Cooler but still clear. Should be another nice day before any storm effects hit us. I saw a high of 88F at the house yesterday, and a low of 76F. That’s a smaller range, and lower temps overall. Enjoy!
Did auction stuff in the morning. Then in the afternoon I did one pickup. Got the kid from school. Grocery shopped. Made dinner. Domestic bliss.
Spent some time chatting with an auctioneer I don’t see very often, and my neighbor. No new insights, but both are feeling the economic squeeze. It’s wide spread and spreading. HEB had Prime chuck roast on sale, so I bought some. They also had it sliced thin and packaged as “steaks”. That’s a very inexpensive cut for a steak… almost a ‘hillbilly’ steak. The market is definitely moving downscale.
Today I’ve got to do some auction in the afternoon, but first I will do more cleaning and putting away around the house. Might find time to do some gear testing in between. I need to find my range bag…
Shooting may be a perishable skill if you are trying for Annie Oakley levels of performance, but if you have a solid foundation, I think you can get acceptable to good results, even with time off. I always start a range day with a “draw and fire” point shooting exercise- cold gub, cold me, and no time to aim. I usually put the whole magazine on the paper. That’s pretty OK in my estimation and a better assessment than a clean target with tight groups at the end of a day of exercises and practice.
We’ll see how it goes. As long as I don’t embarrass myself…
Get out there and practice a skill. Even better if you can work in some time with your friends or network, or use the time to MAKE friends and expand your network.
Stack some time on task, and some buckets…
nick
Can’t say for guns, because I haven’t shot mine in a long time. However, I shoot a bow pretty regularly, and that skill is very perishable. I’m talking a bare bow, no fancy sighting help.
When I practice daily, every arrow goes onto the target, and I can get a decent cluster in the center. After only a week or two off, maybe ⅓ to ½ of the arrow miss the target entirely. Granted, it’s a small target – maybe 18 inches, shooting at 70 feet or so (45cm / 20m). Still, it’s always shocking how fast one loses the skill.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s a video of what an arrow looks like in flight. Wiggle, wiggle, the amazing thing is that it finds the target 🙂
Of course, guns are easier, because you always have sights, and bullets fly straighter (less drop) than arrows.
Costco’s steak selection was awful when I browsed the store on Sunday while waiting for the Car Keys Express people attempting to pair a remote with my car.
We usually do something special on the nights after my wife rounds at the mental hospital once a month, but all I bought inside the store was a bag of chicken nuggets and Panda brand dumplings that our kids don’t like.
This time of year, the new admissions in the psych ward tend to draw heavily from the younger end of the population not handling Fancy Lad U very well only a few weeks into the semester. This week’s star patient was a Lad from Baylor.
I hate working with most Baylor grads.
Cool and quiet so far.
Something is in the garage, it knocked over stuff and ate a package of freezed dried food.
D2 isn’t feeling well this morning. Test today. Hmm.
n
Obvious conclusion: D2 was in the garage.
Brad, that was cool. Thanks!
I have watched the spiraling path of a rifle bullet by viewing from behind the shooter. That is also rather amazing.
The new return processes at Big River through the UPS Store are wreaking havoc at the locations near my house.
The UPS Store near the office was mass chaos/confusion today.
Some customers are more equal than others and able to drop off without a shipping box. Others are second class citizens who better have the item boxed/taped and ready for a label.
Compounding the chaos are the Happy Returns customers.
Retail will have to be relearned the hard way.
@nick
Shooting may be a perishable skill if you are trying for Annie Oakley levels of performance, but if you have a solid foundation, I think you can get acceptable to good results, even with time off
I’m no Annie Oakley but I’ll brag a little. My husband and I took a conceal carry class this spring to re-up our stuff. I hadn’t shot for a long time (brain injury, recovering from various insults to my flesh). A very long time.
the two of us not only passed the more challenging than usual qualifier, we were in the top few scores of the class. I was outside the required area once, everything else was in a nice group. Shooting my 38 SW j frame. Instructor wasn’t happy I was on a revolver but that’s what my itty bitty child hands can manage.
