It got cold. Well…. cold-ish. I’m not really complaining. Wife is loving it as is D2. It should start in the 50sF and get warmer during the day. Maybe into the mid 70s… and the national map shows clear for the next couple of days. That will be nice. The sun did finally poke through the clouds late yesterday.
Sunday was a weird day. I did some small things… rearranged some things in my bedroom, ironed and put away about 20 shirts. Did some other cleaning. Didn’t do much else. And somehow that took up a lot of the day. Ended up going to dinner with W and D1 while D2 was at a birthday party. Then home.
Today I’ve got choices, and some mandatory things. Pickups of course- some gub things for resale at one, and some stuff for the BOL at the other. I can also install the gear at my client’s house. He’s still out of town, so the pressure isn’t there, and that is the best for me. BUT, I probably have to be back early to get the kid from school and I don’t like open ended projects with that deadline hanging over me.
Work avoidance mode at its best.
I’ll be stacking something, stuff, experience, or money. You can too.
nick
Good morning. Arrived in Germany for my doctors appointment. A beautiful day for driving, and minimal traffic.
The Polizei had limited one stretch of the Autobahn to 80km/h for no apparent reason. The reason was two speed cameras on tripods hiding on a bridge. Tastes like entrapment to me, but I wasn’t going too fast, so that will be a fight for someone else to pick…
It’s been warm, up into the 50’s F
Short sleeve weather, Nick -laughter-
Second Alaska Homestead Expo was this weekend. Heavily attended. Very good classes, including a two day series that took a pig from hoof to smoked.
Local bluegrass band led worship Sunday. Joel Salatin was speaker Sunday. He was good – I am not familiar with his work but he came off very much as a regular guy tired of the nonsense and with the backbone to say so.
I don’t think he’s a pastor however he delivered a fine sermon reading the whole of the David / Goliath story and drawing out some uncommon themes. His point was about engagement and initiative. Well done and seemed to strike a chord for many.
National Flood Insurance inspired a lot of weird thinking in Florida about what is a God-given right with regard to where people choose to live.
The HOA and condo laws have also inspired a lot of pettiness, especially where owners think that they’re going to score a tenbagger cashing out when downsizing.
I re-watched “Oppenheimer” on the plane rides to/from the West Coast.
Robert Downey Jr.’ s Strauss is the poster child for the level of pettiness and vindictiveness you will find in a lot of HOA and condo associations in Florida, especially from C-suite and military retirees.
The possibility of getting a tenbagger off of that last off-base housing allowance suddenly makes Skippy’s cr*ppy lawn a capital offense.
Well, I did a dumb….
I put four comments for today at the end of the day yesterday. Funny that wordpress doesn’t give you any way to move a comment as that would seem like a legit site management function.
anywhooo.
I think I’ll head over to my client’s place, THEN do the pickups. That’s a plan anyway.
n
ORL Guy says I’ll live, which is nice. No lasting damage to my ears (he gave them a good vacuuming), and sinuses are clear. Very relieved.
Drive back was nice. Very visible Polizei presence. According to the public radio, there is a “Blitzermarathon” this week. The state must need some extra cash…
While we were gone in Commiefornia, the neighbor down the street replaced his garage queen Bronco with an ID Buzz.
I guess the Bronco was becoming too common, but I wouldn’t want to bet on a pampered ID Buzz being a desirable collector piece in 10 years … if it still rolls out of the throne room.
When turd-bucket plugs was elected, my IRA dropped just under 40% and slowly recovered. When tRump was elected my IRA went over 7. After the great tRump tAriff “gonna destroy the World” EO, my IRA is down just under 20%. We need to wait 6 months to see what the recovery is like.
WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE THANKS TO TARIFFS!
Also, NOW the MSM is going after Hunter Biden. That pardon is coming in handy.
Well, I did a dumb….
I put four comments for today at the end of the day yesterday. Funny that wordpress doesn’t give you any way to move a comment as that would seem like a legit site management function.
Welcome to getting older…
I’ve done that several times. Sometimes I copy and delete and then paste to the current day. Sometimes.
It gets far worse.
I got three of my office complex signs replaced yesterday. Now my back is on fire.
I went to sleep last in my office chair in my bedroom watching “Law and Order”. I woke up at 4 am and went to find the wife was asleep in the living room watching “The Practice”.
Drive back was nice. Very visible Polizei presence. According to the public radio, there is a “Blitzermarathon” this week. The state must need some extra cash…
Deutschland is buying new war machines. Very expensive.
