Fri. Sept. 22, 2023 – SS, DD. Rinse and repeat…

Cool would be nice, even followed by warm, or hot. Since we’re gonna get the warm and hot, it would be nice to get some cool. It wasn’t cool yesterday morning. Oh, it was cooler, but no chill in the air, and it got H O T hot… It was 88F after dark. National forecast has us on the edges of potential T-storm activity. Now that I’ve got a pool table in my pickup, I REALLY don’t want rain. Usually the edge avoids getting any. Fingers crossed.

So I did get my new pool table picked up. It was heavy. IS heavy. But I managed with help from my wife. I won’t be happy until it’s safely unloaded.

Did my computer repairs too. There is detail in yesterday’s comments, but the short story is– PSU was bad. Got that swapped and I’m back to computing like it’s 2005. Ok, 2010. What can I say, I like what I’ve got and see no reason to change.

Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s not. LED flashlights are an example, as are digital mode trunk tracking scanners. There has been a lot of improvement in some things. Sleep systems, tents, clothing too. Most of us prepping probably acquired stuff some time ago, and it was late in it’s life then. It might very well be completely out of date now, and superseded in almost every way.

Take a look at your preps, and even your daily use items, and look for stuff that has been significantly improved with time. Really consider upgrading anything you identify. Like LED flashlights, modern first aid gear, and food that will store well, we are surrounded by choice and increased function. Take advantage of that.

And stack like your life depends on it.

nick

49 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Sept. 22, 2023 – SS, DD. Rinse and repeat…"

  1. lynn says:

    It was 102 F while I was out driving around Thursday afternoon.  No question, this has been a warm summer.  All that water in the upper atmosphere is definititely affecting the absorption of the sun’s rays.  I don’t know what the ppm of the water is but it must be high.  Probably 0.1 percent range, 1000 ppm.

    Not sure if that is absorption or adsorption. I always get those two mixed up.

  2. lynn says:

    And stack like your life depends on it.

    How do we stack a class A medical facility like the Houston Med Center ?  Someday, most of us are going to need one.

  3. lynn says:

    “Poland says it will stop arming Ukraine. How did we get here – and what does it mean for the war?”

        https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/21/europe/poland-ukraine-weapons-grain-explainer-intl/index.html

    Poland realizes that Ukraine is lost and that we need to stop throwing critical resources at it.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    In the mid 80s I started getting student loans, at the low and subsidized rate of … 8%.    The world turns…

    I reran some numbers on my wife’s student loans recently, and I estimate that we ultimately paid $29k for a 1994 Corolla, purchased new, making payments on the car note to the bank with loan money and then payments to Sallie Mae for 15 years to cover those payments. Interest on top of interest.

    The car was sold and gone by 2002, but we paid on it until … 2015?

    The crazy thing is that the student loans are not a great deal nationalized to pay for Obamacare.

    And, as a caller to Ramsey highlighted in the YouTube channel this week demonstrated, the masses are still sucking on the crack pipe about getting their loans forgiven by the Feds for 10 years of public service or the newer schemes from Corn Pop.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    How do we stack a class A medical facility like the Houston Med Center ?  Someday, most of us are going to need one.

    You don’t. Medical care involves a large amount of indentured servitude in the US, and in a SHTF situation, most of the providers will shrug.

    The nurses, doctors, and other technical people today will front well, but many are unhappy. Fortunately, grid up, a lot are still dedicated professionals making the best of the situation and your daughter will receive first class care.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    Poland realizes that Ukraine is lost and that we need to stop throwing critical resources at it.

    Deep down, many Poles understand that German missiles in Kiev would be a bad thing for them as much as it would be for the Russians. The last 70 years have just been a brief pause on thousands of years of grudges and animosity.

  7. SteveF says:

    Lynn, sympathies for the family travails. More sympathy to your daughter than to you, naturally.

    Your daughter might want to find or start a not-for-profit to get chickens in every yard. Chickens eat ticks and other pests.

    How do we stack a class A medical facility like the Houston Med Center ?

    Start by getting a hundred million dollars in cash…

  8. Greg Norton says:

    The nurses, doctors, and other technical people today will front well, but many are unhappy. Fortunately, grid up, a lot are still dedicated professionals making the best of the situation and your daughter will receive first class care.

    When you go to the cafeteria – if you aren’t there now – think about the infrastructure involved in making sure those M&M ice cream sandwiches (a personal favorite) are there in the freezer near the checkout every morning.

    To me, those are the taste of a hospital experience. 

    Hoping everything goes well.

