Cold for springtime. It was 56F when I went to bed. Not in the 40s F like the wife predicted, but pretty chilly considering it was in the 80s during the day. I expect we’ll have more wind, water, and cold today.
The area around the BOL got some weather yesterday, but my weather station didn’t report much rain, and winds were under 10mph. There were areas of Houston that saw street flooding too. Not us though.
I spent the morning doing office stuff, then the early afternoon doing auction stuff. Picked up, and spent some time chatting with the auctioneer who I was using to sell stuff. He wasn’t begging me to bring him lots, so I think I need to pursue other sellers again. Got home, did some more small stuff, didn’t go to the BOL.
Today I’ll be working the list some more. Dang dog was up all night trying to eat a possum. I had to pull the dog off him several times and it was the biggest and oldest possum I’ve ever seen. So now I need to check the fenceline and be sure the dog can’t follow the possum out of the yard. There are a couple of places that might not be as secure as I’d like. Also the fence guys moved all my stuff away from the fence when it was replaced, but didn’t put it back. I guess that’s up to me… and I didn’t do it either. It leaves some places where animals might dig under the fence, and lots of places for a possum to hide. I’ll also have to get the big Havahart live trap set and see if Mr Possum will relocate and stay relocated.
That’s if it isn’t raining. I also need to stake the new apple tree, and get the rest of the stuff in my truck broken down for scrap and salvage. Digging my way to the UPS in the office, and pulling it to replace the battery should be challenging. Mostly because I’ll have to do 4 other things while I’m doing that. That will be “if it’s raining” work.
But first, I’ll sleep in a bit. If I’m not being productive, at least I can catch up on some sleep.
Can’t stack sleep, but it feels good to try. Stack something else…
nick
It is bitterly cold outside, 49 F. Only suppose to be 61 F today. Then 42 F Monday morning. Cold ! The wife loves it.
Thunderstorms all night, with a couple tornado warnings sometime around 0100. My wife got up to check the news and see where they were at. I gave my standard instructions to only let me know to take cover if we have cows.
I finished moving all the stone yesterday morning. 20 years ago it would have been a day and not 2, but not too bad. My back actually is in good shape. Being mindful and lots of stretching while working seems to have helped.
Phase 2 for the backyard will likely involve double the amount of stone, plus a decent amount of digging. I’ll rent this: https://www.kubotausa.com/products/construction/stand-on-compact-loaders/scl1000
That loader will fit through my fence gate (I don’t have a double gate).
The coffee that the wife made me is so strong that it is almost chunky. I cut it with half a bottle of water.
The wife made me awesome spaghetti last night with meat and vegetables. I had a huge bowl of it. Diet, Schmiet.
The varmints ran out, did their business, and demanded back in. They know they have it good inside the house.
Dang dog was up all night trying to eat a possum. I had to pull the dog off him several times and it was the biggest and oldest possum I’ve ever seen. So now I need to check the fenceline and be sure the dog can’t follow the possum out of the yard.
Be careful. A possum can gut a dog with their claws if they get underneath it.
They have ear tags. #1 and #2. #1 is black with the tip of his tail white. #2 is mostly black/very dark brown with a white face and some white on his feet.
I guess if they get Real Names it will be something clever like Blacky and Whitey.
As for eating, they are a back-up supply when the zombie apocalypse happens. Until then, they are living lawnmowers.
We tattooed our cattle in their ears rather than use tags. I suspect it had something to do with them being registered Angus and not food.
On one trip north from Rogue to River to The Dalles I was delivering a young bull to a buyer. Just south of Salem I got stopped by a state trooper. A new one by his appearance and perceived age. I had my transportation certificate which was required when traveling with animals. The markings for the animal were clearly indicated on the document.
This young trooper wanted to impress his superiors I guess. He got the brilliant idea that he was going to check the tattoos. I said go ahead. He hops into the back of the truck, gets out his flashlight which gets shined behind the ears to read the tattoo. A young bull that has been traveling for 150 miles accumulates a lot of mucus in their nose.
About the time the trooper moved around front the young bull snorted out the mucus all over the trooper’s uniform. The trooper decided the tattoo was valid without even looking and climbed out of the truck. As he came around to give me my papers back there was a huge glob of snot hanging on the trooper’s tie with residual content splattered on his shirt.
It was all I could do to keep from laughing.