Local bluegrass band led worship Sunday. Joel Salatin was speaker Sunday. He was good – I am not familiar with his work but he came off very much as a regular guy tired of the nonsense and with the backbone to say so.
I don’t think he’s a pastor however he delivered a fine sermon reading the whole of the David / Goliath story and drawing out some uncommon themes. His point was about engagement and initiative. Well done and seemed to strike a chord for many.
Our new (1.5 years) preacher gave a fine lesson out of Acts yesterday. He is pushing people to get baptized, he wants a line to baptistry forming on Easter Sunday. So he taught about Saul becoming Paul after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. And about Paul getting baptized during his conversion.
I tried to watch “Paul, Apostle of Christ” again yesterday. Just too brutal. Nero was using Christians for torches in Rome, blaming them for the burning of Rome. And before Saul became Paul, the movie advocates that Saul was instrumental in murdering over 300 Christians for the Jewish Temple police.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul,_Apostle_of_Christ
Freefall: Sam’s Face
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff4300/fc04201.htm
Sam is a squid. What could be so horrible about his face ?
Ja, ze old days are back here in Deutschland.
Soon, we will restart ze Kampfs, except this time they will be for ze Skippy.
All Good Germans hate ze Skippy vit ze independent thought and unvaccinated blood.
“BREAKING: Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Indefinitely BLOCKS Court Order Requiring Return of Alleged El Salvadoran MS-13 Gang Member”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/breaking-supreme-court-chief-justice-roberts-blocks-court/
Whoa, somebody kicked Roberts in the gluteus maximus.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Ja, ze old days are back here in Deutschland.
Soon, we will restart ze Kampfs, except this time they will be for ze Skippy.
All Good Germans hate ze Skippy vit ze independent thought and unvaccinated blood.
Who is Skippy again ?
Our preacher mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer yesterday in his sermon. Very sad life full of very influential writings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer
Currently at Fall Creek Falls State Park until Friday. It is quite cool, 46F at the moment, supposed to drop to 31F tonight. Not the weather I was hoping for during our stay. Last week would have been better. It is hard to plan such trips as getting reservation has to be done sometimes three months in advance for the good sites. Now the park is only about 70% full with lots of empty sites. A couple of the sites are almost unusable for a trailer due to the slope of the site. Unless the trailer is very short. The people in the site next to us have a very small trailer, perhaps 12 feet long. It must be compact staying in that trailer with two dogs.
My portfolio dropped 50%. It took several days whereas this Trump market avalanche has only taken three days, not counting the weekend. The older I get the less time I have to wait on recoveries. When (or if) I recover from this dip it may be time to move all my investments into cash, certificates, at places like Ally. It won’t keep up with inflation but certainly won’t crash anymore based on the whims of an egotistical jerk.
That’s a beautiful park. I’ve only been once. My son and I went on our way to my parents house several years ago. We stopped and did the ropes course there.
It is our favorite state park. We take the RV here a couple of times a year. We also like Cumberland Mountain State park which is just outside of Crossville.
We generally try to get a site with sewer, that is fairly level. That is sometimes difficult. The park only had one dump station so when leaving the wait was sometimes long. The park has rebuilt the dump station and now there are three lanes which should help.
Skippy is the part of The Control who reported his unvaccinated status honestly.
I think The Control is, in truth, much larger than the 10% projected in the US, but a lot of people lied about getting the jab.
“Vice President J.D. Vance Fulfills Promise To Mother”
https://100percentfedup.com/vice-president-j-d-vance-fulfills-promise-mother/
“Vice President J.D. Vance celebrated his mother’s 10 years of sobriety with a ceremony at the White House.”
Cool.
Germans resisted the Nazis, but not enough. I believe that about half of the white population in North America and Europe aspires to be Rolf Gruber, the little sh*t with the whistle in “The Sound of Music”.
Not to be confused with Hans Gruber, who was an extraordinary thief with decent taste in bespoke suits and naked self interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KyDkH1yUeE
Can “The Mouse” keep up?
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/07/travel/epic-universe-universal-new-park/index.html?utm_source=cnn_Evening+Newsletter+-+Monday%2C+April+7%2C+2025&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=WPkeKz5rahYRwYZM%2BIipAZIJ5NasUOCKTiRAWyy%2FasDjBaa04fbR6PkVlyKUuyuq&bt_ts=1744062599713
My portfolio dropped 50%. It took several days whereas this Trump market avalanche has only taken three days, not counting the weekend. The older I get the less time I have to wait on recoveries. When (or if) I recover from this dip it may be time to move all my investments into cash, certificates, at places like Ally. It won’t keep up with inflation but certainly won’t crash anymore based on the whims of an egotistical jerk.
