Cold and windy, and damp. Temp started to drop yesterday afternoon, and it was pretty chilly by nightfall. Windy all day too. I’m expecting today to be the same, without the warmer middle.
I got a couple of things done yesterday. One pickup. Kid stuff. Tried not to re-tweak my back. Visited the chiropractor and got some relief. Taking the day off really helped. IDK if I’m going to be able to do all the physical stuff I need to do to get ready for the hamfest though.
I’ve got dozens of bins to move, load, and rearrange, as well as having to move a bunch of stuff first so I can clear a path. I’m debating just taking what I can fit on the truck, mostly higher dollar stuff and the stuff I specifically picked up this past year. People seem to like digging through the bins and boxes though, and I’ve got stuff that is traditional “hamfest” stuff, like boxes of parts and projects. That kind of stuff usually gets a good reaction and I sell a ton of smalls… I was kinda hoping the weather forecast would be dismal, but it is currently showing sunny on the day. That isn’t going to help me make my decision.
I’ve got all the slippage from the last two days to get through today, and I’m not making good progress. Might be time for some quitter talk, and realignment of my goals. I’m still not even back to 50% pain and movement wise… and I really don’t want to mess up the progress I’ve made so far. I hate not feeling strong and capable.
I also hate making excuses though.
I guess I’ll play it by ear, and see how much I can do to get ready.
The rest of you can still stack though!
nick
And do them full of testosterone and self-confidence and the desire to show off and one-up their peers.
And do them exhausted and overloaded on coffee or other stimulants to compensate. And do them hungover.
In theory pilots are supposed to be well-rested and aren’t supposed to have been drinking well before flying. I don’t know how true that is in practice.
Lots of stimulants. Lots of Ambien afterwards, in dosages which are not considered acceptable for civilian use.
Well, it is in fact chilly and damp this morning. And grey.
Back feels better, just muscle fatigue and soreness today, so far. Guess we’ll see if that holds up.
Stuff to do, and an “extra” day to do it. Get busy!
n
@Nick
If you need help today or tomorrow I can assist moving boxes and bins around. Email me.
I’ll be busy looking at a new BOL property until late afternoon tomorrow, though.
I had a commercial pilot friend who told me the rules military pilots use.
Wow. What tyrant came up with that rule? It’s inhumane, that’s what it is!
Apparently the “term de jour” for homeless people is “unhoused people”. Based on my exposure in Knoxville, they are bums who cr*p in the streets.
Ok, maybe the maintenance numbers on the C-2 Greyhound were accurate:
https://www.twz.com/16535/confessions-of-a-c-2-greyhound-carrier-onboard-delivery-pilot
After all the C-2 horror stories the author still doesn’t believe the Osprey can do the COD job.
I say a new clean sheet fixed wing design would be best (if not designed by Boeing).
The texts exchanged by Bradley and Merchant strongly indicate that Bradley is the source of the dirt on Wade and Willis
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/02/29/bradley-texts-expose-fani-falsehoods-and-media-manipulation-n3783812
It seems his memory problems are of recent origin.
Was this a last minute change of heart?
A suitcase full of money?
Threats from the Fulton County DA’s office concerning a sexual assault allegation that might suddenly need to be prosecuted?
— wow, talk about not doing your homework…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13127493/Alec-Baldwin-unlikely-serve-jail-time-death-Halyna-Hutchins.html
Surprisingly well written article with someone finally talking to a person who knows their azz from a hat.
n
They haven’t presented anything to suggest she was impaired on the day, but it certainly speaks to her lack of professionalism.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13120487/Rust-armorer-took-cocaine-weed-night-Alec-Baldwin-shot.html
And people, quit ratting yourselves out on social media and online… FFS.
Sh!t’s illegal yo…
n
Lunch done. Should get back to work.
Still overcast and dreary out. Wind blew my patio umbrella out of the stand and across the patio.
Weather. Gah.
n
>> Being in the military is dangerous. Accidents happen every day. And people do stupid things with large overpowered machines in order to do their jobs. And then people shoot at them with rifles, SAMs, and other dangerous things to make things even worse.
