that was removed to make room for the septic tank. I was going to try burning one today, and it’s not where I left it. We’re talking about a ball 1 ft thick, 4-5 ft around, and a couple of hundred pounds. Who the heck would want something like that?
Very dark last night. Little sliver of a moon set early, and the sky was black and clear. Wife says the stars were big and bright, but the telescope was too big to move for just a little viewing. Maybe tonight we’ll set it up. It was uncomfortably cold last night, which played a part in the decision too.
At some point today I need to unload my antenna tower. I can unload it one section at a time if I have to. I’d rather not, but I’m not superman, and my neighbor isn’t up this week. On the plus side, if I separate the sections (they are nested for shipping) I should be able to read the actual model number and serial number. Pretty sure the company will want that before selling me the attachments and accessories I need. I want to be sure I have the right feet, hardware, and load ratings too.
Always something to do. My mom said I was too old for this place, that I’d be working on it the rest of my life. She’s got a point, but after hearing about what some of you are still up to, I think I’m ok with that. After all, I’m stacking up the future for my kids.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas, a little respite at the end of the year. Now, get back to stacking!
nick
Somebody who wants burl. A maker of knife handles, gub scales, a turner of bowls, a maker of pipes…? Maybe you will get back a beautiful surprise.
Obviously, no plan survives contact with reality. The fancy roebuck dinner from yesterday is going to be lunch today instead …
Roe lunch was nice. I would have preferred blanched and fried Brussels sprouts with bacon bits and toasted almond spears to red cabbage as the vegetable (sprouts are one of my favourite Christmas leftovers…) but I was outvoted. I did get to choose dessert, which was fresh pineapple with ice-cream and a drizzle of Bacardi.
“Dinner” later will be flaming hot Christmas pudding with whiskey whipped cream. Looking forward to that!
@jenny, “a darned nice palm and knife set for wood carving.” D2 asked for wood to carve something for mom, so I got her a piece of bass wood. It turned out to be as hard as 50 year old 2×4 and she broke 3 x-acto holders using the xacto carving set. I gave her a big bar of soap to use in order to ‘save’ Christmas….
What set did you get your daughter? What wood is she carving? (Green wood?)
@denis, sounds yummy. I like my brusselsprouts with a drizzle of truffle oil as a finisher, without the almonds. The smokey dark flavor of the pan seared sprouts goes very well with a bit of truffle duskiness.
I don’t know if the root ball is solid enough to be burl, but I guess there are lots of people on youtube turning vessels out of roots, sometimes with acrylic resin to fill the voids. Be interesting to see if someone did…
Currently 45F, sunny and clear. Wind is gusting and variable but not crazy strong. I need to get busy and start doing something, I’m sure.
n
Thanks, Nick. I will definitely try truffles on sprouts. I have one in the Christmas goodies stash. I had intended to shave it onto scrambled eggs for a fancy breakfast, but will certainly save some for sprouts now.
I am not terribly keen on “truffle oil” as many are artificially flavoured, and I often find them overpowering.
IIRC it was about fifteen years ago that there was a news report of a couple of kids that had scaled a fence at a power substation. One of them got in among the equipment and made a fatal mistake. There was a photo of his partially melted athletic shoes left on the ground. I don’t recall hearing the result of the inevitable lawsuit charging that the power company was negligent in not building a sufficiently unscaleable fence of that the “DANGER” signs weren’t beg enough or sincere enough.
Nick, try putting a sign up on your yard: If you took the root ball from my yard, please tell me what you did with it. I’m not angry, just baffled.
@nick
Good job with the bar of soap. I wonder why the bass wood was so hard. That’s out of character. I broke my share of x-acto tools carving as a child. Frustrating experience and occasionally bloody.
We found a Flexcut brand set at our local scmancy pants art store. There wasn’t any middle priced sets in town – x-acto or high end. We went high end.
