Chilly until the fusion fire warms the air. 54F when I went to bed. Probably about the same when I get up. It was clear and gorgeous when I got here yesterday, and I expect the same today. High of 80F would be nice.
Before I left Houston I loaded the truck. Since I had room, I decided to move a bunch of stuff I’d stacked at the beginning of the lockdown. Kinda disappointed by the condition. Granted stuff was stored in bad conditions, hot, cold, etc. some stuff failed long before it should have.
EVERY can of Hill Country Fair (our HEB grocery cheap house brand) fruit failed dramatically. EZ pull lids popped. EVERY CAN. That is less than 3 years to complete failure. None of the veg or soup popped. A couple of flats of cans failed due to rust though. When the fruit got everything beneath it wet…. FWIW, I have other brands of canned fruit stored under similar conditions and while they often fail early, none has failed so completely in such a short time. No more HCF fruit in my long term storage.
Also, no more cardboard flats. While they do help organize, the cardboard holds moisture and leads to rust on the bottom edge of the cans. It’s ok indoors, in the proverbial cool dark place, but no where else.
There was also some spoilage due to animals. Something chewed the plastic bottles, and ruined 3 gallons of cooking oil. It was fine for a couple of years, but I’m guessing once the fruit was everywhere it attracted the possum. Wasn’t rats because they’d have eaten all the oil too, and left the bottles empty, while these were still half full.
Oh, and in the fridge both bottles of heavy cream from Costco were swollen up and ready to pop even though they were still in their sell by time. I’ve had issues with their milk this year but the cream thing is new. No more milk products from Costco. Too much dairy has failed early. That joins my boycott of bagged veg from Costco too. It never lasts as long as it should.
This seems to be my week for bad luck with food. When I got here, I found the freezer door on the garage fridge ever so slightly ajar. Everything was still firm, and had frost on it, but I’ll be cooking it all when I get home. Since I was up here last week, it basically slowly thawed until today. Glad I caught it in time.
Today will be attic work to connect the last sink and shower. If I have time, I will also connect at least one hose bib. I’m pretty sure we’re past risk of a deep and prolonged freeze.
Check your stacks people. I let some things go, and lost extra stuff I shouldn’t have. Also rotate your stored food. It’s hard if you store more than you eat, and I know that and accept that I’ll have losses, but it’s still worth trying to rotate as much as possible.
Stack it up. But monitor it too.
nick
Lynn:
Nick:
That’s a big part of it, I think. Life was easy in a large part of the state, at least during the historically high rainfall of the 20th century. This drew a lot of people who wanted a fresh start but didn’t want to do the hard work of getting a farm started in Montana. The warm weather plus available jobs also attracted people from places other than the northern European lands which formed the core American culture. All this plus “easy times make weak men” means that the state is filled with softies who lack the desire, let alone the ability, to face, recognize, and deal with reality.
At some point before he passed, I remember our late host cautioning against “EZ pull” cans for long term storage. Ever since, I’ve been wary of that type of container, especially with acidic contents such as fruit or tomato products.
Daddy Cash. Lots of it. And in that category, I would include not only the traditional parental largess that afflicts the recent generations starting with my own, but the repeated Federal Government porkulus packages and bailouts along with, now, nationalization of the banks.
Doh! More bad news for Disney/Marvel.
The “genius” of Jonathan Majors was one of the big talking points in the PR package for “Ant Man 3”, and he was slated to be a major part of the “Avengers” moving forward.
Oh, and the next season of “Loki” probably went back into the editing room in Burbank this morning.
Live by the “woke”, die by the “woke”.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/jonathan-majors-arrested-new-york-city-assault-strangulation-1235360852/
It all started with Ponytail Guy …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8rp-tlgqa4
Look at Bush’s face. This is the moment he realized that he was going to lose.
Look at Pero’s face. This is the moment he realized that he never had a chance.
I was on a flight sitting next to Ross when I worked for EDS. He was a jerk, knew everything, was always right, and out of touch with reality. Of course I went along for the sake of my job.