The USA Navy and Marines have bought 400 Ospreys. They fly them every day. They and the Army also have thousands of helicopters that they fly every day. The Air Force, Navy, and Marines also have thousands of airplanes. Shoot, maybe tens of thousands of airplanes. I hear about crashes in any one of these monthly involving one or twenty of our one million plus service members. Monthly, not daily. Monthly, not hourly.
Still seems to me the Osprey is just a bit too complicated for what it is supposed to do. IIRC there are six basic gauges needed to fly a Cessna 172, more certainly for, say, a Bell Jet Ranger, but nowhere near what’s in an Osprey. Add in all the mechanicals needed for two aircraft and you’ve got Darwin looking over your shoulder. Hmm, maybe a ChatGPT prompt would help…
Happy Leap Day !!!
I’m leaping!
>> Instead I watched youtube shorts.
There is this guy, who has shown a flipper zero and several exploits talking about his vacuum calling home to a chinese server…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zwYwjbNLotg?feature=share
WARNING … these are a worse time sink than regular YouTube videos. Think Lays potato chips…
https://youtu.be/5h-w2aXN-Zc
>> You might be poor, but are you ‘drag a magnet down a dirt road to pick up scrap metal’ poor?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E0lfhOWBRKo?feature=share
That’s for literally pennies per pound. Better off searching for soda cans.
>> I’ve got all the slippage from the last two days to get through today, and I’m not making good progress. Might be time for some quitter talk, and realignment of my goals. I’m still not even back to 50% pain and movement wise… and I really don’t want to mess up the progress I’ve made so far. I hate not feeling strong and capable.
@nick, Ole Father Time is coming for us all and throwing him off-course usually requires some advance planning and stacking some intangibles. I had no choice as to what fork to take, but I did decide to put up a fight and play hide-and-seek with FT. Think about your goals and don’t feel defeated if you decide to/need to adjust. Sometimes life sucks but it always beats the alternative.
Ok, maybe the maintenance numbers on the C-2 Greyhound were accurate:
https://www.twz.com/16535/confessions-of-a-c-2-greyhound-carrier-onboard-delivery-pilot
After all the C-2 horror stories the author still doesn’t believe the Osprey can do the COD job.
I say a new clean sheet fixed wing design would be best (if not designed by Boeing).
The best thing about the Osprey V-22 is that it can land on an amphibious carrier. And it can land on the side of a mountain like the Chinooks do. And the Osprey does not need a catapult to take off from a carrier, fixed wing or amphibious. But the Osprey has twice the range of the Chinook with exterior tanks, 2,000 miles. The Chinook can go 1,000 miles with interior tanks in the back bay. You know, where the soldiers and sailors ride. They love riding stuff sitting on gas cans, not.
I would like to see a modified version of the Osprey with four propellers. That might be a more stable vehicle. Or not, if there is a control issue.
My son rappelled out of a Chinook in USMC SOI (School of Infantry). He said that was one of the scariest things he ever did as he was carrying 100+ lbs of weapons and gear.
Leaping lizards! So it is!
More like $5 per 100 pounds a few years ago. If their scales are accurate. 5¢ isn’t enough to pay for the gas to take the metal. But better than paying the dump. Choose one. You’re hauling a trailer full of stuff somewhere. Might as well get a few bucks for your time.
Aluminum cans have paid (me, anyway) as much as 75¢ a pound down to 20¢. My last trip paid 35¢ a pound. 50¢ is sort of the average. I don’t make a special trip.
-cough-
I still don’t seem to be aging, or very slowly if at all.
But it’s ok. I’ll console your great-great-granddaughters after your grandchildren’s funerals.
“Importing crime”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/02/importing-crime.html
“The reaction from ordinary people like you and I won’t be to truly think about the tragedy, to realize that the perpetrators were a very small minority of those who shared their faith, extremists who deserve the ultimate penalty as soon as it can be administered. No. The ordinary man and woman on the streets of France is going to wake up today hating all Muslims. He or she will blame them all for the actions of a few, and will react to all of them as if they were all equally guilty.”
