Warm and damp again. It stopped raining after a bit yesterday, but stayed wet all day. No Christmas lights were taken down. Today should clear, if the national forecast is correct.
I spent the day doing computer stuff and wasting time on the internet with my friends. Last day of vacation, so a bit languid… I did get my accounting done for my one client.
Not much else of a useful nature got done. Some days it be that way.
Today though. Today I need to start cranking on some of the list. I know I’ve said that more than once, but ‘this time for sure’!
I have to say that it’s been a bit melancholy around here. I’ve been going through files and especially pictures on my computer, sorting, and cleaning up, and I’ve come across several pics of people who have “preceded me in death” as the obituaries put it. My dad, some family friends, a great co-worker, and while it is nice to see them and remember them, it’s also a bit sad. It’s the time of year for it, to be sure. Add frequent commentor here, Pecancorner, to the list, and it’s triggered a little more reflection and introspection than I’d normally engage in. I don’t think any of them would want anyone to wallow in it, but we’re not quite rational beings, are we? I’m not anyway. So I’m indulging myself in a little bit of down, to go with the up of the season. The grey weather hasn’t helped.
Keeping busy and making progress will help though. Cleaning helps. When stressed, I find myself cleaning. Cleaning is productive and you can see the result immediately. If you come to my house and it’s clean, if the service hasn’t been here, tread softly. Just sayin’.
Anyway. Things to do, people to see. Stuff to buy, sell, and fix.
Stuff to stack too.
Time to get to it.
nick
Ordinarily, I would be back in “school” today and grumpy too, but I treated myself to leave until next Monday. We will have guests towards the end of the week, so the next couple of days will be spent organising, tidying and cleaning. Under other circumstances, spontaneous cleaning on my part is a bad sign, but it is a good way to work off whatever the annoyance might be…
We had grey weather and pretty constant rain for the past few days – I found myself missing my late parents intensely yesterday. The rain has cleared for a spell now; I can see patches of blue sky, and the mood is noticeably better too. Odd, but true, that the weather can affect one so.
I am very sorry to hear that Pecancorner has gone before us. I recall she mentioned her faith in being on her way to a better existence, and I hope she has been proven correct. If so, she will be busy chatting with RBT, JEP and others whom we miss on this plane. I happen to be re-reading “The Best of Jerry Pournelle”, and I am struck by the genius of the insights he offered. If only more had listened and had acted on what they heard … I want my flying car, limitless clean energy and that moonbase!
@denis:
In general, I agree, but I remain to be convinced about flying cars, mainly because there’s too much potential for problems caused by idiots – among whom I occasionally include myself.
“Common sense” is, all too often, anything but common.
G.
I agree about Pecancorner, may she rest in peace. Belief in Christianity is something I occasionally wish I had, but unfortunately I hold with the late Carl Sagan :
Not a great consolation, I admit, as I look back at my 0x4A’th birthday last year, but it is what it is.
G.
DeSantis received approval from the FL Supreme Court to convene a grand jury to investigate Pfizer and Moderna regarding the vaccines’ approval process. The jury’s findings will hit at the end of this year.
RIP, Ms. Pecancorner. You will be missed. 65 is much too young.
My condolences to Mr. lpdbw on the loss of your brother.
66F and 96%RH, and the kids are off to the indoc center… bus was actually a bit early today so they had to sprint the last half block. Less grumpy than I thought given the late nights and today’s early morning. I guess they miss their friends.
Sun is poking out so I’m hopeful that we’ll dry out a bit today.
I guess we’ll see ™
n
Man, I need to keep up. Didn’t realize that Ms. Peacancorner passed. Sad.
Landed in NYC and currently chilling at the new Delta Sky Club at LGA. It’s nice! We are here for a few days. Wife’s present was tickets to see Hamilton, so we will do that and some other touristy stuff. Fly back on Friday. Luckily the college student doesn’t start back until next week, so he is watching the house and dogs. I think he will be ready to leave when we get back. Two golden retriever puppies are a handful…
Very light rain here in Huntington Beach, 0.18″ since midnight. Maybe dkreck, EdH and JimB are experiencing more. 53 deg F now.
