Cool this morning, warming later. It was significantly warmer yesterday than the freeze, but still not “warm”. I was in a coat and hat most of the day. 43F when I went to bed beats 29F though. Supposedly we’ll be getting warmer, then cold again for the weekend, than warmer. As long as the lights stay on, doesn’t matter much to me.
Did my stuff yesterday. Two pickups, one of them at a new seller. I love the new sellers because prices are lower. Place is in a horrible neighborhood, in a super run down warehouse, not too far from my secondary location. Feral dogs roaming, digging through trash, graffiti, shady car repair places where the customers have beat up trucks with no plates- generally nowhere you’d want to be after dark, or even on an overcast day.
Did my kid shuttling too. That eats a couple of hours. I got some reading done while waiting though. Finished the Jim Butcher Spire novel. Liked it. Love the cat humor.
Today will be more of the same. Pick some stuff up, sort some stuff out, put some stuff away. The short week is definitely making some stuff harder than it should be.
One of the tasks I should knock off is doing some triage on some of my stored food. I can see that there is spoilage, it’s past time to do something about sorting and tossing some of the oldest stuff, or stuff with damage. There’s a whole project involved in moving it to cabinets in the garage too, with a hundred prerequisites and a fractal to do list. Maybe I can just nap instead? No? Shoot.
Sorting through the stacks isn’t stacking per se, but it’s as close as I’m likely to get today.
The rest of you CAN stack… and should.
nick
“Hundreds of miles” is an exaggeration.
The Florida Dems are out of power for at least a decade. The party’s best hope is the court system forcing redrawing of the districts, but the bench is empty for state-wide elections.
The leadership will have to approach it like the Republicans did 30 years ago in the state, when the Old He-Coon walked before the light of day.
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/13/remembering-florida-gov-lawton-chiles-25-years-after-his-death/71896416007/
The last Florida Dem Governor … unless you count Charlie “The Hugger” Crist’s single term.
Vegetable fats have their place too.
Giordanos uses a very slow rise time to avoid fermentation and almost a stick of margarine in the 10″ pizza crust to get that flavor.
The downside of winning the 1994 Gubernatorial race for Florida Dems is that they taught a lot of oldsters — and FL voters in general — about Fleming v. Nestor in the last minute phone bank operation trying to derail the Bush cabal’s rise in the state by pitching the concept that “The Bush family will take away your Social Security”.
Fleming and Helvering v. Davis are the two big cases that establish Social Security is a welfare program (Helvering) with check amounts determined solely by the whims of Congress (Fleming).
They don’t have to pay you a dime.
The tactic worked,
but having educated voters is a two edge sword, as the Dems found out when their political fortunes fell as Clear Channel talk format stations rose in popularity and influence in the state.
Glenn Beck’s show developed in Tampa pre-9/11.
Spring Green is not a party town. It is best known for Taliesin.
We ate brats at this place in The Dells. It wasn’t a brewery, however.
http://www.brathousedells.com/
“Hundreds of miles” is an exaggeration.inclination to figure centroids.
No overlap of new with old, and the closest approach is separated by at least one other district.
Polk County sits in between, and that tends to be conservative.
Home of Sheriff Grady Judd, who ran unopposed last time.
Orange County is a Dem stronghold with a “Mayor”, a strong county executive similar to a “Judge” in Texas.
Osceola County leans conservative because it is more rural for now. Celebration is in Osceola, but that is the result of an ongoing 60 year effort by Disney to punish the county for not giving in on sales tax revenues back when they announced the Magic Condom -er- Kingdom.
It could have been worse – Disney could have easily built the reactor or an airport the size of Tampa International where Celebration now sits.
46F when I got up, heavy mist or fog. Sun seems to be poking thru in places.
n
36ºF by me in SA. Apple weather is still predicting 71ºF as today’s high. It didn’t get below freezing last night.