    5
    1
  9. PaultheManc says:

    @Lynn

    Wishing your daughter well.  You are amazing family dealing with such issues.  

    Poland realizes that Ukraine is lost and that we need to stop throwing critical resources at it.

    That is not how I see it.  The restriction in arms supply is simply expedient politics.  There is an election coming up, and Ukraine wheat is impacting  Polish farmers, who are a supporters of the current government.  I believe Poland understands that it is potentially next in line if Putin is seen to ‘win’.  Poland is one of the few European countries willing to make a sensible investment in their own defence rather than think they can rely on the USA.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    Best wishes for your daughter, Mr. Lynn.

  11. lynn says:

    The nurses, doctors, and other technical people today will front well, but many are unhappy. Fortunately, grid up, a lot are still dedicated professionals making the best of the situation and your daughter will receive first class care.

    As Nick says, these are the good old days.  And Texas Childrens is definitely a Class A hospital with specialists beyond belief.  My 53 ? year old cousin had open heart surgery here when she was 5 days old, she was a blue baby with a quarter sized hole in her heart.  She had it done again when she was 11 and grew to 5 foot 11 inches and the patch came loose.

  12. brad says:

    FWIW, several friends are Linux users. They play with their configurations, and do multiple boot schemes. To be fair, they don’t use these systems for real work, but they do have frequent trouble that causes them to reconfigure. I could never tolerate that on a work machine, but I will admit that starting over with some Linux distros is much easier than with Windows.

    I use Linux on my main PC and laptop. I install the latest LTS (long-term support) Xubuntu, get everything set up, and work with it for 2 years, when the next LTS comes out. By then, I have usually installed a lot of stuff, much of which is cruft, so I’m happy to start fresh. All the data is on a separate partition, so it’s only about re-installing the operating system. Which I do on a new partition, so I still have the old one for fallback. Obviously, that means that the disk has to initially have been set up with a spare partition. Two years later, the old partition get overwritten…

    One of the great things about Linux is the easy installation. I have a list of all the apps I need, and on a new installation just enter “apt-get install a, b, c, d, e, …, z”. That covers 90% of the setup. Some few apps have to be installed individually, but all the standard stuff goes in as one big install.

  13. lynn says:

    BTW, my son says that the 1960s were the good old days.  You could go buy a nice car for a quarter of your annual salary back then.

  14. EdH says:

    Some days I feel my age.

    Received a text from my brother, asking if I had an old modem to give away.

    Me:  A Modem?  No, and I don’t think there’s any place you could dial into anymore.

    Brother:  A  Cable modem.

    Me:  Oh.   And no.

  15. drwilliams says:

    In many ways the best outcome is to make Ukraine Russia’s new Afghanistan. 

    Only it won’t take as long as the last one 

    Chechnya is simmering again. 

    And Putin is not in good health. 

  16. lynn says:

    How do we stack a class A medical facility like the Houston Med Center ?

    Start by getting a hundred million dollars in cash…

    I am afraid that you are off by a factor of ten, maybe more.  The buildings alone are more than $1,000/ft2 with all their specialized gases and fluids lines.

  17. drwilliams says:

    NeNew Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife will be indicted. 

    Have been. 

    Hard to explain 13 lbs of gold bars and $400,000 in cash in envelopes hidden in clothing. 

    Well, if your name was Biden …

  18. lynn says:

    That is not how I see it.  The restriction in arms supply is simply expedient politics.  There is an election coming up, and Ukraine wheat is impacting  Polish farmers, who are a supporters of the current government.  I believe Poland understands that it is potentially next in line if Putin is seen to ‘win’.  Poland is one of the few European countries willing to make a sensible investment in their own defence rather than think they can rely on the USA.

    Yup, that is what I meant.  Poland is going to arm up as they see that Ukraine has lost and they may be next on the Russian order of business.  

  19. SteveF says:

    I am afraid that you are off by a factor of ten, maybe more.  The buildings alone are more than $1,000/ft2 with all their specialized gases and fluids lines.

    Oh, sure, if you want a 500-bed hospital, a bare nine figures won’t cut it.

    But if you’re looking for a small clinic for you, family, and friends, 100M should get you all of the floor space, piping, and equipment you need.

  20. nick flandrey says:

    https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/2023/09/to-all-of-you-out-there-with-period-in.html

    h/t bayourenaissanceman

    Anyone have any additional knowledge about whether this is a real issue?    I seem to recall that   xxx.name@gmail.com all delivered to name@gmail.com  so that you could do “temporary” emails that all ended up in the same inbox.

    website.name@

    pron.name@

    Dad.name@

    mom.name@

    but my memory fails…

    n

  21. lynn says:

    But if you’re looking for a small clinic for you, family, and friends, 100M should get you all of the floor space, piping, and equipment you need.

