Another damp and warmish day ahead. The heavy mist eventually cleared up, for some people in Houston. Some got rain. Even heavy rain. Nothing at the house, but several areas I drove through got pounded. I’m guessing today will be similar.
Did some errands in the morning including taking the White Elephant gift that D2 forgot at home to school. I wanted it off the countertop, and it ended up someone really liked it. So despite having to get dressed and drive to school, it turned out ok.
Did my pickups. Got cheated on a solar panel. Auction company was in the wrong but won’t admit it. Freaking amazon fraudulent products. The panel in question is marketed on amazon to intentionally fool people into a purchase and the description is a flat out lie. The auction company just repeated the original description and lies, but wouldn’t just refund me when I pointed out what was happening. I wasn’t the only one fooled, as someone bid me right up to fair market value for the panel, if it was as described.
I’ll get even some way, but in the mean time it reinforces that amazon has poisoned the well by allowing all the fraudulent chinese sellers and manufacturers to sell their cr@p alongside real products.
At a different auctioneer, I picked up another 2 panels, 100w each. Nothing wrong with them, and exactly what I was expecting. So it’s really time to start building at least a test or starter system. I have a bunch of panels, quite a few inverters and charge controllers, and not enough batteries… I’ll add it to the list.
Today is a half day for the spawn, so I might not get much done. I’ll try anyway. We’ll just see what actually gets accomplished.
Stack something. Ya know ya wanna…
nick
“Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/17/nigel-farage-meets-elon-musk-trump-mar-a-lago-reform/
At Mar-A-Lago. Think about that.
The whole world is making that trip across the causeway from the airport.
It’s a huge shame, really. There are good Chinese companies, but so much crap is sold that you really can’t trust any products. My wife mentioned wanting us to get new desks (we’ve been making do with some old tables from our former whisky business). Younger son has a desk that he’s happy with, but a little research, and it’s re-sold by a local company, but actually comes from a Chinese company with horrible reviews.
We found a Polish company with really excellent ratings. Ordered yesterday, got the shipping notice today, with delivery planned for Monday. The catch, of course, is that the price is a lot higher. OTOH, I’ve had great experience with Polish companies in the past, and this one also received top marks in a major, independent review. Tip: If you want a nice computer desk, look at “gaming desks”. Generally better cable management, better accessories, etc. Apparently gamers are willing to spend more for better, whereas most computer desks are aimed at cost-cutting companies equipping their cube farms.
Remember when the State of New York decided that Mar-A-Lago was worth, at best, $12 million.
The real problem is that Americans want those $20 Reeboks.
We have several IKEA Kallax shelf units which were Hecho en Poland.
The real problem is that [someone convinced us that ] Americans want those $20 Reeboks.
– since all desire for brands is manufactured…
Nixon opened the door. Sold out middle America and our manufacturing base.
Then the tax code changed to make financialization the hotness, and actually making things the dullness. All the bright sparks started playing middleman financial games, extracting value instead of adding it.
et viola
n
65F and overcast with heavy fog.
Drippy start to the day.
n
Personally I was delighted with the discerned theology contained in the Vatican II documents. A major positive, but incomplete, review of the then current theology derived I believe from the 16th century.
Examples: removed the belief that only Catholics could get to heaven. Removed ‘Limbo’ where unbaptised children were supposed to go instead of heaven. Confirmed the priestly nature of all Catholics.
The Catholic church I experienced in the 50’s was all about power and control and fear (which still lingers within a lot of the Church) – which enables abuse. The Catholic Church is a much better institution now than the one I was born into, but is a human institution which brings with it the failings of humanity. So, much improvement still necessary, but I believe Vatican II made a very positive contribution.
@PaultheManc, It might have cleaned up a lot of doctrinal issues, but it also heralded the new wave of young “hippy” priests and in retrospect, had a much higher tolerance for child sex abuse than previously. The cancer of moral relativism got a foothold too.
n
(and by hippie, I mean with socialist or communist leanings, having been educated and marinated in them in college.)
@Nick
Nick, that is not my perception. A significant example is Ireland. The old power/control/fear lead to a lot of abuse in ‘Catholic’ Ireland. I would be surprised if today there was anything like the level of abuse historically inflicted. To a lesser extent (only due to the less controlling nature of the Catholic Church in the UK) I believe the same would apply to the UK.
Sad news everyone, CowboyStu has left us.
From a text this last night from David, his son in law:
Hi guys. I have sad news to report. Stu passed away yesterday from complications after a recent surgery. He would have been 86 this Friday. 3 weeks ago we traveled to Borrego Springs. Stu drove himself and in the desert, navigated his Jeep through some technically difficult terrain with ease. He had a ball with his family drinking PBR and listening to country music. He really enjoyed the visits we had with you both. They meant so much to him. He really wanted to have a cold one at Five Fingers in the spring. He considered you both friends and loved interacting on the forum with you all. While he was, in life, a rocket scientist, he was a cowboy at heart. As I don’t have access to the forum please feel free to share this news with others.