60 F and very dark at 7am on the West side of the Brazos River this morning. Lots of birds already talking. Fed the dog her minute rice and canned chicken which she said was the best meal ever. The cat went cutting about in the front yard but ignored my plea to watch out for coyotes.
Probably general disgust with Ponytail Guy … and himself for putting Bubba, the first Jesus President, into the position to win with a plurality. By that point, Perot had his deals set with the Clintons to put his best tax attorney’s wife on the Supreme Court … cough … and help build EDS 2.0, Perot Systems, starting with IT contracts involving the State of Arkansas.
The irony of Perot Systems is that the last American owner quietly sold the company for a huge loss to the Japanese after H. Ross died and the symbolism in Texas was no longer important.
“That giant sucking sound …”
The son’s 2019 Camry air conditioning failed last Thursday. He only has 41k miles on it. He is trying to fix it himself. I told him to cut that two foot long beard before he pops the hood and leans over. He put his beard inside his shirt and said that was good enough. I told him that rotating machinery will kill you with just one mistake. Besides, I think his relay failed and that is probably inside the car. His blower still works so it is either electrical or refrigerant.
He bought the car in Dec 2019 for $20k plus TTL so the 3 year / 36k mile warranty is gone by several months. Very disappointing with a Toyota.
Would somebody tell the June Bugs that it is not June !
The canard which will not die.
Lack of refrigerant will cause the compressor to not activate. There is a pressure switch that stops the compressor if there is not enough of the magic fluid. Of course replacing that sensor will require the system be evacuated and recharged.
It might still be worth going to the dealer and complaining. If that does not work, then try Toyota HQ in the USA. He might get some relief.
Much like the “spontaneous” decision to run which Perot made on “Larry King Live”.
Get a quote from the dealer and call Toyota if it isn’t a normal wear item. He has the power of being the original owner of the car which is a huge thing to the Japanese manufacturers.
The labor on a compressor will be ugly because the timing belt is involved, but the parts won’t be expensive. He should be glad he got the 4-cyl and not the 6.
What is wrong with California ?
– part of it is the attraction to “creative types” who tend to be weird and somewhat unconnected with reality. Part is the Hollywood syndrome which I witnessed first hand. The weirdest kid from every high school in America comes to Hollywood, realizes they are not actually that weird comparatively, and has to turn the weird up to 12 to feel special again.
NB- the internet has amplified and spread the currency of weird, and it’s not just centered in Hollywood anymore, vis the rise of youtubers and “creators” and “influencers” and “TikTok girls.”
The sheer size of youtube and tiktok is unbelievable. I just watched a guy on a channel I’ve NEVER HEARD OF complaining that youtube doesn’t have a special plaque for hitting 100 MILLION subscribers. He named 5 or 6 other channels that also didn’t get an award… compare that to Superbowl numbers, or on the other end, MSNBC. Can you imagine a TV show with 100MILLION regular views that you’ve never even heard of? How about FIVE of them?
——————————
Chilly and clear this am. Bright sun and blue sky. Gorgeous in other words.
I better get moving.
n
The first Jesus candidate would be… George Washington!
Not always. I had a car that had a Schrader valve under the pressure switch. Five minute job.
Pandemic phenomenon. People wouldn’t watch so much of that cr*p if they had to be at an office during daylight hours instead of “working” from home.
Half watching the Formula One races in the hotel lobby bar last week, I noticed one car was covered with TeamViewer corporate logos.
God help us all.
Pandemic or not, it’s the way it is now, I don’t think it’s going back in any significant way unless it all falls apart. In which case, it will be AFTER the reconstruction.
———–
Plumbing is fighting me today. Just getting the two lines into the wall, what should have been 10 minutes, took 1 ½ hours. Obstructions, coming down in the wrong cavity (because the vent pipe jogs over 2 feet for no apparent reason) (since they didn’t install a medicine cabinet, no reason for the vent not to go straight up. That’s what they did in the master…)
Oh, and the shower supply wasn’t changed over to feed from above, just the cold side. That means I’ve got to open the wall in the master to get to the back of the mixer, and to cap off the hot line coming out of the slab. Way more work than I was hoping for. I think I’m going to be here tonight.
n
The pandemic might have helped change some viewing habits, but they have been steadily changing for a while. Kids don’t watch tv. My son used to be exclusively youtube, but has since branched out to streaming. I predict traditional tv will be dead when GenX fizzles out. Well, maybe sports can save some semblance, but I doubt it.