If you’ve laid a good foundation it’s remarkable what your muscles hang on to.
from yesterday
@brad
I expect I’ll have to shell out the dough for my first set of hearing aids. Maybe the second set, a few years from now, can be over-the-counter.
I’ve been using my OTC Jabra Enhance hearing aids for a couple months now. No complaints and a lot of relief from the constant utterance of What? They were around $800 shipped. Paid for from my health savings account, it’s been a win.
If it’s the typical non-profit, their IT has been built by “fungal growth
That’s exactly what they’ve got. And very very poor security hygiene. I’m tackling it a little at a time. The security piece I’m going to get a lot of resistance to changing. I won’t tackle that until I’ve got a genuinely easy solution and probably on the cusp of the next officer elections. That’ll be when three of the heaviest users of the poor security will retire from the BoD. They’re amazing people and really pour ridiculous amounts of time into the work. Changing the security is going to be disruptive and I don’t want to interrupt their flow. At changeover I should be able to get buy in from the others.
You’ll do them a huge service, if you can just figure out what all the existing pieces are, and how they fit together
Ding ding ding – that’s been my first priority. They are wise enough to recognize that they have no clue what they have or how it fits together. I’m better than most say that kind of analysis and documentation. It’s a big task and they have a lot of hidden processes that rely on the tech.
Overly complex and fragile
One of my goals while on the board is to simplify their tech, ensure they have backups and documentation, and make it robust.
And thank you all for host recommendations.
I appreciate the help.
Regarding rising food costs.
I started (seriously) raising rabbits for consumption in 2020. Feed costs for the rabbits have gone up substantially and we’ve changed feed brands and how we feed in response. Cost of hay and quality has also been frustrating. This fall I bought four mini rounds of hay grown locally. I unrolled the bales in my driveway enough to make the bales fit in 33 gallon trash cans. It’s more work to use the rounds but my hay bill this winter will be half and the quality is better. This summer we fed a much higher ration of freshly pulled weeds. More work and slower growth but helped contain costs.
Two does and a buck produced enough for a rabbit a week, and I can get two meals from a rabbit. It’s about $8 per rabbit. It’s a high quality protein and the footprint in the yard is small. My labor increased to 15 minutes a day from 5 for the weed pulling, and they produced more poo from the less dense nutrition.
(Added) I also use care where I pull weeds as vetch has rapidly invaded the green patches I used to harvest. Vetch is good feed however its invasive nature renders the poo unusable – I would have to compost it to kill the seeds and I’ve yet to get a compost pile hot enough for that. The great thing about rabbit is it’s a cold manure – if it’s clean of weed there’s no need or reason to compost.
Plus that poo had more weed matter in it which reduces its value in the garden (weed seeds anyone?)
It’s still a good project and we will keep going. I’ve got the last eight grow outs doing their thing. Last processing will be end of October. We will carry four adults through winter. We are headed to New Zealand for a month furst quarter next year which is complicating my breeding plans. Still working out options so we don’t pull up short on meat next year.
I plan pretty far ahead.
And the deep state finally lowers the boom on Musk and Starship:
https://x.com/peterrhague/status/1833535376092500463
The Real Life Tony Stark left himself wide open for that attack. Boca Chica is trashed.
The delay is a useful distraction as October 8 approaches, however. TSLA is up nearly 5% this afternoon.
The robotaxi event is happening on the Warner backlot. Maybe Tony is going to jump out of the Johnny Cab and run up the steps of Gotham City Hall like Adam West’s “Batman”.
Yes, I know that Adam West’s “Batman” was a 20th Century Fox show, but the Gotham City Hall facade sits on the Warner backlot. I’ve seen it first hand.
Fox only paid for one shot of the Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder pulling up in the Batmobile, jumping out of the car, and running up those steps. The producers recycled the clip repeatedly for three seasons.
