Cool and clear today, with moderate temps later. I’m hoping for a lot less wind. It was very nice yesterday, apart from the howling wind.
Slept late, got a slow start after that. Piddled around unloading the truck, putting some stuff away. I even put a lure on a new pole (that I fished out of the lake) and tried fishing for about a half hour. LOTS of work avoidance going on. Eventually, I got the pole saw and chainsaw out and dropped a dead tree. I took off a branch by standing on my truck to reach it with the pole saw, and that let me drop the rest through a gap between an oak and the persimmon…
Took a while to cut it up and stack it, but I got that done too. Buddy came by and we went to look at the garden. The potatoes are a foot high now. Radishes and turnips aren’t blowing up yet, but I’m still hoping they start growing at some point. That’s gardening though, once it’s in the ground, it’s largely out of your hands.
Stack canned goods.
And labor saving devices like chainsaws- with all their supporting infrastructure.
Stack.
nick
If you are concerned about not getting the job done right away, check with your insurance agent.
You may be covered by “act of God” if a limb falls on the neighbor’s house as long you have a documented history of keeping the property maintained including tree trimming.
Of course, you also want to be a good neighbor, but the homeowners insurance carriers are looking to drop people for even the smallest of reasons.
Crazy windy here, and has been for several days. The air is looks almost foggy, only it’s actually Sahara dust. What we call here a “föhn storm”, but they don’t usually last this long. We went to an outdoor market for lunch, but there weren’t a lot of visitors. Sorry for the people running the stands, but at this time of year you never know. Last year they had to cancel because of a late snow.
Odd, that it would be so much more. Three big birches? To get rid of the fluff, you need a big shredder, a trailer and maybe two hours of work for two people.
Ah, well, if you have a fireplace or some other place to burn them, you will have endless kindling. I really like birch for the fireplace. It burns hot and leaves a lot less ash than something like pine.
@Jenny – Venus Hum’s “Kindness Rages On” popped up for digitization in my CD backlog recently, and I remembered their appearance with Blue Man Group in The Complex tour.
If you can find the DVD, The Complex is kid safe, and if it is one thing Blue Man does well, it is percussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFBXjRbVl0
Annette Strean’s voice in its prime was a force of nature. I’d never heard of Venus Hum until they opened for Blue Man on that tour and returned to do “I Feel Love”.
I saw that show live from sixth row center.
And The Amish Shall Inherit The Earth:
Outrage over New Orleans Toy Story-themed children’s bash which saw Jessie twerk against toddler boy in diaper – while Woody grinds approvingly into a nearby woman
Oof, that house in the background gives you an idea of the neighborhood. No doubt Amish are underneath the costumes. WHITEY! Wouldn’t dare go there.
Indeed. I had piled some spare landscaping blocks up against a retaining wall so that I could shortcut the walk to the lawnmower shed. Nope, not good enough. It had to be stairs with railings. Fix it or the insurance coverage will be dropped. The company also demanded locks on all the gates. I removed the spare blocks, bought locks for the gates. However, I don’t lock the locks as that was never specified.
What irritated me most was I was told the inspector was only going to take pictures of the outside of the house for value purposes. That is not what he/she/shim/zim did. To see the blocks they had to take a detailed walk on the property. Same with the gates. The inspector did more than what I was told and basically trespassed without permission. The company’s rationale is that since they are insuring the property they have every right to walk anywhere on the property, at any time they choose, to look for hazards or reasons to cancel coverage.
Fine. I will be finding another company when renewal time arrives.
I would say there are more visual clues as to the type of neighborhood.
Ninth ward looking at the dilapidated house with new windows and a couple of doors ready to install.
New Orleans still gets a sympathy pass after almost 20 years.
I-35W Mississippi River bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_bridge
8 lanes and 1900 feet vs, 4 lanes and over 8000 feet. Totally different construction.
But note the accelerated schedule for the replacement bridge: August 1, 2007 to September 18, 2008, with design and contractor selection in 50 days
Forbes has already noted the parallels:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katevitasek/2024/03/29/maryland-should-learn-from-minnesotas-success-with-i-35-bridge-rebuild/?sh=49f17c7832a9
used less than $6
Just like American blacks still get a sympathy pass 160 years after slavery was ended.
Remind me, what is the racial makeup of New Orleans’ city leadership? Ohhh…. Pure coincidence, I’m sure.
The Chocolate City speech
About 12 hours of sleep and I do feel better. Spent part of that soaked in sweat and with my head draining…
72F and light overcast this afternoon.
——
Finished the Transdimensional Hunter book 2 before I went to sleep. W and D1 were watching “The Thing” in the other room so I wasn’t going to sleep anyway.
