Mon. July 3, 2023 – back to work slacker.

Hot and humid is the order of the day. It was a little bit cooler yesterday or I’m adapting, because I didn’t end the day soaked to the skin. I only had sweat dripping from my eyelashes and nose twice.

With the late start, I got on the machines in the afternoon. Stripping the side patio back is going well so far. Finished the day at a good point, and there wasn’t really room for more in the dumpster anyway. They are supposed to swap it out again this am, and it needs it.

Played board games with the family before working and after, yesterday. Extra kid is fitting in well (D2’s friend, not X1) she’d been kinda quiet and reserved previously. Smack talking and elbow throwing now 🙂 (metaphorically speaking)

We played “Code Names” after breakfast. It takes partners with a shared cultural frame of reference to do well. When paired with my wife, we do very well. When paired with D1, I don’t win. We played “Ticket to Ride” after dinner. That is one of my favorites. I recommend it for any group, including mixed ages. There are a couple of different strategies, and styles of play. You have to make decisions and build off them but also be willing to abandon a plan and find a different choice.

The kids were playing Rumikub most of the day. I like it too, if you have players that don’t take all day on every turn.

Wife painted trim when she wasn’t playing with the kids or moving my stuff around. (kidding, I kid…)

A good day, until the plumbing mess at the end.

Stack up the good times, they can sustain you in the bad.

nick

73 Comments and discussion on "Mon. July 3, 2023 – back to work slacker."

  1. brad says:

    Counting down. Six hours until my email goes on auto-answer for four weeks. It’s been a looong year; some serious detox time needed…

    Lots of dog walks. Building another dry stone wall. Re-watching the old Star Trek films (even numbers only). Reading some more books off of Lynn’s list. Being bored!

  2. SteveF says:

    The cock-a-doodle-dumbhead has taken to charging at me in the morning when I walk away after opening the coop. He veers away if I turn to look at him, then charges again when I turn away again. I’m not sure what’s going through his head. Aside from the fact that I outweigh him probably 50-to-1 and have previously treated pecks with amused contempt, what does he think will happen if he does manage to bring down the monstrous intruder? I provide 100% of their care, conspicuously including their food and water, and I know that they all recognize this because some of them work to get my attention if they see me and don’t have any food.

    (Generally the food container isn’t empty but the pellets are heaped up inside and not flowing to the feeding openings. Poor design. I’m thinking of putting a wedge, basically half a pyramid, into the bin so the food will be better guided to the openings. Haven’t done it yet for the excellent reason that I just thought of it moments ago. I can cut and tape some of the styrene sitting a foot from my elbow. Five minutes’ work… as soon as the rain stops. And no doubt the birds will be offended that I’m stealing their precious food; they frequently object when I take the food container out to fill it.)

    Sexing rabbits is hard and they are uncooperative. They can kick their hind legs and rake you with their little knives … and they’re squirming and scratching like homicidal jerks.

    And peeing, which makes it more difficult to see things. I haven’t sexed baby rabbits but I’ve done other rodents, generally because someone had a couple of pets which turned out to be – surprise! – not the same sex.

    > rolling the printing presses can’t last forever.

    All we need is more paper and ink…what do you think Janet’s been hoarding in those empty Fort Knox vaults? And there’s still those trillion dollar coins the Mint is ready to start stamping out.

    Debasing the currency has had such a successful history over the centuries…

  3. Greg Norton says:

    >> Any suggestions for one way ground transportation from BNA to Clarksville next Saturday morning

    Sorry @Greg, couldn’t resist…

    That song is a serious downer anti-Vietnam War tune if you listen carefully. 

    Back in the day, the city went to great lengths to get a statement out of the writer that he was not referring to Clarksville, TN even though Fort Campbell is home to the 101 Airborne, who did a lot of the fighting and took the brunt of the casualty numbers.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah, I saw that he dropped 90 lbs with Mounjoro.  Unfortunately, it is a prescription drug, weekly injectable.  That means you gotta find a doctor to prescribe it to you.  And my GP just quit.

    I could refer you to mine, who would probably be up for the experiment, but you would have to road trip down 290 every time you went to the office.

    I-10 would mean going through Lockhart/Luling, which are the Mecca of Central Texas BBQ, and passing the big Buc-ee’s at the freeway exit.

    And, yes, I wasn’t thrilled with how long mask mandates continued in the office. Austin. As I noted, however, it looked like a staff house cleaning took place the last time I was there.

    BTW, the cowards at the Texas Supreme Court finally issued their ruling regarding where the authority lies to enforce masks in Texas … after the Legislature passed the law stating that the cities and “Judges” do not have the authority.

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/abbott-texas-covid-mask-rules-pandemic-supreme-court-ruling-republicans-democrats/273-93377b89-f9c2-4776-8583-f9da2b6dd008

    I tried to avoid the story from the Texas Tribune and the drinking club’s commentary, but those links are behind paywalls.

    OTOH, at least the Tribune is consistent. Good Germans all.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Lots of dog walks. Building another dry stone wall. Re-watching the old Star Trek films (even numbers only). Reading some more books off of Lynn’s list. Being bored!