“Epic Fail: ‘There is NO progress on climate’ – U.S. still consumes 82% of our energy from fossil fuels in 2023 – despite hundreds of billions spent by Biden-Harris – In 2023 world burned more fossil fuels than at any other time in history’”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/09/03/epic-fail-there-is-no-progress-on-climate-u-s-still-consumes-82-of-our-energy-from-fossil-fuels-in-2023-despite-hundreds-of-billions-spent-by-biden-harris/
“In 2023 the world burned more fossil fuels than at any other time in history. Here are the facts:
“Global energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 1.7%, driven by China and India.”
“Fossil fuel consumption in 2023 reached a record high, rising by 1.5% to 505 exajoules.”
“China is by far the world’s largest consumer of primary energy, burning 34% of world consumption 170.7.”
“Almost no country is meeting their UN anti-fossil fuel targets.”
To change any of this will require less people on the planet.
“Wind Turbines Destroyed by Typhoon Yagi”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/climate_tv_video/wind-turbines-destroyed-by-typhoon-yagi/
“Drone footage of the giant turbines blown over by Typhoon Yagi at Mulan Bay, Wenchang City”
Oops.
Had a productive time at the range. 40S&W doesn’t have as much felt recoil as I thought it would. Put 4 boxes thru 2 hole punchers, and was “paper plate”* for most of the groups, or better. Aiming helps. I did find I was ‘pushing’ and occasionally flinching. Not something I’m used to doing and both hole punchers were new to me.
Put some work in with the EDC too.
15 of 16 in the head at 10 yards with fast aimed fire and a reload, at the end of the session was pretty dang good. I’ve been off a long time, and never was really a ‘marksman’ to any degree. I prefer ‘snap shooting’ or ‘point and shoot’ which was the first system I was trained/exposed to, and it’s more than good enough for MOA**
Tried a new to me range on the recommendation of a friend… and liked it. Nice place and closer to home than the club I had been occasionally visiting ever since my local range closed. They allow kids if supervised one on one, so that’s good too.
Wasn’t a cheap day though, but necessary and long overdue. I need to be more pro-active. And there are a couple of minor changes I need to make to the tools to better fit my stubby fingers, which is good to know.
n
* paper plate – all holes covered by one paper plate, ie 10″
** MOA – minute of @sshole, play on minute of angle…
Achtung! Ze old days are coming back, ja!
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-put-temporary-controls-all-land-borders-source-says-2024-09-09/
Cue John Barrowman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca7063tXIP4
“We’re marching to a faster pace …. Look out here comes the Master Race …”
They are lying. They are going make noise about border controls and stopping schengen but actually do nothing. I’ll believe they are doing something real when they stop the welfare and start airlifting muzzis and other non-Europeans back to their place of origin, including their children.
Auslander Raus!
We need to do the same in the USA.
There’s a debate on the TV tonight. Might be fun but I have other things to do.
Matt Taibbi’s suggested drinking game for the debate:
DRINK EVERY TIME:
IN THE POST-DEBATE COMMENTARY, DRINK WHEN:
FINALLY, THE WALTER KIRN RULE:
You must finish your bottle and arm yourself if a technical breakdown or broadcast interruption takes place in the middle of a one-sided debate.
https://www.racket.news/p/official-donald-trump-kamala-harris?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1042&post_id=148730420&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=trgq1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I would be sh*tface drunk after just 10 minutes of the ramblings between two egotistical, pig-headed, self-absorbed, clowns. Both of them are jerks and my impossible and unrealistic wish is that both lose the general election to “None of the Above”.
Shorter game:
The 1995 Willie Brown Flashback Clip of the Day
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/09/10/the-1995-willie-brown-flashback-clip-of-the-day-n3794311
One shot for each Kneepads appearance.
Double-shot for speaking.
There is value in watching something with your own eyes. But there is value in organizing your button collection too. Or your sock drawer.
How you spend your life is up to you, but some range time, or canning some veg, might be a better use of it.
n
“Wiggle, wiggle, the amazing thing is that it finds the target”
All that wiggling dissipates energy. Carbon fiber shafts are lighter and stiffer than wood or aluminum and have become standard: less wiggle, dissipate less energy, and fly further.
“Hogan’s Heroes” starts at 9 PM CT on MeTV.
