Home in Houston, and it is more grey on the way. Got a smattering of drops yesterday, after the huge storm blew through around 5am… but we even had some sun too. In any case it dried out enough I could mow. Mostly dried out…
And by mostly I mean ‘not really’ but I cut the hill on an angle, so I didn’t need the brakes as much, and I only spun the wheels a few times when turning back up hill…. the grass came out in lumpy chunks. In the end, the lawn looked pretty good short, and it should stay ok looking for a while.
I also did a bunch of sprinkler work. I ran hoses and put up “impact” sprinkler heads. I dug up the yard where water was coming from the ground and fixed a pipe. Then I fixed another place on the pipe, and tightened two other joints on the pipe… I didn’t quite get all the areas I wanted to get covered, but I’ll tune it next visit.
Took a while to get cleaned up, put stuff away, and prep the house for some alone time.
I finally got home about 1030pm. Didn’t see many wrecks or pulled over vehicles, did see a lot of cops on the road. Maybe they were effective preventing the drunk driving extravaganza this year.
—————
Spring Break is over for my kids and we’re back to school today. Early to rise…
—————
I’ve got auction stuff to do today, and some follow up from the hamfest. I promised two guys I’d look for stuff in my storage, and both called me to see if I looked yet. I better look. Then I have at least one pickup locally. Three more pickups later in the week too. I won some good stuff, and at rock bottom prices. Dunno what happened to the other bidders, or maybe I just want stuff no one else wants.
Either way, I have a bunch of small stuff to get.
—————
I’d like to drop off some stuff too, but we’ll see if he has room for it. And the normal chores have piled up while I was gone. Gonna be busy for a couple of days.
Stack something for yourself, and something for your loved ones. You’ll feel very satisfied when you don’t have to shop at the last minute for that special something…
And you’ll be glad you stacked when you open the beans to go with the road kill stew…
nick
Curse that math and facts and reality! Don’t you know we have Good Intentions?! That’s all that matters!!!
The first time I remember recognizing the idiocy of some Plan to Save the World was in the late 1970s, IIRC. The oil embargo had ended but there were increasing noises about running out of oil. But don’t worry! Tumbleweed can be processed to produce petroleum. We’re all saved!
Riiiight. Until you realize that a tumbleweed yields less than a teaspoon of hydrocarbon, and it takes energy to extract. Dedicating the entire Central Plains to tumbleweed cultivation would satisfy US energy needs for fifteen minutes per year. (From memory. I worked the math back then but haven’t needed to think about it for a while.)
Until one of the cameras break and the discontinued part is $1200 to replace.
*IF* the part is available.
Grey sky is lightening, and it’s shirtsleeves out… so might be a nice day after all.
coffee is in me, and it’s driving the devil of vexation right out…
n
Bet he’ll keep his money though…
– maybe putting a lizard money man in charge of a service organization was a bad idea.
n
Even the money people don’t see a future there. They’re probably still limping along because Vanguard and Blackrock hold about 5% of the stock.
Hertz was doomed long before the pandemic.
Many decades ago, when I still believed the talking points, I thought that corporate CEOs and presidents were kept in check by the board and the share voters. If the president got a seven-figure salary and a golden parachute while laying off 20% of the workers, he’d earned it because things would have been worse otherwise.
Then I learned about the incestuous relationship between C-suite members (and their families) and executives (and their families) and board members (and their families). And government regulators (and their families), for that matter. And about the weight of retirement funds and institutional investors utterly overwhelming the individual investors and their desires.
Carlin was proved right yet again: It’s a big club…
We put Starlink in at our cottage last summer. We experienced few issues with the speed or quality of the link, even during heavy rain. There was an occasional pause while watching a program or movie, but these were split second artefacts and pretty rare. There was one 2-hour down period. Compared to what we had before – a mobile link advertised at 50MB but delivering 28MB down at best, and going up and down frequently – Starlink (200MB down) is great (and a touch cheaper as well).
