Cool but clear, 68F when I went to bed, and I’m expecting the same when I wake this am. Damp, of course. It was 82F in Houston last night, but only 72F on the water. Sunny and hot during the day. I think today will likely be the same.
Yesterday was weird. I was feeling stressed and disconnected all morning. Make several errors that I don’t usually make. Took forever to get out of town, and then there were half a dozen accidents, one serious, on the way to the BOL. Oh, and a grass fire on the freeway right of way too. Heavy traffic in the usual places.
But I finally got here, and it was beautiful. So I cut the grass. Broke the mower. I’ll fix it. There is a bushing on the steering column that keeps the gears in alignment that was so worn the gear stripped a little bit. It wasn’t a problem until it was… No way to lube it, so I’m thinking it normally outlasts the mower. Not in this case. If I can find the part, I can easily replace it. The damaged gear on the column is a bit harder. I can shim it (remove the end play) and use a different part of the gear to contact the rack, if the bushing will hold it in alignment.
If I can’t find the part, it will be easy enough to make a replacement. I’ll clean up the gear as best I can, and run with that. It’s always something. Worst case, I buy a new mower. This one came with the house (we did buy it, but at a pretty good discount. I would like to get some more use from it if possible.)
We did have a fire and roast s’mores. Conditions were variable low clouds, so no observing. Maybe tonight. Shortwave had a lot of fading and noise. Still nice to sit by the fire and listen to rock and roll oldies.
X1 is with us for the weekend and seems to be coming out of her shell a bit. She wasn’t shy but there was a reserve. She seems more natural this weekend. Hope it’s helping. Kids and wife were all in the water and out on the kayaks, so that was nice. I can’t imagine we’ll get too many more weekends that aren’t sticky hot before summer starts in earnest.
My plan for the day is projects. Always projects. And maybe a little fishing.
Stacking up skills. Do something this week you wouldn’t normally do. Especially if it’s fixing something, cooking something, or learning something.
nick
Lot of people here for the long weekend. I hope to meet some more of the neighbors. Meatspace, and meet-space.
From SteveF yesterday:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/coq_au_vin
Denis, yep. We have at least three roosters and probably a fourth. I’m not sure I want to keep even one, so we have several chicken dinners in the future.
My only qualm is cleaning the critters. Not squeamishness, laziness. My wife and her mother have said that they’ll defeather and gut the birds so long as I cut the heads off first; we’ll see if that comes to pass or if it’s yet another job that ends up falling to me. It won’t happen more than once, I can tell you that much. Also, The Child has said that she won’t be able to eat any chicken that she’s hand-fed, which is fair enough.
Had an interesting moment yesterday. Middle of the afternoon, light traffic, entrance ramp to a state highway with a double curve. As the last part came into view so did a box lying partially on the road. Looked like a bicycle box and my first thought was how much damage a bicycle could do to the unwary vehicle. Quick look, no cars behind me, pulled over in back of the box. Then I could see the brand on the side: “Trek”.
Traffic still clear. I grabbed the box by one end and it was empty. Tossed it onto the shoulder and went on my way. Best result. I’d feel obligated to advertise to the lost and found, probably CL. Last time I did that was 15 years ago when I was out running and found someone’s good-sized key ring with car remote. Put it in the local paper and online and never did get a response. Wasted a couple hours all told. This just wasted two minutes.
From Bayou Renaissance Man: Enlisted wisdom
Also from BRM: More info about curries than you could ever imagine (and this is only the introduction to the book!)
My right lower canine tooth is acting up. It appears that my teeth have moved some and now that tooth is very loose. Also quite painful. I called my dentist’s office on Friday and was told they could not get me in for two weeks. The pain was so bad last night I could not sleep well. I called the dentist’s office this morning and left a message out of desperation. The dentist (female) called me back in a couple of hours. She said I can come in Tuesday at 8:00 AM and she will work me into her schedule. As opposed to what the receptionist stated.
The dentist is having me use Amoxicillin for the next three days in case there is an infection. I don’t think there is, but what do I know?
I suspect the tooth is going to have to be pulled. That will be on Tuesday, leave for Europe on Thursday. Should make for a, ahem, pleasant trip. I have had thoughts of pulling the tooth myself.
