Cold. Not crazy cold but still cold. And clear, with warming on the way. Don’t really know what we’ll get. Won’t make much difference to me, as I’ve got stuff to do. It was certainly cold yesterday. My sprinkler vacuum breaker froze and broke, and when it thawed, it shot water 10 feet in the air for about half an hour before someone noticed. Temps hovered around 32F most of the day.
I did one pickup, mostly stuff for the BOL, and hit a thrift store and the HEB on my way home. Needed to stop and pickup the prescriptions they were nagging me about. Didn’t buy any more meat, as pickins were still slim. Some of the shelves had been restocked, notably the ramen noodles. Cream and hamburger and eggs were still missing.
Today I’ve got a couple of pickups if they are open. I’d like to do a drop off too, but that’s not really up to me and may not happen. I really need to ‘clear the decks’ in case I end up going to Chicago for a funeral tomorrow.
Don’t know yet if I’m going or not. It’s been a mix of obligation, dread, sadness, and unlike most of the time, I’m really not sure what I want to do. It’s family, we were not close as kids, and less so as adults, and there will be a bunch of people there I don’t really want to see. On the other hand, his siblings were part of my childhood, we ARE family, and he was a similar age to me. The timing isn’t great, the economics aren’t great, but neither is a deal breaker. Obligations. Where do they come from? How strong are they? How do you feel when you don’t fulfill them?
Meatspace. There are aspects that truly suck.
Get out in it anyway. And stack.
nick
Do not underestimate what will happen in Texas. Out-of-state money funded Robert Francis and “Doors” for a reason, and voters in this state just got hoodwinked into a big property tax increase.
Nothing is real on the Dem side until after Biden gets his victory lap and the walkin’ ’round money distributed in South Carolina.
A lot of churches need new roofs in Charleston, and that Hypocrisy Blue Plate sure is tasty at The Lady and Sons.
Trucks will roll out of San Antonio today.
Everyone had a nice extended holiday up and down I-35 without any real damage.
Of course, for a lot of people, the holiday has been ongoing since March 2020.
@Lynn – No more “She Hulk”?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/she-hulk-star-says-season-2-likely-wont-happen-for-this-reason/ar-AA1n6jsX
$224 Million. For what?
Writeoff coming. Tubi or Pluto streaming?
Disney’s blind date with Bankruptcy just got real. She just ordered another lobster and a side of Wagyu.
24F and clear. Pretty dang cold waiting for the bus. Had to wrap D2 in a blanket. She wears shorts all the time, but the extra 5 minutes the bus was late were 4 minutes too long.
————
Jebus H, who needs for lawyer dramas to jump the shark with a green girl boss? And how is the Hulking business hereditary? He got it from an exposure. Niece has none of his blood. Story makes less sense than most of them. (and btw, it’s yet another story where the woman gets her power from a MAN thru no effort of her own. WTF.)
———–
I’m going to vote, but I don’t expect anything fair or honest from the elections. And that right there is the problem and the death of the Republic.
n
Here’s something I didn’t know existed, if you were already committed to pellets, it might make sense…
https://www.costco.com/flamepro-81%E2%80%9Dh-steel-patio-pellet-heater.product.4000197531.html
n
She Hulk gets the blood from an emergency transfusion in the comic books, but the TV series made the origin event a car accident.
My wife and kids watched one episode before turning it off. My spouse’s comment was that if they had wanted to make “Ally McBeal” Disney should have hired David E. Kelley and done it properly.
Instead, Marvel hired a writers room full of Wine Moms to emasculate the Hulk and other men who are seen in what is now the series finale.
All the news that fit to print…
someone here mentioned Madcow yesterday
https://twitter.com/rustyrockets/status/1747386651469332690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1747386651469332690%7Ctwgr%5Edafc949b1367e22dd08e3af4bdb43cb68ef7f2c0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Falthouse.blogspot.com%2F
Brand is now much better than his earlier endeavors
Georgia Libertarians supporting Trump and then “voting their conscience” in the Senate races in 2020 gave us the mess in that chamber.
Vote carefully. The Dems want you to think that it doesn’t matter if you vote for fringe candidates to make a statement.