The biggest issue we had was finding a good setup location for the antenna. Starlink wants an unobstructed (IIRC, 95% or better) view of the sky and provides an app that helps you find a suitable location. Our lot at the lake is heavily wooded and the only clear spots were at the roadside or down at the lakefront. We went with a post at the lakefront as the longest cable offered by Starlink was just long enough to reach back to the cottage. The road was too far and maybe too public – there was some concern that the antenna would grow legs and leave.
No need to repeat yourself in the same sentence.
@TV, thanks for sharing. I had to try three locations before I found one that was completely unobstructed. The second best told me the signal would drop every three minutes.
I’m going to test my lappy here to see if that was contributing to the issue.
BTW, BEST I’ve seen so far is 130 down iirc…
n
Now that defined benefit pensions have gone away, for much of the 20% remaining in the workforce who do something productive for society, having even a meager retirement means that VTSMX (Vanguard Total Stock Market index) and SPY (State Streets Big Kahuna S&P 500 ETF) will have to see 10% gains annually in perpetuity or the math simply doesn’t work.
Once the math stops working then whatever productivity is left in the US disappears.
And that was 10% before the printing press really kicked into high gear and the Fed bought the mortgage paper for the better part of a decade.
My wife’s T-Rowe 2035 target IRA squeezed 16% in 2023. That’s probably close to what most plans will have to see.
My Vanguard IRA “only” managed 13%.
Of course, if the US Government seizes the plans as part of a “fair” retirement program, all bets are off.
Shockingly, our public school district seems to be one of the few that still lines up Spring Break with Easter. Our Spring Break runs the week of 3/25 – 3/29.
Catching up… One of the best skills my father taught me was the panic stop. He would randomly yell stop and tell me it was not quick enough. Eventually I was not worried about stalling the car and met his expectations. Saved my butt on more than one occasion since people do the damnedest things.
Thanks, nick!
I feel less poorly today than over the weekend – fewer and less stabbing pains if I take a deep breath. I saw the GP this morning, who approved of my stop-gap measures (steroids for lungs and sinuses, acetylcysteine to help liquefy the mucus, inhaling over a basin of steaming water with Peru balsam and gomenol in it, lots of warm liquids plus vitamin C, and ibuprofen for pain control as needed). GP suspects a mild case of pneumonia, and scheduled a blood test for first thing tomorrow morning to determine whether it is bacterial or viral in origin. If bacterial, I will start antibiotics immediately in addition to that regime. It is nice to have access to first-world medicine.
This one is driving me and a sibling nuts. Sibling’s child in that age-group is not bothering to get licensed to drive. I do, however, suspect that some of the nonchalance about catching public transport instead is put on. Said child wants to go to work in New Zealand. There, having a licence will be a necessity, rather than a luxury, as in much of Europe.
He ought not let the door hit him on the way out. The Jeep EV-petrol hybrid that Hertz foisted upon me recently was an unmitigated POS. Buh-bye.
Fire extinguishers. If one happens to be on fire and has the choice of what extinguisher should be used to put one out, CO2 is the way to go. They extinguish and cool. I have this on good authority both from one who was so extinguished and from the person who put him out. The CO2 saved him a lot of time in the burns unit and a number of skin grafts. It was a big bottle, though.
Dry chemical extinguishers. Nick, check if they contain ammonia (they usually do). If you ever have to use one indoors or on a vehicle , you will have to replace all the electrical wiring and any electric / electronic equipment exposed to the powder (or usually the whole vehicle). It is important to have the fire department document in their report what powder was used (and it’s important to call the fire department, inter alia, to make a report), so that you can subsequently claim the cost of the electrical/electronic/vehicle replacements because of the ammonia against your fire (or vehicle) insurance.
Well, I agree with you about the lizard people, but…
Apart from the Pandemic car rental should be a safe business, stable & predictable customer traffic & expenses.
Since most business flyers just use their cars for getting to & from the business & their hotel, range isn’t a big issue. In fact that particular use case would be the best for EVs and the worst for ICEs, short trips are hard on 4 cycle engines.
