Cool to start. Warm to hot later. Even with rain, it was hot and wet yesterday. Then it got clear and sunny late in the day. Lot of water on the ground too, although I didn’t see heavy rain just light rain and drizzle. Some people got a lot of water from the sky.
I did my normal morning, then headed over to my buddy’s shop. He’d made a lot of progress without me, but there were heavy and awkward things that needed both of us to move safely. I worked with him for a couple of hours, but had to leave and do my Wednesday pickups. The kid let me know it was sunny and she’d walk home, so that gave me more time to go back and help my buddy. Which I did. We were able to go out to dinner and do a bit of socializing afterward. He’s been a friend of my wife longer than me, so they had some catching up to do.
Today I’ll go over there asap after breakfast and school stuff. He’s got a few things left to put into the truck, and needs help getting the car towing trailer set up. He’ll leave before noon, and W will join me looking at a boat or two. Depending on how that goes, we’ll be headed home to do final prep for going to the BOL for D2’s birthday and my wedding anniversary. Lots of stuff crammed into this week.
From a prepping standpoint, I won some more solar. I think I won another two 460w panels like the ones I took up to the BOL last week. It might just be one, or it might be two that total to 460w. The price was good enough for it to be any of those and I’ll be happy.
And in a new twist to Amazon returns fraud, I picked up a ubiquiti NanoStation loco M2, looks new in box, but the box is for a Nanostation M2… the smaller “Loco” is $50 retail, the full size is about $150. Looks like someone bought both, but got a $100 discount by returning the small one for the refund amount of the big one. I paid $16, so as long as it powers up ok, I’m still happy. I didn’t notice the discrepancy in the pictures and thought I was buying the smaller one anyway.
Did I mention that people suck and will steal when it is easy and low risk? That will probably get worse as the economy weakens.
———
Work on providing for your own needs, whether that’s water, power, or entertainment. And stack what you need.
nick
As my retirement approaches, my wife is getting worried about finances. She handles our money and has run budgets over the past couple of years. We don’t live extravagantly, and yet – it seems crazy, how much money goes out every month.
I’m not worried in the near term, but once we are on a fixed income, I do worry what decades of inflation will do to that income.
Don’t forget to pierce the shells and try baking with a couple of small round pizza stones, one under each pan.
I have one big square pizza stone from Williams Sonomoa, bought ~ 30 years ago, and I have a small round stone from Big River, a Hecho en China model made by Unicook.
Hecho en China is ok, but check the temperature rating to make sure that the stone can handle 1000+ degrees.
The oven will take longer to heat up with the stones, but the cooking will be nice and even, making for flakier crust on the shell if you’re using a cold proofed yeast dough like a Chicago deep dish pizza.
They get gold stars and promotions for using the output of the AI on the job, and management keeps their fingers crossed that the mistakes will get caught and fixed in testing.
I don’t think my current employer is a secret.
The current fun is watching the young’n’s struggle with parsing Json responses with layers of regexp calls generated from the AI.
I think garlic should be a condiment, not an ingredient.* I avoid restaurants the main olfactory note of which is garlicy.
* With the exception of whole roasted heads of garlic, which are delicious, particularly with beef or venison.
71F and not raining. Lunch is made. Kinder are poked. I’ll poke them again.
Then I may fall asleep in the chair for half an hour. I’m beat. I hope my buddy will be ok on his drive home. He’s beat up, and tired.
n
With the exception of whole roasted heads of garlic, which are delicious,
– one of my favorite easy appetizers from the Karl Strauss Brewery in San Diego is roasted whole bulbs of garlic. Cut the tops off level and cut off the root to open the bottom. Arrange several in a baking dish or cassorole dish, add ½ inch of chicken stock. Pour chicken stock onto each bulb. Sprinkle the tops of the bulbs liberally with crumbled gorganzola cheese. Make sure some crumbles end up in the stock too.
Oven roast until the inside of each clove of garlic is soft enough to spread. Baste the bulbs with the stock during roasting. Add extra cheese if desired.
Serve each bulb individually, with stock, as a spread for sturdy bread…
Guests will be mopping up the stock and cheese after the garlic is all gone….
n
That sounds delightful, thanks. I will give it a try!
Here’s a question for the gearheads…
I have a few days off work this week, so I looked to see if I could get a short-notice appointment to bring W1’s car (a Toyota Verso) to its biennial roadworthiness test. Early tomorrow morning it is…
As usual, I had to nip to the local garage with a tenner in hand to have the mechanic reset the stupid tyre pressure sensors (which they routinely neglect to update when switching the summer to winter tyres and vice-versa). There is a button under the dash that is supposed to reset the “! in a cauldron” light, but it never works, and I anyway have trouble locating it in the dark footwell.
Is there a reasonably-priced simple device that I can plug in to the OBD port to do this biannual reset myself? Preferably one that will also work on our RAV4.
Thanks!