Liked it a lot. Eagerly awaiting the next one.
There are some quibbles. You can sometimes hear the change in ‘voice’ between Ringo and Lydia. The teen girl self doubt and body issues are dominant and I can’t really relate. That could be my issue though. There isn’t so much you can’t get past it, and maybe it’s a good lesson for a dad with two teen girls, but it is just a bit too much in places for the good of the story.
———-
Gonna eat my eggs and bacon, and shower. A really hot shower. Then start my ‘day’.
n
The Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge replacement took over $6B ($8B in 2023 dollars) to construct, and about a decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_span_replacement_of_the_San_Francisco–Oakland_Bay_Bridge#
Of course Jerry Brown and Willie Brown and their respective city
gangsadministrations had their fingers in the pie, but Baltimore is no less corrupt.Re yesterdays discussion (towards the end) about late comments : I reload the page, then look at the last comment I read in the ‘comments’ column over on the right. It’s in a different color (because I click the last comment heading so a page reload gets me new stuff).
That allows me to continue where I left off yesterday, then I click on the ‘next day’ link at the bottom of the page. That gets me to Nick’s latest daily starting post, and I continue with the comments.
That usually works, unless I am not paying attention – I’ve been known to comment today on yesterday’s post.
Ray Nagin. The irony is that Nagin was an exec at Cox and was well known as a supporter in conservative talk radio circles during the glory days in the 90s.
My memory of his radio interview about the futility of fleeing the city pictures him in a warm bathtub, with his 4th glass of wine in hand. It was weirdly languid and ‘float-y’.
n
Well, I was going to finish moving the dirt and mulch today but the weather decided otherwise. It’s a beautiful day other than the wind, but the wind is a deal killer. Gusts are strong enough to make it difficult to stand upright and the steady wind is enough to blow a good part of the dirt off the shovel.
The chickens were out for a while but they were more scatter-brained than usual and were wandering across open lawn and into the forest despite the hawk overhead. I’ve noticed this behavior a couple times before and wonder if something about the wind whistling interferes with their thinking (if “thinking” is the correct word when applied to chickens). As may be, they didn’t argue about being sent back to the run, where they are currently huddling together against the cardboard “wall” on the windward side. They also appreciated the raisins I gave them as a treat. The red hen, who likes treats but isn’t normally greedy, and the black hen, who is usually too wary of me to take anything from my hand, were scarfing down every raisin that they could get their greedy beaks on and were knocking the others away. I had to be quick and agile and anticipate their moves in order to let the others get any, let alone their share.
Steaks for supper again, at Daughter’s request. I’ll probably make buttermilk biscuits to eat with them, as I have buttermilk that I need to use up. On the other hand, I also have potatoes that I need to use up so I may make roasted potatoes.
I’ll walk my daughter through the numbers on buying a subprimal cut and butchering it versus buying cuts at the butcher shop or grocery store. Bottom line, for the effort of cutting the meat myself to get the thirteen steaks, I got the chuck roasts and stew beef for free, or in fact was paid to get that meat, contrasted with buying thirteen steaks at the store at “good steak” prices.
If fiddling is what one does when his city burns, then lounging in the tub is the proper action when one’s city floods.
Thinking I might cut the grass, as the forecast has some rain in it. Won’t get a chance if it’s raining Sun, Mon….
Big propane tank is down to “20%” so I called them up. We are supposed to be on their “check and fill if needed” route. They said they are having trouble getting route drivers so they’re only doing fill on request. And he offered to just add 50 gallons to get us by. I had to tell him twice to fill it. I’m guessing a lot of his customers are feeling a pinch.
I’ve noticed a lot more $10 and $20 totals on gas pumps lately too. I usually look when I drive up, and I think I’m seeing more short fills and even money fills than I was. Times are tough already.
The overcast has gotten a bit heavier.
76F
n
No local retired guys with a commercial ticket wanting to make a few dollars? Odd. Wonder what they are paying.
Friends of a friend who do tree stuff as their livelihood took out several dangerous birch trees on our back fence line that have been dropping branches on our neighbors RV and that are leaning menacingly towards his house. Sadly they had to go.
There was a May tree to deal with that had a split trunk and was a more substantial tree than you might expect
Finally there were more broken limbs on the crab apple trees that I couldn’t reach.
All in all a lot of work we couldn’t manage.
Two young helpers plus myself, did the drudge ground work of keeping the work area clear, piling the logs separate from the twiggy branch bits, and managing detritus.