“One can’t blame people for such attitudes. When one simply can’t tell whether or not an individual Muslim is also a terrorist fundamentalist, the only safety lies in treating all of them as if they presented that danger.”
“Precisely the same consideration applies to the actions of criminal migrants. It’s simply not possible for us to tell which migrants are relatively decent people, and which are criminals: therefore, the only sane approach in high-crime cities is going to be to treat all migrants as potential criminals unless and until they prove otherwise. That’s already happened with black inner-city residents. I’m sure most of us have seen complaints from them that too many white people treat them as criminals, whether they are or not. Unfortunately, they live in neighborhoods where criminal gangs flourish; therefore, they’re tarred with the same brush. It’s inevitable.”
Yes, this is what Scott Adams said. If you cannot trust unknown members of a group of people, then you cannot trust the entire group of people.
Doesn’t that result in not trusting anyone? No matter what their ‘group’ is?
“Snow covers Texas Panhandle amid largest fire in state history”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/snow-texas-panhandle-18696090.php
“The precipitation could bring some relief from the wildfires raging in the region this week.”
Wow, hopefully that will kill the fires.
Doesn’t that result in not trusting anyone? No matter what their ‘group’ is?
No. But it is in that direction.
The USA is moving from a high trust society to a low trust society. Just think Mexico or Brazil with a magnitude higher population.
>> The big recyclable plastic lie EXPOSED: Major plastic producers have known for decades that recycling products was neither economically or practically possible
Companies pushed recycling as an alternative option to banning plastic
90 percent of plastic can’t be recycled or can only be reused once
READ MORE: The great recycling myth: Less than HALF is actually recycled
This seems, at least so far, to have some promise…at least on a small scale…
https://youtu.be/_RSH5IBXcGg?si=N0qrBXrb0IycIozI
Supposedly they can use ANY plastic except Styrofoam.
The US won’t even be on the level of Brazil or Mexico. Complex products such as cars still get made in those countries, and an industrial infrastructure exists in both which requires a certain measure of trust.
LOL. I had a friend who was an executive with Johnson Controls. They manufactured in Mexico.
They had mandatory TDY to Mexico for execs to “monitor” the factories. If no American was present, work didn’t get done and stuff got stolen.
Take away the Americans, and what happens?
Heh.
TBH, I was thinking more about COD stuff, but the numbers required (in peacetime) are so small for that mission that you will never see much effort put into it, let alone a dedicated design.
Wikipedia puts the Osprey combat range at 390 miles, which happens to be about the same as the unrefueled combat range of an F -18 e/f, which is good for cover.
I have my personal doubts about using a relatively slow moving $90M aircraft in the era of cheap SAM’s to move a half platoon, each, but I am not a military man and will defer to others on that.
Heh.
My (-ex) brother in law, a cryptography guy with a PhD, was in the rotation to monitor the plants in mainland China that his company was making products in, back in the 90’s.
Not his division, and he was not in any way a hw guy, but after some experiences they realized they needed warm out-of-country-bodies watching, just to keep things on track.
Doesn’t that result in not trusting anyone? No matter what their ‘group’ is?
– lynn answered it and yes, you get a low trust society, where if you loan your neighbor a tool, he’ll sell it, because you aren’t family, and you are too dumb to keep your stuff.
Like all of africa, most of the middle east, pockets of the US, and south and central america. The thing we call western civilization is a fragile thing, based on trust and hard work that benefits others as well as you. Those attitudes are not common elsewhere. See also Sarah Hoyt on Christmas decorations in Portugal… and that’s a pretty civilized place.
n
When I worked for Bigcorp, we manufactured in Shenzhen and had to keep engineers on site to get the work done, and to even have a CHANCE at meeting standards.
You couldn’t trust them to do ANYTHING you wanted, the way you wanted.
n
The extremists just say aloud what all the Muslims know to be true: that they are the chosen. There is no real dissent either voiced (almost nonexistent) or unvoiced.
And Muslims do not coexistent with other religions, they drive them out or kill them or subjugate them. Look up the maps showing the Christian presence in the Middle East after WWII vs. today.
