Cold and windy. There is winter happening across the nation, and we’re getting some here in the swamp. I’d like to remind the chattering masses that we’ve had snow on the ground around Christmastime three times since I moved to Houston. And that I was in Dallas when we got 14″ of snow overnight. In other words, it gets cold and snows in winter. Sometimes it does that a lot.
Sunday was spent playing games with family and reading until it was time to head home. Our flight was uneventful. There were signs of rain and high wind when we got home, but no real damage. It was chilly though.
Today I’ve got to catch up on a couple of things, and I think I’ll probably have to do a pickup or two. Kids are still off, so I’ll also be trying to get them to get ready for the start of the new semester. I’m sure piles of domestic bliss also await my attention. In other words, time to get back to it.
It was a nice break, and nice to spend time with my mom and sibling. But it also took time away from the Holiday break that we would spend closing out the year and getting ready for the new one. There are always trade offs in life, and this time I chose family time. I don’t think anyone ever said “I wish I’d have spent less time with mom and bro, and more time cleaning the driveway.”
The other thing I haven’t done is New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t generally put a lot of energy or effort into them. They don’t usually make much difference in peoples’ lives. But it is a convenient time to try to make changes in one’s life. SO. I would like to do some work on my physical conditioning. I will try to find a time and method to do that. I will try to raise money by selling more of the stuff I have to sell. That will contribute to the last- I will try to reduce the amount of stuff I have stacked around that is NOT contributing to a good life for my family.
There you have it. I’ve stacked up three resolutions…
Stack some of your own!
nick
If you want to condition muscle groups all over the body in controlled resistances without spending a fortune and taking up a lot of room, get a good used Total Gym that Chuck Norris is a spokes person for. New ones are expensive but used ones can be completely rebuilt off the internet from different distributors. Basically the machine is you against gravity on various inclines. Very simple and rugged and totally adaptable to others in the family. The new machines are nice though.
“Cat in a sack” could refer to Schrodinger’s. He’s been among science nerds too long.
Florida had a Constitutional amendment on the ballot one year which you will hear referred to as the “Pig in a Poke Initiative”, specifying sizes for pens holding nursing sows and their offspring.
After that initiative passed, the FL Legislature changed the rules to amend the Constitution out of embarrassment. The resulting higher percentage of popular vote now required to pass any initiative is why weed legalization did not pass in November.
Thank God for pigs in pokes. Legalization would have ruined Florida.
BTW, the German word which came up on “Car Talk” several times was witzelsucht“.
Witzbold was a good guess.
I suspect that the “witzelsucht” label gets thrown around casually in that part of the world, similar to “on the spectrum” being currently fashionable here in the US among the MBA weenie crowd when the software developers ask for more money.
I had a native Pole of German descent get really upset at me joking around in corporate training at GTE thirty years ago. “You are always joking. Take the work seriously.”
Say with Major Hochstetter accent.
Pinhead. His cultural influences and four years making a 4.0 at UIUC had him wound way too tight. He was among those in the class who thought I should either be washed out of the program or sent to labor in the figurative company salt mines.
Achtung.
At least, I think they were figurative.
The irony is that the CS department at my mid-grade state undergraduate alma matter wanted nothing to do with the guy when he applied for the PhD program after he got his Masters on GTE’s dime. He ended up getting a doctorate and going on faculty in the Education college, where he remains to this day.
Out of curiosity, I ran about an hour of “Emilia Perez” last night.
I should have stuck with “Clarkson’s Farm”.
Of course, “Emilia Perez” will win the Oscar over “Anora” if it comes down to those two.
Texas is the demonstration project with limited interconnections to the rest of the US, politicians who prefer to “swim naked”, and a population with a willingness to follow crazed billionaires over a cliff on a whim.
“What’s wrong with you, boy? He’s got ‘tres commas’ and you don’t.”
“Ya foller me?”
Even Mark Cuban seems to get a free pass among Republicans here.
Warren Buffett seemed really determined to own the demonstration project for many years, but he’s mysteriously backed off after getting his generator slush fund initiative passed in 2023. The Gecko didn’t even apply for a “loan” from the fund in the first round.
I have given up my seat on a flight that was overbooked in exchange for a 1st class seat on the next flight, or maybe the one after the next flight, when I am in no hurry to get home. It works about 50% of the time. That was 15 years ago the last time I tried. It may be much different now.
That was the case when I grew up on the ranch. Both my aunt and uncle worked and there was some type of arrangement with my grandfather (aunt’s father) for finances for the ranch. I would really like to have known the arrangement at some point in my life but that information is gone forever.