    Include III between II and IV. Stealing the Enterprise from Spacedock is one of the coolest scenes in Trek.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkJ3–2K7yo

    Shatner is in Tampa later this summer with II screened BIG in the PAC hall. Q&A afterwards. I do not have an excuse to be in town, unfortunately.

    If you intend to watch “Picard” season three or have already, pay attention to the opening of IV, including Madge Sinclair, the name Dr. McCoy gives the Bird of Prey, and The Shat’s comments about the Klingon technology.

    When the IV reference-heavy episode of “Picard” opened with “The Bounty” title card, I said, “No, they’re not going to go there … are they?”

    Yes, they went there.

  6. Ray Thompson says:

    they’ve got a little pink taco or little bitty burrito

    Well, I was going to have Mexican for lunch. I think I will now wait a few days.

    And peeing, which makes it more difficult to see things

    Make that a month.

  7. Ray Thompson says:

    Michael Imperioli forbids ‘bigots and homophobes’ from watching his work following Supreme Court ruling

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/02/entertainment/michael-imperioli-supreme-court/index.html

    Excellent. I now have a very good reason to not watch any of his projects. I am not a bigot or homophobe; I just don’t like self-centered conceited jerks and forbid myself from watching stuff from people like him.

    11
  8. Greg Norton says:

    Excellent. I now have a very good reason to not watch any of his projects. I am not a bigot or homophobe; I just don’t like self-centered conceited jerks and forbid myself from watching stuff from people like him.

    I’m willing to bet that “The White Lotus” ends up in Force Majeure pergutory and the reruns eventually dumped from “Max” (or whatever they call it today) onto Tubi.

    Hollywood is catching a huge break from the WGA strike. The streaming services will be able to dump questionable woke projects contracted before this year without penalty.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Why should sexting rabbits be hard?  You get their little cell phone numbers…. oh, right. 

    ————————-

    I note that my spell checker doesn’t have a problem with “sexting” but complains about “prepper”.

    @brad, I think the combination of ubiquitous cheap non-stick and demonization of fats have led most people to abandon stainless steel cookware.   You need oil, or fat to keep from sticking to the pan.  And it helps to know how to actually cook and what temperature things should cook at.  You also need to actually wash the pan.   Remember the commercials about ‘soaking in it’ and ‘taking grease out of your way’ and ‘baked on crud’?   Like everything else speed has taken over so no one will wait while the dishes soak…  in any case, more good stuff for me cheaply!

    FWIW- 50+ year old Revereware or Faberware is still like new and useful for everyday cooking.  5 year old non-stick needs to be sent to the recycler.  I know which is more “green” and a better value.

    ————–

    I’m actually eating TWO eggs for breakfast this week and last.   Doing more work, and want to delay breaking for lunch.  Also had half a muffin today.   Living LARGE!

    And now I need to get rolling.  That dirt isn’t going to move itself.

    n

  10. drwilliams says:

    Michael Imperioli

    The instrument has yet to be invented that can measure my indifference.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    There’s a Broadway musical with the song “Gotta Dance” and that is what I hear in my head when I read about some ‘artist’ trying to control who likes their stuff, or who watches what, only I hear the sweeping chorus as “Gotta Laugh”…

    Wankers.   

    n

  12. drwilliams says:

    Bag of coke found at White House, Hunter silent.

    https://redstate.com/brutalbrittany/2023/07/03/hazmat-situation-at-white-house-leads-to-discovery-of-a-bag-of-cocaine-they-want-you-to-believe-is-something-else-n770615

    The Crazy Years are rapidly becoming the Bumbling Clown Years.

  13. drwilliams says:

    There’s a Broadway musical with the song “Gotta Dance”

    Singin’ In The Rain:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCLxnVpgbo

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ah that’s the one.  Great movie too.  Fantastic performances.

    n

  15. drwilliams says:

    Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds.

    There is a short documentary made about 20 years ago that is worth looking up.

    Gene Kelly hosted That’s Dancing!, an offshoot of the That’s Entertainment! series. All on DVD and worth seeking out.

  16. drwilliams says:

    The law took effect Saturday. One consequence is that Florida will no longer recognize driver’s licenses issued to illegal migrants from other states. Some open borders advocates are claiming that the migrants are leaving the state due to these crackdowns.

    Good.

    “We are hearing people are starting to leave,” Yvette Cruz with the Farmworkers Association of Florida told CBS News of reports of migrant workers abandoning fields and construction projects.

    And what does Mexico do to people in the country illegally? How about if they are caught working?

    The Florida Policy Institute estimates that nearly 10% of workers in Florida’s most labor-intensive industries are illegal migrants. Employers and workers are uncertain about the future the new law will create

    Jail the employers. Hard time. Treason against the United States. Could we contract with prisons in Mexico?

    https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2023/07/03/mexico-slams-floridas-new-immigration-law-banning-id-for-illegal-migrants-n562177

    30 million illegal alien invaders in this country. Drugs, gangs, murders, rapes, global warming, and the destruction of hospital emergency services in many border states.

    Any Democrat that thinks open borders are just fine should speak up and volunteer to sponsor and house one of those poor immigrant families in their own home.