Thanks, David
The Cowboy’s son in law.
He was a heck of a guy, it really must be a shock to the family. I feel like I have lost a friend myself.
RIP Stu.
RIP CowboyStu.
You know, I really dislike this whole aging thing…
Yeah, I think they should make it optional or something. Me being a math and programming nut, I notice that I have gotten significantly slower and make more stupid mistakes. That is really…disheartening…
Rest In Peace CowboyStu. You will be missed. I’m sure you and Mr. OFD are looking down at us with a smile. I never met him, but he came across as a great guy.
Vaya con Dios, CowboyStu! You will be missed.
Well, I thought my news was bad. RIP Stu and keep shiny side up wherever you are.
I was told today I need shoulder surgery. A tendon or ligament is torn. After hearing about Stu’s issue with surgery complications I may just deal with the issue.
I think we all agree. I’m not at all a fan of getting older, but I suppose that it does beat the only alternative….
Well that absolutely sucks.
My condolences to David and his entire family. Stu was a great guy to have around, even just virtually. He’ll be missed here, as well as everywhere he hung out, I’m sure.
Rest in Peace Stu, every time I use the GPS, I think of you…
nick
And just like that it’s p!ssing down rain at my house.
n
I’m not slower, but I don’t have as much tolerance for nonsense which inevitably leads to management preferring younger, more … malleable … thought processes.
RIP Stu 😢
Yeah, I think they should make it optional or something. Me being a math and programming nut, I notice that I have gotten significantly slower and make more stupid mistakes. That is really…disheartening…
That is why I decided to move to GFortran for our software calculation engine. There is a lot more checking on the software and looking for stupid mistakes. I have fixed quite a few problems in our Fortran code. But the port has been hell so far.
As quickly as it started, the rain ended. Got so much so fast it flooded the street. That’s a lot.
Now the sun is out.
Stuff to do but I’ve got extra kids in the house, so not really inclined to leave…
———-
USPS not shipping to Canada due to a strike on the Canadian side. No priority, or first class. UPS for the 11oz package was $45, so that ain’t happening.
n
Rest In Peace CowboyStu. You will be missed. I’m sure you and Mr. OFD are looking down at us with a smile. I never met him, but he came across as a great guy.
And RBT too ! I miss them all.
“It Isn’t A System, It’s Market Manipulation”
https://areaocho.com/it-isnt-a-system-its-market-manipulation/
“Everyone likes to complain that healthcare costs too much, and then complains about the “healthcare system” as if it is some sort of unified national entity that is controlled from the top. It isn’t. What we call healthcare in this country is a marketplace made up of hundreds of thousands of companies, each reacting on an individual basis to market conditions.”
“The largest of these changing conditions is CMS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They set the conditions under which they will pay for medical services. For example, if a person comes into the hospital with signs of sepsis, that person must receive a blood test for lactic acid levels. If that level is greater than two, the person must be tested again within 6 hours, or the hospital doesn’t get paid. This is repeated all over the entire field of payments from CMS. They regulate everything.”
As a person going under the tender care of CMS in a couple of months, I like that they do have standards. Some of these GPs out there are off the reservation otherwise.
Happy Trails to CowboyStu. Yep gettin’ old is not for the week but 86 is a good run.
“Elon Musk, RFK Jr., Dr. Oz, and the coming clash over Ozempic”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-rfk-jr-dr-oz-and-the-coming-clash-over-ozempic-152754559.html
“Trump’s hand-picked advisers have opinions about weight-loss drugs — and all could have sway over whether Medicare covers them.”
I am so tempted to try Ozempic but scared to.
“Biden Lied About Everything: Philly Fed Finds All Jobs “Created” In Q2 Were Fake”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/biden-lied-about-everything-philly-fed-finds-all-jobs-created-q2-were-fake
“Back in August, many were surprised by the accuracy of our forecast, when we predicted that in its annual revision, the Biden Bureau of Labor Statistics would revise jobs for the April 2023-March 2024 period by “up to 1 million”, something which we said would mean that all job report “beats” recorded in the past year will have been misses and the US labor market is in far worse shape than the admin would admit.”
“The final results, as everyone knows by now, was a shocking 818K revision lower, just as the Philadelphia Fed had predicted 6 months prior, in March, when it calculated correctly that the Biden Department of Goalseeking Propaganda had overstated payrolls by “at least 800,000.””
Hat tip to:
https://areaocho.com/fake-economy/
“Matt Gaetz Floats a Plan That Everyone Not in Congress Would Love to See Happen”
https://thelibertydaily.com/matt-gaetz-floats-plan-that-everyone-not-congress/
“As he posted on X:”
Please, please, please do this ! I want to see the talking heads explode their heads !
“AT&T to start full RTO next month”
https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/att-to-start-full-rto-next-month-6270076/
“AT&T is mandating a five-day-a-week return to office for its employees starting next month, per Business Insider. For the last year or so, employees there have adhered to a hybrid schedule, reporting to one of AT&T’s nine corporate hubs at least three days a week. But AT&T is hoping to avoid the space problem that’s allegedly stalled Amazon’s much-debated RTO push, saying it’s “enhancing” its …”
I am not surprised.