This is the specific set:
https://www.flexcut.com/home/product/kn700-deluxe-palm-and-knife-set
She mostly carves greenwood this set will let her get into carving seasoned woods I started her on a pine paint stirrer (for a 5 gallon can so thicker and sturdier than typical paint stick). it was small enough for her hands to steady, and thick enough to let her experiment with depth of cut. I’m going to pick up some clear pine, maybe some quarter dawn pieces with straight grain if I can find any. And a clamp to hold her work. If I want Bass wood turns out I may have to order it. The shop that used to carry decent sized pieces for carving doesn’t any longer. looks like I can get over priced thin planks in town and that’s it.
Our family member works at a wood shop. He approved of the knives, and I rather suspect he will bring home choice pieces of wood that ‘are just lying around’ to encourage her.
Unexpectedly have guests for lunch, and another group for dinner. I was going to muscle my way thru the snow to the rabbitry today to clean. I think that’s getting delayed one more day. Long legged husband has been caring for them, but their poop and urine are all my responsibility. I’m fortunate to have had his help.
“claimed without evidence” is not at all lying; it is an element of conversation or discussion. One of the most effective ways of lying is to give evidence to support the lie. The insistence on having evidence for every statement is what debate is all about. Debate is an entertaining game for lawyerly types, but is without merit in general. Debate is an attempt to convince people of something even if it is not true. Discussion is used to pool knowledge and intelligence to gain better understanding and perhaps find some truth.
““claimed without evidence” is not at all lying; it is an element of conversation or discussion. One of the most effective ways of lying is to give evidence to support the lie. The insistence on having evidence for every statement is what debate is all about. Debate is an entertaining game for lawyerly types, but is without merit in general. Debate is an attempt to convince people of something even if it is not true. Discussion is used to pool knowledge and intelligence to gain better understanding and perhaps find some truth.”
“Kevin” just wants to fight from his chair in Mom’s basement. It is best to hammer him.
Unexpectedly have guests for lunch, and another group for dinner. I was going to muscle my way thru the snow to the rabbitry today to clean. I think that’s getting delayed one more day. Long legged husband has been caring for them, but their poop and urine are all my responsibility. I’m fortunate to have had his help.
Long legged husbands are occasionally nice to have around according to my wife. Apparently I am worth the 40+ years of trouble.
Freefall: Pournelle / Niven Transfer Station
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3900/fc03844.htm
I love the name of transfer station !
“California’s population keeps shrinking”
https://ktla.com/news/california/californias-population-keeps-shrinking/
When you make all kinds of absurd rules for your populace, they will vote with their feet.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“Conservatives in Western Canada Pass Law Rejecting Federal Sovereignty”
https://dnyuz.com/2022/12/25/conservatives-in-western-canada-pass-law-rejecting-federal-sovereignty/
Will Alberta secede ?
“Get free at-home COVID-19 tests this winter”
https://special.usps.com/confirmation
Yup, I am running a slight fever and I feel like somebody beat me with a stick.
I have checked, you cannot share the Koof through the intertubes “grin”.
It’s 60F and sunny today. Almost nice if you can get out of the blankety blank wind. No known water leaks yet. The hasty and unattractive sheet metal scraps I used to cover the gaps in the house’s skirting seemed to make a big difference. The kitchen floor in front of the sink was “just real cold” and not “my feet are freezing off cold”. The dining room floor was warmer. I’m claiming a Win.
When Mom’s house sells I’m calling the folks that do insulation. I hear the spray foam stuff is great. Might be a few grand. Shrug. Everyone said I was wasting money having the windows replaced. I use to have almost $300 bills. I broke even on the cost of the windows and the reduced electric bill a couple of years ago. Last month’s electric bill was $104 and they yabber about their bill being almost $300.
I’ll probably put the dishwasher’s kick panel back on. But later, like in April. To keep the dog hair out if nothing else. The dishwasher is just a little bit louder without the panel. I hear the various clicks easier. It’s still quieter than the fridge.
I smell something dead near the back door. No flies. No cats are missing and none have acted ill anyway. No buzzards. I have a few self seeded patches of chives around the patio. They look like frozen lettuce. Spoiled onions are nasty smelling.