    10
  17. brad says:

    I’m actually eating TWO eggs for breakfast this week and last.   Doing more work, and want to delay breaking for lunch.  Also had half a muffin today.   Living LARGE!

    I went back to bacon-and-eggs for breakfast a few years ago. The evidence seems to be that dietary cholestorol doesn’t much matter, and reducing carbs may be more important. Plus, that’s what I always had for breakfast as a kid, so it just brings back good memories.

    Reducing carbs, right. With my (1) sweet tooth and (2) love of beer that’s a problem. Still, weight is under control, which is what is important…

    10
  18. lpdbw says:

    I’ve read several articles stating that these drugs tend to require on-going maintenance doses or the hunger/eating/weight returns.

    That appears to be correct, although everyone is trying to be hopeful that they can be the exception.  That once thin, they can eat sensibly and wean off the drugs.  And for some definition of sensibly, who knows, that may be true.  My definition is zero carb.

    That, and risk aversion, is why I haven’t actively pursued these drugs. Yet. I’m not ruling them out, either.

    Bill Quick points out that even if it’s true, that’s not a show-stopper.  Chronic conditions, like hypertensionn and obesity, may need maintenance drugs for the rest of your life.  HBP meds aren’t things you take for a while and then stop;  if it took you decades to mess up your body chemistry, it might take years to get thing set right.

  19. lpdbw says:

    Reducing carbs, right. With my (1) sweet tooth and (2) love of beer that’s a problem. Still, weight is under control, which is what is important…

    Weight is only one indicator of health.  It’s just easy to measure, and a good yardstick to use when making judgments about other people. (That last part was sarcasm, BTW.)

    I’m convinced that excess carbs of all kinds are detrimental to health in the long term, particularly cardiac health, regardless of your outward appearance.    One of the search terms to use is “skinny fat”.

    If your insulin and blood sugar are controlled, and if you’re genetically suited to it, the amount of carbs you can tolerate is high.  If you’re internally damaged, as I am, it’s different.

    The best news is that Ancel Keyes is finally being widely recognized as a charlatan and villain, and our 40 year hiatus of sanity in nutrution research is ended.   Unfortunately, we have 2 generations of people raised to believe that bacon, eggs, beef, and butter are evil and harmful, and we need to overcome that.  Also unfortunately, research is in the hands of the scientific-technological elite:

    Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

    As warned to us by Eisenhower in 1961. 

  20. MrAtoz says:

    The best news is that Ancel Keyes is finally being widely recognized as a charlatan and villain, and our 40-year hiatus of sanity in nutrition research is ended.

    I’ve read his study is the most quoted study in the nutrition field. A bunch of bunk amplified by our goobermint. Almost like we are being kept fat, dumb, and unhealthy. We were tricked into believing animal fats are bad for us. Don’t use margarine, Crisco, and seed oils. This revved up in the ‘70s with high-carb meals. The FUSA soon became the fattest nation on Earth.  Cook with animal fats and olive oil. Eat fatty fish, red meat, eggs, and leafy vegetables. Don’t forget the bacon.

    10
  21. drwilliams says:

    I got on an email list for recipes that I never subscribed to, but which has produced a few that are interesting so I haven’t booted them yet. 

    Last week a recipe for spinach blue cheese soup. With two cups of onions and a pound of bacon. 

  22. Denis says:

    @brad, I think the combination of ubiquitous cheap non-stick and demonization of fats have led most people to abandon stainless steel cookware.

    @denis, I’ve scored some really nice cookware by being willing to clean it, and not just cast iron.   I’ve got some great stainless pans, nice and thick, but if you don’t know how to use them, they will get crusted food stuck to them.   Some people don’t know how, some are unwilling to clean.

    @Denis For future reference if you haven’t tried it, Bar Keepers Friend is an excellent non-scratch cleanser that loosens things up if you give it a good soak.

    Ok, color me dumb, but: what’s the deal with dirty stainless steel cookware? That’s mostly what we have, and we’ve never had issues keeping it clean.

    Thanks, all. I very much enjoyed this discussion. Unfortunately, life intervened, so I didn’t get back promptly to comment. Apologies. Catching up now…

    drwilliams: of the Bar Keepers Friend products, which had you in mind? I see listings for a powder, a multi-surface cleaner, a stain remover, a power cream and a power spray. Bewildered.

    I think I may have a problem. When we bought the BOL, I decided I would like to use the same stainless steel WMF pots and pans that I prefer and that we already have at our main residence (those were an excellent engagement gift from my in-laws, who have the same ones).

    As the particular series I like is no longer in current production (probably because it was too expensive for WMF to make and sell in quantity…), I set up automated search keywords on eBay. Any time some comes up, I either “buy it now” if the price looks reasonable, or make a lowball offer on auctions. The boxes piled up, and were mostly ignored, once I had a workable minimum set in use at the BOL. Well, today, I took inventory, opening forgotten boxes and parcels; we seem to have about four  sets of cookware, minus only a large pasta pot for which I do have three surplus sieve inserts, and a deep-fat frying sieve, which seems to be an absolute rarity (and I almost never deep-fry, anyway). Anyhow, I think I should probably either stop buying at this point, or buy two more residences!

