Cool and clear. Dunno what the forecast says, but I’m hoping for a nice day. Yesterday certainly was, if a bit windy. Spring is cooler this year, and it’s nice so far…
Spent Saturday morning at my non-prepping hobby meeting, and enjoyed sharing with fellow enthusiasts. A chance encounter at a yard sale has led to half a dozen years of enjoyment with other humans. Get out and meet some people!
Spent longer than I expected loading the truck, and headed up. Got most of the yard mowed before losing the light. I’ll finish up today, then I’ll probably work on the sprinkler pump. I will also probably take some time to weed and thin the garden. Haven’t heard from my buddy yet, so I’m a little concerned that he might be ill… but I’ll find out later today.
Played a few games of eight ball with D1 last night. I’m rusty, but still better than a 14 yo who has only a few dozen games under her belt… Go me!
It was nice having some time with just her around.
The world is going nuts, as it does, and I hope you all take your joy where you can find it.
Stack up some good times. They’ll help later.
And stack all the other stuff too. That’ll help anytime.
nick
Ah, yes, the ever-popular Break Dancing Geezers exhibition team.
The tables at the public gatherings offer a variety of pain medications and chiropractic services.
Ah, yes, the ever-popular Break Dancing Geezers exhibition bodhrán team.
FIFY 🙂
At the Moon Pie festival in TN they have synchronized wading, a bunch of old ladies dancing in wading pool. Yes, I have attended the festival.
Every couple of months, the right-hand screen on my computer stops working. Only, it isn’t a hardware problem: the mouse pointer is still visible on that screen, just nothing else. Uninstall and re-install the video drivers, hop on one leg, plug and re-plug cables, pray to random gods, and after a couple of hours it starts working again.
Weird, and not how I had intended to spend my Sunday morning…
When the classic symptoms of Covid hit me, we were on the tail end of our abbreviated 2022 TN trip in Chattanooga. The worst of the gastro-intestinal effects hit my system at the Moon Pie store.
Laptop using a dock or a desktop? I have a Dell work laptop that was doing that with the Dell dock. I updated the dock’s firmware and it resolved the issue.
Check the power saving settings, specifically the ones that put the monitors to sleep. Barring that, delete the secondary monitor and reboot the system and allow the OS to reinstall the stuff for the second monitor.
You are supposed to drink an RC Cola while eating the Moonpie.
We also have a cornbread festival close by. Cornbread, the true stuff, looks like a pancake. We also have a biscuit festival, a tomato festival with a huge tomato fight, and the one for where I live, The October Sky Festival. Named such because the October Sky movie was filmed in town with several locals having bit parts but mostly extras for the crowd.
The movie scenes in town were filmed at night with the production crew using lots of huge lights. Several of the streets were covered in gravel for the duration of the filming. Many of the local building fronts were redone to meet the needs of the movie. The fronts still exist.
I didn’t eat any Moon Pies. We had dinner about an hour before at this place in Chattanooga.
https://1885grill.com/
I’m sure the food was very good, but that evening was when the bug hit. I had the classic loss of taste for a few days.
The upside is that I couldn’t taste the lousy hotel hot breakfast the next morning at the Hampton Inn near Lookout Mountain.
Mr. RickH, this is probably not what you want to hear. I bit the bullet and went to Dell and got an Alienware gaming PC. I wanted a PC to handle VR and started researching makers, local builders, etc. Alienware turned out to be right in the middle of what I wanted and has pretty good support and extended warranties. 4+ years and all is still working after Windows upgrades. I shopped on Amazon and got a good deal on an Alienware curved monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
If pennies are a concern, I would try to find a local builder. When you cut out the fancy lights, fans, etc., you can get the price down.
The only concern I had was making sure the hardware supported what I wanted to do. VR is demanding and that hardware handles most 2D games.
Flight simulators can tax a system, so don’t skimp if that is on the list.
Any sign of it coming back yet? 😉
Oh my what a tasteless remark. . . . . . 😉
—-
sun’s up and so am I. 69F with light overcast/ some low clouds. Windy too.
First coffee pod is in the cup, 2 more to go then I can start drinking the good stuff. (If I’m drinking pods, I make three on the smallest cup size, into one giant cup. Because I only allow myself one cup of coffee a day.)
n
@Lynn
They are not all batshiite crazy.
