Fri. June 23, 2023 – all my posts are about work…

Hot again.  Yesterday was 10 degrees cooler than the day before and I appreciated it.   Highest I saw was 87F in the shade.   We had part sun and overcast most of the day, so that helped keep it cool too.   I really hope today is similar.

The rain late Wednesday didn’t soak the ground, so I was able to work Thursday.   The sound of a dumpster being delivered got me moving.    Then they swapped out the skid steer.   All in all, I got a bit of a late start.   I’d forgotten that I took time to build my ‘road’ so my math about how much I’m getting done per day was off.   I’m in better shape than I thought.  Assuming I can keep up the pace.

I have been alternating tasks, both to keep myself fresher, and to better use the machines.  When I swap machines I try to do a bit more with the machine so it doesn’t just run for 5 minutes.   Some of that should continue, but some of the stuff I was alternating with should be finishing up.

I should also get faster both through experience and by getting past the scary close to the edge work.   Can’t move fast when falling off an 18″ edge means rolling the machine down 200 ft of hill with water at the bottom…  Even with the seat belt and the roll over protection cage, I am not sure that would be survivable.

I really hope I can pull this off.  It’s a massive amount of work.

And I’ll continue doing it today.   For at least 10 hours in the seat.

I can put in sweat equity.

And stacks.  I can stack.

nick

75 Comments and discussion on "Fri. June 23, 2023 – all my posts are about work…"

  1. SteveF says:

    When what to my wondering eye should present:

    A new daily post with not one comment.

    First post!

  2. Greg Norton says:

    I saw the interview with the ex-CEO (now deceased). Didn’t want to hire experienced people because they tended to by white guys in their fifties and not sufficiently “inspiring’ to young people.  

    – seriously?   well I guess he ‘ate his own dog food’ as the M$ people used to say.     Death by ideology, pity the other folks had to die too.

    Seattle. Plus, I’m guessing, Adderall.

    And, pre-Silicon Valley Bank failure, it was increasingly difficult to get money out of the “too big to fail” banks without publicly spouting that kind of garbage about old white guys. 

    Go look at your bank’s ESG statements. That’s one of the prices they pay for nationalization.

    What may break the cycle is Disney failing to get out of the hole Iger dug trying to be woke.

    Captain Nemo is taking the Nautilus down for the last time. 🙂

    Maybe we’ll get a double cage match in Vegas. Musk and Zuckerburg. DeSantis and The Weatherman.

  3. SteveF says:

    Oh, btw, found the buried power line to the dock house.   Only 6 inches deep.   I don’t think I broke it, just the conduit.

    “Call before you dig” didn’t get someone out to tell you where it was? They were way off? You forgot?

    I don’t trust the IRS to tell the truth in this matter.

    “Cynical” is just another word for “experienced”.

    I would have gotten up at 0500 to let the chickens out, but the cock-a-doodle-doofus woke me before then. He’s being a jerk in other ways; all perfectly natural but annoying to me. I was holding off on cutting his head off until one of my wife’s nieces was here for a visit but I’m not sure that he’s going to last that long.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    My HP 50 had the same error as the Prime with the floating point bug check.

    0.000001

    The difference with the Prime is that I think the floating point mantissa is a config setting on the HP50.

    Great. Now I have a research project.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    My HP 50 had the same error as the Prime with the floating point bug check.

    Thinking back, I did a lot of number crunching on various jobs with that calculator. Fortunately, most of the work was integer-based.

  6. Clayton W. says:

    I call this my SBR, the Strategic Book Reserve.

    Spare glasses in the SBR?

  7. Ray Thompson says:

    Currently in Köln for the day.

    Heavy storms last night in Haltern. Closed a couple of train stations that I needed to use, flooded streets and basements.

    DB is going on strike. I hope the will wait until Monday. I need to travel on Sunday.

    Ready to get home on Monday.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    DB is going on strike. I hope the will wait until Monday. I need to travel on Sunday.

    Isn’t DB a state-run entity like Amtrak?

  9. MrAtoz says:

    There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. 

    True dat. There are also quite a few “young and dumb” pilots.  All we found of one in Korea was his feet still in the boots.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    I believe “chum boy” also mentioned the old White guys were usually ex-military. Mabe he had something against Vets.

    James Cameron is also sqawking about how the US knew they were dead, but kept the charade going. How about blaming the Lame Stream Media for keeping the charade going. He’s probably champing at the bit to get down there for the upcoming “Chum Documentary”. The guy is a whore.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    ex-military  

    – if there is one thing in the world that .mil does better and knows more about than ANYONE it’s working underwater.

    Drives me nuts that the ‘young ones’ think they’re the first to think of something and believe the older ones are just too lame/scared/ignorant/lazy/conservative to try.     Never occurs to them that it was thought of and rejected for good reasons, or was already tried with poor results.

    you see it on boards and in orgs too.    New board – we’re energized to finally get some things done.  We want to do A.    Old board.    Yeah, we were too.   There isn’t any money.   We wanted to do A, but that triggers 4 other requirements, and one of them costs $40K… and there isn’t any money.      Our pool just added an access control keypad to the gate.   We looked at it 4 years ago, determined that we’d have to make changes to the gate, which triggered code compliance issues, which would mean bringing the whole fence up to code.  $40K, not $400 for a keypad.      They’ve just made the changes.   If the city figures it out, the bill will come due.

    79F and overcast.    I should get started.   No suppliers here early to get me out of bed.  SOoooo tempting to just have a lie in ….

    n

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    the US knew they were dead, but kept the charade going.  