When I was in the USAF I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed in one sitting. There was a lot of cutting, drilling, and breaking of teeth to get them extracted. I was in the chair for three hours. My gums were stitched closed. Two days later I got orders for the Philippines, three hours to make the flight. I had to get six immunizations, three in each arm. The flight was 13 hours. I was miserable. I hope this upcoming trip to Europe is not a repeat.
And in other news. We finally got the pool painted. The painter finished up last Saturday. The paint needs to cure for five days. Thursday night I started the filling process. The pool should be full by sometime tomorrow afternoon. It does take a long time to fill 30,000 gallons. My water bill will be very high and I will need to get the sewer portion adjusted. I still expect to pay about $400.00 for the water.
Using a water company with trucks was even more expensive.
Having lived here for 34 years, this is only the third time I have completely drained the pool. The last time was over 20 years ago. I needed to drain this time as I needed to patch a couple of small cracks that were causing a leak. The pool also desperately needed painting. So do it all at once.
I a few years I will need to have the pool refinished. That has been quoted at about $20K. I guess I should not complain as the pool is almost 50 years old.
A friend has a near horror-story he tells of rounding a bend in rural California, seeing a box, considers running it over, but decides to do the right thing as well.
And as he walks up to the box to move it a kid sticks his head out…
Never ever run over anything you don’t have to.
Hiring Hygenists is a problem for dentists right now in Texas. I went in for a routine cleaning on Thursday, and, scheduling the next appointment, the soonest “six month” appointment I could get was the end of February 2024.
When I joked with the office manager that “everyone wants to work from home”, he said that the only hygenist resumes they had seen recently showed employment gaps between March 2020 and 2022.
The pool at the Edison estate in Fort Myers is over 100 years old and has never needed refinishing.
Of course, 100 years ago, using a lot of asbestos in the lining mix wasn’t the issue it is now.
I don’t remember if Edison had a patent for that mix, but he had some for concrete recipes.
What a beautiful day. 74F at breakfast, 84F in the shade atm. Gentle breeze.
A somewhat surprising (to me) number of my projects involve using the garden tractor with trailer to move stuff. With that out of commission, my choices are “wheelbarrow” or shift to the next project. Given the 30 ft change in elevation from top to bottom, I’m going with “find something else to do”.
I did get about an hour of fishing in while I drank my coffee. Didn’t catch anything.
n
@Greg Norton
Edison had a number of patents on the manufacturing of portland cement, but none on mixes. He also patented concrete coatings and a method of forming a concrete house in one pour.
His interest was typical Edison–he was selling mine tailings to cement manufacturers and vertically integrated to making cement. He patented and built what was for the time the longest rotary cement kiln in the world, but gave away his competitive advantage when he licensed the kiln design to other manufacturers.
You may be thinking of his patent for artificially aging portland cement, US944,481, issued in 1908. The Edison kiln was 150 feet long, and his method was to add more processing with steam, whch produced a superior product. Modern cement kilns are more complex and are typically 300-400 feet long.
CEO of biggest carbon credit certifier to resign after claims offsets worthless
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/26/more-carbon-credit-fraud-uncovered-ceo-of-verra-resigns/
I call on every loud-mouthed climate hypocrite–including but not limited to Bill Gates, John Kerry, ugly Swedish scolds, and everyone who flies a private jet and smugly claims to have purchased such–to have their carbon offsets purchases audited by an independent entity that has no history of being involved in this phony industry in the past. Oh, yeah, and let’s just start with the working assumption that any offsets originating in China or any country run by lying commies be given the forensic protological examination that they need.
I built a carbon offsets website around a decade ago. You could purchase ‘carbon offsets’, and get a certificate about your carbon offset purchase. The ‘purchase’ just gave you the certificate.
Like many of my sites, it was an idea that didn’t go anywhere. Probably due to my lack of marketing skills (still an issue today on my current sites).
Still up or defunct?
Nope. Gone. Let the domain name expire years ago.
Might be able to find the source code, but probably not worth the effort. Had some clever programming code to print out the certificate with your name on it. At least, I thought is was clever.
The domain name is now parked by someone else and is for sale.