I watch almost zero Network TV. It’s not that everyone a flamboyant trans-whatever negro lesbian and all the white guys are just above the level of drooling morons with the white women being slightly less drooly. Add on that a 30 minutes show is about 17 minutes of show.
The current stuff makes Gilligan’s Island and Hogan’s Heroes, even Green Acres, look like High Dollar Theatre.
Yeah, call me a hater.
The Ford Freestar van had a grinding brake noise and the ABS light kept turning on. The check engine light, I could clear the code but it kept coming back. Same code.
So it went to the Ford dealer and not Bubba’s Garage. They did a brake job. I guess, at 55k miles it could be due. The van is a 2004.
There was a part they wanted to replace but Ford doesn’t make it any more. I’m just having this info relayed to me, I wasn’t on the phone.
I think they wanted to replace the ABS controller. Not sure. Or maybe they wanted to replace the “Fuel Rail Injection Pressure Sensor” which is available from Big River from about $16 to almost $60 for the Motorcraft part.
So I’m misunderstanding or someone is telling less than the truth. No matter.
I have the part in my Amazon wishlist and now I know what it looks like. From the comments, I think I know where it’s located. Should be a simple parts swap.
One comment says to start the engine and pull the fuse for the fuel pump. Another comment says to let it sit over night and the pressure will drop on its own. I’d rather work on a cold engine so you know what I’m doing.
White and Asian males will be required to show up in the office soon. The C-suites simply haven’t figured out how to do that while giving everyone else a pass.
No. But I can imagine 100,000 people averaging 3 views a day for a year.
As far as 100 million subscribers, that’s about as likely as 10 million voters in Chi-town. First question would be: How many in China?
>> there was not a cloud in the sky at dusk. The 4″ tabletop dob had great detail of the moon. If the moisture clears it should be very good viewing tonight. I might get out the wife’s 8″ dob and look at some planets if they are up. I don’t think I can find the SMOD death meteor in the sky though.
@nick, might wanna bring one of your scopes home with you … or stay until Tuesday …
Alignment Of Planets 2023: What Is It? When Will The Planets Align?
“Sleeping Giants (The Themis Files)” by Sylvain Neuvel
https://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Giants-Themis-Sylvain-Neuvel/dp/1101886714?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a three book science fiction series about giant robots. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Del Rey Books in 2016 that I purchased new from Amazon. I have ordered books two and three for future reading.
This book is written in the style of interviews with various people. Much like the book “World War Z”. Except, the prologue is written in conventional first person style.
On her 11th birthday, Rose Franklin was riding her new bike in the woods near her house. She see a eerie turquoise light and gets off her bike to investigate. Walking towards the glow, she suddenly falls through the soil and lands in a giant metal hand.
Twenty years later, Dr. Rose Franklin is leading the research team investigating the giant metal hand. And then another part of the giant robot is found.
Dan Livingston recommended this book to me:
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/review-sleeping-giants-by-sylvain-neuvel/
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars (4,050 reviews)
Hater. Move over, you’re hogging the bench.
I caught ToH (This Old House) and Ask ToH this weekend. Each ended at 22 minutes, filled out to the half-hour with PBS self-stroking for their other crap. It’s been years since ToH has done a reno under $1 million. I remember an episode with Bob Vila (ca. 1984) when they left the homeowner with some demo over the weekend and came back Monday to find a boo-boo–the wife had knocked a hole through the wall and taken out a toilet that they were going to re-use. She was crying because they didn’t have any extra money in the budget.
Most of my “TV” watching is Heroes and Icons. I caught “The Stolen Elephant” this morning (1957, The Adventures of Superman). Kid finds a baby elephant in a barn on the property he and his mom just moved to. He thinks it’s his birthday present. Hood comes to get the stolen elephant they stashed, offers him $2. Kid says “I wouldn’t sell him for $5!” Fiat currency at it’s finest.