Sun’s out. 83F inthe sun and RH down to 34% which is CRAZY.
n
>> In general, I agree, but I remain to be convinced about flying cars, mainly because there’s too much potential for problems caused by idiots – among whom I occasionally include myself.
Flying cars? We aren’t even close to FSD (full self-driving) cars, that being Level 4, then Level 5 autonomy, despite what Tony and Waymo would have us believe.
And remember, nuclear fusion and the Jesus truck are just around the corner.
>> Two golden retriever puppies are a handful…
Ha! More like one is a handful and two are insanity… said the guy with a 14 week-old puppy…
Condolences to lpdbw on the loss of your brother. May he rest in peace.
McCarthy has now lost on the second ballot for Speaker of the House.
Our partisan
governmentcircus at work.Nancy, hold off packing those last few boxes.
McCarthy and Cocaine Mitch need to go. Voting them out is the least messy. Russian-method pavement inspection would be acceptable.
McCarthy has now lost on the second ballot for Speaker of the House.
Our partisan
governmentcircus at work.Nancy, hold off packing those last few boxes.
McCarthy is a RINO. There are apparently 16 anti RINO repuglicans who will not vote for McCarthy for dogcatcher.
This may go on for a while as the constitution is fairly clear on the House Speaker qualifications. Even though McCarthy has moved into the Speaker office.
Unless, some dumbrocrats decide to vote for McCarthy.
Is Pelosi Speaker for Succession purposes until someone gets 218 on the floor vote?
I tested positive for the Koof again yesterday. That is a week now. The wife has never tested positive for the Koof like our daughter and I have yet, the wife had the worst symptoms.
I did take a double Koof test back to Walgreens yesterday in the drivethru as it came with zero reagent. I told the guys not to open it as I had the Koof but I suspect that they did anyway. They gave me a new double test.
I will be putting on mask and gloves yet again to go into the office once everyone leaves to sign paperwork. The mill never stops rolling.
Is Pelosi Speaker for Succession purposes until someone gets 218 on the floor vote?
I don’t think so. She gaveled the last Congress out of existence several days ago.
The Constitution is actually thin on requirements for Speaker beyond requiring the members to select one.
The Speaker doesn’t even have to be a member of the House.
Lauren Boebert went from barely surviving reelection to being one of the most powerful members in the House as #3 in the potential ‘no’ votes for McCarthy.
Time for some horse trading.
The redistricting map DeSantis drew is going to Federal Court, and that’s the Republicans’ eight seat margin via the four seat pickup in Florida.
Nope, apparently Pelosi gaveled the 117th Congress out of existence this morning.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?525065-1/gop-leader-kevin-mccarthy-appears-lose-ballot-speaker
“The government thinks you’re too stupid to notice this tax increase” by Simon Black
https://www.sovereignman.com/international-diversification-strategies/the-government-thinks-youre-too-stupid-to-notice-this-tax-increase-144907/
“Consider, for example, that domestic crude oil products now carry a 16.4 cent per barrel tax. Stock buybacks will now be subject to a 1% excise tax. And large companies have been shoehorned into an alternative minimum tax.”
“(This is only a tiny, partial list of the new tax rules that came into effect on January 1st, all of which add up to hundreds of billions of dollars in additional taxes.)”
Lots and lots of new taxes that all have to have paperwork filled out, checks cut and signed, etc, etc, etc.
After working all Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, I hid from my laptop until Saturday morning, finally made the change control slides I mentioned procrastinating, and then went dark again, having fulfilled my bureaucratic obligations.
I’m back to the usual schedule before the Panopticon today.
“Surprise! Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit New Record In 2022”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/03/surprise-carbon-dioxide-emissions-hit-new-record-in-2022/
I am not surprised. China is producing more and more coal power plants with ocean going coal barges headed their way hourly from Australia, USA, etc. China makes more than TWICE as much CO2 than the USA. Even India makes more CO2 than the EU now.