I got the basic home loan application done (online) and now have to work on uploading 20 or so documents. That will go up to over 100 by the time we are done. For now, we are still house hunting, so the loan company will wait until the day before closing for an update on every document. Ugh. It would be better to form an LLC to hold my IRA and take cash out to buy the house outright.
The DM front page lede is a Ukraine manned Bradley IFV taking out three Russian similar vehicles. I don’t think the Russkie vehicles are that bad, they are being crewed by cannon fodder. 10 years from now, the FUSA will be providing more billions to Ukraine to clean up the depleted uranium we GAVE them. It never ends. Can we clone tRump and keep him in office for twenty years? Just to halt all our tax cash going out of the country.
Auction site must be under DOS attack, super slow, weird errors. Or Patel and his buddies f’d up the overnight update…
n
hibid.com
Really? By girls?
gaslight, retconn, total fantasy, whatever you call it, it’s corrosive.
n
Punk began in US the moment this line hit the air in 1978. Credit Hugh Wilson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nszMKj0x1mE
The Police releasing “Roxanne” gets the press, but that happened at around the same time, and “WKRP” still followed “MASH” on Monday nights when the “Hoodlum Rock” episode hit.
“Roxanne” hit in April 1978. “Hoodlum Rock” first aired on October 9 of that year.
I still credit … blame? … “WKRP” for punk.
hibid .com website is on my list of “what were they thinking” user interfaces.
I thought I might dabble in auctions, but if this is the gold standard, it sucks.
A friend of mine with a PhD, thought she might try teaching after retiring from industry – an online Masters for military people, mostly. She had much the same experience, and gave it up after about a year.
And winter observing isn’t the most enjoyable of activities, waiting is a good idea.
Though it is a good time to buy used gear.
From yesterday (or possibly early this morning here in Europe, Brad?)
Well, at least your conscience is clear. Alas, doing the right thing is often neither easy nor appreciated by others. No doubt Kipling wrote a poem about that…
I eventually figured out how to navigate hibid.com.
There’s always a way. Even amateur website developers have a “good day” scenario that works, even though they haven’t tested anything else.
Now try Land’s End
Ugh. That’s where my daughter’s school’s uniforms come from. Orders can be placed, successfully and correctly, but it’s more aggravation than it’s worth.
The undergraduate cheating in CS got to me so I stopped after the Masters.
The paper is too lucrative in the US, especially for “underrepresented” demographics.
We drove by the Lands End HQ complex heading to Spring Green back in November. Dodgeville is boonies.
The Legend of Marc (Andressen) is that his mother continued to work there taking phone orders long after her offspring became a billionaire.
The outlet outside Madison has a clearance rack for things people send in on the return policy, and it is interesting to see how far their customers push the limits.
Lands End will still send cash for things purchased before a certain date.
@lpdbw , were you using a phone? It’s almost completely useless on a phone. IDK if my adblocker helps or hurts, but other than timeouts it works ok on the pc. From the BOL on what is essentially dialup?? No, not very well. It seems like they load everything then mask some things.
It sucks.
But it is the most common.
n
I still have the receipt for my 700 fill down parka from our time in Vantucky, purchased at Lands End ~ a dozen years ago.
When we first moved here and were flat broke again, I gave serious thought to cashing in the coat, but this weekend was another reminder about why I’m glad I didn’t give in to the impulse.
Austin was never as bad for our finances as Vantucky.
Friday will be another reminder in Austin, when the highs don’t break 40.
I’m ripping dvds as I think of it, loading the reader, then walking away…
I’ve been trying to rip some of the Lethal Weapon movies, but the disk has some sort of bitrot. it’s one of those discs with a movie on each side, and something is going on between the layers for one side of each of the two discs… looks like the disk was spattered with very fine droplets or a mist, like hairspray. Except they are inside the disc.
One side of each disc read fine, but the other side with the dots will only read about half way before choking.