It was made more difficult by the still very deep snow, and compounded by the tendency to ‘punch through’ seemingly solid crusted snow. Often up to my crotch. Everyone was wet and cold. Oh and it snowed while we worked. Waiting would have meant not only until the snow melted, but an additional 4-6 weeks for the ground to dry out. Snow is a poor work surface. Slick mud is far more dangerous footing.
The detritus pile is big. There are a lot of nice birch logs to split and burn. A couple years ago we dropped 6-8 trees and hauled the branches and twiggy bits up the hill and out by sheer brute effort. Not doing that again. We will burn it in place, little by little. Burn permits are no longer allowed in town, so we will have nightly cookouts with sticks and a pack of hotdogs until it’s all gone.
The tree guys return Friday to tackle a giant of a tree dying by inches adjacent to the rabbits. They were willing to do it today but I was too pooped to handle more ground work. Fessed my weakness and asked to postpone.
The tree guys worked incredibly hard. They also had a joy or lightness about it that made working by their side a real pleasure.
They were a blessing to us.
I am sore, tired, and slowly regaining feeling in my extremities.
@Brad
To get rid of the fluff, you need a big shredder, a trailer and maybe two hours of work for two people.
The problem is the geography of our yard. Long narrow lot on a hill. A narrow man gate on one side at the top, a wider but still narrow gate at the top on the other side. And steps to navigate. It’s a real back breaker because it’s too steep to get an ATV towing a chipper down. Carrying by hand is the most efficient way, and believe me, it isnt efficient. Can’t get at if from the sides or back. It’s a pain and as soon as tree guys see it they don’t want to haul the stuff out. So insane high quotes.
When we hauled it a few years ago ago it was 4-8 of us an entire day to get most of it, then me on my own for weeks after. It was miserable.
A winch and a very strong tarp might be able to do it, there’d be problems and I don’t know if it would be any faster.
Oh, joy, BillG, Boy Genius, is in Texas.
Rest assured that, come July, when ERCOT is struggling to power all the new AC systems and Teslas purchased in the last year, BillG will be back in Seattle, safely ensconced in his giant house powered by hydro energy imported from facilities in British Columbia.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Visiting-Texas-to-see-the-future
Thanks for the recommendation s Gregg. That sounds like something we would all really like.
That demonstrated what I wanted to demonstrate and had a surprise side effect.
It’s not straightforward to compare angus prime chuck eye and denver steaks (from the chuck roll from Sam’s Club) to regular beef (choice or prime, not sure) rib eye from the grocery store. I didn’t think to check the price of the cuts at Sam’s Club but the rib eyes at the grocery store are from $18 (ouch!) $22 (ouch!)/lb. I declared $18 to be the nominal value of the steaks I cut.
We then SWAGged the weight of each steak (because they’re too heavy for my little kitchen scale and the bigger scales aren’t precise enough) at 8 oz, though I think the average is closer to 11. Multiply it all out and 13, 8oz steaks would cost a bit more than the entire chuck roll. If we assume 10oz steaks, they’d have cost $30 more than the entire chuck roll. And we got a large chuck roast, a medium chuck roast, five pounds of stew beef, and the bag of fat for the chickens (or for grinding with the stew meat, if I wanted ground beef) for free.
With luck, she’ll generalize this lesson to other forms of convenience pricing. She already knows about the price per ounce premium for ready-to-microwave oatmeal or Chunky soup that she used to eat at school, compared to packets of oatmeal that you put into your own bowl or regular cans of Chunky soup. I’ll try to find some other examples where a medium amount of knowledge or skill plus a small amount of effort makes up a large part of the price.
The surprise side effect was that she volunteered to butcher the next chuck roll, if I provide guidance. Her greed for steak has overcome her laziness. A miracle!
The buttermilk biscuits also met with her approval. She can’t remember having biscuits before, which seems odd but not impossible. I put biscuit topping on pot pies, but that blends with the flavors of the meat and vegetables and gravy so it’s not the same. Four biscuits and about ⅔ of the smaller of tonight’s steaks and she’s again complaining that her stomach hurts.
This would be a good time for you to develop telekinetic powers.
China’s Latest Healthcare Crisis: Explosion of Drug-Resistant “Super-Gonorrhea” Cases
A new report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates China may be facing a healthcare crisis with an steep rise in the number of cases involving drug-resistant sexually-transmitted disease . . . including “super-gonorrhea.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/03/chinas-latest-healthcare-crisis-explosion-of-drug-resistant-super-gonorrhea-cases/
The alien invaders streaming across our undefended southern border with the assistance of our heroin-and-fentanyl-governed Mexican neighbor are not medically screened and are free to spread the worst of the third-world diseases.
