Cool and wet. Maybe cloudy all day. Unlike yesterday, when we had SOME clear and even a rainbow in the morning. The rain threatened all day but never arrived. We are supposed to get some precip, and I’d be ok with that, as long as we don’t get some on Friday and Saturday.
I wasn’t feeling great in the morning, I’ve had a bit of a “sour stomach” for a couple of days, and I decided to grab an hour or two napping. Felt better when I got up and got busy doing work.
A couple of pickups took up a good chunk of afternoon. It was mostly stuff for the BOL, but one thing for the house. If I get it installed, I’ll do a bit more commenting on it. After that it was stuck in traffic for about 20 extra minutes, then at least 20 minutes in line for gas at Costco, which messed up my timing to get D2 from her late after school pickup… So I spent 40 minutes reading while I waited for her. That was a better use of time than driving home, then all the way back. This unnecessary level of detail is to say that I lost a couple of hours of productive time. Jerryp would say the day was eaten by ducks.
Today will be some pickups and getting ready for the hamfest. I’ve got stuff scattered all over the place that I need to get together. I need to get the trailer reservation too. And maybe I’ll figure out a better way to get the stuff back on the trailer after the hamfest is over… maybe a come-a-long…
I’ve got to get ready but I feel like the Hamfest is coming too early this year. I’d skip it for half a reason… but I also know I picked stuff up specifically to sell and I’ll enjoy seeing all the guys I only see on that one day. Suck it up buttercup…
And stack it up too…
nick
The vehicles are definitely successful as status symbols with the Colonist set, and Tesla dominates with the leasing demographics around here.
My current employer does 6% match, cash, vesting immediately. From what I understand, the number used to be 4% until the buyout of the management running the acquisition through which the stock returned to being publicly traded. The target made the match an important part of the negotiations because they had an ugly history of brutal non-compete agreements in addition to the influence of that religious organization based in Utah, where the company was founded in the 70s.
Seven figures wasn’t impossible in a sheltered account over the last 30 years on an engineering salary, but that required discipline to ignore the grifters on CNBC nightly peddling FOMO while avoiding “safe” investments which were inadequate.
If you want to compare new vehicle to new vehicle, use a 2025. OTOH, Tesla’s designs are pretty ancient being the beneficiaries of the CAFE scam.
My 2018 is a lot lower than my 2001 Solara.
38 MPG CAFE without going hybrid. The tradeoff is that I can get 48 MPG out of the 2.5 L 4 cyl with ethanol-free gas and cruise control. I did 52 MPG running from Baytown to the New Orleans suburbs last year on one tank.
For now, Toyota seems to have given up on non-hybrid and the V6 in TNGA (Camry, Rav4, Highlander) to deal with 50 MPG CAFE, but the new FJ is supposed to be a non-hybrid V6, nary a turbo 4 cyl in sight. Hopefully, that is a trend, but all bets are off until the Midterm results.
70F and wet. Don’t know if it rained, if it’s barely drizzling, or if the ground is just wet with dew, but there is shiny concrete out there…
At least it’s not coming down in buckets.
Coffee is good food.
Family stirs. Day begins.
Bacon piping hot.
n
Dunno where she put the $400K, but it’s not in her pantry….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14458851/doomsday-prepper-warning-trump-zelensky-white-house-clash.html
n
I mean, she says a few things that aren’t wrong, but she’s cringe too…
https://www.ladbible.com/community/woman-spends-15k-preparing-for-end-of-the-world-20220317
I don’t see it in the pictures… but showing all your cards is dumb anyway.
n
And the current pics in the first article don’t look much different from the 2022 article.
She’s either delusional, or it’s all fake.
n
Pouring down rain now…
Guess I spoke too soon.
n
New garage door being installed today. Three men crew. Arrived at 9:15, old door gone by 9:35. The owner says the new door will be completed on the install by 11:30. A local company which I prefer over national brands. That way I am not paying the franchise company their fee. Local people tend to do better work because if they don’t word spreads fast.