“Republicans in chaos as Kevin McCarthy loses SECOND ballot for Speaker: GOP rebels refuse to back leader and throw their weight behind Jim Jordan with party in disarray on first day in the majority”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11595709/Kevin-McCarthy-LOSES-opening-ballot-Speaker-Republican-rebels-upset-vote-GOP-leader.html
Will we end up with a dumbrocrat Speaker ?
I read Tina’s obituary. I thought she lived west of Brownwood. Blanket is between Brownwood and Comanche. I haven’t been up that way for almost 20 years.
I thought she was a couple/three years older than I. Not six weeks. yikes.
I’ll miss her comments.
No, there was a motion passed last week to vacate the speakership, a necessary prerequisite to holding a new election.
I have two items ordered from Newegg. An Orinco drive case, clear plastic. Plus a 128 GB flash drive because “cheap”. Both are being shipped by Newegg and they have separate tracking numbers. Bummer, via “UPS Freight Less-than-Truckload (“LTL”)” and not real UPS. So I’m going to have to watch the tracking because the LTL folks leave my stuff at the gate. No, that’s incorrect, they leave stuff 30 feet away at the property line. On the neighbor’s horse infested side of the fence.
I don’t know what UPS Freight Less-than-Truckload (“LTL”) costs. I’m sure it’s more than a padded envelope sent First Class via USPS. Or even the now popular plastic envelope and wrapping the contents with a scrap of crumpled newspaper. It seems to me they must be losing money on an order that totals $14.59.
If they are not losing money, just how much do they overcharge for everything else?
I don’t “need” the drive case. I just figure it will be better for the 1TB SSD from the old machine. Protect it a bit and save wear and tear on the drive’s connection.
No measurable precipitation at all here in the high desert. Storm split and passed by to the north and south.
I blame the force fields from the UFO’s that General Atomic has stashed away in their underground base at Gray Butte.
Just some high clouds and lot of contrails.
Looks the the eastern side of Kyiv up there.
>> Will we end up with a dumbrocrat Speaker ?
Gotta figure they’d consider the non-member of Congress option before crossing the aisle.
Hmm, I guess you can be Speaker and run for President at the same time…
Ha, ha (Muntz voice). McCarthy is down three, now. The full Redumblican, RINO, spineless circus is now on full display. It wouldn’t surprise me if tRump raises his ugly head.
Huh. Just poking around on the PC.
I noticed a few months ago the 10 year warranty on the Heat Pump system had expired. Of course the t-stat battery has stopped working a couple of months before. It’s not worth replacing the t-stat, I have the same schedule for everyday. It’s just a small sticker burr size pita to re-set the clock. Pretty awesome that they had the life of battery in t-stat to almost “end of warranty”, I’m impressed.
I got to looking more in old stuff in My Documents.
We had the roof replaced around March and April of 2010. Then we had Jeff, he did the roof, add a deck to the front of the house a while later. He needed the work.
I wanted a little porch out the kitchen door. Covered, enough room to kick off muddy shoes and maybe feed the dogs. Something more than just the top step of wooden stairs. About out about 4 and 6 wide. Just extend the new roof a bit to keep the rain off. Jeff had a better idea. Instead of a six feet wide porch with steps on each side, just put the steps, Dino Steps *, at the corner of the house and wrap the porch around to the deck. No stairs needed between the covered walkway to the deck. Because, duh, it’s all the same level as the floor in the house. Then extend the roof along the entire side of the house.
Oh. Ok. So that happened. It took him about a week. We were still on window unit a/c. Y’all know how Summer in Texas is? The electric bill, even though is was down enough to notice, like $30, from the year before because of the new roof, dropped $50 from the July bill to the August bill. I had no idea some shade on that side of the house would matter.
The heatpump system was ordered late March 2012. It took me while to install it. I had to learn a lot about air ducts and such things as how the air box above the air handler works. Pretty cool stuff. The a/c guy connected the freon lines May 2. The window units came out and went away to folks that needed them.