Another time the local Rogue River city police decided to stop me and check my papers. It was Friday, school was in session, but I had an excused absence to deliver the cattle. The jerk followed me for three miles before finally pulling me over in front of the high school. A deliberate act so that everyone in the school could see that he was “Johnny on the Spot”. A pure ego trip as all he checked was my driver’s license and the transportation certificate.
Trooper was lucky the young bull didn’t decide to pin him to the side of the trailer just for fun. Some old bulls I’ve known would have twitched and flattened him like a fly as a reflex.
LOL Inverse-Cramer in effect:
HA! Almost As If Tariffs WORK: Guess How Many Countries Have ALREADY Bent the Knee and Want to Negotiate
This could be a YUGE win for us.
It was in the back of a pickup truck. All of our animals were gentle with much exposure to human contact. We spent a lot of time with the animals to make certain they were not aggressive.
We would teach the animals to follow a halter lead by towing them behind a tractor at slow speed. About 20 minutes of that and the animals would follow a lead on a halter used by anyone. The pain of the experience was locked in their brains.
a “bull that has been traveling for 150 miles” is gentle indeed if he hasn’t had about enough.
What’s truly inside that bright red flame retardant used on bright red flames from the fires caused by California’s definitely not bright but certainly Red government? No-one would say so we drank some to find out. (LAist)
https://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=414343#Bot
I posted comment #198. The lab results have two extra significant figures. Undergraduates lose grades when making a high school chemistry error.
There are many other problems:
The results have no confidence intervals, and I suspect they only did one sample of each.
The fire retardant is liquid. The field samples were solid. That begs the question as to how all the results can be reported in mcg/liter.
Heavy metals are not part of the fire retardant formula, which is based on natural phosphate rock that can contain trace heavy metals. Good methodology would report analysis of typical phosphate rock samples and soil samples at each location. And phosphorous should be determined for all samples.
It’s the typical kind of b.s. reporting that happens when a reporter:
with little actual science background (else he’d be tooting it) takes his climate change/disaster hammer and goes looking for a nail.
Cold ! The wife loves it.
– yeah mine is practically giddy this morning. It was 50F when she woke up!!11!! 54F at the moment. Wind is gusty and the sky is grey. However, coffee is on the way.
I don’t see much evidence of a storm last night, so it must have passed us by. Lots of weather does.
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The ‘ship of state’ has a lot of inertia. And the principle of ‘reversion to the mean’ is in full effect versus change. And the ‘sailors’ on the ‘ship’ are hostile. Time is needed.
One interesting thing is that they are taking orangemanbad very seriously. They don’t seem to be ignoring him or trying to just wait him out. And they seem to be convinced that it wasn’t all just rhetoric like the politicians they are used to dealing with.
We need to keep a sharp lookout (another nautical phrase) for the part of their reaction that is happening offstage.
n
A lot of editorial asides but links too.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/us-peanut-allergy-epidemic-sprang-experts-exactly-wrong-guidance
TL:DR
kids should be exposed to peanuts, not shielded from them. The 17 of official advice was wrong, based on little more than “intuition” and had serious life changing consequences on the victims. Ditto for Covid, and both under the direction of Fauxi
n
Blindfold Fauci and have six guys with brass knuckles beat the crap out of him. Take him into another room, take off the blindfold, and ask him to describe the guy that hit him.
Fauci should be given the Joseph Mengele Award for Service to Humanity.
and his co-conspirator:
RFK Jr. Drains the Swamp: Fauci’s Wife Fired From NIH
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/04/06/anthony-faucis-wife-fired-from-nih-n2655065
Bondi Suspends Attorney Who Threw the Trump Administration Under the Bus at Deportation Hearing
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/04/06/bondi-suspends-attorney-who-threw-the-trump-administration-under-the-bus-at-deportation-hearing-n2187549
buh-bye
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/04/06/mostly-peaceful-rock-smashes-into-tesla-seriously-injuring-pregnant-passenger-this-has-gone-too-far-n2187542
Drop the other shoe: Suspend all remittances to South Sudan by any means, and have all entities who have served as the processor in the past to immediately report the accounts that have done so and suspend them.
Portland Man Arrested, Charged for Shining Laser into Tesla Employees’ Eyes
Arrest him on a federal warrant as a terrorist and deny bail. Search his home and computers.
“Where did you get the laser? How long have you had it?”
I have a nickel that says it’s not his first laser attack.
One interesting thing is that they are taking orangemanbad very seriously. They don’t seem to be ignoring him or trying to just wait him out. And they seem to be convinced that it wasn’t all just rhetoric like the politicians they are used to dealing with.