We reached single digit temps in North AL this morning. Power went out a little before 0600. Power was restored at 0630, then back off at 0645, on at 0700, off at 0715, and back on at 0730. It’s 0850 and power is holding steady. When I got up, I started the nat gas fireplace and turned off most of the breakers. Experience tells that power never comes on smoothly. Thank goodness we have people willing to do linesman work.
All the roads here are ice, with a dusting of snow on top. Only the main roads are clear. We won’t get above freezing today, and there is a call for sleet/rain tomorrow. Fun. I’m glad I can stay at home.
I approve!
From time to time I’ll see someone – always a man, usually age 40 or up – wearing shorts while, say, walking his dog as I shovel my driveway. I make a point to say that it’s good to see someone else who’s not afraid of a little bit of chill in the air.
I wouldn’t go. Too busy, too many commitments. Write a card, email a scan of it, and snail mail the physical copy. Call, express condolences and regrets and ask if they’d like a donation made in the decedent’s name to the hospice or some charity.
From Nick’s reluctance, that’s my take as well. The only good reasons to attend a funeral are either to say your own goodbyes (if you were close to the person) or to support the survivors (if you are close to them).
If neither of those is the case, then a card and possible donation should be enough.
We bottomed out around 13F just before dawn today. I opened the coop and no one came out for a while. “No, thanks, we’re good in here, with the heat lamp and the straw under our fluffy little butts.” They did come out after a while, for food and water and to perch on the roosting rails for a while. Only the plain wood rails. They still refuse to get near the heated rail for whatever reason makes sense in a chicken’s tiny little brain. They’re still showing no interest in exiting the run for the patio stones, even after I cleared the snow. Why, could it be possible that their tiny little chicken brains realize that it’s unpleasant out there?
On a completely different topic, I am maybe considering buying a telescope. I had one as a kid/teen, and it was a lot of fun. Where we live now, the skies aren’t too bad.
A brief look around, and I am absolutely shocked at how inexpensive telescopes have become! Looking at the offers for 7″ reflectors, it looks like a lot of white-labelling: what appears to be the same scope, but with different names on it. For example: “National Geographic 76/700 Reflector EQ”, where you can replace “National Geographic” with a number of other names.
Thoughts? Recommendations?
I would very much oppose such a restriction. 90% of my income, if you want to call it that, is from the government. Between SS for my wife and I and VA benefits that is all I have coming in. The SS we paid for over the years so in my opinion that belongs to us. It will take years to get back what we paid into the system. The VA benefits are because of my military service and the injury received in the service. I think that is reasonable. I am trying for more benefits. The VA benefits are not taxable.
The combined amounts are much more than I pay in taxes. Counting property tax, sales tax and federal income tax (SS is partially taxed) I pay less than $8K a year in local, state and federal taxes. My income is certainly much more than that amount.
I would revise your proposal to only include people that are on welfare. If a person, or family, receives food stamps (debit cards now), lives in public housing, gets rent assistance, or utility assistance for more than six months in a three year period, they are not allowed to vote. Some people have live circumstances where they need assistance. As long it is not long term, as in a career path, then keep their voting status. Beyond that helping period they are just leaches and are just voting themselves more from the public coffers.
I paid my way, did my service, was a productive member of society. Your plan would take all that away and not allow me to vote. I think at this point I am entitled to vote and to remove that would be a huge injustice.
@brad, as a rank beginner, I can say the Skywatcher 8″ dob my wife has produces some tremendous images. I didn’t choose it for any reason other than it was in an auction and it was CHEAP.
Having something a bit smaller, with a computer to aim it would make more sense though. I’m bidding on a computerized mount that I hope I can make work with her scope. An alternative would be a smaller unit to show us where to point the big scope… without a group to help us get started, we’ve mostly been looking at jupiter and the moon.
n
As I mentioned yesterday, I wear shorts in the winter. Usually with a pair of Vans with no socks. Though, when there’s snow on the ground I have to breakdown and put on some decent shoes with socks. Nobody like snow inside their shoes touching their bare feet. When the weather gets cooler in the autumn I simply keep wearing the shorts I wore all summer. You WILL acclimate and that will set you up to not be teeth-chattering cold come deep winter.