    We had a headon wreck outside of Navasota, Texas on highway 6 in 1973.  The local doctor was a certified surgeon.  He had a single o/r and a couple of beds in a building next to his house.

    So he operated on the girls mother first for 4 or 5 hours.  She came loose during the wreck and was between the cars when they hit the second time, outside my window.  She had over half of the bones broken in her body.  I could hear the surgeon yelling as she died, he could not get enough blood in her with all her compound fractures.

    So then he operated on my brother and reattached the vein to his stomach that had come lose due to his seat belt being above his waist.  Then he set and cast the broken collar bone on the girl driver who caused the wreck.  Then he set and cast both broken bones in my right leg.

    This is what you need in your community when things go south.  I have no idea how to stack that awesome ability.

  22. Greg Norton says:

    But if you’re looking for a small clinic for you, family, and friends, 100M should get you all of the floor space, piping, and equipment you need.

    Building and equipping a hospital is not impossible.

    The trick is staffing it.

  23. lpdbw says:

    I read that article about having a dot in your email, and I wondered about it.

    I have been led to believe that gmail ignores the dots, not that it does a left truncation before the dot.

    It would be good to know if this is a real thing or not.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    BTW, my son says that the 1960s were the good old days.  You could go buy a nice car for a quarter of your annual salary back then.

    It was still possible up until the pandemic. That’s about what I paid for the Camry, but I was working for the tolling company at the same money I made working at Death Star Labs in 2010.

    A Versa stickered base for about $13k at the time.

    To some extent, Americans have done it to themselves with what cars cost. Seen any vehicles for sale in the US lately with 100-125 HP, crank windows, and a 1-DIN AM radio?

    Even a $13k Versa had power windows and a CD player.

  25. drwilliams says:

    When the UAW puts that $20 1-Din radio in the dash, it becomes a $320 radio. 

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    Even a $13k Versa had power windows and a CD player.

    I have been told that power windows reduce weight because the door can be thinner.

  27. paul says:

    I don’t know about the door being thinner because side impact beams might be a thing.  If every car has power windows they save a few bucks in things like parts inventory and separate assembly lines.

    For all I know, there are assembly lines that do “front left door” and “rear left door” with the same for the right side.  If manual window doors are the same, hey, you saved on running four assembly lines both in floor space and employee costs.

    And if you are having to run power into the door, might as well have power locks and mirrors because “sexy”.

    What cranks me is the lack of external locks.  Sometimes I want to unlock and open a door without the bed lights turning on and the horn tooting.

    Then there is the van.  We don’t use the power locks because I can’t find the corroded terminal that makes the locks randomly fail.  It’s easy enough to reach over and work the lock mechs on each door.  The tailgate is the problem.  It’s great fun to have the well behind the rear seat full of groceries and the stupid locks won’t unlock.  Yes, the tail does have a way to unlock from inside.  You pop a little cover off of the door panel and stick your finger in there.  And you do this while laying over the back seat.

  28. Ken Mitchell says:

    Sometimes I want to unlock and open a door without the bed lights turning on and the horn tooting.

    There’s almost certainly a way to program your car to either beep or not beep when you press the power lock button.  On my 2020 Ford F-150, and on my 2009 PT Cruiser, I could program the button to lock the doors without beeping for one button press, but to lock and beep at the second button press.  

    And on my 2000 Mitsubishi Galant, just in case I had meant to press the lock button but instead pressed the unlock button, the car would re-lock the doors after 60 seconds if no doors were opened in that minute. 

  29. MrAtoz says:

    I ordered an Apple “premium” case for the iPhone 15. One of their new sustainable fiber cases to replace the leather one (save the cows!). I got it yesterday and returned it today. The reviews are almost 100% it is trash. Worth $5 not the $59 Apple wants. Unopened with free 2-day Fedex return. I don’t get Apple’s save the planet by dropping leather. It will just go to waste. People are not giving up their burgers.

  30. SteveF says:

    Not to worry, MrAtoz. Even if no iphone cases are made of leather, it will just be used in making costumes for furries.

  31. Ray Thompson says:

    I ordered an Apple “premium” case for the iPhone 15

    I believe you was in Uncle Sam university of hard knocks. You can get a 10% discount at Apple if you have validated yourself with ID.ME.

    My iPhone will not be here until Monday. iPhone Pro, Titanium Blue, 512 Gig. I have ordered the same case, blue naturally, along with an extra braided USB-C cable. The case and cable will arrive on Tuesday.