    – in theory.   Their SECRET monitoring system, that btw listens to the WHOLE FREAKING OCEAN, heard something that was probably  an implosion…

    Would the rescuers have just said “Oh, well that’s that then.” and packed up?     SECRET.   Capabilities of which are not to be revealed to others.   SECRET.   

    n

    (well, the capability is widely known, as the command has freaking buildings in San Diego, and they’re not subtle.   But the details and capability are protected.   Think about the ability to hear it, and the processing power to pull it out of the noise of the whole freaking ocean….   or they had a sub nearby and can’t admit that….)   Either way, you don’t just get a sailor on tv yapping about it without someone deciding that’s appropriate.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    James Cameron is also sqawking about how the US knew they were dead, but kept the charade going. How about blaming the Lame Stream Media for keeping the charade going. He’s probably champing at the bit to get down there for the upcoming “Chum Documentary”. The guy is a whore.

    The Navy probably had the Titanic wreck miked up to the hilt, both as a test for equipment surveilling electric-only subs and as a prep work for just the kind of event which happened this week.

    When the SHTF in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, who else is going to get the call?

    The OceanGate founder, Stockton-Rush, is money so old that his hyphenated last name represents two signers of the Declaration of Independence who are part of his family tree. His grandmother is the Louise Davies as in Louise Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

    Gotta wonder if there were Deep State ties.

  14. MrAtoz says:

    Amish privilege:

    Black college grad and OnlyFans star snatches mic from white administrator who wouldn’t let her say her full name as racism accusations fly in viral video aftermath

    Poor widdo me. How long before the Amish get “imploded” by the sheer weight of all other Races saying “enough is enough.” Also “OnlyFans star.”

  15. lpdbw says:

    We’ve filed our new amended lawsuit against Houston Methodist for their vaccine mandate that cost me my career.  140 plaintiffs vs. several defendents.  This time we appear to have competent counsel, and we found a source of financing so we’re no longer depending on GiveSendGo..

    More details at the website.   Including the entire complaint, all 126 pages.

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  16. Greg Norton says:

    We’ve filed our new amended lawsuit against Houston Methodist for their vaccine mandate that cost me my career.  140 plaintiffs vs. several defendents.  This time we appear to have competent counsel, and we found a source of financing so we’re no longer depending on GiveSendGo..

    How many of the 140 filed for unemployment through TWC and went through the tribunal process with the HR droids actually showing up for the hearings?

    I don’t share everything I’ve done with regard to my termination from the tolling company around here, but I strongly suspect that the company surrendered on the point of the firing being “for cause” to avoid having to count on competence in the situation from the former Chipotle manager turned HR droid.

    The legal issues got very complex as I pursued every option available without writing a check to a lawyer.

  17. lpdbw says:

    With regards to TWC, I can’t say, but I’d guess most applied for unemployment, most of those were initially denied (as mine was), then only some appealed and went through the tribunal process ( I did ).  It appears that many lost their appeal, and some who received benefits were later denied and forced to repay them.

    I won my appeal, and received maximum benefits under Texas law, and they never came back for it.

    In my case and several others, Methodist didn’t show up at the tribunal.

  18. lpdbw says:

    Oh, and as a result of our new competent counsel, I learned the term “constructive termination”.

    If you are forced to resign in a hostile environment, you may have the same rights and claims as if you were fired.

    I never intended to learn law, or biology/biochemistry, but the last 20 years of divorce, children having run-ins with police, obesity management, and all the Covid lies have forced me to learn a lot.  At great cost of my time and capital.

    The main takeaways being that most lawyers are incompetent, most doctors are completely ignorant outside thier swim lanes (and even within if they trust the drug companies, the AHA, and government), and Ancel Keys (aided and abbetted by the FDA) may be an even bigger murderer than Stalin, possibly rivaling Mao.

    I will never trust another doctor as long as I live.  Even the ones that didn’t buy the Covid lies will have blind spots and untrue beliefs.

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  19. Greg Norton says:

    I won my appeal, and received maximum benefits under Texas law, and they never came back for it.

    In my case and several others, Methodist didn’t show up at the tribunal.

    If the employer doesn’t show up at the tribunal hearing, TWC gives a week during which an explanation for the absence must be submitted in writing. After that, if the employer still doesn’t respond to the appeal, the hearing master makes a decision which is final.

  20. Greg Norton says:

    Think about the ability to hear it, and the processing power to pull it out of the noise of the whole freaking ocean….   or they had a sub nearby and can’t admit that…

    A Virginia class was most likely in the neighborhood. Taiwan and the PRC both operate quiet battery-only subs in the Taiwan Strait, and the nonstop activity near the wreck site this time of year, both above and below the surface, would offer an excellent training opportunity for the sonar operators.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Isn’t DB a state-run entity like Amtrak?

    I have no idea. DB has struck before. I don’t care after Sunday about 18:00. 

  22. lpdbw says:

    I have no problem with downvotes of my opinion, but it makes me curious which opinion offended you.

    Educate me why I’m wrong.  I am not afraid to learn.

  23. SteveF says:

    it makes me curious which opinion offended you.

    Wrongthink, you plus-ungood person!

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  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    88F and sun came out.    I’ve filled my dumpster.   At this rate it might take 3 more.  F me.

    n

  25. SteveF says:

    Have you given any thought to my berm suggestion? There’s got to be someone who wants to do some shooting and could use hard fill for the backstop. Of course, getting the concrete to them would likely cost as much as disposing of it in the first place.