My son thinks that Trump is going to bomb Iran and then put troops on the ground. My son is 41 and can be called up until he is 46 since he left the USMC as non-commissioned officer in 2013. He suspects that he will be a DI after he goes through fat camp, he won’t be sent overseas again.
He thinks that when Trump puts troops on the ground, we will have a revolution here in the USA. People are really tired of having their kids sent overseas.
In other words, Trump can do anything he wants to in the USA unless he send troops overseas. And the dumbrocrats know this.
BTW, you have probably noticed that Trump is a big fan of Israel. Really big fan. He was given a special blessing by the head rabbi of Israel well before the election. They have reputedly asked him to take out Iran. Or else they will do it and light the Middle East on fire.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1908530987317002327
Another beautiful day here in the high desert.
Yesterday turned out nice, the winds subsided after lunch and I managed to put down 30SF of rock in place of the bark now strewn across the yard from windstorms. There is another 30SF mirror image bit that needs doing, but slow & steady is the word on these back-intensive jobs. I am also not sold on the new rock’s color, but perfect is the enemy of good enough.
When the help at Lowes knows you by sight….
Turned on the drip for the trees leafing out. We have had 2.5″ of rain this year, if I am reading things aright, nothing in the last two or three weeks.
Discovered a “Y” fitting has split. Freeze or mainland manufacture?
Picked up a nice tri-tip for the sous-vide at the market this morning, $6/lb. And a small cake to take to dinner at friends tonight.
I would imagine Trump knows this also, so I think the plan might be: Bomb Iran, then ‘encourage’ other allied or like-minded nations to provide ground forces. This would have the benefit of providing a face-saving reason to not continue provoking the Russian bear, by providing a convenient but non-confrontational military adventure.
I know the Cold War is over, much less WW2, but I’ve always suspected that Germany still has Imperial ambition. I may be misreading the tea leaves, but I’ve been concerned with Germany’s political and economic influence since reunification. Recently, Germany established their first permanent external military presence since WW2, in Lithuania, and today I read an article describing the German auto industry getting ready to shift excess production capacity to defense production. This is in line with the US encouraging NATO to get defense spending up to the 5% GDP target, but there’s always the problem of how to integrate and test new equipment / troops / command infrastructure. Iran would be a useful adventure, well away from the homeland (or Homeland).
I also went by Safelite and had them repair that windshield pit with the glue stuff.
It isn’t an invisible repair, but it is in line of view with the hood and not too distracting, and should be a structural repair to keep it from cracking.
Beats a $1500 window.
@Lynn
“My son thinks that Trump is going to bomb Iran and then put troops on the ground.”
Bombs likely. Troops not.
The Iranians have gotten perilously close to nuclear weapons, thanks to MFBHO and MFJB and the billions those traitorous scum shipped to the mullahs. But–unexpectedly–the Israelis took out most of their air defenses and it doesn’t matter how deep the bunkers if you rain enough hell from the skies.
{I’d like to see a way to get a surrender, followed by a full inspection of the facilities, a full inventory of the French, German, and Chinese equipment, and war crimes trials for all the facilitating countries, followed by executions of Soros and every mother-living one of the elite string pullers.]
The Iranian people are going to have to depose their own leaders and make their own revolution, not have it imposed. They need to spill their own blood and make their own heroes and leaders.
The VA Budget is $350 Billion annually with 1 in 19 Americans on VA healthcare.
We can’t afford any more “war” as run by the freak shows at MacDill.
We are safely back from Commiefornia.
The last thing we did yesterday was see the F-117 exhibit at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
According to the docents, retirement of those planes is proceeding very slowly, and more than a couple of dozen are still maintained in their special hangers at Tonopah, ready to go.
Reading between the lines, it is obvious that the planes are still in use.
@gavin, those german moves are part of why I am sure we are gearing up for a big on.
Once they start spending money, it’s very hard to go back.
n
The VA Budget is $350 Billion annually with 1 in 19 Americans on VA healthcare.
Woof ! $350 billion x 19 is $6.65 trillion spent annually on healthcare. No wonder why the USA is going broke.
If we had another couple of days in Palm Springs, we could have seen the Darkstar from “Top Gun: Maverick”.
Strictly fictional … or is it?
https://palmspringsairmuseum.org/programs/darkstar-on-view-inside-hanger-through-april-18-2025-4/
The museum has a new exhibit hangar under construction to house the Darkstar and several restorations in progress, including Walt Disney’s Gulfstream, which was left to rot in the Florida sun by Iger until the Disney family intervened.