A well designed EV would save a lot on fleet maintaining costs. But, as CR reliability reports showed, the manufacturers in an excess of greed skimped on everything, despite the incredible savings of not having to build an precision manufactured ICE & ancillary systems and being able to raise pricing by 30%.
It seems likely to become a case study in corporate stupidity.
Before the pandemic, Hertz became a tool of the “EV-only future” agenda, and, prior to that, was a wholly-owned racket of the Work From Home mafia.
The hybrid with the Fiat engine? Oh, yeah. Guaranteed splody before 60,000 miles.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-has-failed-get-appeal-bond-454-mln-civil-fraud-judgment-lawyers-say-2024-03-18/
IANAL but suppose AG James seizes one of the Trump golf courses, does she then have to hold it in escrow, run it and maintain it, so as to return it once Trump wins his appeal?
There is no Dark Matter and the Universe is Twice as Old as We Thought.
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/03/18/physicist-there-is-no-dark-matter-and-the-universe-is-twice-as-old-as-we-thought-n3784900
The plan is, of course, to bankrupt tRump. The ridiculous fines on all tRump’s cases should be an automatic appeal. James will be paid to fall on her sword and destroy any tRump forfeitures before he gets them back. She doesn’t care as $$millions in gold bars appear in her closet. Wait, that’s someone else…
They really only want Trump Tower. Possibly the Chicago building too.
Hawk was circling over our land again. He must be a slow learner, or else very hungry. This is four (?) days in a row, with me within a few dozen feet of the birds each time. I’ve usually been sitting in my car (with my computer, using the car to protect from wind or rain or to provide shade from excessive sun so that I can read the screen) but I come out as soon as I notice the jerk.
We got about 7500 pounds of dirt and mulch delivered this morning, though only half is for us. The rest goes to our neighbors. Significant discount for one delivery. I’ll help wheelbarrow their portions to them, for the exercise more than for the neighborliness. Might wait a few days, though, as the wind is making the job a wee bit difficult.
SteveF, can you cover those few dozen feet faster than the hawk, or are you relying on, cough, mechanical advantage?
Neither. If the hawk sees me, it’ll stay clear. That’s why I step out as soon as I see it. (Or see its shadow, on a mythical day with sun rather than full cloud cover.)
That was weird, got a 503, service unavailable error for several refreshes…
n
The web servers at the hosting service have become sentient and are unionizing.
503’s are usually a hosting problem, often just temporary. Can also be caused by other sites on a shared server being busier than normal. Can also be caused by an interruption in any ‘device’ between you and the hosting place.
Hosting here is via Dreamhost, and on a shared server. Dreamhost has not reported any service issues. They have been (and are) doing some security maintenance on hunks of servers, but those are scheduled for 10pm-2am PDT, and only affect specific groups of servers.
Could also be caused by interruptions because of TLA’s* monitoring your browsing activities. Please adjust your tin-foil hat to reduce that effect.
*TLA – Three Letter Agencies
DreamHost rocks.
Can’t get enough of that good stuff….
– is it just me, or does the whole paragraph just keep repeating one idea?
n
What’s gonna happen when you import enough people to lose the “herd immunity”…
I liked this meme…
https://bustednuckles.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/A-Fuck-around.jpg
h/t phil
n
The AI monkey trick.
It will be a problem because a lot of people with egg allergies, myself included, cannot have the measles vaccine and depend on herd immunity to avoid catching the virus.
The outbreak in South Florida which the media tried to pin on DeSantis a couple of weeks ago was at an elementary school in Weston, a Dem stronghold at the edge of the Everglades.
In Weston, they’re still pining for Andrew Gillum, the known meth head whom DeSantis defeated in 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WAIn7vZ36E
YUUUP, I got my 8th Covid vaccination last week. Even now that I am protected I am still not going to LBGTVRQXYZ bars.
Does no one nowadays know how to conjugate the verb “to go?” It’s go went GONE, people! It’s not that hard!
Almost forgot: Get off my lawn! 😀
Some images of the Washington and Idaho trip. The barren land is around Boise, the snow is from McCall up in the mountains.
All taken with my iPhone, not edited for duplicate elimination or other such issues.
https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Idaho
Get off my lawn!