Commercial disks, especially cheap ones, will rot with time even though these look like they were rarely used and stored and handled carefully.
nothing lasts forever. Multiple copies if you want to keep it.
n
The newer “Lethal Weapon” discs are single sided dual layer.
The dual sided discs were never a good idea.
We have discs more than 20 years old which still play fine.
You may want to consider replacing the drive with a BluRay.
If my kids never handled the movie, then chances are it still plays. Our original copy of “Shrek” went to Polycarbonate Heaven after my son scratched the paint on the back side – the end of a disc in most cases.
VHS was much more kid-safe.
Ugh, I’m up to 36 documents uploaded for our home loan, and I’m not done yet. This is just the first pass.
And more wife-safe. Just sayin…
“US real estate market will be ‘very ugly’ next year, Howard Lutnick warns”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-real-estate-market-very-165015797.html
“”I think $700 billion could default… The lenders are going to have to do things with them. They’re going to be selling. It’s going to be a generational change in real estate coming, end of 2024 and all of 2025. We will be talking about real estate being just a massive change, $700 billion to $1 trillion in defaults coming,” Lutnick stressed.”
Whoof, that will be ugly.
A Jesus President could demand and receive a $20,000 first time home buyer tax credit which, combined with 3% down mortgages, would put a $700k floor under any home which could pass an inspection, making most homeowners almost-millionaires.
The $8,000 credit from the last Jesus President is how we ended up with a floor under home values of ~ $225k in most of the country.
Biden won’t be the nominee. Pretending otherwise allows half of the press corps to remain in Savannah for another two weeks instead of trudging through snow in New Hampshire.
And rates shmrates. The Fed will buy the paper.
I’m weighing siding replacement this week. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about seeing the money back out of the house in a couple of years.
Lands End – we used to order a lot from them. Still order some stuff, but generally their prices have gone up, and their quality down.
Just as an example: I went through my summer shirts when winter hit, to throw out the crappy ones. Not “worn out”, but impossible to iron (despite being permanent press), or otherwise having problems. All of the discards were Lands End.
I ordered this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NGJSCMK?tag=ttgnet-20
This is 35 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese. Just a hair over 69¢ per box. The same at HEB is $1.11 and $1.12 at Wal-Mart. HEB’s brand is 68¢.
I might have a clue about the price. “Best By” July 14 2024. Six months away. I’m good. I’m going to vac seal several boxes per bag and drop it all into the freezer. The freezer stops the clock on Best By (to a point) and the vac bags keep the weevils I have out.
“‘Squad’ Lawmaker Explains ‘Creative’ Way to Pay $14 Trillion in Slavery Reparations”
https://resistthemainstream.com/squad-lawmaker-explains-creative-way-to-pay-14-trillion-in-slavery-reparations/
““When COVID was destroying us, we invested in the American people in a way that kept the economy afloat,” said Bowman. “The government can invest the same way in reparations without raising taxes on anyone.””
Watch out when any government official uses the word “invest”.
When Kraft gets boring:
https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/make-it-yourself-panera-breads-mac-cheese-recipe/
I’ve been known to add a can of chili or a ½ pound of browned ground beef to a box of Mac & Cheese for a pick me up.
I have a strange not quite a headache today.
I feel fine and about as sore as expected from hauling in pellets yesterday and walking all over the place because a faucet froze. The furthest faucet. Slept like a rock last night.
Sometimes I get the aura thing in my right eye while at the PC. It;s just a sort of swirly effect on the edge of my vision. Like ripples in water. Today I had some of that in my left eye for 20 minutes or so. My BP is normal. Normal for me, anyway. My head isn’t exactly stopped, I can breath with my mouth shut, but there’s enough that my upper wisdom teeth are aching a bit. Just my wisdom teeth, not all of my upper teeth.
I take my vitamins after breakfast and this all started an hour later.
Huh. The weird part is my eyes are not tracking together at 100%. And it comes and goes. I’m not drunk on tequila but it’s the same effect.