Ranching was not easy. We did have crops, basically hay, that had to be grown and harvested. Not nearly on the level of a massive farm growing food. Automation has made the job easier in terms of physical demands, but in the process the technical demands have grown significantly. A combine is a complicated piece of machinery that costs around a million dollars. A larger tractor to pull earth preparation machinery is several hundred thousands of dollars. The fuel costs are enormous.
In 1969 our fuel costs for our small ranch (147 acres) was $250.00 a month. We paid $0.15 a gallon as the fuel was not taxed. The electric bill for our 30HP water pump was $200.00 a month as that thing ran 24X7 for six months out of the year. Add in feed processing costs to convert the oat hay into feed pellets, the cost of fertilizer which involved several hundred 50-pound bags, maintenance, and the food costs to feed us, and it was not a cheap operation.
The last trip I took to Washington state and driving on the back roads it was mind boggling that amount of land that was being used for wheat, corn, soybeans, etc. And someone has to sit on a tractor for hundreds of hours tilling that soil. There are at least three trips each growing season over the same piece of land.
The clueless will kill us.
If you didn’t drive out to Long Beach, you missed all the Ocean Spray cranberry bogs and tree farms supplying raw materials for diaper pulp made by the evil Koch family down in the GP mill outside Vantucky.
I have made that journey before, many solar rotations ago.
I spent a summer operating a combine in Eastern Oregon. A dirty filthy job. Sitting in that exposed dusty seat for hours, adjusting cutter height, manually leveling the combine, peeing in a bottle, eating while driving. One company owned a dozen, maybe more, machines. They were too expensive for the farmers to own and with the amount of acreage farmers owned, a single, or couple of combines, was not enough to the get the field harvested in time.
The company I worked for went from farm to farm harvesting the fields. Some of the larger fields would take 2 or 3 days. The machines ran as long as daylight would last with maintenance done at night. Filter changes, oil changes, belt replacement if necessary, tires checked, fuel naturally. It was a big operation.
The field planting was staggered. Farmer A would plant, followed by farmer B 4 or 5 days later, then farmer C 4 or 5 days later. It was well arranged so that fields would become “ripe” in rotation so that equipment would be available.
Now the machines have A/C cabs, GPS, almost hands off driving, yield tracking per square meter, predictive maintenance notifications so that parts are available when the day is done, satellite music, predictive notification of unloading so trucks can be dispatched, automatic cutter height, automatic leveling, automatic stagger tracking where the 1st combine sets the pace and the others follow staggered, communication between the machines . Impressive stuff. Combines have become highly sophisticated machines compared to the pile of sheet metal, bolts, belts, dust and noise that I operated. Certainly much more efficient in terms of fuel consumption and harvesting the wheat product.
Hah.
A friend who lives in San Diego sent me this, years ago, after hearing my bellyaching one too many times about Antelope Valley weather.
San Diego Seasons.
Spring: Sunny and warm.
Summer: Sunny and warm. Occasionally hot.
Fall: Sunny and warm.
Winter: Sunny and warm. Occasionally Cool.
31F! We’re all gonna die!
It’s beautifully clear and dry, and the sun is shining!
30F at the dock at the BOL.
n
Guilty. That said, “cat in a sack” seems a lot more evocative than “pig in a poke”. Does anyone today know that a “poke” is Middle English for a “sack”? I didn’t, until I just now looked it up.
I lived within sight of the ocean, or at least the Bay for 13 or more years in San Diego… I would leave my windows open all the time. Inside was basically the same temp as outside. Late Dec, Jan, I’d close windows at night. Parts of Feb and Mar, I might leave windows closed during the day. That was it. No A/C. Just the afternoon breeze off the ocean. Best weather in the US.
Inland it was a different story, and hot.
n
Someone may have already replied (I now see others have replied), but for Canada this is not true. I have had Starlink at my cottage (sort of a BOL) in Ontario for the past 2 years. Works great. I believe any “bureaucratic approvals” for internet service are a federal responsibility, so if I have it, it is (in theory) available across Canada. Of course, this depends on whether Starlink has enough satellites in the array to service that part of Canada. It’s a very big country.
Wee Pierre says bye, bye.
Hey, were you on the German Autobahn yesterday? I passed a Mercedes van with the Belgian vanity number-plate “ATOZ” and a decal of Imperial stormtroopers on the rear window.
Small world 🙂
I see that Starlink has made their Mini dishes smaller and lighter. I just bought a standard dish with a roaming package. I wonder if I could return it (unopened, unused) and upgrade to the smaller Mini?