    Say, have you given any thought to building a short shooting range on your land?

  26. Ken Mitchell says:

    Nick Flandrey says:

    – in theory.   Their SECRET monitoring system, that btw listens to the WHOLE FREAKING OCEAN, heard something that was probably  an implosion…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOSUS

    https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2021/february/66-years-undersea-surveillance

    As a professional submarine hunter, I found quite a few of them. The problem is, the ocean is NOISY.  When you go outside in the evening, the air is filled with noises; every insect makes noise, and so do all the things that prey on the insects. The ocean is the same way, from shrimp that make clicking sounds to fish that hoot and groan, to whales that sing. If your sensors are sensitive enough – and ours were! – it can be difficult to figure out what each sound means.  Electronic signal processing can help. 

    Every sound is recorded, and rarely does anybody listen to it in real-time.  What probably happened was that AFTER the “Titan” submarine was reported to be missing, somebody told the sensor analysts to go back to the recordings and look for anomalous noises in that area. They found some, determined that they were possibly related, and AFTER the  USCG reported a “debris field”, the reports of “sounds of an implosion” were released.  But “Titan” was a LITTLE submarine; its collapse wouldn’t have made a big distinctive noise.

    It would be ENTIRELY incorrect to say that the Navy knew the “Titan” was sunk when it happened.  AT BEST, it would have been several hours later, and most likely a few DAYS later, before those sounds would have been recognized. 

    10
  27. JimM says:

    https://nypost.com/2023/06/21/woman-shot-texas-uber-driver-she-thought-he-was-kidnapping-her-to-mexico-police/

    “A woman visiting Texas shot her Uber driver and then claimed she did it because she wrongly believed he was kidnapping her to Mexico, according to court documents.” 

    “Piedra picked up Copas and while en route to the casino, Copas saw traffic signs that read “Juarez, Mexico,” according to KTSM. Copas claims that’s what led her to believe she was being kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Copas grabbed a “silver and brown handgun from her purse” and allegedly shot the driver in the head — causing the car to crash into roadway barriers before coming to a stop on US-54 near Loop 375. Law enforcement noted in the charging documents that the shooting was not in close proximity of a bridge, port of entry, or any other area with immediate access to Mexico.”
     

    The idea that someone “fears for their life” justifies lethal action is wrong. Some people are ignorant, others are stupid, yet others are crazy. There is no justifying their actions based on what they think. The only valid defense for taking lethal action is that their life really was in danger. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether you are in danger or not. If you take lethal action, you have to accept the risk that you are making a mistake.

  28. JimM says:

    “I have no problem with downvotes of my opinion, but it makes me curious which opinion offended you.”

    I recommend applying the rule that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Take the sum of the up & down votes as the measure of your comment’s impact and importance. This is also why it is counterproductive to downvote a troll. 

    “Educate me why I’m wrong.  I am not afraid to learn.”

    Note that if the voter really cared or felt that there was something you really needed to learn, they would have responded. Don’t let downvotes get you down!

  29. SteveF says:

    It would be ENTIRELY incorrect to say that the Navy knew the “Titan” was sunk when it happened.

    The same as any other intel gathering, or more broadly any information gathering: Yes, they “knew” it in the sense that the monitors picked up the impulse. However, the import was not recognized until later, when other facts were brought in, spurious signals discarded, and so on. It’s happened to everyone in the data analysis business, and the fact that it’s inevitable doesn’t stop the armchair analysts from pointing out the “inexcusable negligence” or “obvious coverup”.

    Why, yes, I’ve been burned by ignoranuses screaming at me for my “inexcusable negligence” more than once. Probably half the time, the problem that was revealed was the screamer’s fault, but that made no difference.

    (An example: On a previous job, we had our databases hosted on Azure’s cloud service. Not a great idea at all, and expensive, but I wasn’t calling the shots. A data analyst screwed up a SQL query by doing a full join of two multi-million-record tables, with the huge result table almost doubling the size of our storage usage. Even after the table was truncated and the correct query run, the storage space was not released. No one noticed, until by coincidence I’d noticed that the storage was very large at about the same time that the boss mentioned that our Azure hosting costs were way up last month. When I noted the correlation here, he demanded to know why I hadn’t done something about it. Uh, not my job to monitor the DB, not my job to monitor Azure expenses, not my screwup in the first place, and I don’t have privileges to administer either the DB or the Azure account. Any more questions?)

  30. SteveF says:

    The idea that someone “fears for their life” justifies lethal action is wrong. … There is no justifying their actions based on what they think.

    Eh, sort of. Most such crimes involve a “reasonable man” standard: Would a reasonable man think that he was in danger in this situation? This is a question for the jury.

    It’s also a matter of much judicial abuse, with the judge telling the jury what they may or may not consider, regardless of centuries-long legal precedent, or even directing a verdict.

  31. MrAtoz says:

    The idea that someone “fears for their life” justifies lethal action is wrong.

    Unless you are a cop. That seems to be SOP for every shooting.

  32. Alan says:

    So the world knows that sadly, five souls were lost on the TITAN. Debate on when this was definitively known aside, being that this took place in international waters, shouldn’t any US Coast Guard and/or Navy vessels/personnel have already left the scene and headed back to their home bases?

  33. Alan says:

    >> SECRET.   Capabilities of which are not to be revealed to others.   SECRET.