This looks too easy. The Fuel Rail Injection Pressure Sensor is on the fuel rail which is on the firewall side of the engine. There’s plenty of air boxes and stuff nearby but the part is “right there”. Two bolts, a vac line and and an electric plug.
I’ll spend more time getting tools out and putting tools away. Nice.
We don’t have H&I anymore. So no StarTrek or Unsolved Mysteries. I’m getting tired of Andy Griffith mostly because Barney pisses me off.
On my DirecTV stations, the H&I channel is up around channel 355. Near the Weather Channel, and the westerns station. Also near the channel that does “Highway to Hell” and the spinoff of “Heavy Rescue 401”. Both are interesting to watch.
The H&I channel does a lot of Classic Westerns.
The ‘22 minute’ half-hour shows are very common. That’s been happening for years on all the channels. And the movie (not subscription) channels that take a 2-hour movie and put it in a 3-hour time slot for all of the commercials. As the movie progresses to the finale, the movie time decreases while the commercial time increases.
I might find an interesting movie there, but record it with the DirecTV VCR. I can then skip all the commercials. The fast-forward button on the remote gets a workout. I am more likely to time-delay-watch network shows so I can skip the commercials.
Have had DirecTV for many years (decades). Willingly spend the money to get the channels I like. Use it for Over The Air channels also. Wife uses it for the Hallmark channel. At any time, she has about 20 Hallmark movies waiting to be watched.
We pulled “This Old House” from the TiVo when Steve was fired and replaced with Kevin O’Connor, an executive with Fleet Bank in Boston who the producers felt could relate better to the high dollar homeowners.
Yeah, the PR tells a different, more folksy story about Kevin’s casting.
If you go back and watch the archives, however, there was obvious on-screen friction between Steve Thomas and the female half of the homeowner couple in The Winchester House, Thomas’ last project with the show … geesh, 20 years ago, now.
Roku now owns “This Old House”. Were you watching on their streaming channel?
My method is a little different. If I find an interesting movie I watch to the first commercial break. Then I look it up to check the rating and see if cheap DVD’s are available. If the rating is decent, I put it on my DVD list and start looking at the thrifts. I also check secondsale.com.
Secondsale.com lists on eBay (and probably The River), but I buy direct so as not to support the [redacted]. They have hundreds of thousands of books and records, with items under $5 buy 2 get 1 free for CD’s and buy 3 get 1 free for books. Free shipping.
The overhead for commercials on broadcast and cable is 25% minimum. On a 2-hour movie that’s thirty minutes. Since my net for a cheap movie is $2-3, that puts a value of $1.00-1.50 per hour on the time that I save. I’d like to be buying extra time in my day for $1.00-1.50 per hour, so this seems reasonable.
It also gives me more control over my viewing, which quite often means I don’t care about movies until they have 2-3 sequels, or tv shows until they are at least five years in.
Hollywood is a rotting corpse. I see they’re going to remake “Vertigo”. I’m willing to bet $100 that the new one will not be as good, and $10 that it won’t be half as good. That’s in the theatrical release, probably rated R for language and full frontal nudity.
A friend told me he uses MCEBuddy to automatically remove commercials from TV shows. I haven’t tried it yet. Anyone here use it? Comments?
I had DirecTv for a long time. It was the very first thing I bought from that new-fangled thing called “eBay”. I bought a Sony dual receiver system. Why dual? To have a spare. I bid $75, got it for $69. Dutch auctions were fun. This was all back in 1999.
I had fun installing it. And being Sony, it just worked. Over the years DirecTv added local channels. $3/month at first. No more need for the big antenna / lighting rod on the roof anymore.
Then I replaced the 32″ Sony with a 55″ Vizio flatscreen. Changed the Sony box and antenna for DirecTv’s substandard hardware to feed the new TV HD. Substandard? The only time the Sony dish lost signal was was the time it rained hard enough to make the “creek” roar extra loud, that would be the time the place in Marble Falls that rents limos and works on motor-homes had stuff floating down to the river.. The HD stuff? Oh, it’s cloudy, no TV for you.