Finally, and now Canadians will have the chaos his unwillingness to step down earlier will cause. Perhaps we will get a Prime Minister that will (reluctantly, because who wants all that debt) offer to make the USA the 11th province of Canada? Interesting times ahead, I think.
The whole political world is changing.
n
If the Canadians would build prison capacity near the Arctic Circle, I’m sure the Trump Admin would contract space for holding our south-of-the-border visitors awaiting deportation hearings.
Everything old is new again…
Cocaine is so 2024. This is the new drug obsession among the ‘wines and lines’ school mums – and they insist it makes them BETTER mothers
“I drive better when I’m drunk!”
n
So … Donald Trump could become PM
foreverindefinitely?Dinner & assumption rings a bell..
Oregon legalized shrooms, but only the state-run store in Eugene is allowed to sell them for now.
Weed Moms are practically a cliche anymore. Cocaine is a new one, but the US hasn’t gone any further than decriminalization of small quantities.
Whenever my friend’s divorce lawyer has a man as a client, she starts with hiring a forensic accountant to go over the credit card charges related to any “ladies only” excursions to places like Vegas, especially 50th birthday celebrations for X-ers and, soon, Gen Y.
It gets X-er women every time. They can’t resist trying weed at a minimum and often go much farther with the misadventures.
Well, you do have Alaska available to you. Why export all that construction work to Canada?
Americans aren’t interested anymore since most construction jobs are not “work from home” positions.
A related saying is “letting the cat out of the bag”. And “bag”, “sack” and “poke” are three different words for the same thing.
Only the Arctic Circle? I would think that Resolute, Eureka or Alert would be a better choice. A longer, scenic walk home.
@Lynn
“Ah heck, why not ? Just 40 million more liberals.”
I dunno. You think 40 million Canadians are going to vote to rely on solar panels and wind to heat their homes?
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/01/06/fact-check-true-n3798527
Then charge them, try them, find them guilty of treason, and execute them.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2025/01/06/parents-defending-education-women-sports-polling-n2650023
Sounds like bipartisan agreement. Get a bill through the House, send it to the Senate, and see if Dems up for election in 2026 want to die on that filibuster hill.
“White House shuts 625 million acres of federal water to fossil fuel leasing”
https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/55253098/white-house-shuts-625-million-acres-of-federal-water-to-fossil-fuel-leasing
“The White House permanently closed 625 million acres of federal waters to oil and gas leasing Jan. 6, saying the environmental risks of drilling in these areas outweigh their limited fossil fuel resource potential.”
Just another petty gesture by a bunch of wannabe environmentalists.
“BREAKING: President Trump pushes statehood for Canada with big promises after Trudeau resigned”
https://therightscoop.com/breaking-president-trump-pushes-statehood-for-canada-with-big-promises-after-trudeau-resigned/
Ah heck, why not ? Just 40 million more liberals.
I think you guys are great neighbours (note the Cdn spelling) but I want to live in my own house, thanks.
I briefly surfed broadcast channels last night trying to get away from the NFL and I found something worse. I tuned into the Golden Globe Awards just in time to see the emotional breakdown of a young woman who was getting an award for karaoke. Her song was Janis’ “Piece of My Heart”.
uh-huh
Bobcat Rescue: Two Kansas Linemen Rescue Frozen-Down Mother Cat, Kitten
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/01/06/bobcat-rescue-two-kansas-linemen-rescue-frozen-down-mother-cat-kitten-n2184020
hint: No, not football.
“Holding Their Own” by Joe Nobody
http://www.amazon.com/Holding-Their-Own-Story-Survival/dp/061556965X?tag=ttgnet-20/
First book in a series of eighteen alternate history books about the economic collapse of the USA in 2015. I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Prepper Press in 2011 that I bought new on Amazon in 2014. I own the first eleven books in the series.
Um, this book was published in 2011 just as the shale oil and gas boom was really getting cranked up. The book has crude oil at $350/barrel and gasoline at $6/gallon in 2015. Not gonna happen due to oil well fracking in the USA so the major driver of economic collapse in the USA is invalid for the book. That said, the book is a good story about the collapse and failure of the government in the USA. The book is centered in Texas which makes it very interesting to me since I am a Texas resident.
The $6 gasoline was just the start. The unemployment rises to 40% over a couple of years and then there is a terrorist chemical attack in Chicago that kills 50,000 people. The current President of the USA nukes Iran with EMP airbursts as the sponsor of the terrorist attack. And the President of the USA also declares martial law and shuts down the interstates to stop the terrorists from moving about.
