Sat. Nov. 30, 2024 – headed home

By on November 30th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

COLD. Crisp is too generous. It was 34F when I went to bed at 2am. Winter is here, at least at the BOL. It will warm up, but hoooboy, it’s chilly.

Didn’t spend a lot of time outside Friday. Did some small things in the house. Mainly I got down the Christmas decorations and lights and put them up. Later we put up the tree and decorated. Ate leftovers that were just as good or better than yesterday, and stayed inside where it was warm.

Watched “Alone” until early morning hours, then went to bed.

Today will be wrapping up and heading home. I have a pickup about 2 hours away that has to happen before 2pm, so I’m out of here before noon. W and the girls will follow a bit later. I’d like to stay, but it didn’t work out this trip.

Lessons learned this trip were that I have a lot of rice in buckets up here. I need a bit more of everything else…

Now to get busy, so I can get home, and adjust the stacks there.

Take stock, make adjustments, stack what’s needed.

nick

32 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Nov. 30, 2024 – headed home"

  1. brad says:

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

    All of the Harry Potter books and movies are pretty good. I only had two complaints:

    – As the book progressed, the lack of tight editing was more and more obvious. She was so successful that she didn’t have to work so hard any more, so the books got longer and wordier.

    – The last couple got really, really dark. Maybe that was intentional, matching the transition of the characters (and target readers) from tweens to moody teens? I thought the change was a bit much though, from funny, fun-loving books to death and murder…

    Wrangler from Boot Barn

    Yep, that’s my standard. And I do need to order some more shirts. But. The last time Boot Barn had some shirts on sale, I put them in the shopping cart, went to check out and – full price? I contacted help, and they told me “oh, sale prices don’t apply to Swiss customers”. I cancelled the order…

    It is so damned typical that shops have higher prices specifically in Switzerland. Cosmetics, for example, are about triple the price of what you pay across the border. Basic medications like ibuprofen are up to 10 times the price. We all do a lot of cross-border shopping. FWIW, it’s not generally the fault of the retailers – it’s usually the wholesalers and distributors who jack up the prices.

    Tech Billionaire Tells Joe Rogan the Govt. Plan ‘to Control AI’

    While that is possibly believable, Joe Rogan is not a reliable source for anything. He will say anything outrageous, just to rile people up. Mr. Clickbait.

    Andreessen also claimed that the Biden administration has “debanked” more than 30 tech startups

    This is apparently true. A number of tech people have come forward, showing the cancellation notices they received from their banks. However, 30 out of probably tens of thousands? It could well be that those 30 were doing shady things, or were bankrupt, or whatever. More information needed…

    That said, I am reminded of the trucker protests in Canada, where the government told the banks to block their bank accounts until they went home. Illegal as hell, should not be possible, but it happened. I am also reminded of OFD’s tales of the IRS, where they periodically emptied his bank accounts, without notice, and he had to fight to get his money back.

    This kind of abuse is the reason, why governments should never be allowed to implement full digital currencies. Some faceless bureaucrat could destroy you with a mouse click.

    10
  2. Greg Norton says:

    That said, I am reminded of the trucker protests in Canada, where the government told the banks to block their bank accounts until they went home. Illegal as hell, should not be possible, but it happened. I am also reminded of OFD’s tales of the IRS, where they periodically emptied his bank accounts, without notice, and he had to fight to get his money back.

    IIRC, OFD was still fond of doing business at the poster child for “Too Big To Fail” banks, whose creation and continued existence under various state and Federal banking laws are questionably legal.

    I linked a story yesterday where the Canadian Prime Minister, Wee Pierre — Fidel Castro Jr. if you want to believe the Cuban expats in Miami — who masterminded the debanking response to the truckers arrived in Florida to kiss the ring at Mar-a-Lago.

    The debanked in Canada not only included truckers but supporters of the truckers as well.

    What happened Nov. 5 in the US may yet change the world in a big way. Certainly, a change in the Canadian government is coming.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Bosch management is the culprit here.  The amazing diesel emissions two stage reactor that Bosch created was undersized for the diesel motor.  The cost was $200 each.  A properly sized reactor was $400 and VW held Bosch to their price quote so they went with the undersized reactor.  I also suspect that the car did not have the room for the rightsized reactor, or two of them.

    Bosch sold the same reactor and software to Porsche and Mercedes also.  There are still questions about who all knew about the fudged software.

    Our 2016 Jetta, made the year after the “cheating” was discovered, does not have a lot of room in the engine compartment.