COD? Carrier Onboard Delivery? The Navy tested the idea of a MASSIVE COD aircraft; they landed a C-130 Hercules on the USS Forrestal. And took off again. 21 TIMES. The key to this crazy maneuver; disconnecting the “Weight on Wheels” switch that would normally prevent the Hercules from switching into reverse thrust while still airborne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-poc38C84
“Flushed the toilets of Venezuela”
https://gunfreezone.net/flushed-the-toilets-of-venezuela/
“Venezuela’s rate of violent deaths dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades following years of massive migration as both criminals and victims fled the nation’s economic crisis.”
“The Venezuelan Violence Observatory registered 26.8 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants this year from a rate of 35.3 for every 100,000 habitants in 2022, Roberto Briceño León, director of the Observatory, said in a webcast Thursday. That’s its lowest since 2001 and is one-third of what it was in 2016, he added.”
“Answers are surfacing about how Jose Ibarra, 26, managed to get into the United States, get arrested in New York, and make it to Georgia where police accuse him of murdering Laken Riley.”
Oh, how nice. The criminals of Venezuela all came to the land of opportunity, the USA.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Collateral Damage”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-collateral-damage-2/
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Laken Riley is another of many victims Biden’s and the Democrats’ open border policies have claimed. Over 100,000 Fentanyl deaths, human trafficking, and crime have saturated Biden and the Democrats’ hands with the blood of these victims, all the while blaming Congress when Biden ended all the Trump border executive orders that were effective against drastically curbing the invasion at the border.”
Joe Biden was in Brownsville, Texas today blaming the border issues on President Trump and Republicans.
How do you tell when Joe Biden is lying ? When his lips are moving.
“Happy Leap Day!”
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/happy-leap-day
“29 February is causing problems in software systems across the globe. It’s a good reminder on how few assumptions we should make about dates – and why to use a date library when you can.”
Lovely, just lovely.
The troll is back. Hammering.
The troll told me that I am not Civil. Again !
I am crushed.
COD? Carrier Onboard Delivery? The Navy tested the idea of a MASSIVE COD aircraft; they landed a C-130 Hercules on the USS Forrestal. And took off again. 21 TIMES. The key to this crazy maneuver; disconnecting the “Weight on Wheels” switch that would normally prevent the Hercules from switching into reverse thrust while still airborne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-poc38C84
So why has the Navy not moved from the C-2 plane to the C-130 for carrier deliveries ? We have thousands of C-130 planes just laying all over the place.
Shoot, back when I worked at Morgan Creek Steam Electric Station in west Texas back in the early 1980s, we would have a C-130 use our 250 foot tall microwave antenna for monthly bombing runs from Dyess AFB in Abilene. It would approach us in terrain following mode, causing the ground to shake for several minutes before its arrival, open its cargo bay door, and go vertical to launch the pallet based MOAB (simulated) at us. We thought it was a hoot.
Ah, poor thing.
Thanks for your work.
Mechanical Engineering was it?
I am living rent-free in the troll’s mind. This life is now worth living.
Lynn, I’m not sure why the Navy never used the C-130 operationally as a COD aircraft. I can only guess that they didn’t trust Air Farce pilots to get that close to a carrier, and didn’t feel like training Naval Aviators to do something so ….. “un-studly”.
Mechanical Engineering was it?
Yup, from TAMU. With minors in Calculus and Chemical Engineering.
We got our new Frigidaire refrigerator delivered to the house today. The wife and I spent quite a bit of time unloading the old puzzle box. We found food hidden in corners all over the old 13 year old Frigidaire.