Wait, did your stocks investments drop 50% in the last week ? I am down about 10% at most.
That’s what I’m saying. Nobody talks about plugs’ destruction of savings. I’m optimistic that I’ll gain it all back and double it in one year.
“FCC to Weigh Loosening Power Limit Rules for Starlink”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-to-weigh-loosening-power-limit-rules-for-starlink
“SpaceX has been urging the FCC to revise the ‘equivalent power flux density’ rules, calling them outdated and a barrier to delivering better Starlink service.”
News article in 2030: The recent self immolation of hundreds of people is just a figment of people’s imagination.
My big 401(k) which I rebalance constantly is down 15%. The market is more or less where it was at this time last year.
I have a non-401(k) account down ~ 30% but that is aggressive growth and a small corner of my Vanguard statement.
Not this week, that drop was in 2008. This week I am down about 12%.
There you go, showing your optimism again. I am not so hopeful but have nothing to refute your assertion. One can only hope you are correct.
No. Disney’s response is a Jack Sparrow bar in Adventureland.
In addition to keeping the adults off of the monorail heading to Germany in EPCOT to get tanked after a long day dealing with the kids, the booze will serve as a distraction from the draining of the Rivers of America in Frontierland/Liberty Square next door.
The Mouse will return the talking parrot to the sign outside the bar.
“Look kids, a talking bird.”
“Can we go ride the Donkey Kong mine cart now?”
“It gets far worse”
Everyone dies.
Life’s a bitch, then you die.
“whims of an egotistical jerk.”
As opposed to any time from 1989 to 2025?
If anything happens to Trump, Elon will send gigawatts from the secret solar power satellites to every receiver owned by PLT’s.
Life’s a
bitchshiite sandwich, every day a bigger bite, then you die.FIFY
I often refer to myself as a non-believer, but I have used other terms in my youthful black-and-white days. I once worked with an accountant who was evangelical and training to become a pastor. We discussed, lightly, various literary and philosophical ideas. Back in the 80’s you could do that at work.
I once gave him that quote to chew on, and he came back the next day with his changes:
I am not an optimistic believer type, but I do admire it when I see it.
“URGENT: mRNA Covid jabs change genetic structures in ways linked to cancer and autoimmune disorders”
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-mrna-covid-jabs-change-genetic
“Scientists call the changes caused by the Pfizer and Moderna shots “epigenetic” – they occur around DNA’s core and activate genes in ways that can promote tumor growth.”
“mRNA vaccination causes long-term changes in a crucial part of our chromosomes — changes previously linked to inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and cancers including leukemia and brain tumors.”
“The finding came in a peer-reviewed paper from German researchers last week. The discovery might help explain post-mRNA jab “inflammatory diseases which occur in… [some] vaccinated individuals,” the researchers wrote.”
“In a discussion with outside reviewers that was published along with the paper, the researchers suggested the changes they found are “very likely” occurring in bone marrow cells, the source of all blood cells. Their finding comes as other researchers report rising deaths from leukemia – a blood cancer – in very highly vaccinated Japan.”
If true, this is very bad.
SCOTUS was busy today. “SCOTUS Greenlights Trump’s Use Of 1798 Law To Deport Foreign Gang Members”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/scotus-greenlights-trumps-use-of-1798-law-to-deport-foreign-gang-members
“The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal alien gang members from the United States.”
“The order from the high court reverses a lower court ruling from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. Boasberg temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing the Alien Enemies Act in a case involving five Venezuelan nationals, as well as on anyone else who may be affected.”
SCOTUS was very busy today.
“The high court’s order also says that the case in front of Boesberg’s court in the Discrict of Columbia is the improper venue.”
““The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia,” the order states, according to the Times.”
“In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that all nine justices agreed that each alien should have the opportunity for judicial review in each case.”
No more friendly judge shopping !
But having a judicial review for each of the 40 million illegals in the USA will take forever and a half day.
“Apple’s M4 Silicon Tested and Compared—in All the New Macs”
https://www.pcmag.com/articles/apples-m4-silicon-tested-and-compared-in-all-the-new-macs
“We stacked up the very latest iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and MacBook Air and Pro models to see how the different flavors and implementations of Apple’s M4 chips perform.”
“As I mentioned when the M4 Macs first landed, you have a clear case for upgrading if you use an older Mac with M1 or M2 processors. And if you’re still on Intel-based hardware, it’s a no-brainer—you should upgrade now. (Honestly, you probably should have made that switch a couple of years ago.)”
Dadgum, Apple’s chip dudes and dudettes have not been sitting on their laurels. These new M4 cpus sound very stout.