Went off my lawn!
Gone off my lawn!
Since most business flyers just use their cars for getting to & from the business & their hotel, range isn’t a big issue. In fact that particular use case would be the best for EVs and the worst for ICEs, short trips are hard on 4 cycle engines.
A well designed EV would save a lot on fleet maintaining costs. But, as CR reliability reports showed, the manufacturers in an excess of greed skimped on everything, despite the incredible savings of not having to build an precision manufactured ICE & ancillary systems and being able to raise pricing by 30%.
It seems likely to become a case study in corporate stupidity.
All designed by accountants, not engineers. Jerry Reynolds wrote a horrible true story about this at Ford:
https://www.carpro.com/true-stories/true-stories-from-a-former-car-dealer-15-ignition-switches
“The next question was from me. I wanted to know when the new switches started being used. The answer I got left me speechless for a moment. We were told there were “5000 of the old switches left, and as soon as those ran out, they would switch to the new ones.””
“Inside Job”
https://areaocho.com/inside-job/
“This isn’t just supposition and innuendo. It isn’t a conspiracy theory. I have come to the firm belief that the entire situation on J6 was a false flag operation, a Reichstag fire, if you will. There is enough smoke here that there must be a fire.”
“There is recent evidence, uncovered by Judicial Watch as a result of a FOIA request and lawsuit, that the CIA had officers and other security teams present on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6. So what, you say? The problem with that is that, according to its own website, the CIA is prohibited from operating within the borders of the US.”
“Germany aims to build fusion power plant”
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Germany-aims-to-build-fusion-power-plant
“A new funding programme for nuclear fusion research has been announced by Germany’s Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger aimed at paving the way for the first fusion power plant to be constructed in Germany by 2040.”
Oh look, the comrade says that you can dictate technology for global warming science now.
“Core Guidelines are not Rules” by Arne Mertz
https://arne-mertz.de/2024/03/core-guidelines-are-not-rules/
“There is a difference between guidelines and rules. Boiling down guidelines to one-sentence rules has drawbacks that make your code harder to understand.”
“The famous quote by Captain Barbossa from _Pirates of the Caribbean_ says “The Code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” This implies that there is a difference between the two.”
fread() in Microsoft’s Visual C++ library will set the unused buffer space to ‘\0’ where GLibC’s behavior is inconsistent as standard allows. The unused space may or may not have zeros.
I had a running debate with our lead at the Death Star, Patent Boy, about what Linux would do with the call until I finally said, “When it breaks at 2 AM because you counted on a zero terminated string which isn’t zero terminated, I will direct them to call your house.”
I still had to watch my code to make sure that my memset() calls were not removed.
Who knows why Microsoft handled the unused space differently.
It is interesting that a “Pirates of the Caribbean” quote comes up this week, with Disney rumored to be in negotiations with Johnny Depp for his return to the role in a sixth film.
$100 Million?
Make The Weatherman your b*tch, Johnny. He needs you more than you need him.
>> “There is recent evidence, uncovered by Judicial Watch as a result of a FOIA request and lawsuit, that the CIA had officers and other security teams present on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6”
And you expect the Dumbo-controlled DOJ to do exactly what with this damning information??
Even if the .pretenders won’t do anything, it’s still worth getting the word out to the people.
n
Unfortunately about half are sheeple.
True. I have a mix of newer and much older cars. The only real difference is that the newest one has a backup camera. I only use it occasionally, to get close to some obstacle. I really don’t like it much otherwise, and don’t miss it when I drive any of the other cars. I also don’t want to become overly dependent on it.
“Features” like blind spot monitoring and cross path detection are unnecessary IMO. People should use such things as aids, and not become dependent on them to the extent they are only aware of them and not on using their senses. I recently renewed my driver’s license, and read the handbook as preparation for the test. I was a bit appalled at the attitude in that book: there was a lot of praise of aids, and less on using other senses. I don’t know if we are safer or less safe in actual practice.
On the basis that there are so many Muppets out there driving cars who don’t use even the senses nature provided, every little helps…