The accumulations of these cause widespread panics and shutdowns of basic services like electricity and water for large cities. The electricity grids fail due to employees not showing up to work at the plants. Then the refineries shutdown due to the lack of electricity.
Houston is specifically outlined here with a large fire (several square miles) due to laid off firefighters and lack of water due to lack of maintenance. Then a large hospital in Houston enters bankruptcy and people do not show up to work due to lack of paychecks. Then things go real bad. This is a detailed look at the possible conditions resulting from another serious depression and serious terrorism in the USA.
The book publisher has a website at:
https://prepperpress.com/
with a long list of apocalyptic books at:
https://prepperpress.com/post-apocalyptic-books/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (928 reviews)
Lynn
Florida had a Constitutional amendment on the ballot one year which you will hear referred to as the “Pig in a Poke Initiative”, specifying sizes for pens holding nursing sows and their offspring.
After that initiative passed, the FL Legislature changed the rules to amend the Constitution out of embarrassment. The resulting higher percentage of popular vote now required to pass any initiative is why weed legalization did not pass in November.
Thank God for pigs in pokes. Legalization would have ruined Florida.
I hope that you and I never get SWATted by our militarized police fighting the so-called “War On Drugs”. I am very concerned about it.
And in my opinion, people have the right to get to hell in their own lives without throwing them in a cage for years with other pot users.
Reading the horrors coming out of Great Britain for the past week or so, I have two observations:
1) Something has been bred out of the populace, or possibly drugged out of them through something in the water or food. If these reports are accurate, it is beyond comprehension that not one father, uncle, brother or friend put some of the invaders to the sword.
2) Joe Biden is an evil man; Keir Starmer is a step down.
The College Fix reports:
The news release states:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/01/house-republicans-fast-track-bill-to-ban-men-from-womens-sports/
Story dropped at 11:00AM. I should have read it before my 16:49 post.
Open wide, Chuck.
Sure, but they should stay home to ruin their lives. The people who live in tourist meccas have the right to keep their neighborhoods from turning into Westworld if they so choose.
Plus, I don’t think it is a coincidence that one of the major figures driving Legalization in Florida is the managing partner of the state’s biggest ambulance chasing law firm.
Green laser pointers become popular devices for checking camera alignment:
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/01/06/clever-girl-nyc-council-member-warns-residents-about-disabling-traffic-cams-with-laser-pointers-n2406200
Let the arbitrage begin.
I don’t think the big push for “Emilia Perez” at the Golden Globes last night was a coincidence.
Not that anyone watched, but the clips are on YouTube which is more important in the current media environment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHh0vakSv8A
Wait until the Oscars.
A laser pointer’s power level is not going to damage a CCD from 6 meters, about the closest you will get to anything installed on the typical gantry design.
Plate cameras mounted above the entrances and exits of the tunnels will be placed much higher than a gantry.
The demo which blew up at the tolling company leading to my termination after I expressed dissatisfaction using a naughty word twice with regard to the prep work done (or not done in this case) by a co-worker was all about testing the effectiveness of OCR at the smaller incidence angle ahead of deploying the cameras as part of the congestion pricing scheme.
Did my pickups. Mostly all domestic supplies.
Got the dog from the sitter’s. He went ape and is a nutball, but he’s OVERWHELMED to rejoin his pack.
Took the eldest to get a passport. The library has hours for doing the interview and submitting the paperwork. Both parents are required for a minor.
Waiting for the pizza to be ready…
n
“Ah heck, why not ? Just 40 million more liberals.”
I dunno. You think 40 million Canadians are going to vote to rely on solar panels and wind to heat their homes?
You are too late. A guy I know in Alberta told me the other day that they have shut down all of their coal plants and replaced them with windmills. He is proud that it made their air a lot clearer. However, they are now having power problems and asking people to cut back.
“You are too late. A guy I know in Alberta told me the other day that they have shut down all of their coal plants and replaced them with windmills. He is proud that it made their air a lot clearer. However, they are now having power problems and asking people to cut back.”
So we get 20 million liberals and 20 million popsicles.
Canada exports a lot of power to Oregon. Or did.
The state public utility commission used to have a real time display of where the power consumed in the state originated, but the numbers got really embarrassing a couple of years ago.
Sure, but they should stay home to ruin their lives.
As long as they ruin only their own lives and not those of their parents, spouses, siblings, children, etc., as well those of as friends, acquaintances, and strangers in drug-related incidents and crimes.