Many of the teenage boys at my daughter’s school wear shorts year-round. Though, I’ll echo what SteveF said. It seems to be the over-40 (and under-18) demographic of men that do it. Some will wear loose athletic pants to school (probably at a parent’s request) and then strip them off as soon as they get in the building to wear the shorts underneath. I told my daughter I should go over there next time temps are single digit and pull the fire alarm. We’ll separate the men from the boys. lol
I started it off as a joke with my daughter when she was younger that we’re northerners and we don’t let a little cold bother us. The Starks and wildlings on Game of Thrones helped me drive the point home with some pop culture references. lol I think it’s worked. Like me, she’s content with just a hoodie most days no matter how cold it is. She doesn’t wear shorts most of the year like I do, but does wear leggings which provide zero wind protection (which may explain the rise in popularity of those full length winter coats I see women wearing – the legging fad and winter weather do not pair well).
That would appear to be rolling blackouts. Too precise to be random events.
We got down to -4F last night. It is now up to a whopping 8F. It will not get above freezing until Thursday. Then back below freezing for the highs. By Monday we will have highs above freezing. I expect the 10″ of snow to remain for a week with patches still visible for at least 10 days.
Do what you want to do and a big middle finger to the others. It is your decision, for your reasons. I went to my father’s funeral because it was a chance to see long lost family members. To say goodbye to my father was not even a consideration as we had not contact since 1973.
I did go to my mother’s funeral even though I really did not want to go. Turned out to have been a good trip as we (myself and my brother’s) got to fight with the funeral home over their exorbitant fees. And I got to see some family members.
We had no funeral or memorial for my aunt as the rest of the family hated her. No one would have come. The only attendees would have been friends and they did not know my aunt.
My aunt did not go to her father’s funeral. The family was up in arms and blasted her for the decision. Basically she should not handle saying goodbye to her father and did not want to deal with emotions with the rest of the family. It was her decision and the rest of the family should respect that decision. But no, they all had to make it an issue. My aunt did go to her mother’s funeral. Was it because of the anger of the family over her father’s funeral, or because she wanted to go?
Funerals are bizarre things anyway. Are people sad for themselves or for the now inanimate person? The ones I have attended I never know what to say to the family. And open coffins, disgusting.
I don’t want a funeral. I want a memorial where people have fun, lots of food, some music, some dancing, booze if needed. Don’t cry for me. My death is just a part of life. Cremate me and spread my ashes in the lake, at night, so the person does not get caught as it is illegal.
And speaking of trips. The wife and I are traveling to Washington State with widow of my best friend for 28 years. She is becoming more uncertain about traveling by herself. She asked the wife to go with her while the wife’s friend helps her daughter recover from shoulder surgery.
We will fly together, wife and I spend the night in Richland, then the wife and I will head to Nampa ID to visit the brother for a couple of days. From there the wife and I will travel around the area before returning to Richland and flying back.
The sobering thought is that this will probably be the last time I will see my older brother. He has some health issues, has had multiple surgeries, heart problems, etc. It would not be surprising to see him pass away first.
We will all act like it was another visit and there will be more but deep down we all know the truth.
Sobering.
Understood. I’m lumping in SS with welfare and government salary because I’ve watched a number of people’s politics change once they retired and lived on SS and possibly government pensions. I don’t fully understand the reason for that but the fact is plain to see.
The solution, of course, is to get the government out of funding retirement, whether through SS or pensions.
I hadn’t thought about disability payments. Probably the way to avoid these causing ongoing interference with government operations is to settle on a lump sum payment and have the recipient put it into a trust and get the monthly payments from that. It’s how it’s commonly done when someone is negligently injured in, say, a car accident, so it should work here. (Just make sure that the lawyers don’t siphon off 40% before it gets to the claimant.)
Likewise, with the note that I have no expectation of dying and therefore have no expectation of needing any kind of service.
That said, if it looks like I’m wrong about that and see an imminent death of age, illness, or injury, I’ll arrange to have a group of men in cheap suits and sunglasses interrupt the proceedings “to confirm that it’s not a body double this time and that he’s finally dead”. Maybe tell the funeral staff that one of the intruders will have to watch the cremation, just to be sure.
Or have them walk in and say loudly “What? Again? How many times is this??”