I made Beef Stroganoff in the crockpot yesterday. The gravy was on the juicy side, my fault, tasted good anyway. So we used bowls instead of plates. The neighbor came for supper. She brought an apple pie. I have the lettuce and tomatoes for a salad. No one was interested. Maybe tomorrow. Heck, I made a batch of blue cheese dressing, too.
Cookie time for the dogs.
Crap, I just tested positive for the Koof using a six month expired test. But this says that the Koof test expiration has been extended from six months to fifteen months.
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list
My wife is now taking an expired Koof test.
HEB will fill scrips for that medication which shall not be named if your doctor will write it.
CVS and Walgreens will not.
Tractor Supply near Katy used to carry the equine version of the medication which shall not be named. Just be sure you get one that only has the one active ingredient. I haven’t checked lately.
A word of warning… It does not really taste like apple. Just sayin’.
Call your doctor. Your wife too if she tests positive.
Got my tower unloaded from the truck. Did it a piece at a time. Put the window trim back up in the master bath, except the piece under the windowsill. That sumb!tch got some hammer time, and some stompy foot time when it kept bending nails. Installed the backsplash for the vanity in the master bath. Wasn’t gonna, because the height will change with whatever flooring we eventually put in, but it looks better, and water won’t run down the wall.
Moved stuff from the garage to the shed. Cleaned. Ran the kerosene heater in the garage, just cuz. Used about a quart for 2-3 hours, and it raised the temp in a big 2 car garage from 45 to 65F. First time running one, so I figured better to learn in the daylight, when the house is warm, than late at night while freezing.
Gave my fisherman friend a flag, got a plate of cookies in return. He’d mentioned his US flag was getting frayed. I have lots of new flags because I buy them when they’re cheap in the auction, or at an estate sale. I probably have a dozen by now, and a couple that I won’t fly (dad’s funeral flag, one that was flown over Falluja.)
Raked and burned some leaves. Smelled like heaven.
Little things.
n
WRT truffle oil, yes, in moderation, and only if contains genuine truffles (hard to find). I use a little drizzle in a 12″ saute pan after the brusselsprouts are ready to eat. We don’t blanch them first, just pan saute in butter…(with bacon of course.)
Your wife too if she tests positive.
The wife was negative. She has never had it. This is my second time but that was self diagnosis since it was Feb 2020, before all of the tests.
I am just going to outlast it. Unless, it outlasts me.
You know, I am really getting an unhappiness for the Chinese. First they steal my software, then they give me a disease. Twice.
My son had the Koof three weeks ago. The wife’s sister and her family had it four weeks ago. They showed up Friday and are leaving tomorrow.
Every one else in my office is on vacation this week. So I will probably go into work tomorrow.
@Nick
Running an unvented heater that uses kerosene or propane will put lots of humidity in the air. If you don’t crack a window for venting, run the overhead door up when you are done and flush the warm air out. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the warm air takes the moisture out so it doesn’t condense on your tools.
Does anybody know a good place to buy a NEW pc with Windows 7? My wife’s system is finally croaking, but she doesn’t want to learn Windows 10. I’m happy with my Dell w/Win10, but “happy wife, happy life”, and all that.
Thanks!
In theory, this is the “dead” week at work, but, except for yesterday, I haven’t had any real day off since our trip to New Orleans in October.
I pushed back hard today. We’ll see what happens. I’m waiting for one review to be approved, but they leverage that I’m checking my email to assign new tasks.
Outlook/Teams is quickly becoming a panopticon for remote workers. Developers have the added surveillance of Jira and the Git constellation of tools.
I would not do it. Windows 7 x64 is two releases behind and they are already talking about Windows 12. But, here is a reconditioned machine.
https://www.amazon.com/OptiPlex-3-00GHz-500GB-WINDOWS-64-Bit/dp/B00MEQKB98?tag=ttgnet-20/
Windows 7 cores on newer hardware. Microsoft coerced Intel and AMD into going along with cutting off support for the OS, and then Redmond bribed all of the surplus vendors to abandon Win 7/8 with free Windows 10 licenses.
About the best you can do is to research the last generation of Intel CPU/chipset that supported Windows 7 and build a new system around a surplus or overstock motherboard and CPU from EBay.