    By the way, running the previously grey-scotchbrite’d pots through the cleaning program in the dishwasher worked a treat. Of course, when I took inventory, I found a few more items that need scouring… so I’ll give the Bar Keepers Friend a go for the next round.

    What happened to stainless steel cookware? It used to be expensive stuff, expensively made, with the result that what was available was good quality. People who invested in that tended to know how to use it, and understood that they should protect their investment with proper use and care. 

    When I was growing up, most pots and pans were aluminium, enamel or cast iron. Stainless or copper items were expensive rarities, reserved to professional use. Now that thin-gauge cheaply-made stainless cookware is ubiquitous, it doesn’t have the quality of the older heavy-grade stuff, and is thus much harder to cook with, especially since it is so easy to overheat and burn food onto thin and nasty pots. Even the good stainless stuff, such as mine, will burn food if one doesn’t pay careful attention to  the heat and/or use some fat or other liquid.

    At least one of my eBay sets looks like it was abandoned because it was overheated and became coated in stubborn carbon. I know for sure that another was sold off because the owner switched from a gas cooker to an electric induction hob, and the pots weren’t suitable, having copper, rather than iron, cores.

    Cast Iron: every time I get an item just nicely seasoned, it seems that some well-intentioned, but misguided person either uses detergent on it, or puts it in the dishwasher. I am a bit disheartened. On the other hand, hope springs eternal, and I did just buy a potjie…

  23. drwilliams says:

    @Denis

    The powder is the one I use. After years of obscurity they seen to be advertising and expanding—I saw a package combining powder and spray the other day. Since I have 3-4 cans of the powder I haven’t tried the rest. 

    ADDED: Fir pan bottoms I wet the bottom, shake on the BKF powder sufficient to make a slurry, distribute it on the problem area, let it work for a few minutes, then apply some elbow grease through a scotchbrite sponge.

  24. Gavin says:

    Michael Imperioli forbids ‘bigots and homophobes’ from watching his work

    This seemed off? wrong? basically not a parallel case to me. I spent a few minutes pondering the difference between being a cake-maker or website designer,  and being an actor, producer, director etc, in regard to controlling clientele. So far what I’ve come up with is publication as the differentiator. I’d be interested in other views, though.

  25. SteveF says:

    I think that’s close, Gavin.

    The cake baker is making a bespoke item for a specific customer’s specific requirements.

    Designers, fabricators, and sellers of mass-market items, whether movies or machine-knitted sweaters, are not making a one-off for a specific customer.

  26. paul says:

    Bar Keepers Friend is much like scouring powder but it’s a finer grit and has oxalic acid.  Works great, just give it some time.  It’s sort of like using Turtle Wax on an old car but without the wax. 

    I have a set of Salad-Master stainless that was bought new in 1968.  No one wanted the stuff when the last parent died, they were more about “I’d like to have the sofa” or that bookcase.  Whatever, the way that woman could cook, maybe the magic is in the cookware.

    Anyway, the stuff was almost black on the outside.  I spread some newspapers on the patio, wet the paper down, wrapped the Bakelite (?) handles in plastic wrap and sprayed the pots with oven cleaner. Then used an old green Scotch pad to scrub lightly.  The stuff looks almost new…. the handles aren’t shiny and smooth but that’s what a dishwasher does.

    I’ve bought a few more pieces on eBay.  Heck, I have a set of aluminum Salad-Master that other than the tinkle valve in the lid could pass for the Wearever aluminum pots Mom had when I was a kid.  Ohh! Surprise!!  Wearever makes Salad-Master and Rena Ware and a few more “fancy” brands.

    Anyway. Don’t use high heat. My electric stove has a detent before High. Medium heat is plenty and once you put the lid on, the high side of Lo is plenty.

  27. SteveF says:

    It’s a big club…

  28. Lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Cartoon – Life in the Swamp”

        https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-life-in-the-swamp/

    “The powerful political wheeler and dealers in the swamp, are destroying America. Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023.”

    Wow, is that ever true.  The two sides of The War Party.

    Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Franklin, etc are spinning so fast in their graves that we could use them for power generation.

  29. Lynn says:

    Over The Hedge: Cosplay

        https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2023/07/03

    That is just wrong.

  30. Lynn says:

    The cock-a-doodle-dumbhead has taken to charging at me in the morning when I walk away after opening the coop. He veers away if I turn to look at him, then charges again when I turn away again. I’m not sure what’s going through his head. Aside from the fact that I outweigh him probably 50-to-1 and have previously treated pecks with amused contempt, what does he think will happen if he does manage to bring down the monstrous intruder? I provide 100% of their care, conspicuously including their food and water, and I know that they all recognize this because some of them work to get my attention if they see me and don’t have any food.

    Cock-a-doodle-dumbhead is activating his long lost velociraptor memories.

  31. Lynn says:

    > rolling the printing presses can’t last forever.

    All we need is more paper and ink…what do you think Janet’s been hoarding in those empty Fort Knox vaults? And there’s still those trillion dollar coins the Mint is ready to start stamping out.