And they used to insist that there were no camels in Iran.
@Bob Sprowl
All of their citizens who are abroad have ten days to go home before they are
declared stateless shipped home.A good start.
Sydney knife killer’s secret life as an escort: Surfer, 40, offered services on sex work sites before shopping center massacre that left six dead and nine-month-old fighting for life – as family brand attack ‘truly horrific’
– just ordinary crazy then…
n
Who Pays the Taxes?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/04/who-pays-the-taxes.php
FICA for self-employed is 15.3% up to 168k for 2024–it’s an income tax. (Yeah, part of it is deductible)
How many jurisdictions have actual tax rates near 50% for people close to that $168,000 cutoff, if all income taxes are included?
Two mugs coffee, dark and unaltered.
One double-egg bagel sandwich with double ham and cheese.
No cookies, yet.
Heads Up:
Mother’s Day (USA) Sunday, May 12, 2024
Make reservations, order something, or do whatever you need to do before it is too late and you become a stereotype for another year.
Dang, I was just thinking that a cookie would finish my egg and sausage “cwa-sant” off nicely.
I had some Laurna Doone biscuits somewhere…
n
Dang, I’m seriously under cookied up here. I’ll have to adjust that on the next trip.
n
The local dollar store used to have Goya Chocolate Maria cookies at $1/7 oz.
The it went to $1.25.
Then they disappeared about a year ago.
This week I found four packages stashed away in a box.
Best by date is late May 2024.
I have not opened any, yet. I finished three open packages of other cookies this week, including the last two genuine Girl Scout cookies.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2024/04/13/new-npr-ceo-haunted-woke-anti-trump-tweets-editor-exposes-bias
One of many things that didn’t get taken care of in 2020-2022 was ending funding for public radio and television. Well before the TDS set in the leftist bias was evident. I was challenged several times over the years when I made that observation, and my reply was always the same: If NPR was a balanced organization, they would have a senior news analyst to balance the far-left opinions of Daniel Schorr, who served them up from 1985 until his death in 2010.
And BTW, when I pulled up his wiki entry to confirm dates, I found it curiously devoid of information about his NPR years, including the date that he started. Incredibly, his NPR obit similarly omits that date–it must be inferred from his firing from CNN. I’m willing to bet that it would be very difficult to find audio or transcripts of his rants on the NPR website to serve as examples of the long-time bias, even though his 2007 book is readily available.
I always resented Mother’s Day, because whatever I did was wrong. Send her just a card, and give her a call? Too little. Send her flowers? Unoriginal, everybody does that. Do nothing – which, in the end, was my go to? You can imagine.
I lived across an ocean, WTF did she want? Unspoken answer: for me not to live across an ocean. Tough, kids lives don’t revolve around their parents.
It was weird, though, because she wasn’t as difficult in other areas.
I wonder what Schorr did to incur the wrath of Ted Turner in the “plantation house” (Techwood campus) era.
CNN is back at the plantation this year.
Why is hush money payment to a porn star a crime? I should be able to pay anyone, any amount, to keep silent. I would wager that most of the Kennedy clan has paid lots of money to cover their indiscretions.
Camelot is sacred to Boomer voters of both parties. Plenty of 70-ish voters bought into Robert Francis’ “Mexican Bobby Kennedy” schtick in three statewide elections here in Texas.
The criminal case is shaky, but a loss for the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will become another score for Big Mike to settle with the Orange Devil.
Big Mike is coming. He’s gonna get that Devil first and then move on to punishing the rest of ’em.
And “the rest of ’em” means about half the country.
Trump can still run for President from a NY prison cell.
Finishing taxes today, I noticed an extra paperwork complication in the form of $90 of dividends from my Vanguard Total Stock Market shares came from REIT holdings in the fund.
That’s a first for me.
And I’ll bet you thought that VTSMX just held stocks. Sweet Summer Child.
I think I own a piece of my wife’s nephew’s house through VTSMX. That might be interesting to investigate.
VTSMX is a monster. Your retirement money at work.
How many classified files were at the Kennedy Compound on Palm Beach, just up the road from Mar A Lago, when that place was cleaned out and disinfected after the sale in the 90s.