Anyway. Food Network and the like went to things liked “Chopped” and almost nothing about actually cooking. Chopped is kind of fun to watch just in case I ever need to do something with pineapple, an octopus, chicken livers and a pomegranate served on a bed of rice. Uh, that’s a lot of work for dog food. 🙂
Homicide Hunter, Joe Kendra, he retired. It got to where there was nothing on.
Turned off DirecTv and sold the parts for scrap metal. Bought a Roku. That’s pretty neat. Put up a $20 antenna and WTF the local channels are in HD. And sub-channels? I never knew. The picture is awesome. DirecTv was feeding the locals at 720 or less and NO sub-channels. Over the air has a much better picture.
About the only time the Austin stations drop out is if there is weather over Lake Travis.
I had the DirecTv DVR box. We never watched anything we recorded. But that box made noise. It never spun the drive down and went to sleep. They replaced it and lo and behold, you have a two year contract! I got through that, paid the penalty to make them go away. My electric bill dropped almost $10 a month.
I don’t miss DirecTv. I liked them but yeah, you get the phone company involved and it all goes to heck.
Thanks for the Secondsale.com link.
I buy used books from Big River. I haven’t had a piece of trash yet. A bit of shopworn doesn’t bother me. $2.99 for the book and $3.99 for shipping for a used book vs $25+ plus shipping for new? Easy call.
How far are you from the KNCT tower in Moody, TX? That’s where I get H&I from our location in North Austin. Broadcast 46.5.
I don’t use the north facing antenna and we get that channel on the antenna facing south even in bad weather.
NY Parents Set to Sic the Law on School Board That Insists on Porn in School
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/megan-fox/2023/03/26/ny-parents-set-to-sic-the-law-on-school-board-that-insists-on-porn-in-school-n1681479
Worth a read.
Putting the insurance companies in financial jeopardy is a good move. Why would they not err on the side of caution? The result will be that the insurance companies will evolve a list of books (frequently updated) that they will not defend, and make that known to their insureds (the school boards). The schools will have to monitor their libraries and if they don’t, parents can file suit and the school board members will have personal liability. Teachers are going to get the list, too, and have to keep the books out of their classrooms or face termination.
It’s very difficult to imagne the motivation for a school board to defy reasonable requests from parents to keep materials age-appropriate.
I don’t think that the school board should have an “out”. If I gave porn books to children, could I avoid arrest by taking it back from the kids?
An ironic observation, made at Daily Pundit and Cold Fury.
@SteveF
That was my first thought, too, but:
So unless the laws get changed, a whole lot of other parties just got dragged in.
And if the usual suspects try to change the law, then we have the delicious prospect of the opposition in some state assembly getting the floor and reading examples into the legislative record. I think we just created a Catch 33: They can shut down debate and keep it out of the record, thus proving the complaint. Or they can let it be read into the official record, at which point they can print it (and put it on the internet), creating content that can’t be allowed in the schools, or try to redact the official record, an operation that is itself probably illegal in most states.
Every which way but loose.
@SteveF
Why be buying anything? Massive overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, confiscated from drug dealers. Just have to treat the remains as biohazard and cremate immediately.
ADDED:
Idaho Governor Signs Law Allowing Firing Squad for Death Penalty
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2023/03/26/idaho-governor-signs-law-allowing-firing-squad-for-death-penalty-n721779
I could get Gavin on board. We stick the miscreants in a giant artificial womb and vacuum them out.
https://www.superproducts.com/products/vacuum-trucks/supersucker-industrial-vacuum-loaders/
Defunded Austin PD takes so long to respond to DUI crash, driver sobers up and walks free: family
“Defunded” is a stretch it seems…more like nobody wants the joys of a career with the APD.