Jeff replaced the windows in 2014. That was $3800 for the windows. Add a bit more for trim and his pay. Call it $5000 total. Maybe a bit more. And darn it all, for all the folks saying that replacing windows is a waste of money, the electric bill went down even more. Air leaks matter. The cost of the windows broke even on the electric bill a couple of years ago. Still no drafts, too. Heck, no drafts was a win regardless of the electric bill.
So. All of this yakking and you know what? I cleaned the windows when they were brand new. Lighter fluid for the glue left by the labels and all. Paper towels and Windex. I’ve cleaned them the same way a few times since with Windex or Sprayway. I’m not a crazy person about cleaning windows. But I do clean them once in a while.
Got some cheap “micro fiber” towels from Big River and I’m using an old can of Sprayway. The micro fiber stuff scrubs the glass clean. One towel to clean, another to polish (with a very light spray of cleaner) away the streaks.
Looking out the windows that have no curtains or blinds? What? There is glass there?
The contrarian view is that finally, finally, someone is standing up to the RINOs and showing that it’s possible to stop them and actually get some real Republican values instead of RINOs.
I don’t believe it’s possible. But I’m encouraged the voices of sanity didn’t get steamrolled, and that the weakness of the RINO faction is on display.
Removing McCarthy and McConnell from leadership would be a good start. But only a start.
RISC-V suddenly becomes important.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/google-announces-official-android-support-for-risc-v/
Why? If you are the only one there? If you are the only one there, clothing is optional, yes?
Just spray some Lysol around. Wash your hands. Drink some beer. Be happy.
Put a towel on your chair before you sit. No need to be gross at the office.
Rick Scott as Majority Leader would have been swapping one RINO for another. All of Scott’s election victories in Florida have been by very narrow margins, even his second campaign for Governor.
No Speaker means no House votes for more spending printing press money.
And no House means no votes for a VP replacement should Biden assume room temperature in the near future.
Doesn’t the debt ceiling have to be raised in the near future?
I read Tina’s obituary. I thought she lived west of Brownwood. Blanket is between Brownwood and Comanche. I haven’t been up that way for almost 20 years.
I thought she was a couple/three years older than I. Not six weeks. yikes.
I’ll miss her comments.
Me too. Breast Cancer that has metastasized really, really, really sucks. We met many stage 4 women at MDACC in 2005 while my wife was undergoing weekly treatment for a year. The universal prognosis was “we don’t know” especially after it spread to bones, heart, liver, brain, etc. At one point the wife’s doctor thought that it had spread to her brain, we were in the MRI center at MDACC until 2 or 3 in the morning verifying that she was just having bad drug reactions. That place ran 24×7.
Dino steps.
That’s one 2×6 down by three boards out for a step.
We had the front deck and it was tough for Wilma as her hips went bad. She figured how to go sideways to get up the stairs.
Dino, oh, bless his heart, he wasn’t a brilliant star in the dog universe of being smart. But he loved me always. I was his human. Dino was getting old when the deck stuff was happening. So, three boards for a step and one board up. It worked as his hips failed.
Miss that dog. Oh, heck, I miss all of them.
Prepping. Heat is life in winter.
Lit up the old Corona 23DK kerosene heater In the garage today. 500SF, no ceiling and it is 70F after an hour, about 55 and windy outside.
With a bit of slightly opened window ventilation.
Technically bought for $25 “used” but checking the burner and wick I suspect it was lit ONCE to test, and never again.
“Rolling Thunder (A Thunder and Lightning Novel)” by John Varley
https://www.amazon.com/Rolling-Thunder-Lightning-Novel/dp/044101772X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number three of a four book young adult space opera series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2009 that I bought used on Amazon since my books are packed in the garage and the book is out of print. This is my fourth or fifth reread of this book. I have a new copy of the fourth book in the series that I am reading now.