    Worth $5 not the $59 Apple wants

    Probably one of the most succinct reviews I have seen on the case.

    Unopened with free 2-day Fedex return

    What I would like to know, is that it appears you did not open the box, how do you really know what the case is like?

    I get a case to protect the phone. If the case looks crappy after a few months, I don’t really care as it is protecting the phone. My leather case on my iPhone 13 Pro has been on the phone for two years. The case has some marks and rough spots on the edges. The buttons are worn on the edges where silver shows through on the black case.

    What I fail to understand is how is leather so bad? Ecoweenies? Cows are slaughtered for meat and other products. What are we supposed to do with the leather hide? It seems to me that making a phone case is a good way to recycle and use the by-product of a Big Mac. Although one cow could probably suffice for 328,000 Big Macs.

  32. drwilliams says:

    Ecoweinie-leather is sustainable. 

    The next time one glues itself to a road, just claim dibsie’s on the hide. 

  33. Greg Norton says:

    As Nick says, these are the good old days.  And Texas Childrens is definitely a Class A hospital with specialists beyond belief.  My 53 ? year old cousin had open heart surgery here when she was 5 days old, she was a blue baby with a quarter sized hole in her heart.  She had it done again when she was 11 and grew to 5 foot 11 inches and the patch came loose.

    Texas Childrens was one of two pediatric hospital groups who were building new complexes not far from my house. Construction was non-stop, 24/7, until Governor Abbott signed the bill banning transgender “affirmation” care for minors earlier this Summer and everything seemed to screech to a halt …  except for the housecleanings in related specialist departments ahead of the ban.

    Things that make you say “Hmmm…”

  34. drwilliams says:

    Water, electricity , a large stack of captains chairs and a truckload of washcloths and I could put one of those facilities to good use. 

  35. lynn says:

    Our daughter is out of surgery and in recovery.  She did not have to have any resections.  They did have to disect her rectum from her uterus and her ovaries from her uterus.  She got to keep both ovaries.  The endometrial tissue was not in her abdomen.  She did have stage 4 endometriosis.  The five small incisions were sufficient, no bikini cut. And they took her appendix since the endomitrial tissue attacked it too. She is spending the night due to the extensive disections.  The surgery lasted six hours not counting preop or recovery.

    Big sigh of relief. Many prayers answered.

    We have five pages of color pictures. Very gross.

    17
  36. lynn says:

    That six hours was a long time especially with two world class surgeons here at Texas Childrens.  They did a great job with minimal invasiveness.

    We had three other obgyn surgeons tell us that they were not competent to do the surgery.  That was fairly unnerving.

  37. EdH says:

    @lynn:  It sounds like good news, excellent!

  38. lynn says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12549863/armed-robbers-elderly-Dallas-investors-BMW-make-bank-withdrawal.html 

    – third world

    n

    Gated neighborhoods are coming.  People may find it difficult to get around.

  39. MrAtoz says:

    I believe you was in Uncle Sam university of hard knocks. You can get a 10% discount at Apple if you have validated yourself with ID.ME.
     

    Hoo-ah!

    What I would like to know, is that it appears you did not open the box, how do you really know what the case is like?

    Plen-T of reviews online. Plus, I get a reviewers newsletter on such stuff. I got it as an initial protection, but my Freewell Sherpa filter case also arrived before the phone. That’s the one I primarily use.

    What I fail to understand is how is leather so bad?

    This is all part of Tim “I’m Gay!” Cooks plan to save the planet. Steve Jobs would be lining up cows.

  40. lpdbw says:

    Still fighting with microwave.

    Controls and displays all work.   It’s not blowing fuses.  I can tell it to cook for one minute.

    Light comes on, nothing happens.

    I think one of the replacement switches is bad.

    I’m getting pretty quick at changing them out.

  41. drwilliams says:

    The teens accused of fatally mowing down 64-year-old retired police chief Andreas Probst with a stolen car on Aug. 14 appeared in Las Vegas Justice Court on Thursday. Jesus Ayala, 18, and Jzamir Keys, 16, face a variety of charges including murder and are being tried as adults in the death penalty state.

    According to police, Ayala, whose alleged inhumanity was caught on film, appeared wholly unrepentant upon being taken into custody, telling officers, “You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you,” reported KLAS-TV.

    Extra to the footage of Probst’s slaying, police found another video on Ayala’s cell phone of a second bicyclist being struck by a Kia Soul.