You’re forgetting about the disability checks.
As Caleb Hammer noted once again recently, every discharged service member who has appeared on his show collects a disability check.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5WMq19oJ9c
My wife’s nephew wants an EM field exposure disability rating so he can get a check.
Someone is coaching him.
My son’s USMC squad leader has been a big user of the VA. Two knee rebuilds of the same knee and now they are considering a knee replacement. He is about 43.
Carrying 65 lbs of body armour, an 8 lb weapon, 45 lbs of backpack with a bunch of ammo, water, and supplies is not for the faint of heart. My son always carried seven 30 round mags in the field for his M16 then M4 unless he was carrying a 17 lb SAW with seven 200 round drums and a spare barrel. He calls the SAW liquid metal at 800 rpm.
Been working on 2024 income taxes. I am now heading to Home Depot to get a half dozen heavy duty metal fence posts and then to the office complex to replace the office property signs that have faded away in the Texas sun. Since I have two ponds, I have to put “no swimming” and “no fishing” signs at the ponds to make the insurance company happy.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L9YYPS?tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089OMNDQ?tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089OUGX0?tag=ttgnet-20
Since I retired as “Regular Army”, I can be recalled at the pleasure of the President. Part of drawing a pension for 25 years (so far). I would be an O-5 janitor at Fort Rucker, the home of Army Aviation.
POTUS still has the “President’s 100,000”. POTUS can call up a military force of 100,000 boots with all the equipment they work with. That’s how POTUS stomps out fires around the World of interest to the US without having to go through Congress to declare war. Panama, Grenada, etc. If nukes get dicey in Iran, the 100,000 rule is how he bombs the shite out of them. Hello, Houtis.
Your implicit assumption is that every human in the U.S. requires as much medical service as a VA-eligible veteran does. Also that private medical care is as expensive as the wasteful VA. That part, at least, may be true.
There are many healthy, young, non-military people who don’t see doctors at all. Even a lot of the fat ones. There are old farts like me whose total annual healthcare isn’t all that bad. Most years lately, I’d spend less than the medicare premiums + what medicare paid for concierage care. I’m hedging against the bad years, of course.
@Lynn
“ Since I have two ponds, I have to put “no swimming” and “no fishing” signs at the ponds to make the insurance company happy.”
How ’bout “No Feed Gators”?
And are they single language signs or multis?
Some illegal from Asscratchistan could wander by, think the poor gator looked hungry, try to share his tuna sandwich, lose a hand, then get a scum-sucking lawyer to sue.
How ’bout “Gators No Swim Here”?
But can gators read?
n
Since I retired as “Regular Army”, I can be recalled at the pleasure of the President. Part of drawing a pension for 25 years (so far). I would be an O-5 janitor at Fort Rucker, the home of Army Aviation.
My wife’s great great grandfather volunteered for the Spanish-American war in 1898 when he was 61 after he was a Civil War General for the Confederacy in the 1860s. He was sent to Cuba then the Philippines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wheeler#Spanish%E2%80%93American_War
I retired as “Regular Navy”, so technically the same applies to me, 35 years on. However, nobody will want to recall me to active flying status, because all the P-3 Orion ASW aircraft have been retired. However, I DID teach celestial air navigation, and cel nav may be needed after the ChiComs shoot down the GPS satellites. So I guess it’s still possible, because not even the Chinese can shoot down the stars.
Your implicit assumption is that every human in the U.S. requires as much medical service as a VA-eligible veteran does. Also that private medical care is as expensive as the wasteful VA. That part, at least, may be true.
There are many healthy, young, non-military people who don’t see doctors at all. Even a lot of the fat ones. There are old farts like me whose total annual healthcare isn’t all that bad. Most years lately, I’d spend less than the medicare premiums + what medicare paid for concierage care. I’m hedging against the bad years, of course.
The average age in the US is 39 years. Babies, especially first babies born to 40+ year old women (IVF usually), are high consumers of healthcare. So are people 45 and above.
I just assumed that the average person is using a lot of healthcare. We are rapidly getting older. I have been wondering what people are spending through insurance and personal expenses / savings. It is an incredibly hard number to figure out.
My wife’s breast cancer at age 47 in 2005 was $350,000. My first heart attack and heart surgery in 2009 at 49 was around $60K. My second heart attack in 2013 was $20K. My second heart surgery in 2018 was $100K.