Which reminds me, an asphalt company just showed up with some extra asphalt left over from another job. Seems like they are offering a good price to spread some asphalt. I think, as no one speaks English.
And the Orange Man with the bad haircut has just cost people in the markets, over the last two days, billions of dollars. Many IRA plans are taking a big dump.
Trump to Campus Agitators:Get Out
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/03/04/trump-to-campus-agitators-get-out-n3800405
Make the arrests, then transport the prisoners to their respective ports of entry and hold them pending a bail hearing and deportation hearings in 14 days.
Yes.
Probably on her tats, makeup, and hair for grifting.
Mine, too. I moved 70% into an annuity before the crazy orange comments. My FA says annuities have performed the best through thick and thin.
My IRA lost 40% under plugs. When tRump creamed him in the debate, I gained it and more back. I believe the remaining will go back up. As the PLTs around the World cry about Ukraine, the US will get stronger financially and military.
tRump’s embrace of crypto has me curious. Does he know something?
Some science-y content. This could be the beginning of a whole revolution…
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Study_Finds_Laser_Light_Can_Cast_a_Shadow/p5/a70492
If I understand what’s happening, the laser actually changes something in the ruby media it’s passing thru, and THAT casts the shadow, but this is crazy news.
The part I bolded, with the concept of “electricity”substituted for “laser” exactly describes a transistor. This could be an optical transistor…
and look what the invention of the transistor did to the world.
n
I wonder about that too. He, himself, likely knows absolutely nothing about it. But someone created Trump and Melania meme-coins, and likely scammed a lot of people for money. Now he wants the US government to buy crypto? And – supposedly – just before his announcement, someone bought something like $200 million of calls on a big crypto-based fund.
I wonder if someone (or several someones) among his advisors are…less than honest.
And the Orange Man with the bad haircut has just cost people in the markets, over the last two days, billions of dollars.
– only if you sell and realize the losses.
Otherwise it’s just noise.
n
I mean, she says a few things that aren’t wrong, but she’s cringe too…
https://www.ladbible.com/community/woman-spends-15k-preparing-for-end-of-the-world-20220317
Here is the problem with the bunker. Fire.
If someone finds out about your bunker, they can burn you out. And they will.
The Art of the Deal:
Zelenskyy BACKPEDALS, Now Suddenly MORE Than Ready to Work with Trump Toward Peace … Gosh, Wonder WHY
The Dumbocrats Zelenskyy met with (illegaly I believe) probably told him they are in charge just like when disease riddled plugs was in charge:
Zelenskyy: Mr. tRump, this is what you’ll give me…
tRump: You have no Pow-ah heeere!
Like I posted, he made himself look like an idiot. I bet a lot of the EU countries told Z “Hey, you have our support” and in hushed voices “if tRump has your back.”
POTUS should make him come back to the Oval Office and grovel anytime something needs to be signed. Keep him in the air and away from throwing monkey wrenches into the works.
I still think Z will flee. Either to keep from being crushed by Putin or getting a plunger handle up his azz by his own people.
I think Trudeau is making a mistake:
Furious Justin Trudeau calls Donald Trump ‘dumb’ and vows to escalate trade war with massive tariffs
He’s leaving office shortly. Instead of negotiating and stalling, he is turning up the rhetoric. His successor is going to get a steaming pile of dog doody. Let that guy work with tRump on a good setting instead of dropping one in the punch bowl on the way out.
There are plenty of Universites that deserve to fail. Even billionare PLT donors will withdraw funds. US education needs an enema.
ok, got a couple of small things done. Rain stopped. Gonna crank out a couple more small things, then head out to do my pickup.
n
So much for the garage door installation without problems. There is a drain trap for the bathtub that just barely cleared the old door. The new door is thicker and the trap will not clear the door, or the door will not clear the trap (perspective). I cut out the existing trap so the door would work and the installers could leave. I replaced the missing trap with a straight piece of pipe. A trap has to be installed somewhere otherwise it is a straight shot (as straight as drains go) to the open sewer and the gases thereof. I moved further down the line, cut out a section, and installed a new trap. The washing machine drain now has two traps, its own that existed before I cut out the bathtub trap and it now feeds upstream from the new trap. I guess two traps will not hurt. I will find out when I run the washing machine.