A registry hack exists that used to allow Windows 7 to load on newer AMD/Intel platforms without a core dump, but I have no clue as to whether it still works. If you insist, Google is your friend.
A new stealth forced obsolescence is on the move right now, “x86_64 2.0”. IBM/Red Hat already quietly requires that for their flavor of Linux distribution, and I’m guessing that is a trial run which Redmond is watching very closely to see if Big Blue gets away with it.
Re: Win7 vs. Win10
Perhaps I’m less than a stick in the mud than I gave myself credit. With the substitution of “Classic Start Menu” instead of the Microsoft Metro tiled abortion, I don’t remember any other difficulties in transitioning from Win7 to Win10. I believe StarDock has a similar substitution program.
Most of the other bundled “improvements” I simply don’t use or have turned off. I rather like the Show Desktop button and Win-Tab’s view of running programs. Perhaps I just don’t remember Win7 that well. Pinned programs to the TaskBar and the mini-view when hovering over running tasks is neato, too.
OTOH, when I swipe the touchpad a certain way, Cortana shows up and I’ve not been QUITE annoyed enough to find the disable method. I removed it from the TaskBar long ago, like the MSN news task and the TaskBar Search thing.
What I did was: I went to Task Manager, clicked on the Startup apps tab, clicked on Cortana, clicked Disable.
“Gas Power Saves Texas from Blackouts, As Wind Power Collapses Again!”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/26/gas-power-saves-texas-from-blackouts-as-wind-power-collapses-again/
“The emergency order from the US Energy Department allowed the state’s grid operator to exceed certain air pollution limits to boost generation amid record power demand in the state. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, whose service area includes 90% of electric customers in Texas, requested the emergency order Friday, warning it may need to resort to blackouts. TRANSLATION – fire up more coal and gas plants!”
“Fortunately a repetition of the blackouts last year was avoided. But as we can see, it was gas power which came to the rescue, as wind power collapsed to virtually nothing at the same time as demand surged:”
“Can wind turbines be burned as a power source?”
It is shameful that we have to go to the EPA to get permission to run our power units beyond their emissions capability in order to save lives in these troubling times.
Lynn, Greg, Nightraker; Thanks much. I’ve been offering to buy her a new machine with Win10, and she keeps refusing; it might be time to push her over the cliff and make her learn something new. She’s a bright woman, but at age 70, she wonders why things can’t last longer. This PC is 12 years old, and I’ve just about babied it along as far as I can. Her parents just passed on a couple of years ago.
The immediate problem is that starting this morning, it won’t connect to our network. I’ve ordered a USB to Ethernet adapter that ought to work, and we’ll see if I’ve lucked out. And if not …. well, it’s cheap.
There is an outfit called https://nixsys.com, which will be happy to build me a brand new i7 machine and put Windows 7 on it, but it ain’t cheap. But not much more than a new Dell.
@dcp
Thanks!
Suggestion for dealing with severe cold and other stresses on the electrical power system: Render Greenies, Sierra Clubbers, EPA employees, and a not-so-random selection of politicians into biodiesel and use that to run some generators.
I’m running a 14 year-old CPU (Q6600) and motherboard as my primary desktop, but I gave up on Windows 7 because the driver support, particularly for Nvidia graphics cards, evaporated in the wake of the speculative execution bug fixes for Intel.
This is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-30 with win7 on it. It meets my needs. Win8.x on my main desktop with Classic Start Menu. Win10 on the little appliance I got for my dad, but I literally only use it to play solitaire. Win10 on a modern machine for the “family” pc in the kitchen but no one uses it regularly. Wife uses win10 at work, and doesn’t mind it, but doesn’t have much choice either.
Win7 is the last os I liked. metro tiles needs to DIE DIE DIE.
n
Mom’s flight is tomorrow afternoon on Southwest , but she can’t check in. They have her listed as ‘standby’ and now I see southwest has canceled flights… Hmmm.
Maybe she’s not going home tomorrow after all.
n
>> Suggestion for dealing with severe cold and other stresses on the electrical power system: Render Greenies, Sierra Clubbers, EPA employees, and a not-so-random selection of politicians into biodiesel and use that to run some generators.