So. BP is at my normal. I got a snoot of something yesterday setting off my sinuses. I’m skipping the vitamins tomorrow.
Otherwise, it’s a beautiful day. Not a cloud with no wind and 70f. The sky is the perfect shade of blue. All of the critters have food and water. It’s all good.
They believe that the portion of your paycheck which you are allowed to keep is an “expenditure”.
The hazy/prism vision thing is an occular migrane. I get them occasionally.
They normally last up to 30 minutes, but mine go away with 2 tablets of OTC Motrin/equivalent. Not usually a concern unless they last for longer. Maybe related to dehydration; got fluids?
I’ve had a few CDs and DVDs go bad. I’ve had tapes go bad, too. VHS, Beta, Cassette, and RtoR, mostly from age.
I have yet to have a LaserDisc go bad.
I’ve been drinking water and peeing normally. I’ll go see if there is some motrin in the cupboard. I have no idea if there is. My drugs are store brand Tums maybe once a week and a couple of aspirin every few months. The rest of the stuff in the cupboard is a mystery.
I was going to suggest what RickH said. I’ve had similar and that was the diagnosis. Turns out it runs in my family. No one bothered to mention that until AFTER I shared my symptoms.
n
Just got an emergency alert on my phone for a “snow squall.” I had to google it.
A snow squall is an intense short-lived burst of heavy snowfall that leads to a quick reduction in visibilities and is often accompanied by gusty winds. They may be characterized by one main squall or multiple squalls.
battlespace prep
n
now hibid.com is completely down…
n
I broke it. By criticizing it.
a flock of squalls?
Tell me you didn’t grow up in the northern mountains without saying you didn’t grow up in the northern mountains.
I don’t know if it was regional slang, slang from 50 years ago which has died out, or simply something that Chad missed because he was too busy putting yellow halos on snow angels.
Heard on radio today, “I would not trust Anthony Fauci to take care of my goldfish !”.
I remember a fishing game for kids.
Fish were cut out of construction paper and a paper clip was added to each one.
Piece of string was tied to a stick and a tiny magnet tied to the end of the sting.
Hey, when not everyone had the tv the kids made their own fun.
The wife called me from a Amish part of the Houston area about 630pm and said that her 2019 Highlander would not start. I told myself that I replaced the battery last winter and that the anti theft system was acting up again. So I led her through the steps to reset the anti theft system. After the 10 minute wait she called me back and said it still would not start. So I jumped in my truck and drove over there for the 30 minute drive.
When I heard the clacking noise, I decided to jump her “new” battery anyway. The minute I looked at her battery, I realized that I was wrong and that was the factory battery. So I put my jumper cables on it we got it to start after charging it for while. My cables are just a cheap 10 gauge set that will only move a 100 amps or so across. She could not find her jumper cables. So many failures.
So we drove out of the Amish area where she had taken the daughter to a medical thing and we went straight to Autozone out by our house. My buddy Javier had the 3 year battery in stock and installed it for me ($230). I gave Javier a $20 for installing it for me, always give somebody doing you a service some extra if you can, it went right deep in his pocket. He really appreciated that.
I have now replaced the the batteries in all three of my vehicles in the last 12 months. 2019 F-150, 2008 Highlander, 2019 Highlander. I wonder when the cycle will start again.
I got a new OEM battery in my RAV4 at the Toyota dealer today for $120.
I just asked for a battery service due to white stuff all over it, and they told me it was near death.
I think they treat me well there, so I trust them..
The tried to get me to trade up to a new one, telling me I had a lot of equity in it.
Of course I do; it’s paid for. It’s also 10 years old with 107,000 miles. And it’s my second car, since I have a 2023 F150 with less than 6000 miles on it.
Slight correction to above. It was a replacement under warranty, prorated. So it was a $240 battery at half off. Warranty clock starts anew today.