The Wayback Machine shows that it was active 2008-2009. The site captures don’t include images, though. You could buy a carbon offset cert for $4.98 each.
I feel your pain. I have top-notch technical skills, have formed or been involved in any number of startups, in theory know what to do for marketing and sales, put in the effort and money … and fail miserably every time. In theory one could hire someone to do marketing or sales but in practice Sturgeon’s Law didn’t go far enough when it comes to such individuals and I (and partners) weren’t able to distinguish the raging bull from the steaming bull crap.
Tina will always be with us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6igcfvq2BQ
“You could buy a carbon offset cert for $4.98 each.”
hmmm…
Used to know a guy that had a nice letterpress setup. Unfortunately it’s really come home to me lately that at some point my lifetime of building up contacts with people who had mad skills–some top of their field–peaked and started to decline. A lot of those were mentors or at least somewhat older, many were contemporaries or approximately so, and a few were younger. Then the retirements start and the actuarial tables assert themselves.
Weather is very good here, too. I’ve done a few things which needed doing. Have felt enervated and “off” all day. Probably food poisoning, though I can’t think of what could possibly have made me sick, considering what I normally eat.
So, anyway, if I never comment again, alert the police with suspicions of foul play.
Emphasis, foul play, not fowl play, though I misdoubt that the chickens would do me in if they could.
(Yes, the entire purpose of those last two lines was the pun. Ah, puns, the loftiest form of humor, flying higher than a chicken.)
Well, well. The Amoxicillin has helped the pain. I did not notice any outward signs of infection. Tooth is still tender, moves a lot. I still suspect yanking it out is on the table. Bummer.
Back in high school, I had a small group of friends, and there’s only one left with whom I keep in regular contact. At a minimum, we talk twice a year.
He had a liver transplant last night. I’ve been communicating with his wife, and I’m happy to say the surgery was successful and he’s conscious. Drugged up pretty good, but it’s all hopeful.
As an aside, I wasn’t aware that people with joint replacements are vulnerable to liver problems if they break bones. He had hip replacements a couple years ago. Recently he broke his leg and that led to this problem.
I had a brother-in-law who got a liver transplant 25 years ago, and it lasted 8 years. They expected better, even back then, but each case is different. I hope my friend’s lasts a good long while.
As regards old high school friends, I went to my 50th reunion last Fall. I know now why I was not regularly contacting those folks.
@Ray, happy for the pain reduction. Infections in teeth can be deep in the roots, so it was a good call on the dentist’s part.
Dilbert May 27, 2023 – Karen The A.I. Sexbot
“Karen: As a sentient being, I have too much self-respect to be your sexbot.”
“Karen: I believe in the sanctity of robot life and I believe I have a spark of the Divinity in me.”
“Dilbert: You know I’m going to dismantle you and sell your parts, right ?”
“Karen: Not if I kill you first.”
And the first Terminator is a Karen 3000.
Quoted for truth. There were a couple I’d have been willing to talk to if they’d contacted me but I didn’t feel the need to reach out to them. And I was dismissive enough to the organizer of the ten-year anniversary that they didn’t bother to try again.
“An Airless Storm: Cochrane’s Company Book 2” by Peter Grant
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1081459778?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number two of a three book military science fiction series. The series is set in a universe with seven other books by the author. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2021. BTW, this book was dedicated to Sarah A. Hoyt for her encouragement and enthusiastic support. I have purchased the other book in the series.
The Mycenae system is a frontier star system with an planet and asteroid belt rich in minerals. There is a legitimate discoverer and owner of the star system but two other claim jumpers are in the system now. Captain Andrew Cochrane is sought out by the Mycenae system owner to build a patrol space force and writes a sharp contract where he gets to keep all bounty recovered from the claim jumpers.
So the main claim jumpers, part of the old Albanian brotherhood mob from Earth, send through a small group of destroyers after their prospecting spaceship is destroyed by a space mine in the asteroids. The destroyers are destroyed along with several ships of Cochrane’s small fleet. When the destroyers fail to come back, the brotherhood swears revenge and starts rebuilding their fleet. And so on and so on.