    Debasing the currency has had such a successful history over the centuries…

    Don’t worry, those printing presses have another overdrive gear.  You ain’t seen nothing yet.

  32. Alan says:

    But what if its not a mass-market item? Let’s say a film’s director makes a ‘director’s cut’ of his latest hit film and produces only 25 numbered copies and says they can only be sold to CIS people.

    Also consider the Fort GT where purchasing of recent models includes a clause in the sales contract that the original purchaser was required to not sell the vehicle for one year.

    3
    1
  33. Alan says:

    >> I can cut and tape some of the styrene sitting a foot from my elbow. Five minutes’ work…

    Yeah, but much cooler if you 3-D printed them! And then you can post about it in some “rabbitry” forum.

    Hmm, I wonder if ChatGPT knows G-code?

  34. Alan says:

    >> Include III between II and IV. Stealing the Enterprise from Spacedock is one of the coolest scenes in Trek.

    Not to mention Shatner’s hair :O

  35. Lynn says:

    And peeing, which makes it more difficult to see things

    Make that a month.

    Note to self, the next time I get attacked, pee on them.

  36. SteveF says:

    G-code is like RS-232: It’s a standard with so many variations that’s it’s almost like not having a standard at all.

  37. SteveF says:

    Note to self, the next time I get attacked, pee on them.

    That applies only to Ray.

    I don’t know how useful this tip is, but the next time Ray attacks you, pee on him.

  38. RickH says:

    Note to self, the next time I get attacked, pee on them.

    That will only work if my prostate medicine is working properly. And even then, still not fast enough to make a difference. 

  39. Lynn says:

    Note to self, the next time I get attacked, pee on them.

    That will only work if my prostate medicine is working properly. And even then, still not fast enough to make a difference. 

    Yeah, there is not much pressure there nowadays.

  40. Lynn says:

    “Fifth-generation owners of huge, historic San Antonio ranch ask $80 million”

        https://www.chron.com/homes/article/mt-solitude-ranch-san-antonio-18172131.php

    “The legacy property first went on sale last year, but brokerage Icon Global has now named its price.”

    “That has now changed. A year after bringing it to the market “intentionally absent a public price,” according to Icon Global founder Bernard Uechtritz, the brokerage has named their number—$79.9 million, or about $22,000 per acre.”

    That is very expensive for ranch land.  I wonder if the water and mineral rights come with the 3,630 acre property ?

  41. Alan says:

    >> That appears to be correct, although everyone is trying to be hopeful that they can be the exception.  That once thin, they can eat sensibly and wean off the drugs.  And for some definition of sensibly, who knows, that may be true.  My definition is zero carb.

    That, and risk aversion, is why I haven’t actively pursued these drugs. Yet. I’m not ruling them out, either.

    Bill Quick points out that even if it’s true, that’s not a show-stopper.  Chronic conditions, like hypertensionn and obesity, may need maintenance drugs for the rest of your life.  HBP meds aren’t things you take for a while and then stop;  if it took you decades to mess up your body chemistry, it might take years to get thing set right.

    Also possibly needing to reset your metabolic ‘set point,’ though I believe that’s still somewhat controversial.

    As for maintenance use, right now generic HBP or HC meds are pennies a pill and we’re decades away from that kind of pricing for these GLP drugs.

    My wife tried Ozempic for a few weeks but couldn’t deal with the constant gastric side effects (which I won’t mention in detail lest @Ray totally skips lunch today.) She went back to her old standby of WW and has been slowly but steadily dropping about two pounds a week.

    I take Metformin to help keep my sweet-tooth weight gain in check. YMMV / IANAD

  42. Alan says:

    >> The powder is the one I use. After years of obscurity they seen to be advertising and expanding—I saw a package combining powder and spray the other day. Since I have 3-4 cans of the powder I haven’t tried the rest. 

    +!1 for the powder.

    https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bar-Keepers-Friend-21-oz-Non-Abrasive-All-Purpose-Cleaner/3654956

    Or this, I believe, is similar…

    https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bon-Ami-Powder-Cleanser-14-oz/26378949?from=/search

  43. EdH says:

    G-code is like RS-232: It’s a standard with so many variations that’s it’s almost like not having a standard at all.
     

    Thank God that we had SCSI  to solve all those 232 issues!

  44. paul says:

    The cock-a-doodle-dumbhead has taken to charging at me in the morning when I walk away after opening the coop. 

    I had a rooster that was half Rhode Island Red and half Leghorn.  He was a pretty awesome bird, he’d nail at least three hens while they were coming out of the coop in the morning.

    But you had to carry The Stick or he would try to attack.  He knew Stick because I whacked him about 6 feet with it.

    He was a good bird.  Had a great crow.  

  45. Lynn says:

    Cool, my warehouse tenant got the old 5 hp air compressor working.  So we can delay that purchase for a while.  He got the 5/8 inch flare tool for the interstage copper pipe and a new belt and it came right back up.  I was figuring that a 19 year old compressor was shot. BTW, it has a 120 gallon air tank, not an 80 gallon.

  46. Jenny says:

    @SteveF

    Roosters are awesome but such dorks. Ours have pretty consistently attacked me and buddy’d up to my husband. No doubt for the husbandry tasks we performed. The rooster was a sucker for corn unless I was offering then he went all cockadoodleoutrage. 
     