How about sitting representatives and senators, covering up their indiscretions with tax dollars. That scandal pops up from time to time but nothing much seems to be done about it. Funny, that.
Monday was the eclipse. Tuesday was 3+ inches of rain in the morning and almost an inch in the evening. While it was raining like crazy in the morning there was a huge blast of lighting. Shook the house.
On Wednesday I noticed the led xmas I have strung up as a pilot light were out. I reset the GFCI. It trips once in a great while. Today I noticed the battery chargers on the tractors had no lights. I checked the breakers. I found a spare charger and it lights up at each outlet so my extension cords are good.
Northern still sells the chargers for $24.99. Shipping is up to $9.99. Plus tax. Free ship to store but it’s at least an hour to the store at Braker and I-35. Plus gas. It would be neat to drive by the old house and also see how much North Lamar has depressingly turned into a slum area from five years ago.
Mail order is the way to go.
The slums are slowly getting displaced by Soy Boy apartments. Any land along the only commuter rail line, crossing Lamar near the old Highand Mall turned ACC campus, is too valuable.
Eventually, the Soy Boy housing will become tenement slums, but that’s something which won’t happen for a while.
Northern charged tax on the order including shipping but at 6.25%. Cool. I don’t live in a city or town.
So the train tracks along Airport have commuter traffic now? It must be pretty awesome to have to wait for the freaking train to cross Lamar during rush hour traffic. I could miss all of that by taking Burnet Rd down to 45th and cross over to Lamar. Actually quicker was catching Woodrow and then Burnet Rd to 45th was about the same without the tension.
“Transition to Jimmy Carter Era is Complete”
https://areaocho.com/transition-to-jimmy-carter-era-is-complete/
“The Biden administration is supposedly pissed off that Israel didn’t inform them of the strike in Damascus that killed an Iranian General. Do you know why Israel didn’t inform anyone? Because Biden is a Neville Chamberlain kind of milquetoast jellyfish. He called Netanyahu and asked him not to retaliate for the over 300 missiles that were fired at his country overnight because, “they didn’t hit anything of value.””
“Except there were casualties, including a 7 year old girl who was struck by shrapnel. I’m sure someone thought that their 7 year old daughter was of value. The only reason that there were few casualties was that the Israeli systems were able to intercept 99% of the missiles before they hit anything.”
So that is why this feels so familiar.
“Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Subscription Gets a Big Price Cut”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/tesla-s-full-self-driving-subscription-is-now-half-price
“The move comes shortly after the company started requiring new buyers to get an on-the-road demo of FSD before taking ownership of their vehicles.”
“After their test-drive, buyers will have to pay for the feature in order to keep using it. Musk also recently announced that “significant improvements” are coming to FSD every two weeks moving forward, with promises it will be “shining bright” by the end of this month or early May.”
The automakers are desperate to tap software in vehicles as a new source of revenue.
Immediate revenue is secondary to having a software patent which can be licensed.
Plus, apps and touch screens offer a dopamine hit which a button or a knob cannot duplicate.
I often wonder if that is part of why EVs are so popular with a certain audience. Even if they are charge at home, the owners still have to interact with the app and feel that high when they input the right sequence and start the power flowing.
Maybe they think they are on “Star Trek”. Mike Okuda’s LCARS directly influenced the way the iPad worked, which was in development before the phone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRlSQiYnDLI
If you don’t know about the Barchetta in the last season of “Picard”, the link may be a spoiler.
Another distraction. The FSD feature has fallen behind systems incorporating other sensors beyond cameras, and TSLA continues to tank.
My brother has a Prius. He likes it. It is a cute car in an AMC Gremlin or Pacer way. It’s roomy inside. The problem with the Prius is that, and it might just be my brother, is that the dash has lots of things to play with.
Current mileage, average mileage, how much is electricity and how much is engine.
One trip from the house to the HEB, all of 4 miles, and I won’t get in his car anymore. He doesn’t drive, he plays with the video game on his instrument cluster. And I’m on the side of the car that almost brushed a telephone pole.
I despise touchscreen controls in cars. But then, I’m one of those throwbacks who thinks that it’s important for the driver to keep his eyes on the road and avoid running into things.