Then walk out.
I’m cancelling my flight. My sibling is going to have to carry the weight for the family.
n
My house heater (gas) is running about a 60% duty cycle. 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Currently 15F outside. Peeing off the porch is not an option.
I once saw an ad for a relatively young and attractive “mysterious female” who would stand off to the side at one’s funeral with an umbrella for a fee. If Wx goes first, I would definitely consider hiring someone like that, just for the final joke (I wouldn’t do it if she is still above the dirt.)
I’ve also considered compiling a shoe box of newspaper clippings of unsolved murders from places I have lived to leave in the back of my closet.
Anyone who thought I was just being racist for my previous comments about the face of child exploitation…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12973847/Texas-band-teacher-Virginia-David-Ortiz-undercover.html
just scroll down to the others they grabbed.
n
Hey! Hands off my income teats, buddy.
Seriously, if I had no “teat” money right now, I’d be fine with the $$ MrsAtoz makes. She will make a nice income as long as she wants with the biz. I pay the max for Medicare thanks to her income, as does she. We both get SS, mil pension, investments, and free Tricare For Life and will be fine on that until we both croak. Now, to reserve a spot on that rocket to the Moon with my ashes on it…
I’ve been asked multiple times if I’m Native American when people hear my last name, so SUCK IT, about the Moon being sacred NA only space.
Wow, what a murder board of fukwads.
Funerals. My stepfather’s funeral late last year was typical. Open casket. I was there with my wife and mother-in-law to get everything arranged, and I’m glad I got the experience. The funeral home wasn’t pushy, but I did help guide her on some choices (at her request). the big one was the vault. KY requires a concrete vault, but you can go above and beyond – with several options to seal and/or line the vault. Crazy money.
At my uncle’s funeral from a few years ago, I was the only nephew/niece to go (3 others). One of his two brothers attended. None of my Mom’s side attended, even though most were local. I made the trip to Boston for it, and brought my son with me. He got to meet a lot of extended family, and we made a fun trip out of it.
I will be cremated. I’ve instructed my wife to take a trip to Hawaii and scatter my ashes there. She can choose the island. She also wants to be cremated, and have her ashes spread in Monterey Bay where she can swim with the otters.
@Brad: It is a golden age compared to when I was younger, dobsonians are a great deal, but SCT’s and modern APO refractors are also remarkably well made & inexpensive.
There can be some gotcha’s, the finders scopes they ship with are usually trash, the eyepieces are usually a single low power good one and a couple pieces of junk, and you’ll need a collimation tool to keep everything aligned (easy).
In the USA the reviews & forums at Cloudynight are great resources:
https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/61-equipment-discussions/
and have “pinned” threads that can can guide you towards things. And AWAY from some horrible retail ”hobby killers” that Celestron and others are still foisting on the public.
In the UK the equivalent would probably be:
https://stargazerslounge.com
Brad, for optics, take a look at
https://www.bresser.de/en/home/
especially the refurbished items, and keep an eye out for Vixen brand. Vixen is good Japanese-made stuff from a brand that seems to have withdrawn from the European market recently. Remaining items are substantially reduced in price.
Thanks for the telescope comments. @Denis: Will check it out – they deliver to Switzerland, which isn’t always the case 🙂
My wife and I contracted for cremations wth the Neptune Society many years ago and she passed about 8 years ago. I was given the ashes and scattered them. A close friend of her hosted a wonderful celebration at her home for her other friends and my family. I did not pay a preacher that never met her to tell all friends and family how wonderful she was. No thousands spent on morticians, drivers and body handlers, and burial people.
https://www.nationalcremation.com/lp/free-cremation-guide?utm_source=google_paidsearch&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ncs+riverside&utm_term=neptune%20society&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAkp6tBhB5EiwANTCx1Nc-_rnb2HCY04-pEmgCUqDXyKivcK02AmfvToj5AavlLFwX0V9pBBoCPY8QAvD_BwE
I will be next; however, as I am in the contract, my family will pay nothing.
@ITGuy1998, the Neptune Society that I used for wife and once more forme, has 30 USA locations. I suggest that you contact them,
@CowboyStu: Thanks – I’ve been browsing their site!