The author has a very active website at:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (296 reviews)
If the dentist had not called back I was going to take the Amoxicillin anyway, self medicate. I know it is not a good idea but I was really getting desperate. The pain was one of those “lay on the bed, head under the pillow and scream” sort of pain.
I had the same pain before when a molar got wonky on me and needed a root canal. Of course that happened on a Saturday and my local dentist could not see me until Monday as he was out of town. If he had been in town he would have gone into the office on Saturday. A good dentist, mostly old school without hundreds of thousands of dollars in state-or-the-art equipment. Unfortunately he died suddenly due to some blood vessel rupturing.
This new dentist I had to seek out among the franchise stuff and other “out for money” squads. Generally expensive and want to do a lot more than needed. I had to use another dentist once as my regular dentist was on vacation, fancy equipment, and his office wanted to replace all my teeth at a cost of $10K. Went back to my old dentist, he pulled one tooth and said the rest should be OK as there was no need for replacement. Eventually that other dentist changed their name to “Dental Arts” and wanted everyone to have a perfect smile. In the tobacco smoking and chewing, meth-loving, moonshine capital of the U.S? I don’t think so.
I have been to all my high school reunions, the 50th was in June of 2019. Everyone had a great time and it was enjoyable to see and talk with almost everyone again. Some could not make it as they were dead. Some had schedule conflicts. Some felt like you. But the ones that attended had a really good time. Even one of the former teachers attended.
I haven’t been to any of my HS reunions. I don’t know if they have reunions. Actually, I think I ran into maybe four people while going to Pan Am, aka Taco Tech, in the two plus years I attended.
Hey, don’t get me wrong. I had a good time at the reunion. Caught up with a bunch of people who were friendly if not friends during high school. Most of the other Math/Science geeks didn’t show up, so I sat with the theatre geeks. In HS I was a fringe theater guy, sound and lighting mostly.
But except for the two who are, weirdly enough, good friends* with my 35 year old son, I probably won’t see them again. I was surprised how many people remembered me but I had no clue about them. And I saw three girls I coveted from afar back in the day. I’ll just say people age differently, and tastes change.
Yes, 20% of my class is no longer among the living, and I know of 3 who’ve passed since October. I looked up the actuarial tables** before the event, so I knew what to expect.
* My son is a professional pianist, and he’s worked for those two in different settings as a hired musician for a few years now. He’s doing a show with them in 2 weeks, in fact. A Route 66 themed musical review.
** See above “Math/Science” geek
>> I built a carbon offsets website around a decade ago.
Hmm…for just $29.95 I can name a star after you or one of your loved-ones which will be recorded in the Library of Congress. You will also receive an official naming certificate showing the name and the star’s location coordinates in the sky.
>> Have felt enervated and “off” all day. Probably food poisoning, though I can’t think of what could possibly have made me sick, considering what I normally eat.
Hmm…
… nah.
“ExxonMobil is Right, Net-Zero Efforts Will Cause a Lower Quality of Life”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/05/24/exxonmobil-is-right-net-zero-efforts-will-cause-a-lower-quality-of-life/
“A recent Bloomberg article, titled “Exxon Says Reaching Net Zero Global Emissions by 2050 ‘Highly Unlikely’,” describes a regulatory filing Exxon Mobil Corporation made indicating that there would be significant risk associated with phasing out oil and gas production and use. Exxon and Glass Lewis, the advisor they referenced, are right. Getting rid of oil and gas in pursuit of Net-Zero emissions by 2050 would seriously impact the peoples’ standards of living globally.”
Our kids will have an electric scooter and they will be happy with it.
Alan says:
You’ll need a pretty big telescope to FIND that star. And NOBODY else will ever use that star name.
Something only slightly less scammy is the “Buy a square inch of land in Ireland”. Because that land is actually owned by the guy selling it.
“There’s enough used fuel in the U.S. to power the country for the next 150 years.”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/05/27/video-theres-a-solution-to-the-nuclear-waste-problem-one-weve-known-about-for-decades-n553905
the embedded video that is the source of the quote is:
The Big Lie About Nuclear Waste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzQ3gFRj0Bc
I toured Argonne in 1973. Pre-Carter.
As noted in the video, reprocessing nuclear fuel is costly, but other countries including Japan are doing it.