There is this video of a guy and a spool of wire that has blown up the internet… and I gotta say, 5 seconds into the original video I KNEW what he was feeling and why, and it brought a tear to my own eye.
This ‘tuber is in my feed a lot, and she is very pro men. Her take is worth watching if you have seen the original vid. She plays it at about 1 minute in…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVsD4fAj2ro
No evidence that his wife actually understands about the wire, or what happened in that moment.
n
I still think Z will flee. Either to keep from being crushed by Putin or getting a plunger handle up his azz by his own people.
His cousins down south of there use 4 inch to 6 inch diameter poles with a soft point on them, eight feet long. Dig a hole four foot deep and and drop the pole in it. Then drop the offender on the soft point, maybe with some grease. Depending on how much they struggle, the soft point will go into their abdomen in a day or two. Most bleed out after two days. Was invented by Count Vlad, nicknamed The Impaler. Horrible way to die.
And the Orange Man with the bad haircut has just cost people in the markets, over the last two days, billions of dollars.
– only if you sell and realize the losses.
Otherwise it’s just noise.
n
Yup. I am 10X to 15X on several of my stocks. I do not watch them, takes too much time.
Only Banks and Stock Funds do Mark to Market. We individuals generally have a life.
“He’s leaving office shortly. Instead of negotiating and stalling, he is turning up the rhetoric. His successor is going to get a steaming pile of dog doody. Let that guy work with tRump on a good setting instead of dropping one in the punch bowl on the way out.”
The minute Trudeau is out, put him and his family on the “strip search and disassemble their phones” list at the border.
@Ray Thompson
Typical homeowner’s solution.
A plumber would have notched the door.
I remember just a few months ago when “Joe Biden” did something stupid and the markets tanked, and Repubs all over started hooting and hollering like chimps about how bad it was.
A week later, the markets recovered, and no one talked about it at all.
Now, Trump haters are doing the same thing.
I just checked. My portfolio is down 0.12%.
Even if it was 2%, or even 3%, I’d be inclined to say “Meh” and wait it out.
RIP Joey Molland (1947-2025)
Breaking: A Victory for Free Speech: Mark Steyn’s $1 Million Judgment Slashed to $5,000 in Landmark Climate Case
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/03/04/a-victory-for-free-speech-mark-steyns-1-million-judgment-slashed-to-5000-in-landmark-climate-case/
It only took twelve years.
Michael Mann was found liable for $500,000 in legal fees and maybe more yet to come.
And the dismantling of the global warming scam funding apparatus means that MIkey has no expectation that his next grant will get padded out to pay for his losses.
My portfolio is down about 3% from its high a couple of months back. It will recover, as it has done in the past. But the markets have always recovered from dips, even really big ones, given enough time, which is longer than overnight.
RBT and OFD were always saying to get out of the markets. Over time their advice and opinion of the markets were generally incorrect.
My advisor always says to not watch the day-to-day stuff and look to the long term, as in years. The markets have always beaten inflation according to him and exceed the offerings from savings accounts in banks. In fact when the markets drop he has always advocated looking for money to put back into the markets.
Your 0.12% spread over the markets still represents billions of dollars. The amount of money involved in the markets is staggering.
“Harris County will skirt Trump’s English-as-official-language order”
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/harris-county-english-20201502.php
“”We remain committed to ensuring all residents have access to county services, regardless of the language they speak,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said.”
No telling how it costs Harris County to support 40+ languages, probably millions of dollars per year. The costs for a different language should fall on the individual. After all, one of the requirements to take the USA citizenship test is that it is only in English.