    @lynn

    And peeing, which makes it more difficult to see things

    Make that a month.

    —

    Note to self, the next time I get attacked, pee on them.

    Oddly, peeing was advised as a self defense tool in women defense classes. Not carry your j frame  and spend time at the range. My thought at the time was if I’m resorting to urination for self defense I’ve made a whole slew of errors, including mistaking myself for prey -eyeroll-

    It was a semi mandatory class offered by an employer and full of equally head scratching nuggets. 
     

    The rabbits usually don’t pee when I’m figuring out male / female.

    I’ve been the heathen who ran cast iron thru the dishwasher. Usually because someone else left a noxious mess and didn’t deal with it before it hit rank. Then yeah, I nuked it from space. And conscientiously oiled it when it emerged from the wash. Don’t make it a practice, though. 
     

    When we installed the new tub it came with multiple labels insisting cleaning only be done with Bon Ami. Which can be difficult to find up here, often out of stock. I may try barkeeoers friend. 

  47. Ken Mitchell says:

    Nutrition:  I think the worst thing that the gummint ever did was the USDA “Food Pyramid” emphasizing grains and carbs, and deprecating meat, protein, dairy and cheese.  That, plus the explosion of high fructose corn syrup in prepared  foods instead of actual sugar, has been the catalyst for the epidemic of obesity in America.  

    Look at crowd photos, especially beach scenes and compare 1970 to 2010 or newer.  There were VERY FEW obese people then, and they’re the majority now. 

  48. crawdaddy says:

    or, at least, urgent dribble on them…

    We almost hit 100 F in the shade, but missed it by a degree in the FL swamp. Luckily, the heat index has us covered.

    Swamp or Bayou, it’s weird to see plants struggling without water when the humidity level is so high. Time to move the sprinker to the flower bed.

  49. drwilliams says:

    Cock-a-doodle-dumbhead is activating his long lost velociraptor memories.

    The difference is that a sand wedge will not take care of a velociraptor. 

  50. SteveF says:

    Oddly, peeing was advised as a self defense tool in women defense classes.

    It was retarded advice fifty years ago. It was retarded advice fifteen years ago, when I was teaching some last-ditch self defense classes. It’s retarded advice now.

    “If you carry a gun, he can take it away and use it on you!” is about the only thing even more retarded. The typical woman is helpless if the typical man means to do her physical harm. An attacker taking her pistol away doesn’t make her any more helpless.

    The only tiny bit of sense that I’ll attribute to the advice about not carrying a pistol (or knife, asp, mace, or oven cleaner) is that a person carrying a self-defense item may feel excessively confident and get into dangerous situations which would have been avoided if she was unarmed and knew that she was helpless.

  51. drwilliams says:

    @Alan

    As @Paul stated above, Bar Keeper’s Friend contains oxalic acid as the active ingredient, and finely ground feldspar. Oxalic acid is used in many products as a rust removal agent. 

    Bon Ami is based on the mineral feldspar, but has no oxalic acid. Both products were invented in the 1880’s. 

    Bon Ami was originally created from a feldspar waste stream removed by hand-sorting  (aka “cobbed” ) from mined quartz, after it was observed to make a gentler scouring powder than the quartz-based powders that were popular at the time.

    Quartz is about 7 on the Moh’s scale, feldspar is about 6. Steels range from 4 at dead soft to 6.5 for a hard steel file. Using fine feldspar to scour steel causes less damage than quartz. 

  52. CowboyStu says:

    WRT to “weight” as a health measurement, mine is currently 141 lbs. and distributed along 5 ft. & 10 in.; BMI = 20.

  53. drwilliams says:

    The only tiny bit of sense that I’ll attribute to the advice about not carrying a pistol (or knife, asp, mace, or oven cleaner) is that a person carrying a self-defense item may feel excessively confident and get into dangerous situations which would have been avoided if she was unarmed and knew that she was helpless.

    Don’t carry as some sort of magic wand to wave at the bad guy. Deploy when ready to use, and use it.

  54. paul says:

    Bon Ami is good.  Doesn’t have the oxalic acid though.

    We’ve replaced the old enameled steel bathtubs with fiberglass showers.  Ain’t touching any of that with anything coarse.

    Muriatic acid will clean a fiberglass boat of dried on water nicely.  So, let’s look.

    I have a one gallon pump-up sprayer.   I use a cup of 9% vinegar, a couple of tablespoons of Jet Dry, and a couple of tablespoons of Dawn.  Swirl it around to mix and top off with water.  Spray the shower and let it soak.  Spray again and get in there with a wet washrag and watch all the grime run down the walls.  Rinse well and you have a brand new shower stall.

    9% vinegar?  Hey, it’s like 50¢ more per gallon than the 5% stuff.  

  55. Greg Norton says:

    Nutrition:  I think the worst thing that the gummint ever did was the USDA “Food Pyramid” emphasizing grains and carbs, and deprecating meat, protein, dairy and cheese.  That, plus the explosion of high fructose corn syrup in prepared  foods instead of actual sugar, has been the catalyst for the epidemic of obesity in America.  