Wouldn’t that quickly clog the fuel filters?
Or make those who only want green energy register their locations as first for load shedding if the wind farms and solar installations can’t keep up. Leave the ‘evil hydrocarbon generation’ for those who support it.
>> Mom’s flight is tomorrow afternoon on Southwest , but she can’t check in. They have her listed as ‘standby’ and now I see southwest has canceled flights… Hmmm.
@nick, try searching for the flight number on Twitter, you may find info there before their site is updated. They may also respond if you message them on Twitter, especially if you have a large following (or in your case not.)
Win 7 vs Win 10, I guess I just don’t get it. My only routine interaction with the OS is using the Windows Explorer, and most versions are pretty similar. Other than that, I mostly interact with applications. The underlying OS is mostly invisible.
Full disclosure: I have used a variety of systems over the years, and find most to be similar. A computer is just a computer, whether a desktop or a phone. I do have strong likes and dislikes, but I can suppress them for those occasions when I have to use others’ systems temporarily. What bugs me the most is when the keyboard shortcuts change. Fortunately, in Windows, a lot has been constant since the very early days. Some can even be changed.
Then again… my wife breezes right through things that stop me cold in puzzlement, and vice versa. She still doesn’t understand paths, and constantly “loses” files. I have tried to teach her, but she doesn’t want to learn. I tell her that learning just a few simple things will serve her for life, but nope. She seems more comfortable being lost, and complaining to her friends that some “update” caused something that she now can’t deal with. Of course, they respond that “hackers” got into their email account and disrupted things. Right.
When this happens, get bigger filters. Problem solved. 🙂
>> Maybe she’s not going home tomorrow after all.
Check @ElonJet, maybe Tony is in the area and can give her a lift.
I don’t know about her, but I would treasure the chance to meet Tony. Even better would be to have some polite conversation with him. But then, I would also like to have had the chance to meet Joe Garagiola or Ben Franklin. Or…
>> Or…
Thomas Jefferson and Yogi Berra
But, but, Joe plagiarized and he got a pass…
New York Post : Liar Rep.-elect George Santos admits fabricating key details of his bio.
https://nypost.com/2022/12/26/rep-elect-george-santos-admits-fabricating-key-details-of-his-bio/
Southwest cancelled lots of flights out of Austin today.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/flights-canceled-delayed-austin-airport-abia
That airport opened too small for the volume, and most of the food service is inside the secure area.
Lynn, be well soon!
Nick, I am intrigued by your not blanching the sprouts. Are you using frozen or fresh?
Good luck with your Mom’s flight.
Your mentioning your Dad’s flag reminded me of my late father. He volunteered at the food bank well into his old age, and around Christmas was a super busy time for him there. I miss him and the aura of goodness that surrounded him. Animals and children were drawn to him, and people were happy in his company. In simpler times, he would have been called a saint, I think. He was certainly a saintly man, who did a lot of good and never said anything about it to anyone. Something to which to aspire…
Thomas Jefferson and Yogi Berra
My Dad would love to go fishing with Ted Williams. After baseball, Ted Williams had a very understated fishing show in Florida ??? for around 20 years. Even though it is SD, Dad watches the show reruns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7MiPagrXzA
Sure, but if Jefferson, then George Washington. Maybe some Roman senators as well, back in the days of the republic.
@Lynn, best to you overcoming the Koof. With any luck, it should be mild.
And now to sleep. Perchance to dream.
Clouds and possibly sprinkles tomorrow. Yecch! Can’t wait for Spring.
77 F tomorrow (well, tomorrow is today now) … which means I should be asleep by now… nite all.
38F, sunny and clear today. Headed into Houston soon. Mom wants to try to get out. I think she’ll spend a day standing in line at the airport and then still not get out, and should just stay with us for the week and sort out the flight later.
I decided to stay at the airport with her to manage her bag and stand in for her in lines. I can’t get past security though. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
TSA tracker is showing 30 min security, but no indication of checkin delays.
n