Winning!
And more winning!
Tear It Down: New Secretary Linda McMahon Announces ‘Final Mission’ of the Department of Education
I think I’m more excited than when Melania wore her Cad Bane hat. Wood!
Those red states will feel the… pain… wait a minute…
All Blue: Home states of Walz, Whitmer, Hochul, Schumer, and Clinton, and Ground Zero for Orange Man Lawfare?
I bet Trump can stand the pain.
I saw an X post where the LCBO (I assume Liquor Control Board of Ontario) was removing all the Jack Daniels from there shelves, in retaliation.
That’ll show them! We’ll remove stock we’ve already paid for, tarrif free, and not sell it to consumers. Surely that will cause Canadians to take up arms against the country of Orange Man Bad.
That is, if they had arms.
It’s all theater. Bad theater, at that.
Speaking of which, I’m debating going up to Illinois to see my old high school (where my son works) perform the teen edition of Chicago. Anyone know what the changes are? I’ve never seen the adult version, FWIW.
Mary Sunshine may not be revealed as transgendered.
That would be hard to sell in a high school production.
That would be hard to sell in a high school production.
– not in Chicago IL
n
Having a normal person PLAYING a trans would be a hard sell though.
n
Yes, in the era of REP-RE-SEN-TA-TION, but every high school graduating class of decent size tends to have at least one.
I got some good news today that I have been sweating on. My A1C dropped from 5.8 (pre-diabetic) last September to 5.6 (not pre-diabetic). An A1C of 5.8 meant that my blood glucose was rising up to 130 occasionally. My numbers dropped because I lost 13 lbs from 263 to 250. I am eating a lot of salads and trying not to eat sugar, like the chocolate chip ice cream I had last night. My A1C was 5.1 a year ago so it can change quickly.
My total cholesterol dropped from 175 to 158. My good cholesterol is only 31, sucks. My bad cholesterol is 103, sucks.
My PSA is the same as a year ago, 1.3, good.
“BREAKING: BlackRock to Purchase the Panama Canal”
https://headlineusa.com/breaking-blackrock-to-purchase-the-panama-canal/
“(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A consortium of investors led by the controversial firm BlackRock has reportedly agreed to buy a majority stake in the Panama Canal for $23 billion.”
Um, this should be ok ???
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street drove DEI.
Blackrock is also pouring a bunch of money into the AI monkey trick.
If you don’t think any of those names apply to you, chances are that you aren’t reading your 401(k) plan prospectus documents carefully enough.
Whatever happened to Trust Busters?
>>Speaking of blast radius…
Their maintenance process failed when they replaced a copper supply line with a piece of welding hose, and didn’t crimp it properly. This crimp failed, leading the facility to fill with flammable gas, which ignited when an employee turned on the lights, killing several people and damaging a huge number of structures….
Even if the incorrect hose had been crimped properly, something bad was likely to happen if/when the hose failed.
From the report (page 41 of the PDF):
@nick, interesting report, thanks for sharing. I can only imagine how many pages will be in the final NTSB report on the Reagan National mid-air collision.
Also interesting was the lack of inclusion of any information as to how the (inoperable) emergency gas exhaust system would have (supposedly) functioned given the size of the leak, specifically was that system designed/implemented to be arc-proof?
“EPA $20B funding freeze leaves ‘green bank’ nonprofits unable to pay bills”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/epa-funding-freeze-ggrf-green-bank-renewable-energy-trump-zeldin/741485/
“The Climate United Fund, which received a $6.97 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant, will soon be unable to make payroll or disburse funding to its borrowers, a spokesperson said.”
So does this mean that my wife and I will now get our Medicare paid for by the USA as was promised to us many decades ago ? Because from what I can tell, the Biden administration gave away our Social Security and Medicare trust funds to these bogus liberal causes.
Guess what happens this Sunday at 2 am ? You got it, Daylight Savings Time begins.