Put it on them. Make it a felony to enter the U.S. illegally and bring a communicable disease.
Of course, you also want to be a good neighbor, but the homeowners insurance carriers are looking to drop people for even the smallest of reasons.
That makes zero sense. If you are in business to sell insurance, then dropping customers for made up reasons is crazy. Gaining new customers is expensive !
yesterday:
it turns out that there is a perfectly good English word:
“perkatory”
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/rise-shine-20210908-114.jpg
h/t to AoSHQ
The reasons are not made up, but are generally trivial. The companies have your money, which they gleefully collect each month. Getting insurance companies to pay is an arduous adventure. I experienced that on my last accident. The insurance company lowballed everything. Said if I did not like it, take them to court. This was Travelers insurance.
Many years ago I had a dishwasher leak damaging the kitchen floor. Total cost to the insurance company was $2K. Farmers dropped me for having a claim even though I had been with them for 20 years with no claims. Having paid them thousands over the years.
My first insurance company, Allstate, dropped me for having a “claim”. All I did was call them about an incident to see if it was worthwhile to file a claim. To an insurance company that increases my risk to them.
If there is a drop in a person’s credit score an insurance company will substantially increase the rates. Companies that say they will never drop an account is a bogus claim. The insurance company will increase the rate by 100‘s of percent to force a person to leave.
My last rating there was a statement on my policy that I did not get the best rate. I called and asked why. The company would not tell as they said that was privileged business information. There was no way for me to find the issue and correct, or refute, their information.
If a person has a lapse of even one day in coverage, the rates will skyrocket. Even if that one day is the result of the insurance company’s error.
State Farm “dropped” me after 30 years as a customer.
They dropped me by tripling my car insurance rate. The letter cited my 2 claims in five years. One was road service and one was a windshield under my collision. The newer of the claims was 2 years in the past.
Yep, pay them $30K over the years. Then they pay $300. You are now a risk. You might cut into the $50 million yearly CEO compensation.
Barry Manilow’s jingle royalty checks gotta arrive on schedule.
“Like a Good Neighbor … State Farm is there.”
Run through the concert once with your husband before sharing with your daughter to make sure I’m remembering correctly.
Blue Man Group shows generally allow ages three and up to attend.
Intimidation, maybe? Because if they can convince you to pay out of pocket for incidents that they should be paying on, then they make more profit.
They can then advertise a lower deductable, but the experienced number is higher.
Not everyone would get dinged for claims, just enough to let the word get around and make the average insuree cautious about filing a claim.
—-
Or, like Harvard and Chevrolet, the advertised business is just a sideline that allows some sort of financial chicanery that is the real business.
But…but…it worked when they did the demo…
https://otter.ai/
>> Re yesterdays discussion (towards the end) about late comments
My $0.02 is that the proposed change could more likely have late night NA posts missed by those across the Pond. I vote leave it as is.
(Vested interest, who me??)
>> I’ve noticed a lot more $10 and $20 totals on gas pumps lately too. I usually look when I drive up, and I think I’m seeing more short fills and even money fills than I was. Times are tough already.
But Joe promised that the inflation was transitory…
>> No local retired guys with a commercial ticket wanting to make a few dollars? Odd. Wonder what they are paying.
Come out of retirement to drive a propane truck?
Sure, why not…I mean, what are the odds of getting smashed by an illegal border crosser driving with no license or no insurance…or a bridge collapsing while you’re driving across it? Come on, that
neverhardly ever happens!“See Conjoined Twins Brittany and Abby Hensel’s First Dance at Wedding to Josh Bowling”
https://www.eonline.com/news/1398464/see-conjoined-twins-brittany-and-abby-hensels-first-dance-at-wedding-to-josh-bowling
“In a newly resurfaced video of her November 2021 wedding, Abby danced with her husband Josh Bowling, along with her sister Brittany Hensel—with whom she is a dicephalic parapagus conjoined twin—for the special day.”
Ah, they kept their marriage in 2021 secret, I don’t blame them.
@Jenny: Aha, I didn’t realize that you had such challenging terrain. And doing this on top of a pile of snow…not fun…
That’s got to be a tough life. Nice to see that they are living it as well as possible.
It’s Easter morning here. I couldn’t sleep, so I got up and went for a walk. I came across the local church congregation playing and singing hymns at dawn in the graveyard. Seems odd to me, but also a nice tradition of bringing a respectful, joyous, celebration to a place that one normally associates with grief. The pastor also plays a mean flugelhorn!
Best Paschal wishes to you all, unless you happen to be, Jewish or Orthodox, in which case, remind me in near the end of April, or at the beginning of May…