Simple; because ANYTHING Donald Trump does is a crime, even if Donald Trump didn’t do it. In this case, Trump is accused of paying “hush money” to Stormy Daniels, even though Trump denies paying it and Daniels denies receiving it. And apparently one of Trump’s scuzz-ball lawyers is responsible for it.
>> The only reason that there were few casualties was that the Israeli systems were able to intercept 99% of the missiles before they hit anything.”
So what happens when one of the missiles that the Iron Dome intercepts is packed with ‘dirty’ uranium? Will enough survive to rain down somewhere in Israel? Just asking for a friend…
I believe that someone once again did the Iranians a favor and bumped off a “perfumed prince” who was out of favor with the leadership. Someone inside may have even tipped off Mossad.
The “retailiation” was telegraphed days in advance and consisted of some fairly slow moving hardware.
Any EW platform in the US arsenial capable of flying off a carrier or out of Italy was in the air off the coast of Israel listening to the traffic when the drones and missles arrived. The Iranians are not stupid.
It is too bad that no one does us that kind of favor starting with the Ukrainian born Vindman twins.
Car screens are not a distraction but talking on a cell phone will get you a ticket.
Quoting myself : Simple; because ANYTHING Donald Trump does is a crime, even if Donald Trump didn’t do it. In this case, Trump is accused of paying “hush money” to Stormy Daniels, even though Trump denies paying it and Daniels denies receiving it. And apparently one of Trump’s scuzz-ball lawyers is responsible for it.
And the “scuzz-ball lawyer” was apparently Michael Cohen, who is alleged to have been having an affair with “Ms. Daniels”, with a goal of extorting Trump’s money.
https://twitter.com/RickyDoggin/status/1779569256168132732
Yes, and that’s one of the great fears; a “dirty” bomb. I certainly HOPE that the IDF ground force is wandering around looking at the missile casings with Geiger counters checking to see if this has already happened.
The bigger the explosion, the more the radioisotopes would be dispersed. The problem is that most people would be utterly panicked by a “dirty bomb”, far more than the actual threat would justify. It would be the textbook definition of a “terror weapon”, and the IDF would be entirely justified in an actual nuclear response.
I suggest that interested parties reread – or at least READ – Herman Kahn’s “On Thermonuclear War”.
The Cannonball run by Ed Bolian in 2013 was the first to make extensive use of mapping apps and smart phones. Law enforcement across the country went bonkers, especially in Texas.
Just *touching* a handheld electronic device in Austin while a vehicle is in motion will result in a $500 ticket. When we first moved here, APD used to set up “Waze traps” on I-35 at the city limits.
A large part of the population still believe that the masks work.
My neighbors were once again out doing yard work wearing masks today.
Allergies? Maybe, but the husband is a prof at a Fancy Lad school so I’m thinking Good Germans.
He was pushing his battery lawn mower again, taking all morning to do his lawn while I zipped across mine in about 15 minutes with my 7.25 HP old school Craftsman.
I swear the neighbors look have a look of fear on their faces if they’re out when I kick open my side gate and emerge from the back yard with the mower roaring.
We are within an inch or two of setting a new amount of snow in a season record for 2023-2024. Keeps the news cycle happy.
Our younger cardigan corgi is leaving the yard at will, she scales the 4’ chain link with ease. I installed chainlink compatible electric fence insulator standoffs and ran 17 gauge aluminum wire on both sides of the yard. I used the entire 250’ spool. I need to go along the fence and cut away / trim back all vegetation, install my ground post (awaaaay from the chain link thank you), install the charger on a stout post and light it up. She’s smart but impulsive. My hope is she will zap her nose when she rears up on her hind legs predatory to going over the fence. That she is too impulsive to learn to listen for and glide between the tick tick ticks.
I have been having a field day on Shop Goodwill . com
The solid silver (Gemeinhardt M2S) for which I paid a pittance needed less than $200 in repairs to make it good. I love how it plays. Responsive and better at the edges of its range than my long time 3SH Gemeinhardt.
The Bodhran for which I cast the winning bid was hand made by an Ozzie Reilly of Bespoke Bodhransin Ireland. The wayback machine had some nice info about him though it seems the era of Covid put the kabosh on his business. The drum is in impeccable condition and I paid embarrassingly little for what retailed over $300 ten years ago. It sounds fabulous.
I’ve been using the site to fill in some gaps in my musical instrument wish list.