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/10/texas-daylight-savings-time-legislation/
We are, except Arizona, all going to Spring Forward.
DM is hinting at obamma’s live in boyfriend…
Lavish photos show Barack and Michelle Obama’s new $18M Hawaii hideout they share with his closest friend… as divorce rumors reach fever pitch
n
@alan, yeah, I saw the hose was inappropriate. It’s called out a couple of places. Giterdone at its worst.
Still, a chain of things had to go wrong for the accident to happen. If the super had turned off the valve at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have spent hours filling the room with gas. If the monitoring system had worked… I’m betting nuisance tripping had someone disable it.
A few years ago a lifting system I worked on crunched a guy, leaving him paralyzed and I got a call from the lawyers. I explained that over time, someone had removed or disabled the safety interlocks, and then removed physical barriers, or the accident couldn’t have happened. The lift wouldn’t operate if the doors were open. I’m absolutely certain that someone disabled the door lock when it failed or there was a fault and the show needed to go on… removing the barrier, well, I can’t really imagine what led to that, or why it wasn’t replaced. Freaking thing would have been terrifying for the rider without the barrier.
People don’t know what they don’t know, and turnover often leads to several generations working with stuff they weren’t properly trained on.
n
The tidal pool is still there, but the rest of the estate was razed.
RIP Robin’s Nest.
NOAA Worker Slams DOGE Cuts After Spending Millions on ‘Gender-Neutral’ Alien Cartoons”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/03/04/noaa-worker-slams-doge-cuts-after-spending-millions-on-gender-neutral-alien-cartoons-n2653224
The “NOAA instructed” is incorrect. Someone in management signed off on the project, after a lot of preliminaries. Get the names of everyone involved and fire them RFN. Crap like this has no value and is an insult to taxpayers who work for a living.
I picked up a screw in a truck tire sometime in the last few days and took it into America’s Tires for a free fix.
Since I had a few minutes to kill I walked over to my bank and to ask about RV loans. Sort of. There were a dozen desks for loan officers, but only one actually attended by a person. Almost all loans are now conducted online.
So, not much info, though I briefly talked to the nice lady. Interest rates are near 8% – I mentioned my 1% for the (paid off) truck and we both chuckled.
“the next steps would be to wrestle away control of the ports at Manzanillo and Colima from China. This is where the majority of the fentanyl precursors are shipped through. This Blackrock deal includes those two ports.”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/03/04/trump-chased-the-chinese-almost-out-of-the-canal-zone-n3800428
from comments. not verified.
reposting after I put it on Monday’s thread:
“Let’s not pussyfoot around this point: Everything Harris and Biden said about border enforcement was a bald-faced lie.”
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/03/03/trump-exposes-dem-lies-on-border-security-in-spectacular-first-month-n3800363
Trump could have opened the speech tonight with that line, and continued:
“And every last one of the Democrats in this room supported those lies for four years while millions of illegal aliens, including murderers, drug dealers, pedophiles and other groups beloved by Democrats were assisted by billions of dollars in tax monies paid by hard-working citizens. This is a direct violation of U.S. laws, a treasonous betrayal of oaths of office, and the time has come to pay the piper. Every one of you lying m*****f*****s is under arrest and the U.S. Marshalls are waiting at the doors to collect you and take you to jail. ”
Democrats confident that their response is a winner:
“YEAH, BUT THE PRICE OF EGGS!!!”
>>Dropping employee health insurance for my main company was a real pain for me personally last year. Obamacare is nothing but a big pain in the arse HMO. I hate HMOs. I can hardly wait for Medicare in a couple of months. Oh shoot, I need to call Medicare tomorrow and start the paperwork.
@lynn, are you signing up for one of the Medicare Supplement plans? You only get one chance to join one without any penalties for any/all pre-existing conditions.
Or you could be going with one of the Advantage plans – in which case you don’t need (can’t add) a supplement plan.
Adam Savage Meets the Original ZF-1 From The Fifth Element!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abbmQ6JoyuU
SO WHAT DOES THE RING DO???