I’d love to see a short recommendation list for beginner telescopes. Perhaps categorized by price grouping. Like, an economy, standard, and premium recommendation for amateur astronomy newbs.
@Brad: TS-Optics and APM are a couple of well regarded European brands (Germany) known here in the states.
I have a 4” TS-Optics APO refractor and am quite happy with it.
My advice would be to try before you buy, find a local amateur astronomy and talk to people, quite often a club will let you borrow scopes from the club to try out.
Optics are surprisingly individual choices, I own several SCTs for example, but don’t use them much – something just seems off. Some people love reflectors, and some won’t look through anything but a refractor. Much the same is true of eyepieces, and binoculars are whole separate world of personal preference.
Even the NA peddling that schtick knew it was BS.
The current NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, is further along the dementia curve than Biden.
I’d love to see a short recommendation list for beginner telescopes. Perhaps categorized by price grouping. Like, an economy, standard, and premium recommendation for amateur astronomy newbs.
“Astronomy Hacks: Tips and Tools for Observing the Night Sky 1st Edition” by Robert Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson
https://www.amazon.com/Astronomy-Hacks-Tools-Observing-Night/dp/0596100604?tag=ttgnet-20/
Dated but probably still good.
Skin in the game and Pie in the Sky.
I could easily be persuaded that Veterans be exempt from any such requirement. I like Heinlein too. 🙂
To me, the main appeal of a requirement of becoming ineligible to vote by individuals receiving a government check during the current cycle is to kill public unions and their members obvious conflict of interest. Welfare recipients, too. I wish I could think of a phraseology to disqualify employees of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, etc. but IANAL.
I get SS myself but I dislike being part of a block that is so obviously bribable.
“Breaking down the coming $20 trillion debt Tsunami”
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/breaking-down-the-coming-20-trillion-debt-tsunami-148646/
“Tony Fauci should be in a prison cell in Wuhan right now given how much responsibility he bears for destroying US government finances.
“This guy was one of the chief architects of the hysteria that took over the US (and much of the world) back in 2020.”
“Yet he now admits, according to recent Congressional testimony, that his infamous six-foot social distancing edict “sort of just appeared” and was “not based on any data”.”
“Texas grid holds firm through frigid temperatures, 3 demand records, 2 conservation calls”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-grid-ercot-holds-firm-arctic-temperatures-new-demand-records/704717/
“But despite resilience improvements, Texas’ demand for electricity is growing rapidly and experts say investment in energy efficiency and demand response is also needed. ERCOT set new unofficial peak winter demand records of 70,982 MW, 76,340 MW and 78,138 MW on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, respectively.”
“ERCOT is a summer peaking system and the all-time record demand is 85,508 MW, set in August.”
Things work a lot better when you do not turn off the power to the electric pipeline compressors and oil field electrical systems like ERCOT did in Feb 2021.
Also, the energy usage on a winter day is roughly 90% of the peak. The energy usage on a summer day is roughly 60% of the peak. That means a lot more fuel is required for a winter day.
“’Don’t Buy a Tesla’: Chicago’s EV Drivers Struggle With Sub-Zero Temperatures”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/dont-buy-a-tesla-chicagos-ev-drivers-struggle-with-sub-zero-temperatures
“Below-freezing temperatures are rapidly draining EV batteries across Chicago, meaning more tows and long lines to charge.”
Not good at all.
“Learning from the opposition”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/01/learning-from-opposition.html
“Sarah Hoyt has written an excellent four-part series of articles titled “Before The Crash”. She’s responding to an article written from a left-wing progressive perspective, and looking at how we can prepare for the difficult years ahead on the basis of its fears – but from a conservative, independent perspective. She also concentrates on our approach to the situation as a like-minded community, rather than as individuals. She introduces the series as follows:”
“Let’s assume the crash is inevitable. We don’t know how much it will hurt or what will be destroyed. We don’t know if society will be totaled (unlikely, truly) or just severely damaged. But we do know that there’s a crash coming, and that society as we know it won’t be the same after.”