Life’s a b!tch and then you die, but not soon enough…
Life’s a sh!t sandwich and every day is another bite, but the more bread you have the less sh!t you have to eat…
\
n
“’Game of Thrones’ wolves brought back from extinction by Texas-based company”
https://www.chron.com/news/article/dire-wolves-extinction-20263650.php
“This marks the first successful de-extincted animal.”
“A long-extinct species, the dire wolf, is being brought back to life through the efforts of a Texas-based genetics company.”
“Dallas-based company Colossal Biosciences announced the successful birth of three dire wolf pups, an animal widely known from the popular television show “Game of Thrones.””
“The team members utilized DNA from the ancient fossils and performed gene edits in order to reconstruct a dire wolf genome. From there, scientists conducted an embryo transfer and used interspecies surrogacy to birth the wolves. ”
“”Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull and made healthy dire wolf puppies,” Ben Lamm, the CEO of Colossal said. It was once said, ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they are working on and its broader impact on conservation.””
Oh crap ! Here we go…
now do aurochs
Just because we can doesn’t mean we should….
—–
Do people learn nothing from the movies?
n
‘Pour Encourager Les Autres’
https://redstate.com/dan-zoernig/2025/04/07/pour-encourager-dautres-n2187557
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pour%20encourager%20les%20autres
It’s Texas; stock some dire wolves on a big ranch here, and organize dire wolf hunts. I suspect that a .308 slug would do a number on a dire wolf.
As Instapundit notes, “We rendered them extinct with pointy sticks. In the age of firearms, big scary animals are not much of a threat.”
Here’s What Anna Paulina Luna, Mike Johnson Have Planned for Proxy Voting
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2025/04/07/heres-what-anna-paulina-luna-mike-johnson-have-planned-for-proxy-voting-n2655140
It’s not that this b*tch is clueless and self-centered, it’s that she is both in an award-winning then retire-the-award way.
Family had dinner with sibling tonight. Benihana’s. Something in my Seafood Diablo has stuffed my whole head up.
It was good, and I’d never had it before.
——
Spent far too much time driving around today. I misread the map and bid on an auction that I THOUGHT would be an easy pickup between my other pickup and my client’s house. Not so much. Turns out it was in Cut N Shoot, which is out in the sticks east of Conroe. Two hours of extra driving. I did get to see some pretty country, and it’s not going to be out in the sticks very much longer. The road I was on connecting Kingwood and Conroe was building out as fast as they can throw up gas stations and vape shops.
BTW, how the heII can our economy support so many vape and CBD shops? They’re every 100 yards, seems like.
——
Got my client taken care of. He’s up and running until I can replace the switch with the weird PoE issue. I’d have done that today too, but didn’t get to the store to buy a replacement. I usually stop in on my way to his place, but I was coming from the opposite direction the last two times. What he’s got is working, it’s just damaged and needs to be replaced. I’ll get it done soon.
——
D2 and W went to get haircuts and color before dinner. I don’t know when or how it happened, but when did my little babies turn into beautiful young women? Time is flying by.
n
@ray, I know it’s probably not any consolation, but TrumpTariffs are probably not on a whim… he’s been thinking about them since before his first term.
n
I’m falling asleep in the chair. Bed time.
n
Not this week, that drop was in 2008. This week I am down about 12%.
@Ray, if the stock market bothers you, then sell it all and invest in t-bills.
One of my partners had about five million dollars in the stock market back in 1998 or so. He turned 60 and sold it all, figuring that five million dollars was enough for him and his wife to live on for the rest of their lives. Sadly, he passed away back in 2020 after an extensive heart surgery but his wife is still alive. I still miss him and he has been gone for five years.
But, there are no guarantees in this life. But, you already knew that.
Good morning!
Another beautiful day here.
We have been having a sunny and dry, but cool, spell for a while now. The plants are loving it, and everything is in blossom. My cherry plum tree Prunus cerasifera, which is a nudiflora (it blossoms before setting leaves) has already finished its riot of blossom, which is coming down like vegetable confetti and the little red new leaves are coming in. If there were enough active bees to pollinate it, we ought to have a load of fruit, if the late frosts don’t get to it first. The birds and squirrels will be pleased. Most of the fruit will be too high for me to reach from a ladder, and I’m not renting a cherry-picker.
I have to move offices at work. Joy. I don’t trust the movers not to break stuff (voice of experience…), so off I go to pack boxes and hand-carry anything fragile. I also don’t trust IT to put my equipment just where I want it, so I will be bringing pliers, screwdrivers and cable-ties along too.