    All of the Sunday talking head shows had ADM as a primary sponsor for years.

    The only time I remember seeing someone other than GE or ADM advertising in those slots into the early 2000s was when Kenny Boy started spraying cash around as part of the rise of Enron.

  56. drwilliams says:

    The sugar lobby in the U.S. has kept the domestic price far above the world price and is directly responsible for the development of HFCS.

  57. Lynn says:

    Well, WTI crude is $69.79 today for August deliveries.  Looks like the Saudi impetus to raise the world crude oil price has failed miserably.  If I were them, I would shut down Ghawar again for two or three years.

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

    And here is one thing that moving cars to electric from gasoline has done.  60% of the electricity in the USA comes from natural gas, not diesel or gasoline or crude oil.  Another 20% of the electricity comes from nuclear.  So, moving to electric vehicles is moving the USA from crude oil to natural gas which I believe is good in the long run.  We have 100 years of proven crude oil reserves in the USA plus another 100 years of unproven crude oil reserves.  We have 200 years of proven natural gas reserves in the USA plus another 800 years of unproven natural gas reserves.  So, moving our transportation to electricity is not a bad thing as long as you can charge it up.  Note, these are all SWAG numbers.

    Oh look, I just got notified that Saudi Arabia is going to shut in another million b/d for the month of August.

        https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/economics-markets/article/14295884/saudi-arabia-russia-to-make-additional-oil-supply-cuts

  58. Lynn says:

    “Forget quantitative tightening – the Fed will double its balance sheet to over $16 trillion, boosting stocks”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/forget-quantitative-tightening-fed-double-203000019.html

    Party like its 1999 !  

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblt2EtFfC4

    Hat tip to Prince.

    Man, I thought that was Tito Jackson on the bass for a moment.

  59. Gavin says:

    But what if its not a mass-market item? Let’s say a film’s director makes a ‘director’s cut’ of his latest hit film and produces only 25 numbered copies and says they can only be sold to CIS people.

    Would it have to be mass-market? It’s still an artist making a work then offering it for sale publicly

    Also consider the Fort GT where purchasing of recent models includes a clause in the sales contract that the original purchaser was required to not sell the vehicle for one year.

    Contractual conditions of sale can be enforced. John Cena was sued, and settled after he sold his 2017.

  60. Alan says:

    >> Would it have to be mass-market? It’s still an artist making a work then offering it for sale publicly

    With mass-market you’re selling to, say, the big-box stores and/or distributors. To control the sale to specific consumers (e.g. only white females) then requires the cooperation/assistance of the retailer. I’d wonder how many would agree absent any legal mandate.

  61. Greg Norton says:

    “Forget quantitative tightening – the Fed will double its balance sheet to over $16 trillion, boosting stocks”

    Insider. Axel Springer.

  62. drwilliams says:

    David Strom explains it succinctly on HotAir:

    Public accommodation laws came about to break the segregation of publicly available services such as hotels and restaurants. The idea was simple: some services are so vital, and in many cases scarce (a hotel in a very small town) that segregating them imposes too high a barrier to those being denied service. Not having access to bathrooms, lodgings, food, or other necessities based on race or religion shut people out of society.

    As you can easily see, there are major differences in kind between expressive services and public accommodations on their face. Bakers and web designers don’t provide services necessary to daily life, are easily interchangeable, and in any case, nobody was being denied services based on who they were, but rather on what they wanted to be expressed. The baker would bake a cake for anybody regardless of race or sexual orientation; he simply wouldn’t decorate a cake specifically celebrating a gay wedding. Same in the 303 Creative case.

    Basically, the State of Colorado’s position was that it could force 303 Creative to produce a website celebrating a gay wedding (or Pride, or anything else that a protected class wanted to be said) because the State has granted special rights to certain classes of people, allowing them to force others to express ideas with which they don’t agree.

    The Court ruled against that assertion.

    Should Colorado have prevailed, the principle that people can be forced to express ideas they morally object to would have been upheld.

    This would not, of course, apply to all ideas, but merely the ideas that the state legislature or the bureaucrats the law has empowered decide should be mandatory. Jews wouldn’t be forced to bake cakes with swastikas, but only because the legislature doesn’t approve of Nazis. If that should change, the right to refuse would go away.

    https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/07/03/303-creative-is-a-more-important-case-than-sffa-v-harvard-n562155

    If I take the leftist position and I happen to be an ABW executive with Dana Mulvaney under contract, maybe I have an idea to save my company millions and restore market share. I call Dana in and present him/her/them with new clothes and a storyboard and script for the next commercial along with instructions on what to post on Instragram, etc.

    The previous influencing didn’t work out so good. I’m the executive paying the bills, I have Dana under contract, it’s time to change course, and I’m calling all the shots now. 

    My idea is that Dana puts on a Speedo, gets some CGI muscle and height enhancement, and does a pool party commercial  with hip-deep babes where he confesses that it was just a put-on, all in good fun, etc. 

    In commie-Democrat-world, does Dana have any grounds for refusal? 