APD was busy though dealing with the SXSW revelers…
Austin Police made 131 arrests, seized 61 firearms during SXSW time period
One of the many reasons that I don’t pay much attention to new television shows is that there is so much view-on-demand content on YT that meets my entertainment needs. And since I can control the playback speed as well as pause, rewind, etc., it’s usually a better value for my time invested.
AoSHQ has an excellent Sunday Gub Thread and today it had a lot of good content which included an embedded video by a fellow named “hrfunk”. The title of the video was “Inspecting a Used S&W Revolver”. Prior to viewing I was not familiar with this guy, but I was impressed enough to bookmark his homepage.
The City Council and the previous swish Mayor dismissed an entire APD training class the summer of the Floyd riots.
One of the dopiest City Council members, Greg Casar, was rewarded with a seat in Congress in the last election.
Get him on a waterboard, maybe?
“Column: The Humanitarian Horror That ‘Electrify Everything’ Would Unleash”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/20/column-the-humanitarian-horror-that-electrify-everything-would-unleash/
“The cheerful Calgary Transit voice comes over the speaker system to tell us the temperature, and that it’s cloudy. Shut up. We know. We’re waiting outside. For YOUR train.”
“The next message emanating from the loudspeaker shed the cheerfulness for slightly nervous solemnity. Northbound trains were not operating because of an electrical outage. Not ‘running late’ – not running at all. A few hundred red-cheeked and startled faces crammed on the platform turned to each other in search of guidance, of which there was none, then began moving in tiny circles as they weighed the absence of good alternatives with the prospect of freezing their feet to blackened stumps by standing still out there for too long.”
A single source energy system is going to suck. With only one energy system, they can control that better. If your social score is low, you only get to heat your house to 45 F.
Redundancy? Alternative supply chains or delivery pathways? Why would you want a damnfool thing like that?
‘My Balls Hurt So Bad’: Trans Woman Bursts Into Tears In Airport After TSA Agent Hits Testicles
“Her” destination was changed to Bangkok.
Did his teenager get hold of SteveF’s logon? Sounds like me at about 15.
But of course, I also upvoted it.
@Lynn
Recommend: YT: “The Guns of Magnaport”
Two S&W’s in Mr. Funk’s collection. (He has several other S&W videos.) The first part in the shop is good. The second part on the range in very cold weather had some problems.
Well, we’re down to one VERY slow leak. I knew I shouldn’t have used the cheap chinese thread tape that came free with something. But it was RIGHT THERE and the good tape was in the garage… so tomorrow I’ll shut off the water again, and take that adapter apart, and re -tape it, and re-install/test/etc…
And hope I don’t break anything.
Fisherman neighbor stopped in and stood watch for leakers while I finally got the water back on. Found some.
The pex was all good. The threaded brass adapter, that I had to do an almost 2 hour round trip to get, well, as I mentioned, better tape and I’d be cleaning up and closing walls… instead of re-doing work.
I’m this close to being done with this part of the project, and not a minute too soon. One of the pex connectors I put in when the plumbing first all fell apart has been corroding and maybe leaking a drop a day. The tube was stressed sideways and it still mostly worked, but the fitting has been damaged. I need to get the old stuff shut off. BEFORE there is a catastrophic failure and a flood.
SO I’m still up here.
Headed to bed soon though.
n
BTW, the 22 minutes of programming thing is regulated by the FCC. You can only have so many minutes of commercials per half hour. Naturally, they build the shows for maximum commercials. It’s how they pay the bills and the only reason the shows exist in the first place.
Add the bumpers, and the recaps and as observed, you’re down to about 17 minutes of real content per half hour.
n
“It’s Memerific”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2023/03/25/its-memerific/
“If he’ll drive you to the criming, he’s a Fed”
“If his friend has got the weapons, he’s a Fed”
“If he’s got a stupid haircut, he’s a Fed”
“If he says you don’t need OPSEC, he’s a Fed”
“’Live free and die’? The sad state of U.S. life expectancy”
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/25/1164819944/live-free-and-die-the-sad-state-of-u-s-life-expectancy
“Life expectancy continues to decline in the U.S. as it rebounds in other countries”
That is quite the drop in just a couple of years in the USA.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/