    Hmm, sounds like a document that was in a dusty, old box with some oil stains sitting in a Delaware garage next to an aging Corvette.

  34. Denis says:

    Isn’t DB a state-run entity like Amtrak?

    DB was privatised years ago. The German federal state is the majority shareholder.

  35. Lynn says:

    >> You and I would have ALL of our assets seized, harsh penalties charged, interest charged, and be sent to a Federal prison without air conditioning in central Texas with your cellmate Bubba about to make you his new “girlfriend.”

    F I F Y

    Bubba better sleep with both eyes open.  I will shiv him at 2am if he tries any nonsense.  

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  36. Lynn says:

    “45,000 still without power in Houston area as extreme heat returns”

        https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-power-outage-18167416.php

    “Nearly 60,000 across Texas are still waiting for power following Wednesday night’s record-breaking severe storms.”

    And this is why I have a whole house generator.

    My parents just got a whole house generator for their 62 year old house with three phase service and two wire wiring (no ground wire).  Generator Supercenter out of Victoria put in the generator with the three phase transfer switch.  Dad put the system on a new natural gas meter since he did not listen to me and run a natural gas line 100 feet from the old meter.  Now he is griping about the $40 per meter charge for the second meter.

    They got the new meter yesterday and half of the breakers in the three circuit breaker panels tripped and two of his Belkin power strips blew up when they started the new generator.  Scared my poor mother half to death.  I told Dad he needs to get a master electrician out there posthaste.

  37. Bob Sprowl says:

    A granddaughter has two tiles on the splash behind her kitchen sink that are broken in her three year old house.  She has some extra original tiles which are about 3 inches by 6 inches.  The tiles are glued to the sheetrock behind them.  

    She removed the gout between the good tiles and the two bad tiles.  This morning we tried to remove these tiles with no success.  I drilled a couple of holes in the tiles and tried chipping the tiles and prying them out.  We now have a 2 inch hole through the sheetrock.  I’m considering the use of cutoff wheel to remove the tiles and sheetrock but then we’ll have to patch the sheetrock. 

    Suggestions would be welcomed.

  38. Lynn says:

    Monty: Iron Cat

       https://www.gocomics.com/monty/2023/06/05

    Oh …. my.  That is just wrong.  I mean, where is MY power suit ?

  39. Lynn says:

    Thur. June 22, 2023 – still working, still hot, still not a millionaire

    Dude, you are a millionaire.  Being a millionaire is not about the income, it is the value.

  40. Lynn says:

    I should also get faster both through experience and by getting past the scary close to the edge work.   Can’t move fast when falling off an 18″ edge means rolling the machine down 200 ft of hill with water at the bottom…  Even with the seat belt and the roll over protection cage, I am not sure that would be survivable.

    Did you get the rental insurance ?

  41. Lynn says:

    I call this my SBR, the Strategic Book Reserve.

    Spare glasses in the SBR?

    I read without my glasses, being fairly nearsighted.  But someday, should I last that long, I will have cataract surgery.  I am 2.5 out of 4 stars on both eyes for cataracts.  He won’t do them until I get to 3 stars.

    I do have my old glasses all over the place, in my dopp bag, in my truck, in my suitcase, etc. They would be much better than nothing.

  42. Lynn says:

    A granddaughter has two tiles on the splash behind her kitchen sink that are broken in her three year old house.  She has some extra original tiles which are about 3 inches by 6 inches.  The tiles are glued to the sheetrock behind them.  

    She removed the gout between the good tiles and the two bad tiles.  This morning we tried to remove these tiles with no success.  I drilled a couple of holes in the tiles and tried chipping the tiles and prying them out.  We now have a 2 inch hole through the sheetrock.  I’m considering the use of cutoff wheel to remove the tiles and sheetrock but then we’ll have to patch the sheetrock. 

    I am impressed that you are helping out your granddaughter.  Cool !

    If it were me, I would go to the local tiling business and ask them for help.  But, I have money and little time.

  43. Lynn says:

    “NRC authorizes first US high-assay low-enriched uranium enrichment plant critical for advanced reactors”

        https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nrc-HALEU-doe-advanced-nuclear-plants/653629/

    “An American Centrifuge Operating plant in Ohio will produce the nation’s first amount of HALEU.”

    Cool.

  44. Lynn says:

    “Tucker Carlson on the gatekeepers, and why they’re under threat”

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/tucker-carlson-on-gatekeepers-and-why.html

    “There’s never been a candidate for president the media hated more than Robert F Kennedy Jr. You thought that title belonged to Donald Trump, of course it must. But go check the coverage: Trump got a gentle scalp massage by comparison. When he announced when Trump rolled out his presidential campaign in 2015 the New York Times waited until the 17th paragraph of the story to attack him. But as well-known as he is, the paper said at the time Trump is also widely disliked then they cited a poll to back it up. That was the attack on Trump.”

    “Eight years later the Times attacked Bobby Kennedy in the very first sentence of the story: quote

    “Robert F Kennedy Jr” the paper declared “announced a presidential campaign on Wednesday built on relitigating covid-19 shutdowns and shaking Americans faith in science?”

    I thought that the Grey Lady loved all things Kennedy.  Guess not.

    I would love to see Bobby Kennedy split the dumbrocrat party in 2024. Couldn’t happen to a better party.

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  45. Denis says:

    I’m considering the use of cutoff wheel to remove the tiles and sheetrock but then we’ll have to patch the sheetrock. 

    Suggestions would be welcomed.