    Cost was probably another factor. Make 100,000 of something, and $200 suddenly becomes a very big deal.

    Who knew about the software?

    Everyone.

    Who was really harmed?

    No one.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Who was really harmed?

    No one.

    Well, maybe TSLA stockholders. Remember, Tony is still a ward of the state regardless of his current political antics.

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    40F by one thermometer… light overcast and sunny.

    Time for me to get moving on getting moving.

    ———-

    Did I mention that in my long conversation with the neighbor he suggested that come the collapse, he’d be ok because of the deer and the squirrel??   Five a day, for every adult that needs to do physical work.   And at least 3 for every kid, pregnant woman, and people you want alive and thinking straight.

    Do the math, and count the squirrels.

    ———–

    I think I might have to get some protein powder.

    ———–

    Coffee in hand, bacon in the pan.

    n’

    (it’s not Joe Rogan that you can’t believe, it’s his guests.   But given the number of times unbelievable stuff has turned out to be true in the last 4 years, I wouldn’t automatically discount anything.  ESPECIALLY if someone is willing to use their own name, publicly.)

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Keriug Duo coffee makers have a design flaw.  There is a thermal fuse that blows.   The symptom is no power at all.   The fix takes a half hour, a couple of bucks for the part, and only a screwdriver and crimping pliers.

    The longest time is taking the cover off.

    There are  a LOT of Duos in the secondary market with the issue.  

    Cottage industry anyone?   Youtube has the vids.

    n

    (mine is making coffee now, I bought two in the returns auction, both had the issue.   My client has one in his garage that I think is dead too.  I’ll “dispose” of it for him if he wants…)

  7. Greg Norton says:

    (it’s not Joe Rogan that you can’t believe, it’s his guests.   But given the number of times unbelievable stuff has turned out to be true in the last 4 years, I wouldn’t automatically discount anything.  ESPECIALLY if someone is willing to use their own name, publicly.)

    Cueball (Marc Andreesen) should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

    Right place. Right time.

    If you watch “Silicon Valley”, the “Tres Commas” guy is mostly a brutal slap down of Marc Cuban, but bits and pieces of other “Legend Of” types make it into the character’s backstory, including Andreesen’s.

    Anytime I see Cueball, I think “Dick Tracy”, hence the name.

    The Legend of Cueball: His mother answered phones at Lands End to put young Marc through UIUC on out-of-state tuition.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    Keriug Duo coffee makers have a design flaw.  There is a thermal fuse that blows.   The symptom is no power at all.   The fix takes a half hour, a couple of bucks for the part, and only a screwdriver and crimping pliers.

    My wife had two Keriugs develop leaks while living in the current house, prior to when we installed the water softener to deal with the minerals in the water. 

    Since we installed the softener, she stopped using the last Keriug she had and left it out for the Paralyzed Vets monthly pickup.

    The dirty secret of Central Texas is that a lot of water systems have been drawing from the aquifer using deep wells for a long time because the surface water sources have been inadequate for more than a decade.

    Yet another area where Texas is “swimming naked”. 

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Did I mention that in my long conversation with the neighbor he suggested that come the collapse, he’d be ok because of the deer and the squirrel??   Five a day, for every adult that needs to do physical work.   And at least 3 for every kid, pregnant woman, and people you want alive and thinking straight.

    Do the math, and count the squirrels.

    IIRC, squirrels have a variant of Mad Cow Disease which can be transmitted to humans.

    Plus, as anyone who runs a deer hunting property can tell you, the meat from an herbivore eating acorns from trees common in Gulf Coast states is not all that appetizing, hence the reason “deer corn” is sold, even at Buc-ee’s.

    The Temple store stocks the corn right at the entrance.

    Didn’t Justice Scalia die at a deer hunting property between Temple and Waco?

  10. EdH says:

    My Keurigs die from the water leak things.   

    I keep them on a platter to contain the spill, much like above ground oil storage tanks (also keeps things cleaner, but that’s a side effect).

    I have a friend that visits yard sales, picks them up for pennies on the dollar, often unused. They seem to last anywhere from six months to two years.  My Emergency Keurig Supply ‘EKS’  is I think two units in the closet backing up the one on the counter.

    I have sort of bounced back-and-forth between using K cups and grinding my own.

  11. paul says:

    No.  He died out west near Big Bend and Marfa.