I found out why I got such a good deal on the 25.6 ft3 side by side from Home Depot, $1,048. No Deli (meat) drawer. I am now looking for a Frigidaire deli drawer kit to add to it. Otherwise we are happy. I do not want a fancy refrigerator, more things to fix. My middle brother has a super nice 35 ? 45 ? ft3 $5,000 refrigerator that he has had to replace the $1,000 computer in twice now. Blown capacitors.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frigidaire-36-in-25-6-cu-ft-Side-by-Side-Refrigerator-in-Black-Standard-Depth-FRSS2623AB/320970739#overlay
I had the guys move the 13 year old Frigidaire side by side to the garage. It has a water spigot problem that I decided not to try to fix since it is 13 years old. So, now we have four refrigerators at the house. Two 25.6, an 18, and a 6. I would like to get rid of the 6 but am unsure what to do with it.
I did arrange the extra moving with Home Depot for $40 but I also gave the guys $40 each. They had to park their box truck on the street and bring the new fridge down my long driveway. They carried the new fridge in the house using straps on their shoulders and waists, it was awesome. One guy in front, one guy in back. The lead guy was a 20 year Army vet, 5 years in Iraq, 2 years in Afghanistan. He was like my son, shaved head, long beard.
Ah, the personal attacks. I am crushed deeper.
I love Leap Day and hold it with special affection for Gilbert and Sullivan’s delightful Pirates of Penzance. Must have seen that dozens of times attending rehearsal with mom as a youngster (orchestra).
It’s been a brutally difficult winter with the excessive snow. 10’ and still falling. I’m worn out from clearing paths, the roof, hiking to the rabbits in snow that’s past my chest if I stumble off the narrow compressed track the dogs created, and attempting to keep snow on crab apples cleared.
A May tree was badly split vertically, and both 50+ year old crab apples are heavily damaged despite best efforts.
Tonight a friend and I tackled what we could with a couple chain saws. More work to do yet.
Trying not to fall if planet but ttgnet has been on back burner. Hope everyone’s hanging in there.
Soon spring will be upon us and that is a good and glorious thing.
It’s been a brutally difficult winter with the excessive snow. 10’ and still falling. I’m worn out from clearing paths, the roof, hiking to the rabbits in snow that’s past my chest if I stumble off the narrow compressed track the dogs created, and attempting to keep snow on crab apples cleared.
I thought about you when I read about the excessive snow fall in Anchorage. Good to hear that you survived. I assume that the mended roof structure held up just fine.
Jenny, good to hear from you, stay warm(ish)!
And Alaskapox.
What the heck was that about?
Are you familiar with the poem “The Deacon’s Masterpiece,” about the The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay?
Don’t hit the craft cocktails too hard tonight.
Another four hours of fun starts tomorrow at 10 sharp.
Jeez, I go away for a bit…
Glad to hear you are keeping up with it Jenny, you were on my list to ping tomorrow.
——–
Spent a couple of hours poking at my hobby site. Set up hosting, and wordpress, used their wizard to populate a framework of a site. Got the “About Us” page mostly done… I’m really hoping this will go faster once I figure out the management and editing which look completely different than here…
I’m disappointed that no one seems to have a site template for a club or membership organization. They are all too fancy for that I guess. The one I chose was supposed to be for a community organization. It’s got a lot of cruft. I’m figuring out the delete functions….
One thing that makes it harder is re-designing on the fly. I might take an hour or two and bang together at least a bit of a site map. The old site has stuff all over the place and endlessly scrolling pages. Not simple to translate that as I go. I’m also d/l ing the site a couple of different ways so I can refer to it as I work. I’m going to ask that we don’t renew our service for another year on Monday, but instead switch over, even if it’s just an About Us page or an Under Construction. $50 plus a month for hosting seems nuts. Even with ecommerce add ons, I think we should be around that for the year. Maybe double. Nuts.
————-
back still hurting but now it’s more muscle than structure. Stiff as a board though. Making progress.
——————
still don’t know for sure how much I’m going to take to the hamfest.
I should have been stacking stuff for the last three days at least, but haven’t. If we get rain Friday, that will really screw me up too. I have found stuff I forgot about, and there is stuff I haven’t found yet. Dunno where I’ll end up.
I’ll be there, and I’ll have stuff to sell, just might be the same sort of chaos as the last few times…
n
>> See also Sarah Hoyt on Christmas decorations in Portugal… and that’s a pretty civilized place.