Just put the trash can out for pickup. The whole ground and every surface is covered with condensation. It’s been wet all day, and when night fell, I guess the moisture did too.
——–
One of the things I picked up today was a NIB vintage Thermos replacement bottle. Used to be you could replace the vacuum bottle part of your Thermos bottle… imagine that. Compare and contrast with today.
One of the other things I picked up was three compact umbrellas with a sports team logo… Wife’s family roots for the team so I thought it would be funny to get them logo’d merch, given our aversion to sports… anyway, new stock, and they were sent to auction because the thin layer of ‘soft touch’ coating on the handle got sticky. The handles didn’t NEED a coating. For a hundred years the handles on umbrellas were just fine without a thin soft plastic coating. But the stuff is so cheap and ubiquitous that even on what might have been a giveaway item, they added it for a more “luxurious” feel. And it failed, like it always will eventually, turning to sticky goo. Which rendered the whole thing, a brand new umbrella, and likely the whole production run, useless. Even though the umbrella is fine in every other way. So I sprayed them with alcohol and wiped the sticky mess off. Now I’ve got three brand new umbrellas with shiny hard plastic handles.
I get p!ssed off by it though. The same people who tell me I should live like a cave man produce this crep in such a way that it is quickly junk, to be thrown out, and ALL the embodied cost lost. The toll on the environment is much worse than me running the furnace enough to stay warm, for every piece of disposable cr@p that gets produced and LOST without every being used.
Avoid soft plastics. Avoid overmolded plastic. Buy with an eye toward repair and longevity.
n
Slight correction to above. It was a replacement under warranty, prorated. So it was a $240 battery at half off. Warranty clock starts anew today.
Yeah, I knew something was strange there at that price. For $120 they give you six D cells welded together.
As far as I know, all batteries are now rebuilt in Wisconsin so shipping charges are huge. Texas used to have a battery reconditioning facility in Denton County (north of Dallas) since 1910 or so but now the ground water of the entire county has lead in it so the facility was shut down in 2015 or so.
c.f.: My not-infrequent complaints about “high efficiency” refrigerators with heaters inside the freezer compartment, heaters which burn out regularly. Just the cost of manufacturing and shipping the heater element is probably greater than any alleged electricity savings, and if the consumer needs to pay a handyman (or, god forbid, a manufacturer-trained and -certified repairman) the fridge would be scrapped after the second burnout because it’s not worth fixing.
>> Orange County is a Dem stronghold with a “Mayor”, a strong county executive similar to a “Judge” in Texas.
Or like the “esteemed” – er- crooked Mayor Adams of NYFC, also ex-NYFPD.
heaters inside the freezer compartment,
my garage fridge has the heater in the top compartment, which can be a freezer or a fridge. The bottom is always a freezer. MY issue is that if you have stuff filling the fridge, some will be right next to the heater, and will be much warmer than you expect. I discovered I was putting my cartons of cream right against the heater, and they would be warmer than the fridge temp, and wouldn’t last as long as they should.
You THINK you’ve conceptualized a fridge in your head and know what to expect from one, but then you discover that there is a FREAKING HEATER ELEMENT inside that can actually WARM the items in the cold box you thought you understood.
I guess it’s cheaper and easier than any other way to regulate the temp in there, and keep it frost free, because we can’t have frost… no sir. Not since the Sixties. When someone decided to heat your fridge.
Because cooling it then heating it then cooling it and repeat! makes so much sense.
n
added- I see the heater element in my returns auctions. They are so common they end up in the auctions.
Palette cleanser
https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2024/01/19/feel-good-friday-nfl-players-signed-jersey-makes-mcdonalds-employees-day-n606116
When your brother is dating Taylor Swift there is no competition, so honesty happens.
“all reasonable people are prejudiced against the French.”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/01/19/let-me-give-you-an-intelligence-test-n606086
and Rep. Barbara Lee (Dim-TX) is a bald-faced liar.