    I would cut out the offending tiles and the plasterboard (drywall) to which they are attached, then patch the hole and re-tile &grout. Patch methods here: https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/patch-and-repair-drywall

  46. Greg Norton says:

    Dude, you are a millionaire.  Being a millionaire is not about the income, it is the value.

    It is all theoretical until you put the house on the market and find a willing buyer.

    My neighbors learned that the hard way when I sold my house in Florida for market price. It only takes one.

  47. Lynn says:

    “Emergency preparations: Hygiene and sanitation”

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/emergency-preparations-hygiene-and.html

    “The quality of the water that’s available is also important.  In the absence of a water purification facility, you’ll have to filter or otherwise treat your own water to get rid of potential pollutants, infectious material, diseases, etc.  That’s a whole topic on its own, about which we’ve previously spoken.  Plan on needing a water filter big enough to provide for your household, water purification tablets, etc.  For a “bug-in” situation, I’d budget a minimum of two gallons of water per person per day for all needs, and try to store enough for at least a couple of weeks.  When “bugging out”, it’ll depend on what’s available.”

    “This also affects disposal of human waste.  After a few days without power, urban sewage systems will cease to function, and septic tanks will probably no longer be pumped, leading to longer-term problems.  We’ll have to find ways to dispose of our body wastes without polluting nearby water sources, and monitor those sources to be sure that nothing and nobody else threatens them in that way.  (Have you ever tasted water from a stream in which a herd of cows has just done their business, around a bend upstream of you?  You don’t want to do that.  Trust me on this!)  Those with front and/or back yards can dig holes to bury human and pet waste, but those in apartments will be in a difficult situation.  We have to be able to dispose of it and clean up afterwards, and prevent any contamination of food, water, kitchen surfaces, etc.  That’s a very important hygiene issue.  If we get it wrong, we can literally poison ourselves all too easily.”

    Oh gosh, grid down is gonna suck real bad.

  48. Lynn says:

    “The Titan tragedy”

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-titan-tragedy.html

    “Next, there appears to be a growing chorus accusing the US Navy of dereliction of duty by not reporting last Sunday that they had heard the noise of an implosion near the wreck site.  That’s factually untrue.  The Navy did hear such a sound, but they could not confirm for sure what it was – only that it resembled the noise of an implosion.  They immediately informed the search coordinators, who used the Navy’s data to refine their search pattern, ultimately leading to the discovery yesterday of wreckage from the Titan.  If the Navy had said anything more last Sunday, it would have been nothing more than speculation, at a time when that would have merely added to the media tumult.  I think the Navy did the right thing by making no public comment at the time.”

  49. Lynn says:

    Dude, you are a millionaire.  Being a millionaire is not about the income, it is the value.

    It is all theoretical until you put the house on the market and find a willing buyer.

    My neighbors learned that the hard way when I sold my house in Florida for market price. It only takes one.

    A relative just put his Houston house on the market for $1.95 million.  The Houston CAD says that it worth $1.5 million.  It is a very unique house just two miles away from the Houston medical center.  It is 5,162 ft2 5/4.5/3 with a pool, elevator, a huge veranda, etc.  It is five feet higher than the street with a pier and beam foundation that required a serious argument with the city of Houston, now that is their standard for new house.  It was three feet higher than the water in Hurricane Harvey, many of his neighbors came to his house to be picked up by the Cajun Navy.  He bought the previous house on the lot and knocked it down, starting from scratch in 2008.

        https://www.har.com/homedetail/4102-merrick-st-houston-tx-77025/3161601

  50. Lynn says:

    “AAA Tests Ford F-150 Lighting Range With A Heavy Load”

        https://www.carpro.com/blog/aaa-tests-ford-f-150-lighting-range-with-a-heavy-load

    “AAA Automotive Engineering researchers loaded a F-150 Lightning up with 1,400 pounds of sandbags, 100 pounds shy of its maximum capacity.  They discovered that the large payload reduced the Lightning’s range 24.5%, a drop from 278 miles to 210 miles.”

    No thank you.  Not until I get my 600 mile range that I have on my 2019 F-150 4×4.

  51. Lynn says:

    Oh gosh, grid down is gonna suck real bad.

    I keep 30+ 24 bottle cases of Ozarka water in the garage at all times. The wife used to taunt me about them. No more, the big freeze in south Texas in Feb 2021 convinced her of the need for water storage. Our neighborhood relies on three common water wells, all the wells froze up and the diesel generators froze up too (they did not winterize the diesel which is incredibly simple to do by adding one gallon of regular unleaded to ten gallons of summer diesel. Drops the diesel cloud point (paraffin solidification) from 20 F to 0 F. Or heating the diesel to 100 F.). 

    Anyway, we had no way of flushing the house toilets into our house aerobic septic tank with no water. Answer, use the expensive cases of water for the duration of the emergency. BTW, if it is yellow, let it mellow. If it is brown, flush it down.

    I figure that those 30+ cases of Ozarka water are good for two weeks.  After that, I have no idea what to do for fresh, potable water.

  52. Bob Sprowl says:

    Re: repairing drywall behind bad tile.  

    All repair methods need a couple of inches around the repair hole to over lap the repair piece.  Impossible as the good tile comes right up to the edge of the hole.

    The contractor she had look at the job told her he would have to remove all of the existing tile and the sheetrock would be destroyed in doing so, replace the sheetrock and then replace the tile.  He recommended removing (and after repair, replacing) the counter below the back splash.  He thought the cabinets above the back splash could stay in place but if she wanted a 100% perfect job they should come off also, and the sheetrock replaced – floor to ceiling.  In other words completely rebuild the  wall.