It’s “civilized” until it’s not…see Ecuador for example…and soon the US gets to the top of the list.
Keep stacking…
>> Sh!t’s illegal yo…
Psst…Hunter…did you not get the memo??
Hah, he’s claiming he was too drunk/high/etc to remember anything about anything. Non compos mentis runs in the family…
————
n
Keep up the good work Lynn, I’m headed to bed.
n
>> “Happy Leap Day!”
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/happy-leap-day
“29 February is causing problems in software systems across the globe. It’s a good reminder on how few assumptions we should make about dates – and why to use a date library when you can.”
Hmm, all the examples cited, except one, which was a video game, are from outside the US. Not that my memory is perfect, but in 40+ years in IY I can’t recall a Leap Day issue.
@Ray, of course is the one most likely to have had one 😉
>> I’ll be there, and I’ll have stuff to sell, just might be the same sort of chaos as the last few times…
Well, there’s something to be said for consistency!
https://youtu.be/H_NG1yXT6QY
Around thirty years ago there was a spate of cold criminal cases which hit the news because the criminal opened his or her mouth. After the third or fourth I asked my mom, who at the time was a sheriff’s deputy, how many criminals were caught because they opened their big, stupid mouths. “A lot” was all she could tell me. Most were arrested because they were caught in the act, because the victim filed a complaint, or because other evidence pointed straight at them, but a concerningly large fraction were arrested and convicted because they couldn’t help bragging or because they told someone who, in hindsight, couldn’t be trusted.
The lesson: If you’re going to commit a crime, be careful about leaving evidence, be careful about witnesses and surveillance cameras and phone tracking, be sure that you aren’t the person with the strongest motive to do it, but most importantly keep your big, stupid mouth shut.
The most important part of “Shoot, Shovel, Shut up” is the shutting up part.
Imagine going through life so bitter about your tiny and misshapen genitalia that you deal with it by stalking a forum and downvoting the comments of the people you don’t like.
Either “legacy Americans” are going to kill or expel anyone who speaks English with an accent and has swarthy or dark skin, or America as we know it is going to disappear.
Yep. Not a concern. I intend to die, if I die at all, violently. I’ve been holding back from the risky pastimes and occupations like bounty hunting since I’ve needed to, in effect, single-parent my daughter. She’ll be grown and independent someday, at which point I plan to resume those activities. I’ll know I’m slowing down when someone, or more likely some group, is able to beat me in a fight or put a bullet in me.
Well of course there’s chaos. What do you expect, when close to a dozen men in their 40s and older are manning booths while wearing Sailor Moon costumes? But a lot of merch gets sold at the Magical Girl Cosplay Club public events, so it’s worth it.
That seems an odd oversight. I though that was prettys standard for any sort of serious accident? So now they have to rely on her private texts to friends about “smoking”, where we all know what she was smoking, but she never actually says…
Possibly the most humorous one I’ve seen was some province in China. The system compares the current date to people’s birth dates, to ensure that they are old enough to get married. If the person is to young, or in case of any error, the system said “no”. So 2024-02-29 minus 18 years gives 2006-02-29, which did not exist, so you cannot get married.
Probably wasn’t funny to those affected…
Really, that can be said of just about any religion. Christianity, for example, practiced “conversion by the sword” – i.e., kill the infidels and let God sort them out. Even today, tolerance is pretty non-existent among evangelicals (most of my family). They may not want to murder my atheist self, but I quickly learned to avoid giving any indication of my actual (non-)beliefs. They just assume I share their worldview…
@Jenny: Nice to hear from you! Annual variations are funny things. Three years ago, we had masses of show. This year, we had a pile of early snow, but since December almost only rain. It’s raining all this weekend, with temps just above freezing.
Next winter, maybe things will reverse: we will get nailed with snow, while you can have all the rain 🙂
My favorite high school teacher always said that only the dumb criminals got caught. He was definitely someone who could have led a secret life. For example, he often vacationed in Vegas, and claimed to never lose any money. He loved poker, and financed his poker losses by winning consistently at blackjack.
He definitely wasn’t “dumb”. Hmmm…