You can’t hate goobermint enough:
Continuing Resolution Contains ‘A Little Gift’ to the January 6 Committee
This shouldn’t pass, but my money is on it will. goobermint taking care of goobermint.
“Don’t privatize the postal service”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3263240/trump-idea-privatize-us-postal-service-bad/
“President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a plan to make significant changes to the United States Postal Service. These proposed changes could include privatizing the agency, a course of action that, if pursued, would be a political and legal catastrophe.”
How could USPS be worse ?
“‘Explosive’ demand growth puts more than half of North America at risk of blackouts: NERC”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/explosive-demand-growth-blackouts-NERC-LTRA-reliability/735866/
““Simply put, our infrastructure is not being built fast enough to keep up with the rising demand,” said John Moura, NERC’s director of reliability assessments and planning analysis.”
I am not surprised. Especially with all the coal power plants being shut down over the next five years in the name of greeniness.
Good God, man, the C suites have people to fire. Rev up the AI!
Good-bye and godspeed, CowboyStu. Rest in peace, perhaps out among the stars, O steely-eyed rocket man.
I will think of you when I use my GPS.
@Ray. I had a torn shoulder tendon some years ago. Between experiencing the initial pain and restricted arm movement, along with diagnosis and the operation, some weeks later, the pain had gone and the shoulder muscles had accommodated pretty well full movement without pain. Being somewhat younger than I am now, I thought it would be a good idea to have enhanced use of the shoulder, so chose to have the operation. The major negative for me, was disrupted sleep for over 3 months, as sleeping involved ibuprofen, 2 hours sleep, paracetamol, 2 hours sleep …. etc due to the pain lying down. Daytime vertical I had no pain. The other fact to note is the risk of a popeye muscle. They said this was a risk when discussing the surgery, as they stated they may have to cut ‘something’ to effect the repair. Turns out they did this, but fortunately I didn’t get the popeye muscle effect.
If you are similarly affected, and find that your body adapts to the damaged tendon, then you may wish to choose not to have the surgery.
@Paul:
Thanks for the advice. I have never heard good things about shoulder surgery. I will have an extensive talk with the surgeon. If the problem will not get worse, or cause other issues, I think can live with the problem. Nothing in my life really stresses my shoulder to the point of agony.
I’m sorry to hear about CowboyStu. We had our differences of opinion, but I definitely get the impression he was a good man. Vaya con Dios.
In related news, a blogger/author I’ve followed for over 20 years has gone dark for 2 weeks, on his blog and all social media, which is very atypical. I hope it’s just a glitch, but my mind jumps to the worst case.
Maybe he’s just taking a holiday.
RIP, Cowboy Stu.
I echo EdH’s sentiments earlier today. I met Stu three times, the last two with EdH. Stu and EdH are the only people who post here that I have met in person, and it was a privilege to have met them. Those brief meetings put a face to their many posts. Stu invited me to join him and family at an event near his home in Huntington Beach a couple years ago, but I just couldn’t make that work. Thankfully, I was able to meet him, his son-in-law, and his granddaughter as they passed through my area.
We should make time to meet friends. We never know when the opportunities will end.
Here is a picture to remind us (scroll to the third picture):
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2016/11/19/saturday-19-november-2016/
@JimB, that was a nice walk down memory lane, thank you.
I haven’t picked a day at random to read in a while. I need to get back in the habit.
n
Thanks, Nick. I keep a link to those pictures handy, and look at them occasionally. People are visual, and we all like to see pictures of friends, even though the pictures may be old. They are the closest thing to actually being with our friends.
I realize many people here want their privacy, but it would be a good thing to share something occasionally.
RIP Cowboy Stu
Elton John’s tribute to another Rocket Man (1986, Live in Australia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZF23CUogIw
RIP Cowboy Stu
Very sad news.. I remember when the official change of season was when Stu (Slim), would change hats.
He will be missed. As is RBT, OFD, et al..
Condolences to his family..
Finally, an update from a drone “expert”…
https://decider.com/2024/12/17/bethenny-frankel-shares-inside-knowledge-mysterious-new-jersey-drones-possibly-sniffing-out-something-very-dangerous/
ZZ Top – Live at Montreux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-dSTR1-Hiw
You know, you would think that Billy Gibbons would be able to afford a new Fender guitar.
https://www.reddit.com/r/telecaster/comments/tfutxl/billy_gibbons_longhorn_decal/
The poop has intersected with the impeller.
More on this later today…
Congress in disarray and shutdown looms as Trump, Musk slam spending deal
Hopefully they packed some extra deodorant…
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/boeing-starliner-iss-spring-return-19988083.php
“A three hour cruise…” Crazy. Aside from the massive disruption in their lives, the health effects of that long in space are pretty serious. They will likely never go up again. Thanks, Boeing.
So sorry to hear about CowboyStu. He will be missed.