On second thought, it might be simpler and safer just to incarcerate them . . .
Sure, but they should stay home to ruin their lives.
As long as they ruin only their own lives and not those of their parents, spouses, siblings, children, etc., as well those of as friends, acquaintances, and strangers in drug-related incidents and crimes.
On second thought, it might be simpler and safer just to incarcerate them . . .
Half of the USA is on illegal drugs at least once a month. Many are every day. Just a hit to calm their nerves before and after work. And one in the work parking lot at lunch.
So, are we going to turn the entire USA into a incarceration camp ?
Wait, we may be living in a national drug rehab already.
Coming to a movie screen near you, “Escape from the USA”.
Sure, but they should stay home to ruin their lives.
As long as they ruin only their own lives and not those of their parents, spouses, siblings, children, etc., as well those of as friends, acquaintances, and strangers in drug-related incidents and crimes.
On second thought, it might be simpler and safer just to incarcerate them . . .
I’ve seen both alcohol and drugs rip families apart. No difference between the two. Out of control is out of control. We’ve already tried banning alcohol in this country, that was a rolling disaster. Banning drugs is having the same results.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating being an alcoholic or a drug addict. Both are decimating. I just do not like our militarized police running around the place with machine guns and grenades, they like to shoot dogs and people.
Fubo and Disney’s Hulu are merging: “Fubo and Disney to merge live TV streaming businesses”:
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/fubo-disney-streaming-deal
I did not see this one coming.
Ah I see.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-14255189/hulu-live-tv-network-merge-upcoming-changes.html
they buy them out, the stock price goes way up, Fubo C suite gets rich, and in return, Disney makes a butt load of money on sports and maybe finally unlocks some value in ESPN. Wonder if that was Fubo’s plan from the start?
n
And wasn’t it fairly recently that disney got a bigger chunk or all of Hulu?
n
I am really liking the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I’ve finished 1 and 2 and am a third of the way thru 3. Read the sample of 1. If it intrigues you, you’ll likely enjoy the series. There is real character growth and development, and the game based world is ‘fun’.
But now, I’m headed to bed ‘cuz the kids have school tomorrow, and I have to get up and make that happen.
n
>> “Ah heck, why not ? Just 40 million more liberals.”
Who’ll be wanting electoral votes…
And wasn’t it fairly recently that disney got a bigger chunk or all of Hulu?
ABC and Fox were 70 % ???
>> “Ah heck, why not ? Just 40 million more liberals.”
Who’ll be wanting electoral votes…
350 million + 40 million = 390 million
435 / 390 million * 40 million = 45 congress critters
45 + 2 senators = 47 electoral votes
Wife asked me when the inauguration was, and I said the 20th, because if not, the 21st is the day the war goes hot.
She gave me a strange look. I don’t think she has been paying attention to my observations this past few months…
n
“Don Jr. Visiting Greenland Tomorrow As President Trump Seeks To Acquire The Strategic Island”
https://100percentfedup.com/don-jr-visiting-greenland-tomorrow-as-president-trump/
And Greenland will be the 52nd state.
60,000 inhabitants.
This will be our smallest state by population.
More ‘conspiracy theory’ become accepted fact.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14255767/mkultra-cia-drugged-tortured-americans-mind-control-program.html
n
Wife asked me when the inauguration was, and I said the 20th, because if not, the 21st is the day the war goes hot.
She gave me a strange look. I don’t think she has been paying attention to my observations this past few months…
The women are just not interested in all of the conspiracy theories. They figure everything will work out. If not, they figure that a bunch of men will fix the problem. Either way, they are covered.
What is the interview part for?
These days, I just fill out an online form, and have someone take a photo of me with my phone (selfies are not accepted).
If I remember correctly (it was a long time ago, I was probably 17), for my very first passport application, I had to present myself and my photographs (from a coin-operated booth) at the local police station. After introducing myself to the desk sergeant, so he knew who I was, he stamped and countersigned the back of the strip of photos to confirm that they were a proper likeness of me.
I don’t recall now if the sergeant also countersigned the paper application form. I think that could also be done by a bank manager, a police officer, a teacher, a lawyer, a judge, or a minister of religion.
>>Fubo and Disney’s Hulu are merging: “Fubo and Disney to merge live TV streaming businesses”
“Fulu?”
“Hubo?”
“Fuhu?”
“HuFu?”
“Fulu?”
“Hubo?”
“Fuhu?”
“HuFu?”
FUBAR is more like it.