Taking up the cello with the bright blue crappy cheap cello I found at Goodwillin person six or so weeks ago is progressing. I can sight read simple tunes and put the bow more or less in the neighborhood of where I intend. I will replace the terrible cello of blueness sooner rather than later.
ShopGoodwill .com has an instrument built in west Germany in 1971 that looks really really good. At the Orange County Goodwill in Santa Ana. unfort it’s in person pick up only within a narrow set of days and hours. I have family members within an hour of there but don’t think they would successfully pick up the instrument and ship it. Too bad because it’s a nice instrument and willlikely sell for under $150.
Mounds and mounds of snow. Many downed branches to address. Spring is approaching but still a ways off.
Hmm. My comment might have gotten stuck in moderation.
…
Never mind
Or thank you
Grin
Unmoderated !
@lynn is my hero
n
Made it home. Long day, but work was accomplished.
n
When it comes to masking after a “dirty bomb” attack, even relatively primitive masks will help. Even a simple cloth mask will block larger particles, and a dust filter mask will remove most of the dust. A lot of “radioactive fallout” after a dirty bomb isn’t deadly in the short term, and at age 73, I don’t have a whole lot of “long term” to worry about.
Thanks Lynn!
You’re both hero status in my book.
The fallout and dust is why homeland suggested having plastic sheet and duct tape as part of your preps. You seal yourself into your home, cover all the air vents, and wait for it to fall or get washed out.
Someone got ridiculed in the press for that.
———–
Speaking of which, remember the congress weasel that was the victim of blackmail, but got prosecuted by fedgov for the way he took the money out of the bank?? Something about “structured payments”… so yeah, paying someone to do or not do a thing might be a crime, if they hate you.
n
added- I’m using the snaillax shiatsu shoulder massager on my lower back atm. It’s awesome. Might save me from my folly of bending over and fixing my mower deck today.
Today went down the toilet.
Hubby slash Boyfriend slash Whatever slash The guy I’ve been living with since about 1981 and we raised kids and ALL of the associated stuff that goes with life….. My best friend ever…..
Well. Today, after supper, he was complaining that it was hot. And it’s sticky, too. He always does that. It’s that time of the year. So I shut up the house and turned on the heat pump. He changed out of his jean shorts and put on his jammy shorts. Sat on the bed and said “that a/c system is great” and laid down…..
And fucking died. Just like that. Oh, yeah, EMS did what they do but he was gone before I called 911. Beautiful blue eyes and dilated pupils, ya know..
What the fuck.
I don’t know how SS is going to work regarding spouse benefits. I think I can get by with my SS and the 401k giving me $800 a month. I’ve been planning for such. Because you know, plan for the worst. . But to suddenly have to do it? Oh, hell no.
Sure is quiet here.
I need to puke. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
Sorry for bothering y’all….
A month shy of 80.
Paul, for what it’s worth, you aren’t bothering us. A burden is lighter when carried by many.
I’m sorry for your loss isn’t enough, but it was more comforting than I thought it would be to hear it, so I say it. I’m sorry for your loss.
You have friends here, reach out if you need to.
nick
Paul, that’s awful news. I am so sorry.
You are not bothering anyone. Share anything you need to. Believe it or not, you have friends all around the world who are willing to listen and help.
Paul I’m so sorry.
What a terrible shock. I hope the kids are nearby and can help.
We‘ve had a lot of friends die, some similarly to your best friend and partner. A minute at a time is how you get through it in the aftermath of grievous loss.
I’m so sorry.
@Paul: Sorry to hear about your partner. Feel free to write whatever you want to here – we are happy to listen, and help where we can.
So sorry Paul.
@Paul: My condolences.
@Paul: So hard for you. My condolences.
@Paul, so sorry for your loss. You’ve got (virtual) friends here, don’t hesitate to reach out.
paul, sorry to hear the news. I can’t add much to what has already been said, but eventually the shock will abate a little, and you can get on with the serious grieving. Sorry, but that’s the way it works. Lean on us, even though we are just virtual support. It will help.
Meanwhile, I can’t wait for you to almost get back to your pleasant and quirky posts. We are all the better for them. Almost, because we are never the same, just changed from our experiences.
Hug Buddy. Pet one of the unnamed cats. That will help some. They understand more than we might think.