  12. paul says:

    We were given a Keurig 2.0 after someone died.  Without the carafe, his mom kept it to use with her Keurig 2.0.  It took a while to get the coffee grinds clog cleared.  We used it for 3 or 4 years. The movable piercing pin broke.  I replaced the part.  Eight months later, it broke again.  So we used the spike freehand to poke the hole in the bottom of the k-cup.  That worked forabout six months and one morning it decided it is done pumping water.

    I have never spotted a 2.0 k-cup for sale.  But no carafe, no need. 

    He went to Walmart.  “What model?”  Eh, they have like 18 models, get what ever looks good to you.  So we have a Walmart version of a Duo.  It’s made one pot ala Mr. Coffee and a few more oopsies where Someone pushed the wrong power button.

    It’s had nothing but RO water in it.  Works fine.  I have its replacement (x3) in the pantry…. yeah, percolators.

  13. EdH says:

    When I grind I admit I just use the Mr. Coffee, mornings I am too lazy & sleepy to get fancy or handle boiling liquids.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    If you watch “Silicon Valley”, the “Tres Commas” guy is mostly a brutal slap down of Marc Cuban, but bits and pieces of other “Legend Of” types make it into the character’s backstory, including Andreesen’s.

    Russ Hanneman, portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos.

    Diamantopoulos was also the boom operator in the fictional documentary crew “filming” the US version of “The Office”.

    No word on whether the boom operator will appear on “The Paper”, the upcoming followup series, but he was most likely fired from the crew.

    My vote for the character most likely to return is Toby … along with The Scranton Strangler, setting up shop in the Midwest.

  15. lpdbw says:

    @Greg

    Of all the obscure inside baseball posts that you’ve done, where I have no idea who you’re talking about because of arcane references or obscure pseudonyms, this one is so far in left field, that the only names I recognized  are Mark Cuban and “The Office”.

    I’m ok with that, since to do otherwise would mean I’ve wasted even more time on pop culture.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    Of all the obscure inside baseball posts that you’ve done, where I have no idea who you’re talking about because of arcane references or obscure pseudonyms, this one is so far in left field, that the only names I recognized  are Mark Cuban and “The Office”.

    I’m ok with that, since to do otherwise would mean I’ve wasted even more time on pop culture.

    “Silicon Valley” was a show on HBO run by Mike Judge, of “Beavis & Butthead” and “Office Space” theme.

    One of the characters, Russ Hanneman, was mostly based on Marc Cuban but had a backstory incorporating bits of “The Legend Of”-type tech billionares like Marc Andreesen.

    My point was to be careful taking Andreesen seriously since he’s supported Obama and the left agenda in the past.

    Most Conservatives ignore pop culture at their peril.

    3
    0
  17. nick flandrey says:

    Home safe with a bin full of  ham stuff, mostly bits and pieces.  That’s all good stuff for Hamfest in March…

    Since I was in Tomball for my pickup I hit the Goodwill, a church thrift store, and a “save the aminals” thrift, all in the same complex.  Someone needs to tell people that thrift stores cannot get Ebay retail for collectibles like EP 12″ singles or other LP vinyl.  And if you are going to search thru the boxes and hand price some albums, PULL THEM TO THE COUNTER instead of leaving them with the moldering mess.

    The only one I really wanted was a Parliment album with all the inside the jacket stuff intact.   Unfortunately they had $25 on it and it was scratched on one side.   

    Drive was uneventful, which is a good thing.  MUCH warmer here in Houston.

    n

  18. drwilliams says:

    Making mass deportation easier

    (A) Hire 100,000 GOP lawyers as immigration court judges. Finding 100,000 GOP lawyers who will give up their lucrative law practices for two years at a mere $140,000 per year will be hard, but it has to be done.

    (B) Rent large, unused office and commercial spaces in cities where clusters of these GOP lawyers live. Renovate them as temporary immigration courts. Hire 300,000 GOP paralegals as their law clerks. There need to be corresponding increases in ICE and Border patrol personnel and equipment.

    (C) Mail out notices to the “last reported addresses” of every illegal immigrant or “migrant” who was granted legal status by Team Biden/Harris. Their immigration court dates, which were scheduled for some time in 2027 or 2029 due to immigration court backlogs, are being moved up to the second half of 2025. If they don’t show up (and about 95% won’t), issue federal arrest warrants.

    (D) Cut off all federal funding, except for national security and border security, for every Democrat Party/Deep State (DP/DS) jurisdiction that continues to refuse cooperation with ICE. That includes education money — even student financial aid for every college in the sanctuary jurisdiction. This will force them to comply.