I have noticed that if your relatives get a hold of you in your final days then they can blow $2,000,000 in Medicare expenses trying to keep you alive.
Anyway, I found the calculation interesting. It is probably the upper bound on the calculation. I suspect that nobody really knows what the actual number is. I also suspect that the lower bound is more than half that of the upper bound.
Tried a new place for dinner tonight. Vietnamese food, limited menu, hipster style to every dish… It was pretty good. W had curry, I had crawdad tails in noodles, and D1 had salmon tartare’ and spring rolls. Portions were not generous but were sufficient, and the presentation was stylish.
Dunno if it was $33/each good, but it was a nice meal.
And it was a support for a local business.
n
A very wise man once pointed out to me: “Did you know ‘shyster lawyer’ is redundant?”
“‘Payroll-Driven Theater’: Anti-Trump and Anti-Musk Protesters Are ‘Staged and Paid – Bussed-In, Scripted, Clocked-Out’”
https://americafirstreport.com/payroll-driven-theater-anti-trump-and-anti-musk-protesters-are-staged-and-paid-bussed-in-scripted-clocked-out/
“(WND)—Were the weekend “Hands Off!” demonstrations protesting President Donald Trump and his DOGE leader Elon Musk authentic?”
“Videos emerging on social media are casting doubt, as some of the protesters apparently had no idea why they were there.”
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Bring Your Friends With You”
https://areaocho.com/bring-your-friends-with-you/
“The press is filled with stories of people protesting Trump’s policies. If you believe the reports in the MSM, you would have to think that Florida is taking a huge financial hit because Canadians are angry with the US President. The problem is that this take is complete fabricated nonsense. This article in money wise is a great example. In it, the writer claims that Canadians are leaving en masse because of skyrocketing costs brought about by Trump’s tariffs. The cost increases haven’t even happened yet, but even once they do it won’t be that large of a hit. If you read on down the article, you hit the money quote:”
“The real culprit happened in 2021 when the 12 story Surfside condo collapsed, killing 98 people. The condo wasn’t being maintained, and seawater intrusion had corroded the steel supports. In response, the state of Florida instituted regulations and inspections to require condo buildings be repaired and properly maintained- especially of the buildings are over 3 stories or located near the beach. Nearly 90% of the 1.6 million condos in Florida are more than 30 years old, and most haven’t been inspected or repaired in that time, because the condo associations don’t want to spend the money to do so.”
Don’t buy a condo in Florida. But, we knew that already.
In most places and for most people, “Don’t buy a condo” is excellent advice.
n
So is “go to bed early”…
n
Good morning! Off to see the ENT doc now.
Be well, all!
Two crazy weeks coming up. I have really got to learn to say “no” more often. Likely, there will be a third crazy week, because of all the stuff I’m going to have to put off this week and next.
At least today I officially resigned from one of the schools I had been helping with. That will help, not immediately (gotta finish what ya start), but later…
I found one video especially hilarious. A guy carrying a sign with some big word on it (don’t remember, exactly). Someone walked up to him and asked what his sign meant. He didn’t know, until he pulled a note out of his pocket and read it.
How can you protest, when you don’t even know what it is you’re protesting? I guess if the money’s good, some people will do anything.
Musk posted something about holding the funding organizations responsible for the resulting vandalism. That would be great, if he can pull it off. Not so much for the money, as to drag the organizations out of the shadows and into the light of day.
Organized crime opens all sorts of things like using the RICO Act. And you can go after the money.
I have issues with some of the legal aspects, but that is the current law.
—————–
45F this morning. The furnace is keeping the house warm, but I can tell if it’s running more or less and I can judge the outside temp based on that. I knew it was cold out when I rolled out of bed.
Bit of a surprise getting that low this late, but that’s global warmening for you.
—————–
Coffee is just about ready. Kids have their wake up call. Wife is up and moving. My job here is almost done.
n
Article headline is misleading, and the author/editors were trying to stretch it to fit. Worth reading though because the body is full of candor.
The impact on US employees is 30 laid off. They outsourced their production. The workers protested for more money and less work. The factory closed, and didn’t reopen (union busting). The company wasn’t getting new stock so was selling off inventory.
Boss man read the tea leaves and packed it in.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14578337/Progressive-Furniture-North-Carolina-shuts-Mexico-tariffs-Donald-Trump.html
n
– the drums of war are beating.
n