Live auction date in comments.
referenced in the above:
Adam Savage’s Zorg Industries ZF-2!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFFw48pF1mE
Got the kid from her activity. They had a fat tuesday party. I’d forgotten. Oh well, I guess that means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.
Time marches on.
n
>>My wife got her first direct deposit from Social Security today. It covers back to last November as they let her start it back then when she turned 66 and 8 months, her Full Retirement Age. It was quite a bit of money.
@lynn, IIRC you should have the option to report the portion of the payment that covered November and December of 2024 as part of your 2024 filing (or submit an amended return for 2024 if you’ve already filed for 2024).
@lynn, are you signing up for one of the Medicare Supplement plans? You only get one chance to join one without any penalties for any/all pre-existing conditions.
I am going to go with the Part A, B, D, and G plans. I am going with the same BCBS Part G plan and Part D plan that my wife is using. We have a local Medicare Insurance Agent who has been assisting my wife for over two years and is bravely taking me on also.
Small things.
The left click button on my mouse has worn out. It doesn’t stay pressed when I hold it normally. Been a week or two and I’m sure it’s not me. Makes selecting text a pain. Finally changed it tonight. New mouse scroll wheel doesn’t ‘click’ as it spins. It has like a micro click and I’m finding it disconcertingly hard to scroll accurately. My muscle memory is messed up.
Swapped out my 4th monitor for another. The backlight driver died in the one I’ve been using for a while. I had the security cams on that monitor, above my center monitor. When it died, I moved the cable to my left monitor, instead of my dad’s old pc… I finally swapped it all back. Now the wireless mouse for dad’s pc isn’t working properly. I’ve got to get another mouse out of the attic, so I’m not quite back to normal.
Put a bunch of stuff in the attic too.
It was a bunch of little things, but they added up.
n
“10 Takeaways From Trump’s Congressional Address”
https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/03/04/4-takeaways-from-trumps-congressional-address/
“Trump touted his executive order “cutting off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth.””
““Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you,” the president said.”
This is a great message for all of us.
>> I’ve got to get another mouse out of the attic, so I’m not quite back to normal.
He’s made it the official language…now can he get EM to “fix” it???
Are those free-range mice? And why hasn’t Musk fixed the egg shortage?
Good night all…
Something did get in the bucket of poison I left in the attic….
n
Are y’all having an egg shortage? Here in Texas, we seem to be well stocked. Of course that’s at HEB, and HEB is committed to buying from local Texas farmers. We didn’t really have a problem with eggs last time around either.
n
Are y’all having an egg shortage? Here in Texas, we seem to be well stocked. Of course that’s at HEB, and HEB is committed to buying from local Texas farmers. We didn’t really have a problem with eggs last time around either.
n
My HEB in Sugar Land only had an egg shortage once while I was there about a month or two ago. The egg cooler was totally empty at the end of the day. They said that they were bringing in more eggs at 4 am.
I know that HEB does bring in a lot of produce and fresh food whenever they can from local farmers. You can see the big greenhouses on Highway 36, just west of Rosenberg.
Told my wife that the new Secretary of the DoEd is going to wind it down. Her reaction was “what about all the Title 1 money? States are going to be desperate without that.”
I said that we’ve been writing checks on an empty account for years and it will probably stop…
That’s kinda the point, as well as the Constitutional issues, and the “outcomes have gotten worse” issue.
n
NB- we personally make money on spending for new schools, my wife’s job is in the construction industry and the Districts love to spend money. I love to get some back into our pockets. It will have real impacts on our family and I’m STILL in favor of it.
I’m seeing weird youtube shorts of Jordan Peterson’s voice reading stuff that sounds like his words, but it mispronounces words he knows, and gets emphasis and pauses wrong. It’s got to be an audio deepfake, but I don’t get the point. Just pirate his actual recording, and steal the ad revenue, if you are going to steal ad revenue…
n