    (E) Then deport every illegal or fraudulently legalized “migrant.” All of them. This will be the biggest deportation operation in history. We need to follow the example set by our ally, Kuwait.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/11/making_mass_deportation_easier.html

    modify as follows:

    (A) Remove the requirement that an immigration court judge has to be an attorney. Give them a two-week cram course in immigration law, and a large rubber stamp that says: Guilty, Deport Immediately. Then recruit heavily from the pool of conservative, Spanish-speaking legal immigrants and children thereof. 

    Run the hearings in three shifts, 24/7, and make every illegal alien invader (IAI) and their attorney appear in person, with no rescheduling for their convenience (they didn’t ask the U.S. taxpayer if it was convenient to invade the U.S.)

    (B) There is lots of federal space available already.

    (C) If they don’t show up, enter a deportation order in absentia , making them immediately deportable, with no appeal until they are outside the U.S.

    (D) Twice as fast.

    (E) Make a deal with Haiti to be the intermediate destination for any IAI that is not accepted by their country of origin. Allow any IAI that elects to self-deport to plead guilty to felony border violation with intent to defraud the U.S. with sentence waived if they never come back to the U.S.

  19. Bob Sprowl says:

    I rally like my new to me iPhone.  I had some difficutly getting started with it but thanks to Ray I’m past that.  Viewed several Youtube vidoes that were helpful but I wish Apple had a decent manual (with an index) so I could look up things instead of struggling. 

    I recieved my AirPods today.  The little, tiny booklet that came with them is useless.  I had to go online to figure how to charge them.  (They were completley dead.)

    I have looked at a few Youtube videos while I’m waiting for them to charge (three hours at this point).  One thing I haven’t determined is whether of not they have a left and right ear orientation.   My hearing is awful so I need to put the correct for each ear but I don’t know which one that would be.  I’m suppose to take an hearing test while wearing the Airpods after I fit them to me but again nothing about a left -right orientation.

  20. drwilliams says:

    It’s Official — Trump Names Deep State Foe Kash Patel FBI Director

    https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/11/30/breaking-its-official-trump-names-deep-state-foe-kash-patel-fbi-director-n4934745

    First order of business: Management leaves their phones on their desks and assembles in Conference Room A. Starting at the bottom of the hierarchy, they are called into breakout rooms where they meet with investigators having equivalently high security clearances, and are asked for their keys, safe combinations, and passwords for email and all tech. They are given their first and only chance to report any abnormalities in their records, including in particular any files that were shredded or scrubbed in anticipation of a Trump win in November, making it clear that failure to fully disclose with get them an immediate ticket to Guantanamo, where Christopher Wray is already in Day 2 of the 30-Day Waterboard Pre-Questioning Diet Plan. 

    At the same time, all Field Offices are visited by U.S. Marshals. SAIC’s are escorted to Washington after giving up their passwords and devices, while their deputies are interrogated in place. Special rules apply to any GS-13 and above that has been in a headquarters position in the last twelve months.

    Very special attention to be given to the laboratory functions in charge of creating fake evidence. Any such that is found targeting present or past elected and appointed members of government will result in charges of treason for all involved, with the lowest level employees first given the chance to rat out their bosses and get the death penalty removed from their own charges. 

  21. drwilliams says:

    Is Syria About to Fall?

    https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/11/30/is-syria-about-to-fall-n3797481

    Russia has been importing soldiers from client states North Korea and Yemen to fight in Ukraine. IMO, if the Israelis has not destroyed Hezbollah’s leadership it’s likely that they would have sent fighters to Ukraine also. 

    Having Syria collapse and fall to Turkish-backed rebels is not a good thing. But to the extent that the foreign troops called in by Russia to fight the Ukrainians are ill-trained and/or poorly fitting and more vulnerable and expendable, their may be a bright side.

  22. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    RE my question about left-right AirPods:  They are marked on the inside of the “stem”.  I just didn’t see it and nothing I reviewed mentioned that they were marked.  My son replied to my text about it and found a picture for me.  

    RE drwilliams suggestions for the FBI:  I love it but it is not going to happen.  IT SHOULD but it won’t.

  23. nick flandrey says:

    Finished the season of ‘Alone’.   Good lessons.    Maybe I can get D2 to actually try some of the stuff….

    n

  24. Brad says:

    Syria – there are no good guys. Assad’s government is evil, the rebels are just a different evil.