    I’m starting to think that is the only way to fix it.   

    It might be possible to clamp and glue furring strips around the edge of the hole and then fasten the replacement sheet rock to these furring strips.  But if the glue is poor or the existing sheet rock is weak then this will not work.   

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  53. Rick H says:

    Lots of videos on the interwebs about patching drywall holes.

    Cut the hole to a square shape. Prepare a piece of drywall to fit inside the hole. Adjust hole/drywall piece as needed so it will fit.

    I’d get a good construction adhesive, and a couple of short 1″x2″. Cut those to fit inside the hole with overlap on the back side. Apply construction adhesive to the overlap part. Insert boards into wall, maybe use a clamp to hold until glue dries.

    Next day, use more construction adhesive on part of board that is in back of the hole part. Put drywall piece in hole. Use a couple of drywall screws to hold the drywall to the 1×2’s. Wait appropriate time for glue to set.

    Apply some wallboard plaster as needed, smoothing as needed for the tile. Install replacement tiles when the hole is fully dry and solid. 

  54. lpdbw says:

    I figure that those 30+ cases of Ozarka water are good for two weeks.  After that, I have no idea what to do for fresh, potable water.

    Well, first, quit using the potable water for toilet flushing.

    You have a pond, yes?  and a generator.  So you can hook up a pump and hose and get running pond water to your doorstep.  Haul buckets of pond water to the toilets.  Bonus points for getting the hose up to the toilets.

    If there’s no chemical contamination of your ground water, you could consider a Berkey filter.  Or even a DIY sand filter.  Use your search engine on “slow sand filtration”.  They build these things in Africa.

    If you have some sufficient warning, you could get IBC totes, or tanks at the farm supply, or bathtub bladders, or just fill up the bathtubs in advance.  Then you can scoop from the tub to flush the toilet, and in the case of the tanks and bladders, the water is potable.  When I lived on the farm, I had a tank sized for my pickup that I bought at the farm store.  Whenever my well went dry during a drought, I drove to town, filled the tank for a couple of bucks, and took it home.  I fully intended to plumb another pump from the tank into the house, but what I ended up doing was just dropping the water into my 36″ well.   There’s loss that way, but it sure is convenient.

  55. drwilliams says:

    I wonder if someone doing maintenance on submersibles could be traced to Perkins Coie? Just seems coincidental that Hunter Biden’s sweet sweetheart deal should get thirty seconds and the evil Repub capitalist chum boy should get three reports taking 5-6 minutes.   

  56. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder if someone doing maintenance on submersibles could be traced to Perkins Coie? Just seems coincidental that Hunter Biden’s sweet sweetheart deal should get thirty seconds and the evil Repub capitalist chum boy should get three reports taking 5-6 minutes.   

    Old West Coast money, but not Republican.

  57. Lynn says:

    You have a pond, yes?  and a generator.  So you can hook up a pump and hose and get running pond water to your doorstep.  Haul buckets of pond water to the toilets.  Bonus points for getting the hose up to the toilets.

    I’ve got two 1 acre ponds at the office.  I do not have any ponds at the house.  I did have a lot of ice at the house but it was frozen solid.

    I’ve got a whole house generator at my house since Aug 2021 (six months after big freeze).  I do not have a generator at the office.

    I’ve got a water well at the office.  I share three water wells with my 550 neighbors at the house.

    I guess that I could have scooped some pond water up at the office and brought it home for flushing.  The power failed at the office Sunday night during the big freeze so I could not get the 4kw required to run the water well pump during the entire big freeze.

    The real problem is that I did not realize that the water was off at the house until it was too late to fill the bathtubs.  That was the real failure.  The water failed before the electricity failed since the three water pumps were not freeze protected.

    I fully intended to plumb another pump from the tank into the house, but what I ended up doing was just dropping the water into my 36″ well.

    36 inches deep ?  36 inches diameter ?

  58. lpdbw says:

    My well was 36″ wide and about 25 feet deep when drilled in 1965-ish.  They hit water at 15 feet.

    This is in Illinois near the Mississippi river bottoms, with annual rainfall of 60″ and snowfall of 18″.    Shallow wells are a thing.  Just after high school, I helped my best friend’s father put in a new well at his house.  It was a driven well with a wellpoint.

    Over the years, the water table went down, and I often had less than 3 feet of water in the well.

    The new purchasers of my farm didn’t ask questions about the water supply.  But I left behind the tank, and all the neighbors also have similar tanks, so they’ll figure it out.

  59. ITGuy1998 says:

    Lots of videos on the interwebs about patching drywall holes.

    Cut the hole to a square shape. Prepare a piece of drywall to fit inside the hole. Adjust hole/drywall piece as needed so it will fit.

    I’d get a good construction adhesive, and a couple of short 1″x2″. Cut those to fit inside the hole with overlap on the back side. Apply construction adhesive to the overlap part. Insert boards into wall, maybe use a clamp to hold until glue dries.

    Next day, use more construction adhesive on part of board that is in back of the hole part. Put drywall piece in hole. Use a couple of drywall screws to hold the drywall to the 1×2’s. Wait appropriate time for glue to set.

    Apply some wallboard plaster as needed, smoothing as needed for the tile. Install replacement tiles when the hole is fully dry and solid. 
     

    His problem is not patching drywall. It’s patching a drywall hole surrounded by tile. 
     