Sarah is not wrong. A crash is coming, I just cannot figure out how bad it will be. If it is like the crash in the Mandibles book, Oh Lordy that is going to be nasty.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/
A guy I know is 100% on board the EV bandwagon. He posts Gab every pro-EV and pro-windfarm news story he can find. He also links to the anti- articles and then poo-poos them away, explaining why, for instance, the Chicago EV problem is just because of out-of-towners getting rental cars who don’t know how to handle an EV in the cold and end up destroying them. Ok…
Thing is, he’s sensible on every other topic that I know about. Generally conservative in his political and social views, which in modern America is a necessary condition for being sensible about them.
I don’t understand where his EV monovision comes from. He’s old, real old, getting up near 70 (Hi, MrAtoz!) so maybe it’s just that his brain has a couple of rotten areas.
I don’t understand where his EV monovision comes from. He’s old, real old, getting up near 70 (Hi, MrAtoz!) so maybe it’s just that his brain has a couple of rotten areas.
Near 70 is not old. My wife will be 66 in March. I will be 64 in June.
I am over 70. Where does that place me?
I lobbed a poo-ball at MrAtoz and several others got caught in the splatter. #winning!
Jokes aside, I don’t know why the guy is fixated on this and only this. I probed gently about whether he was heavily invested in Tesla or a wind farm company but didn’t get a meaningful answer.
Fauci ended up as “The Science” because Trump lost his nerve and failed to show the necessary leadership in making the tough calls.
LOL when I hit 70 I will be proud to say I’m not on any prescription drugs. Anytime I see a doc, they always say “What, no scripts…”. My Mom made it to 91, on a shit-load of scripts. I hope to make at least 100 on no prescriptions.
Speaking of EVs, as soon as tRump got the nomination, Tesla dropped. Musk didn’t even open his yap. I’ll vote for tRump just because I believe my portfolio will go up. I should just convert my IRA into Gold and bury it in the backyard. Just to be sure.
Did your friend own an Amiga back in the day?
Yawning chicken
In 2016? Tesla still depended on the carbon credit extortion to fund their expansion, and Trump promised to vacate the insane 54 MPG CAFE for 2025 set by the Obama Administration, which made buying those credits necessary.
The manufacturers didn’t count on Impeachment. No one did.
I am over 70. Where does that place me?
Near old.
I am trying to decide if my Dad is old at 85. He says that he is near old. Other than the fact that he sleeps anytime he sits down for 10+ minutes, he acts my age. And he watches his feet when he walks since he cannot feel anything below his knees. Yes, that scares me the most.
Yawning chicken
“The page you are looking for isn’t here.”
@SteveF: Mental aging is just like all other human characteristics such as running, swimming, mental retention and mental processing.
My mental descension is a lot slower than most. I am several weeks into 85. You might check in with two here with whom I have met personally, face to face, Jenny and JimB. They have not recommended any assisted living facilities for seniors to me.
Things work a lot better when state regulators are on the job, which they weren’t that weekend in 2021.
Texas got lucky this weekend.
I’m concerned about Feb. 10 – 19. Lunar New Year, Lent, Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day.
Count on mostly empty government office buildings in Downtown Austin from ~ 2 PM on Feb. 9 until 9 AM the morning of Feb. 20.
Sorry about that. It did show for users not logged into Gab (as demonstrated in a private browser window) but now it’s not. Maybe my private browser window used the cached version from the normal browser window?
The text from my Gab post:
with a picture of my red hen sitting on the arm of my lawn chair while I sat with my computer on my lap, using the computer’s camera to catch a picture of her settled down quite comfortably and yawning enormously as I scratched the back of her neck.
I have pictures of a new Crown Vic prototype rolling around on the streets of Chicago which I took in March 2019. The car was shrouded, but it was definitely a Crown Vic.
Chicago is home of the Ford factory which produces the Exploder, which reinforces my belief that the new vehicle was very close to production to make the cops happy.
Old? Old, sonny? I’ll admit that at age 73, there are times that I feel QUITE old. And times when I can’t believe I’m over 50. I suppose it is really a matter of how you FEEL each day.
Battery-powered cars? No, thanks. Cars and trucks run on gas or diesel. Battery-powered vehicles are golf carts and mobility scooters.
Meh, the computerized equatorial mount got to $500 and I dropped out.
I’ll find it again for less I’m sure.
n
I didn’t see any EVs in Wisconsin outside of Madison and Milwaukee. Even in the cities, there were very few.