    KLAS indicated that in the video of the second incident, taken by Ayala, a voice can be heard repeatedly urging the driver to “bump him,” referencing a 72-year-old man riding his bicycle on the far side of the street. Both suspects roar with laughter as their car’s engine can be heard accelerating.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/las-vegas-teen-bet-arresting-officers-hed-receive-a-slap-on-the-wrists-for-mowing-down-64-year-old-bicyclist-in-stolen-car

    Slam dunk conviction: Murder One.

    I’d argue that since they thought it was so funny, they should go out the same way: Duct tape them to a couple of bicycles propped up on a desert road where they have a clear sight line of at least a mile to see the vehicle coming to end their worthless lives.

  42. nick flandrey says:

    First, @lynn, that is great news, now I’m wishing her a speedy and complete recovery.

    Then, well that was fun, not.

    Got very little of my list done.   Did get a lock for the renthouse re-keyed.   Took the locksmith, at his bench, most of an hour.  Definitely not a job for me.   Talked to my gunstore buddy.   LOT of consignment guns in the cases.   This is a good time to get a great deal if you have the scratch.   Lots of people don’t and are selling off real guns this time.   Defensive, every day guns.  There are a couple of safe queens, and stuff like a 12ga with a drum mag, or 223 pistols, but mostly every day defensive arms.

    My other auctions have had real ammo in them too.   9mm.  12 ga.  22LR.   People cashing in their stacks.

    Hard times are coming.

    The not fun part is that I noticed a huge branch, limb really, crashed down on my roof.    I was late headed out so I put it off until I got back this evening.   Luckily, the only damage seems to be to the ridge vent shingles, and no holes are punched in the roof.   I climbed up and trimmed off everything I could, leaving the 8″ limb laying across the ridge at the down end, and half attached to where it split at the tree end.   It seems pretty stable, and I don’t have a good plan for how to get it down without dropping it on the roof.   I’ll deal with that when I get back.   I’ll bring my pole saw home too so I can cut from far away.

    In the past month I’ve been very Heinlein-esque…  cut down a fallen limb, installed a new electrical breaker panel, broke down bulk meat, repaired some electronics, did some plumbing, cooked dozens of meals, did the shopping and laundry, shined and repaired some boots and shoes, fixed an engine, and lots of other less notable things…   Didn’t plan any invasions this month.

    Gonna shower and head to the BOL.

    n

  43. Greg Norton says:

    This is a good time to get a great deal if you have the scratch.   Lots of people don’t and are selling off real guns this time.

    Student loan payments restart Oct. 1. Interest resumed accruing already.

    $1.7 Trillion. All Corn Pop does is spread confusion and perpetuate the myth about civil service repayment boondoggles.

  44. EdH says:

    Still fighting with microwave.
     

    Oddly when I visited my brother the other day he was repairing the door latch on his microwave.  

    Busted plastic spring lug, easily repaired.

  45. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “All that water in the upper atmosphere is definititely affecting the absorption of the sun’s rays”

    The increase in stratospheric water would primarily have the effect of reflecting IR. The magnitude would be greater on the upwelling IR, as there is more of it, so the net effect would be to trap heat below the stratosphere.  

  46. nick flandrey says:

    Arrived safely.   Headed to bed.   Stuff to do tomorrow…

    n

  47. JimB says:

    My wife uses a microwave oven a LOT. We have worn out two magnetrons, a HV rectifier, and the HV capacitor in three ovens over 50 years. Never had any trouble with controls or interlock switches.

    Our first oven was a Litton. That one blew the HV rectifier diode after 20 years. Cost less than $10 for the part. Ten years later, the magnetron failed. I first checked for local sales and found a replacement oven for half price, $20 less than a replacement magnetron. That first oven had huge capacity.

    The sale replacement (all of ours have been large size, so hard to find for a good price) blew its magnetron after a few years. Reviews said this was unusual, so I replaced it with a near identical model. That one blew the HV capacitor after a few years. I bought a new Panasonic, and she loves it. It is still young.

    I will swap parts between the previous two ovens to make a spare. Magnetrons do not interchange between many models, but transformers, HV rectifiers and capacitors often do.

    Do NOT work on microwave ovens if you don’t have high voltage experience. One mistake = death. Close calls are rare. I mean that. Nothing in the home is more dangerous.

  48. Greg Norton says:

    The Japanese McDonalds commercial enraging the wokesters this weekend.

    https://twitter.com/McDonaldsJapan/status/1704420133140132045

    Americans are going to have to relearn retail, including advertising being about more than handing a “developer” an idea for a web page to serve from Amazon’s cloud.

Comments are closed.