    I had the same thought about gluing some strips to the edges to use as backing. Also maybe a thicker piece of wood across the middle Use plenty of construction adhesive, and if you can put some tension on it while it dries, all the better. Then gently place the drywall patch and glue.  I’d give it a try before ripping it all out,

  60. drwilliams says:

    @Bob Speowl

    Long before I would tear out drywall floor to ceiling, I would have a solid surfacing contractor fab a ¼” overlay for the backsplash. 

    But RickH is on the right track. Get some support in the wall to back the new tile. 1×2” to support a drywall piece that only has to be a good fit, not perfect. The tile will bridge any gaps  

    Glue in the new tile and grout it in.  You might have to artistically add some color wash to make a match with the older grout. 

  61. lpdbw says:

    @Lynn

    Sounds like you have everything you need, just half is at one place (ponds) and half at the other(electricity).  Sorry about that.

    Down where you live, by the river, I imagine you could put in a shallow well and hit ground water pretty easy.  Actually, I suppose that applies to all of the drained swamp we call Houston.  Not cheap, and I don’t know about permits and potability and such.  Money and time is all it takes.  I don’t know anyone who says they have enough of either, though.

  62. Lynn says:

    A granddaughter has two tiles on the splash behind her kitchen sink that are broken in her three year old house.  She has some extra original tiles which are about 3 inches by 6 inches.  The tiles are glued to the sheetrock behind them.  

    She removed the gout between the good tiles and the two bad tiles.  This morning we tried to remove these tiles with no success.  I drilled a couple of holes in the tiles and tried chipping the tiles and prying them out.  We now have a 2 inch hole through the sheetrock.  I’m considering the use of cutoff wheel to remove the tiles and sheetrock but then we’ll have to patch the sheetrock. 

    How about using a reversed ceiling fan mount as a backing for the replacement of the sheetrock ???  You are going to have to make that hole much bigger to get that ceiling fan mount in there.  I am assuming that there are joists behind that sheetrock.

        https://www.amazon.com/Westinghouse-Lighting-0110000-Saf-T-Brace-Ceiling/dp/B00027EWNW?tag=ttgnet-20/

  63. Greg Norton says:

    The real problem is that I did not realize that the water was off at the house until it was too late to fill the bathtubs.  That was the real failure.  The water failed before the electricity failed since the three water pumps were not freeze protected.

    The freeze for Sunday/Monday was only predicted a week in advance.

    The projected temperatures were ~ 10 degrees worse than what actually happened.

    Everyone in positions of responsibility crossed their fingers and went home at Noon on Thursday, eager to enjoy a triple holiday weekend.

  64. Alan says:

    >> Eh, sort of. Most such crimes involve a “reasonable man” standard

    Is that just for a biological man? 

  65. Rick H says:

    This guy used a balloon as a backer board. https://youtu.be/IjmLGvrr1-U instead of 1×2’s. 

    That process could be used for the hole in the middle of a bunch of tiles. 

  66. Lynn says:

    Sounds like you have everything you need, just half is at one place (ponds) and half at the other(electricity).  Sorry about that.

    Down where you live, by the river, I imagine you could put in a shallow well and hit ground water pretty easy.  Actually, I suppose that applies to all of the drained swamp we call Houston.  Not cheap, and I don’t know about permits and potability and such.  Money and time is all it takes.  I don’t know anyone who says they have enough of either, though.

    I want to put a whole office generator at office.  The cost is about $35K including pulling natural gas a quarter mile back to the office.  The wife vetoed it.

    Unless you are a farmer, you are limited to owning one water well in Fort Bend County.  I already own a water well so I cannot put in another at the house.  The cost is about $14K if I could.

    The depth of the water well at the office is 240 feet.  The well pump is down about 180 feet at the moment.  It can be raised or lowered as needed using a well truck (F-350 dually) with a small crane.

    Fort Bend County actually puts my water well at the office up for comment every year.  No comments so far.  But they say they can take it away if they want to.

  67. Alan says:

    >> A granddaughter has two tiles on the splash behind her kitchen sink that are broken in her three year old house. 

    @Bob, the following is YMMV. 

    I would use the cut-off wheel just deep enough to cut fully through the tile and try to limit cutting the drywall as little as possible but at least through the paper facing. Then try to get a thin-blade flexible putty knife behind each tile, the goal being to pop the tile loose by separating the drywall paper facing from the gypsum middle. If that’s successful then the drywall that remains should be a more stable base to apply drywall compound as the patch. 

  68. Alan says:

    >> Bubba better sleep with both eyes open.  I will shiv him at 2am if he tries any nonsense.  

    Watch your back in the shower room, Bubba probably has friends 😉 

  69. Lynn says:

    The freeze for Sunday/Monday was only predicted a week in advance.

    The projected temperatures were ~ 10 degrees worse than what actually happened.

    Not at my house.  The low was predicted for 20 F.  We hit 11 F early Monday morning.  That is a disaster around here.

    One of the nuclear power plants 30 miles southwest of my house tripped at midnight, Sunday night on a frozen inlet canal. It did not come back online until Thursday. The other nuclear power plant managed to retain enough cooling circulation while they dug a recycle ditch between the inlet and outlet canals.

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  70. Lynn says:

    Tucker Carlon, “Ep. 5 As in most of the developing world, it’s safer to be the president’s son than his opponent.”

        https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1671226703992201216?cxt=HHwWgIDR6aX1sbEuAAAA

    “Hunter Biden is a self-actuating person”.  Whatever that means says Tucker.