Culvers in The Dells had Tesla Superchargers behind the restaurant located about a block from the freeway exit, but I never saw anyone using the facility in four days staying across the street at the conference hotel.
The “Unesco World Heritage Site” Taliesin? You’d think that crowd would show up in EVs, but the parking lot was mostly Subarus – probably staff who lived nearby — or rental SUVs.
No, the “World Heritage Site” did not have Superchargers. I doubt that Spring Green (the nearby town) has any site with the utility infrastructure.
Spring Green’s “golf club” was … let’s call it ‘rustic’.
Wilder does an excellent swipe at EVs
https://wilderwealthywise.com/electric-vehicles-the-big-con/
and DEI
https://wilderwealthywise.com/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-the-death-pact/
Oh, and on a Sunday night at 7 PM, if you aren’t up for Culver’s (geesh, those things were everywhere), the recommended restaurant in Spring Green was at the campground on the river.
https://www.wiriverside.com/bar-restaurant/
Yeah, it was fine, but note that they are closed on Sunday during the Winter operating schedule.
Eating out in Wisconsin is easy:
Check the area for breweries. Pick one that has Imperial Stout*. Check their “on tap” list. Call until you find one that has brats (the easy part) and a hotel within a block. Across the parking lot is best.
What was that place in Sheboygan? Hotel on the lake and the view was awesome. After Labor Day it was off-peak.
* Doesn’t have to be your choice, but you know they aren’t posers.
Culvers: I never knew you had to put butter in a beef patty to make it taste good. You can eat a Wheaties box with enough butter.
Ruth’s Chris steakhouse puts a pat of butter on the steaks too.
n
Ruth’s Chris steakhouse puts a pat of butter on the steaks too.
n
So does Salt Grass Steakhouse. I had a New York Strip last Sunday.
I think that Salt Grass Steakhouse is garlic butter.
Sez the local AI guy:
@Nick: There are a couple of “push to” apps on the Apple app store. Basically, you clip your phone to the telescope, train it by pointing at three bright objects you already know, and from then on, it will tell you to move your scope in certain directions to find objects you selected from a list or whatever.
I haven’t specifically used those, but I have used one that comes with some Celestrons, set it up for somebody using a 4” reflector at a star party last year. It was ok-ish, and given that the scope probably wasn’t level or aligned with due north and that they hadn’t brought the setup manual for me to read, not bad.
Bid on a ton of stuff tonight, won very little of it. Some things went for retail, like cheap laser engravers. Some things were half retail or less but still too much for me.
Fell asleep and missed a few things.
n
Watching a 500-lot auction locally and had more than 60 lots on the watch list.
Bidding got active today and I crossed half of them off.
Ends Friday, so I will probably bid on 15-20.
Joe Biden has a Bill Ackman problem, too
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/01/joe_biden_has_a_bill_ackman_problem_too.html
This writer and others seem to forget that Biden is the world’s most Peter Principled Plagiarist.
If Ackman has suddenly discovered that plagiarism is a problem, then it’s not a great leap to realize that FJB is a serial thief of other people’s words, and the only real consequence of being caught multiple times has been to effectively normalize the theft.
In 2017 the proper response would have been “Don’t hide behind your dead son. The subject is your running mouth. If you had any respect for the dead you wouldn’t have lied for years about your first wife’s car crash.”
Not Every FL GOP Loss Is As It Appears
Beege Wellborn 5:30 PM on January 17, 2024
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2024/01/17/not-every-fl-gop-loss-is-as-it-appears-n605646
If 30 percentage points, and 2.5X the raw votes doesn’t qualify, it would be interesting to hear Beege’s definition of “blow him out of the water”.
50 points and 3X the vote?
BTW, the header concerns a special election that was won by a Dem after the Republican resigned. A shocking outcome, considering that redistricting moved the district hundreds of miles across the state from a soldi red to a solid blue area.
Yup. As expected, all the masters students passed, including the two that I personally failed. Standards. They’re something for other programs.
For the telescope: we’ve had a very cloudy last several weeks, which is unusual here. I think I’ll wait till we get some clear weather, and then ask my wife if she’s interested. It would be cool to have a new, common hobby.