  25. Alan says:

    >> EVERYONE underestimates the amount of game they need to maintain body mass and activity level.  100 mice, 5-7 squirrels, several birds, or just one big fish per day.  EVERY day.  A handful of blueberries and 4 mice a day is a GOOD day for some of the contestants.

    So it seems the Alone (and similar shows) “strategy” is to luck out by being dropped within 100 yards of a river filled with spawning salmon that you can easily harvest daily with a pointy stick.

    Compare that to what is presented as true(?) subsistence living in Alaska or Canada where the year-round inhabitants depend on moose/caribou/deer/bear harvested aided by hunting rifles and snow machines. I believe the “Life Below Zero” franchise is now up to three shows. 

  26. nick flandrey says:

    There is an element of luck to your site selection.    Both of the final two contestants were able to fish, one with a line, one with a gill net.   Everyone is near water, near woods, all had berry patches nearby which should have attracted game animals.

    There are definitely strategies, but the main one is “get food”.    Going in with a lot of extra weight helps.   The guys who didn’t gain before the show both bombed out early. 

    This season they lasted past 60 days, but even with very successful food acquisition, they were both slowly starving.

    added- there was a season with a woman whose site was next to a salmon run. She used a gill net, ate fish and did crafts, until the fish stopped running. Then she dropped out right away. They are there long enough that the seasons change and so does the pattern of available food.

  27. Lynn says:

    Is Syria About to Fall?

    https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/11/30/is-syria-about-to-fall-n3797481

    Russia has been importing soldiers from client states North Korea and Yemen to fight in Ukraine. IMO, if the Israelis has not destroyed Hezbollah’s leadership it’s likely that they would have sent fighters to Ukraine also.

    Having Syria collapse and fall to Turkish-backed rebels is not a good thing. But to the extent that the foreign troops called in by Russia to fight the Ukrainians are ill-trained and/or poorly fitting and more vulnerable and expendable, their may be a bright side.

    That gets us closer and closer to the Canned Sunshine.  Very bad stuff.

  28. Lynn says:

    We went to College Station, TX to see our vaunted Aggies play those nasty old tea-sippers from Austin, TX.  I had 109,028 new friends there to see our Aggies / tu play.  Plus another 50,000 people tailgating all over the place.  Unfortunately, we were outscored 17 to 7.  Our defense was good (except for the corners) and our specials teams were awesome.   We ain’t gonna talk about the offense.

    My 86 year old father did well.  No falling as he is very careful.  We had a good time even with all of the people everywhere you turned.

  29. Lynn says:

    Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

    All of the Harry Potter books and movies are pretty good. I only had two complaints:

    – As the book progressed, the lack of tight editing was more and more obvious. She was so successful that she didn’t have to work so hard any more, so the books got longer and wordier.

    – The last couple got really, really dark. Maybe that was intentional, matching the transition of the characters (and target readers) from tweens to moody teens? I thought the change was a bit much though, from funny, fun-loving books to death and murder…

    JK Rowling moved the books with her readers.  As the books went along, they get more mature.   But the ten year year old girl around the corner has read all seven books through six times now (so she says).  She was reading HP and the Deathly Hallows in her front yard swing the other day when we walked by.   That books is very depressing and realistic.

  30. Lynn says:

    Cost was probably another factor. Make 100,000 of something, and $200 suddenly becomes a very big deal.

    VW sold over a million of those diesels in North America and another several million in Europe.  I remember going 230 km/hr (140 mph) down the autobahn in Germany on my way to Denmark in a Audi Sportwagen Turbo Diesel 5 speed back around 2010 or so.  That vehicle got 35 mpg at over an average speed of 100 mph on $7/gallon diesel in Germany.

  31. Lynn says:

    “Nuclear apocalypse map reveals best and worst US states to live in the event of armageddon”

       https://endtimeheadlines.org/2024/11/nuclear-apocalypse-map-reveals-best-and-worst-us-states-to-live-in-the-event-of-armageddon/

    Texas did not score very well on that map.  Probably the poor access to fresh water.

  32. Lynn says:

    “Ellen DeGeneres’ Cotswolds dream submerged: Hollywood star’s idyllic multi-million-pound farmhouse is hit by floods with surrounding fields underwater – just days after she and wife Portia di Rossi moved to the UK to flee Donald Trump’s America”

         https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14138003/Ellen-DeGeneres-Cotswolds-farmhouse-flooded-Storm-Bert.html

    Ok, that is funny.  I am sorry but it is funny.

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