I’ve got the boxed set ripped to my server…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/texas/article-13834001/Venezuelan-gang-Tren-Aragua-takes-Texas-motel-rampant-drug-use-prostitution-crime-happening-children.html
– el paso
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13834137/Firefighter-wanted-hero-arrested-starting-blaze-killed-137-people.html
– the others arrested for starting the fire (in Chile) wanted more overtime.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13835245/Omaha-Northwest-school-shooting-lockdown-stomach.html
– kid shot another kid. Do the photos look like the Omaha Nebraska you have in your head?
n
OMG!!!1!!!11 IT’s RISKY!!!
Like Musk is gonna intentionally or thru negligence kill daddy warbucks…
And as to the whole “no airlock, the whole vehicle is depressurized…” isn’t that exactly how shuttle worked when they had the bay doors open?
n
No. There was an airlock between the crew cabin and the bay, and a separate airlock between the crew cabin and outside. Dragon capsules are too small to have an airlock.
Prior to the shuttle, for Gemini and Apollo, spacewalks were done that way.
The Shuttle had one airlock leading to the bay which moved from middeck to an external configuration for the space station access. The entry/exit hatch on the side did not have an airlock and was so small that astronauts had to “scooch” on their butts across the threshhold.
I’ve done the maneuver boarding the training Shuttle at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
The bay was not pressurized.
Louis nails it in this unfortunate and profanity laced video. I’ve been pointing this issue out in discussions about the “returns” marketplace, and the proliferation of the throwaway or “fake” chinese brands. Amazon has allowed the chinese crap and counterfeit goods to poison the well. You cannot trust the listings, or the products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Y19nSPvC4
n
Buffett is selling big chunks of stock.
He likes cash better than companies at the moment.
emphasis added.
n
“Hogan’s Heroes” starts at 9 PM CT on MeTV.
The engineer who mentored me when I graduated from TAMU and went to work for TESCO (later TXU) was a WWII vet. Tom spent 18 months in a German POW camp, I cannot remember which one. He was 6’4″, a B-17 pilot, and was freed by American troops in 1945. He came out of the camp weighing 108 lbs. He was shot down on his second trip over Germany.
Tom conducted all of the acceptance tests on the TESCO power plants from 1948 to 1975. He taught me everything about thermodynamics that TAMU missed.
I can’t watch Hogan’s Heroes after knowing Tom and his story. He used to say it was a good day when the five gallon bucket of “soup” that their 14 ??? guy hooch got daily actually had potato chunks in it.
When I knew Tom, he weighed 350 lbs. He swore he would never go hungry again after the POW camp. I do not blame him.
Buffett is selling big chunks of stock.
He likes cash better than companies at the moment.
That means that he does not trust any big company to survive the coming USA federal financial apocalypse.
I hope that a few people got converted to Trump by the debate. From what I can tell, Kamala lies freely and liberally. She is trying to occupy a huge portion of the center by being everything to everyone.
If Trump was effective, the next four years will not be a total disaster. If Kamala wins the election in eight weeks, she will hasten the federal financial apocalypse. Regardless, we are heading to tough times.
The Drudge Report is reporting that Trump lost the debate big time. I am continuously amazed how much Drudge hates Trump. So much so that he slants everything about Trump and Vance as total failures.
“Zero Fact Checks on Commiela Harris Is the Real Story of the Debate”
https://thelibertydaily.com/zero-fact-checks-commiela-harris-is-real-story/
“ABC News’ debate “moderators” David Muir and Linsey Davis were partisan hacks who operated on behalf of Kamala Harris throughout the night. They “fact-checked” Donald Trump 11 times while allowing multiple lies from Harris to go unchecked.”
“In fact, they didn’t fact-check a single one of her many lies.”
“And this is a good thing… at least it could be. For the Trump campaign, it’s a GREAT thing if they choose to capitalize on it. They are already noting how badly the moderators acted…”
I am not surprised. I doubt that Trump was surprised at their ill treatment of him.
The left thinks Kamala won, because Trump let himself be provokes. The right thinks Trump won, because Kamala told lies (that were never fact-checked). Presumably, that means that the debate changed no one’s opinion.
Will there be another debate?