Each one of the Thunder and Lighting books highlights a new generation in the connected families since the first generation of the connected families in the first book. This book specifically covers Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Gracia-Redmond, the first member of the third generation who goes by Podkayne. BTW, Podkayne reads Heinlein’s “Podkayne of Mars” book and calls Heinlein a crazy old man. And yes, there are serious Heinlein fanboy comments all throughout the series as Varley is very heavily influenced by Robert Heinlein.
Podkayne is born and raised on Mars, a Martian. After all, two of her grandparents were part of the first five people to step foot on Mars on the first bubble drive spaceship. By the time she is an adult, there are over million people living on Mars. At the beginning of the book, Podkayne is a lieutenant JG, serving her mandatory two years in the Martian Navy. She is currently serving that duty in California on Earth as a local embassy officer. And then she recalled to Mars since her great-grandmother has an untreatable medical condition and is going into a stasis bubble until such time that a treatment is available.
BTW, this book is not hard science as Varley introduces some of the weirdest space aliens that I have ever read of. The space aliens do not operate on our time scale and probably do not even know that humans are alive.
My previous review of this book: “Book number three of a four book space opera series. This is my second or third reread of this book, the sequel to the sequel of one of my top ten all time favorite books. BTW, I would characterize this book as young adult SF but not juvenile SF. I get the feeling that there will not be a fifth book in the series as Varley seems to be a movie reviewer nowadays. Varley reduces the Earth population from billions to millions in this book. I wonder where they all went ? (sarcasm) I need a squeezer generator !”
John Varley has an active website at:
https://varley.net/
My rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (242 reviews)
“BlackRock’s Failures Are a Warning for All Institutions” by David B. McGarry in The American Spectator
https://spectator.org/blackrocks-failures-are-a-warning-for-all-institutions/
“BlackRock, a premier investment manager committed to so-called environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, faces a rocky end to a rocky year. This month, the state treasurer of North Carolina requested CEO Larry Fink’s resignation and, to make matters worse, Arizona and Florida announced large-scale divestments of state funds. The states join a procession of conservative-leaning states that have financially distanced themselves from BlackRock in 2022. In August, 19 state attorneys general sent a letter to BlackRock that said the firm is in violation of its fiduciary duty.”
““BlackRock appears to use the hard-earned money of our states’ citizens to circumvent the best possible return on investment,” the state AGs wrote of BlackRock’s ESG investments.”
“Fink’s mismanagement typifies a growing trend toward institutional distraction. It is morally insufficient, the belief goes, for institutions to perform their designated functions unless some trendy cause is also furthered (e.g., BlackRock ought not simply fulfill its fiduciary duty to investors but must also pursue ESG priorities). The trouble is that, generally speaking, a distracted institution is far less capable of fulfilling its core mission. And when newly distracted institutions falter, society dearly misses the contributions they once made.”
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/01/03/tucker-carlson-addresses-the-battle-over-kevin-mccarthy-n682947
They need to investigate like their lives depend on it–because they do.
Just like the rest of us.
ABC News reported:
–ok, not particularly bright. Carried their phones. Caught on video. Drove own vehicle, didn’t obscure plate. Kept the clothes they wore. One has short barreled weapons, and a silencer…
Ay carumba.
n
Boy, I forgot how expensive divorce can be… but really Tom??
https://youtu.be/-UeGXB2NjR8
There you go, diving straight for the…. right wing terrorist. When it was just stupid crime.
–not left wing terror either in this case.
n
Nothing to see here folks, please move along…
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/sergey-milyakov-russian-dead-india-third-b2255178.html
>> Doesn’t the debt ceiling have to be raised in the near future?
Not for you, Mr. Average Citizen, to know…
>> Is Pelosi Speaker for Succession purposes until someone gets 218 on the floor vote?
I don’t think so. She gaveled the last Congress out of existence several days ago.
Current order of succession:
No. Office Incumbent1 Vice President Kamala HarrisSpeaker of the House of Representatives Vacant2 President pro tempore of the Senate Patty Murray3 Secretary of State Antony Blinken…