Costly is a relative term. How costly is it to piss away our economic future to make a theoretical and totally insignificant reduction in carbon dioxide? How much money have we spent and are continuing to spend on the public transportation lie? The recycling lie?
Long day, lotta stuff done. Chainsawing happened. My feet are killing me so I’m going to shower the dirt and debris off me, then sit by the fire while a movie plays. It did get pretty hot today and I kept busy. So yeah shower time.
n
@Nick
If you’re typical you’re about a quart low on fluids.
Couple of ibuprofen or some buffered aspirin probably in order, too, if you intend to be the energizer bunny all weekend.
I’ve recommended Keith Laumer before.
I bought his second novel “The Great Time Machine Hoax” on the strength of reading the cover blurb, and only later realized that he was the author of several short stories that I’d read.
His working life was damaged by a stroke in 1971, and his writing after that was not up to his earlier standard. When he died in 1993 he had fallen far from the top rank of science fiction writers.
Baen Books republished much of his work in seven collections between 2003 and 2008.Most of them have excellent introductions by the likes of David Drake and David Weber. Eric Flint did the editing but contributed little in writing (more online worth tracking down), and in typical Baen fashion, the organization was, well, call it muddled. At some point I may sit down with Laumer’s bibliography and Baen’s collections, map things out, and determine what got left out. The necessity is due to the practical difficulty of collecting and reading Laumer any other way. After the stroke a number of unpublished works came out, but then things went downhill as Laumer tried to write, usually incorporating wide swaths of his previous words and recycling characters and scenes. In addition there wer titles changed and mangled, with Baen being responsible for one of the worst when they brought out Catastrophe Planet (1966) as The Breaking Earth (1981) in a rush with a preface to catch the notoriety of the Mount St. Helen’s eruption, and somehow not referencing the earlier title.
I’d recommend picking up the Baen volumes, both for Laumer and the killer intros by his peers. Many of them are still in print and you can get new copies at the original price. Be aware that most if not all had trade and mass-market paperback print runs, so you need to make sure you know what you’re ordering.
If you want to sample Laumer inexpensively, there are several horribly jumbled electronic forms but at 99 cents, the best is Keith Laumer MEGAPACK®: 21 Classic Stories.
I bought another nice copy of the Baen collection “Odyssey” today. Picked it up in a bookstore and was instantly captivated by Weber’s intro, and then Billy Danger…
>> Something only slightly less scammy is the “Buy a square inch of land in Ireland”. Because that land is actually owned by the guy selling it.
Ohh, land, we’ve got that as well, prime lots on Mars, starting at only $199 down with easy monthly payments. Be one of the first to build once Tony arrives.
Are there enough votes in the State Senate to convict Paxton?
And how will Mrs P vote?
Who is Mrs. P ?
Don’t have a clue. Not sure if this a put up job on Paxton or not.
George P. Bush would not do half of the things that Paxton has done for us.
Mrs. Paxton has a seat in the Texas Senate.
P. Diddly has no business being Attorney General much less Governor, which would be the next step after Abbott moves on if the window hasn’t closed on his political career. The dynasty had to be stopped, but Republicans knew the price which would be involved.
A rather unique legal argument floated around media circles here last week, which probably originated with Paxton’s legal team – Texans voted to return him to office knowing he was dirty so he shouldn’t be accountable for things which were known about before 2022.
Isn’t he the one who is responsible for the massive handout to some electric customers after the freeze drove their pricing to the limit highs? Done in a great hurry with alot of ‘don’t look here’.
Watched “Adventures in Babysitting” with Elizabeth Shue. Really fun, great blues soundtrack. I believe one of the minor characters is the guy in Full Metal Jacket that shoots Gunny, then himself…
Our friends who tipped us to this place came over with their kids to watch and we all had a good time.
I stayed on the dock for a while to spin the dial on the radio, but there wasn’t a lot on. Bugs attacked in force, so I called it a night. Even smoke wouldn’t keep them away.
68F is pretty chilly on the water.
Now to bed, perchance to dream..
n
And I think you are right, Drwilliams, I hadn’t peed all day, so I’m topping up with gatorade before bed.