    And the White House Black Lesbian Spokesperson is a historic figure.  Just ask her.  Oh wait, I am assuming that she uses the pronoun “her”.  And “she”.

  71. Nick Flandrey says:

    Did you get the rental insurance ?  

    – why yes, yes I did.    

    And now I have an email saying it’s ok to fill the dumpster to the top.   So I asked them to swap it monday morning.  It’ll be full by then with more to come.

    And I’ll be doing some plumbing.   Broke the drain from the washing machine to the septic with the mini-ex.  Sucks to be me.

    ——————–

    I have enough flat and level ground now next to the house to place the first section of geogrid stabilizer.  I’ve taken a 15ft by 22ft area down 3 ft at the house and 6 inches at the retaining wall.   That’s after removing the concrete layers, and ground beam for the patio.

    I have the Takeuchi TL6r skid steer and this concrete breaker  and it fights to get thru the concrete.  I am working between the house, and an 18″ drop off with about six inches of leeway.   You position the hammer by manouvering the whole skid steer.     Very fiddly in confined space.     It would be much better to use a hammer on a mini-excavator, but United Rental doesn’t have any.     I’m not sure it could put enough downforce on the hammer in my case anyway though.

    ————–

    Rick’s drywall / tile advice with a couple of the other suggestions taken into consideration, is very workable.  It’s essentially what I was going to suggest.  Put a screw or two partway into the wood backer to use as a handle.  Plywood won’t split as easily as natural wood.

    —————

    I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before but man do I love my .mil desert combat boots as work boots.   Aggressive tread, but it will release dried mud easily.   Good support, and the toe box has plenty of room.      Side zip, so once you have the laces adjusted the way you like they stay there.   Sturdy too, and relatively light.  The best part is that it’s like walking on clouds.   VERY springy sole system.   Definitely love them for heavy duty jobs.

    —————–

    11 hours in the seat today.    I’m good for 8, then my productivity drops off a bit.  Stuff still gets done, just not as quickly, or smoothly.  The excavator controls are second nature now, I rarely have to think, the boom just moves.    The driving part of the skid steer happens without thought.   I absolutely can’t get the arm/bucket control down though.   I fumble it every time.   Something is crossed with my muscle memory, and I can’t think what it could be or how to fix it.   We’ll see if I get it when I’m using it more than the excavator.   I like remote control and I really like making the machines work.  

    ———————-

    I need a shower and some time on the dock …

    n

  72. Bob Sprowl says:

    Thanks for all of the ideas.  I think fixing it is do able.  After I cut it  out, I’ll definitely glue some backer boards and  clamp them while the glue dries.  I don’t have to mud the dry wall as it will be covered by the tile.  I’ll just glue it on the back and edges, and sand it  smooth after it is dry.

    This is not a fix it now deal. The bad tile has been that way for months.  But I think it can be done in a week or two.  (She lives 30 miles away, works, and is a Junior Troy University with a 4.0 GPA in a Forensic Computer Science major.)

  73. SteveF says:

    Bob Sprowl, you’re lucky you got advice here rather than from a contractor. “Yah, we’re lookin at takin out the wall and rebuilding. Gonna run ya 13, 14 thousand. I can get started middle of next year if you’re lucky.”

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    Nice night.   Steady breeze off the lake, 78F.    Occasionally chilly wind, sometimes warm wind.   Radio had a lot of noise, but some DX was coming thru.   Lots of Cuba tonight, but down in the noise.

    Lot of people at the lake this weekend.   Lots of boats on the water, zipping around in the dark.

    Now I truly am off to bed.

    n

  75. Ray Thompson says:

    Slow day today as it is really the last full day visiting. Tomorrow at noon we head to the Frankfurt airport spending the night in a hotel at the airport. We need to be at the airport at 8:00 and that is too early for a trip from Haltern. It is a three hour journey, trains are few and far between, a 4:00 wakeup for our hosts is too much to ask, so the hotel (expensive) is the best option.

    This trip has been less about sightseeing and going places than it has been about visiting. We have been to many places in Germany, Austria and Norway. Once a person has seen eight castles, they have seen them all.

    I have taken a lot of pictures, many more of people than usual. Just using my iPhone the pictures are impressive for having been taken with a camera that fits in the pocket. Particularly impressive are the pictures taken inside the dim Köln Cathedral.

    The Cathedral is a very impressive structure. It was not damaged during the war and is now in a continuous state of repairs and restoration. Much of the outside structure is black because of soot and pollution. There are still Sunday services in the structure.

    My Nike shoes started squeaking, again. I purchased two pair three years ago as they were on sale. They started squeaking. One pair was relegated to mowing, the other I kept wearing. The squeaking was annoying but I tolerated the noise.

    Three months ago I purchased another pair of shoes for the trip. I wore them and they were OK, no noise. Then on the trip they started squeaking badly, worse than the other shoes. Nike will be getting a nastygram when I get back.

    I passed a shoe store in Austria and bought new shoes. Some OC shoes. Very light. It turns out the shoes are also very comfortable. The shoes are expensive but really seem to be worth the money in comfort. While in Haltern I went to a shoe store that sells that brand and bought another pair.

    I have since encountered several people in the area that have the same brand of shoes and also say they are very comfortable and light. I doubt I will purchase Nike again. OC is not sold anywhere close to where I live but Amazon stocks the shoes.

    Mr. Brad is probably familiar with the brand of shoes.

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