    Note that this case is slightly different in one respect: Dana is already under contract. If the creative aspect changes not to his liking and that is grounds for him to break the contract, then it must be permissible that those same grounds be sufficient not to enter into a contract at all. 

    It is not possible for the state to determine what is permissible or not with respect to the creative aspect, because such a claim gets tossed immediately on First Amendment grounds.

  63. mediumwave says:

    “I call Dana in and present him/her/them with new clothes . . . ”

    In this case “it” is a perfectly good pronoun.

  64. drwilliams says:

    In this case “it” is a perfectly good pronoun.

    Not going down that rabbit hole.

    I used “him/her/them” in the first case because I have no idea what is preferred or whether is malleable in any time frame. In this case it is irrelevant to the discussion, but if Dana were to pop in and state a preference, that’s fine with me. Being irrelevant I do not intend to get sidetracked or diverted by a debate over pronouns that is nonsense according to historic norms up until a few years ago, and will be nonsense in the future IMHO. Insisting on such diversion is the same kind of controlling power-tripping bullshit that is the basis for this whole nonsense about forcing someone to bake a cake or design a website.

    “A slave cannot be freed, save he do it himself. Nor can you enslave a free man; the very most you can do is kill him!” 

    ― Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star

  65. Lynn says:

    “ERCOT’s Energy Emergency Risk Has Shifted from Late Afternoon to Early Evening”

        https://www.powermag.com/ercots-energy-emergency-risk-has-shifted-from-late-afternoon-to-early-evening/?oly_enc_id=2682E4251356F3W

    “Modeling from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) suggests an 11% probability of having a load shed issue on a peak day this summer, an official said during a reliability committee meeting on June 19.”

    Short term, not much risk.  Long term, there is serious risk due to the new environmental regulations and greenhouse regulations that the EPA just enacted.  Specifically, the 14,000 MW of coal power plants in Texas may shut down before next Jan 1.

  66. Lynn says:

    “Musk’s Tweet-Limiting Move Is To Prevent The Completion Of The “AI-Censorship-Death-Star””

        https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/musks-tweet-limiting-move-prevent-completion-ai-censorship-death-star

    “Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock this weekend, you will know that Twitter CEO Elon Musk said Saturday that the social media platform will limit how many tweets users can read due to “extreme” levels of system manipulation and data scraping.”

    From what I understand, Twitter is essentially being attacked by people training AIs to scrape the entirety of the Twitter database several times a day.  Before this, the Twitter database was not protected or limited.  Twitter has roughly 500,000 servers, all of their servers suddenly went to 100% load last week.

    The people training AIs need to find another target.

  67. Lynn says:

    “You Can’t Make This Up: U.S. Army Celebrates Trans Major Rachel Jones’ Journey from Depression to Authenticity in Celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride (VIDEO)”

       https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/you-cant-make-this-up-u-s-army/

    Are you kidding me ?

    How does that heavyweight pass the fitness requirements of the USA Army ?

  68. Bob Sprowl says:

    CowboyStu:  I’m 5’10” and  weigh 140 with a BMI of 20.1 also. 

    My age, 78, and two bouts of the WuFlu have slowed me down.  Only have the energy for four hours of work instead of the  eight I had two years ago.  I was able to work hard for twelve hours a day seven years ago.  

  69. Nick Flandrey says:

    10 hours in the seat running the machines is kicking my @ss.   I hope I have your energy when I get there…

    —-

    I treat Bar Keepers Friend as my secret weapon of cleaning.   It will also quickly remove tarnish from silver or silverplate.  It’s probably not good  for it, but if you just want to see the hallmark, or it’s silverplate but you want it shiny, BCF will do the job.

    —- 

    USDA has a dual mandate that is mutually exclusive to promote trade, and health.  Hence the ‘food pyramid’.   Note also that it emphasizes poor people food, for lack of a better term.   YOU eat the grain, leave the steaks for US…

    —-

    Made progress.   Didn’t finish.   Still grinding away at the job.

    —- 

    got out my gas can spouts and used them on the diesel for this refueling.   MUCH easier.   A pox on their houses.

    —-

    Roosters.   My neighbors in LA had roosters, and they cry like they’re getting murdered, not “cock a doodle do”.   If  I could have seen the little 4am trumpeteer, I’d have shot him.    Same neighbors that ignored their car alarm.   I let it be known on the street that I’d take a rock and smash all the windows (of the alarming car) the next time, so that someone would take the alarm seriously or shut it off.   After that, no more middle of the night alarms.   Hmm, coincidence?

    —-

    The used JennAire grill I scored for up here works beautifully.  It is actually nicer than ours at home, with one more burner.   Delicious thick cut pork chops were delicious…

    —-

    Time for bed.

    n

  70. Alan says:

    >> The people training AIs need to find another target.

    This is for ChatGPT-3…

    The model was trained using text databases from the internet. This included a whopping 570GB of data obtained from books, webtexts, Wikipedia, articles and other pieces of writing on the internet. To be even more exact, 300 billion words were fed into the system.

    How much of that is copyrighted and was copied with permission?

  71. Denis says:

    Last/first post.

    Happy Birthday, USA. Regards to all you ex-colonists.

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