In other technology news – still no quote from Teufel for the Hi-Fi setup we want. I will send a reminder…
I know the feeling. The spousal unit and I went through the same thought process. Worried about money without that steady income stream. But with Social Security for both of us, investment income, a piddling retirement from the bank, and a small VA compensation, we did OK. The VA money has increased from about $200 to a month to almost 10 times that amount since retiring. That has helped significantly.
You may spend less when you retire on basic living stuff which in my case was the significant gas bill from the daily commute. There was much less maintenance on the vehicles eliminating that 60 miles a day.
What we did find out is to just not worry about the money. The worst that would happen is we wind up with nothing, go on welfare, and live in public housing. We are not going to be thrown out on the streets. Being homeless for the majority of the homeless is a life choice, not forced. We would never get to that point. Having the house paid off we could live off social security alone if needed. We would not live well, but we would not be impoverished and lose the house.
Instead what has happened is that we need to find ways to spend some of the funds. Not foolishly, but no longer skimping and avoiding purchases because we are afraid of the cost. We do not need to be living thousands of dollars to the kid and his family. We earned the money and we should spending that on our needs, and more importantly our wants.
That was the most difficult part of retiring. We now had time to do things. We are able to spend some money on some extras. That has proven to be a difficult shift in the way we live. Avoiding spending for 40+ years it is hard to shift gears. That money does not leave the hands easily and we almost have to force ourselves.
Case in point is the upcoming cruise. All told, with the cost of the cruise with an upgraded stateroom, a couple of nights in a hotel, and we are flying 1st class (because we can), it comes to a little over $12K. That was a difficult decision and it took some convincing from others to make the splurge.
Another case. We are traveling to Germany in August. We could fly coach. We could fly Comfort+. We chose instead to fly Premium Select. The cost is about 50% more than coach. We have flown Delta One before and it is not worth the money as it is little more than an ego trip. We can afford it, why not? Our personal comfort on a long trip is worth more than skimping on the airfare.
No, we will not be doing this all the time. But every once in a while it is doable. The biggest change was not worrying about money, but finding we can spend some money and spending the money. On things that give us pleasure rather than material things. Traveling, excursions, events, making memories. We donate money to the school programs (band, football, soccer, baseball, softball) because it makes us feel good and is good for the school.
My advice is do it and don’t worry about the money. Things will take care of themselves. Unless you are really foolish.
I guess I’m not a gearhead, but…what? We swap Winter/Summer tires, but they require the same pressure. I would have assumed that is always the case, since the tire size and the weight of the car don’t change.
Yours require different pressures?
I have this: https://www.innova.com/products/smart-diagnostic-system-obd2-tablet-7111, but it is probably overkill for what you want. They have a cheaper device that will do TPMS resets: https://www.innova.com/collections/obd2-tablet-dongles/products/sd35-tablet .
I have had good functionality with:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MAURDGG?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&tag=ttgnet-20
and the free “Torque” android app for my in dash head unit. (Not for Apple) I routinely have a half dozen metrics on display while driving and, in the somewhat distant past, cleared whatever errors came up. I leave the OBD reader attached all the time for my ’18 Subaru Forester.
In my early days in the military, we always took a mimeograph and manual typewriter to the field to duplicate orders. Midway through my career, we had a small genny that powered a copy machine and pc’s.
I have a KINGBOLEN Ediag Elite OBD2 recommended by Scotty Kilmer on YT. It can reset tpms, but the cost is higher. Scotty is a pro mechanic and has one of those $5000 doohickeys that does everything. I take my Subie to the dealer for most things and they always check the tpms as part of their inspection.
That is why I put ¾ of my IRA into an annuity. Of course, annuities can be mismanaged and crash, so you still have to watch it. But I didn’t want the huge market fluctuations dictating a classic IRA’s value in our Golden Years. I’ll get guarenteed income in two years that will last until I die. I can also take out 10% of the value of the annuity each year without penalty for splurges. I won’t do that (probably). The remaining IRA will grow to the point to cover a catastrophic cost. Or a new car that will last until I die or can’t drive anymore.
My financial advisor is a couple of years younger than me and is looking to retire. He recommended the annuity to his clients as a very safe way to get income for life. The company I went with is well established and is not going anywhere. My FA is just him. When he does retire, he is looking for someone to takeover his business. Either that person or someone else I find will manage my remaining regular IRA. I don’t want to do it. It takes a lot of knowledge and resources to make it grow. That is not my cup of tea.
Don’t forget tax consequences, either. It would be cool if tRump makes SS completely tax free. COLA on SS and my milspec pension also help, but usually barely cover inflation.
Ah, the smell of mimeo fluid…
LOL
‘You’re LOSING’: Scott Jennings’ Come to Jeebus Moment with Dems About Illegals Is Straight-FIRE (Watch)
More and more dirt is coming out about the “Maryland Man”. The Dumbo’s are whistling past the graveyard at this point.
I think I have found a travel insurance policy.
My agent has a found a new policy, good for the entire year. It covers all medical not covered by medicare, transportation if needed up to $250K. Trip interruption coverage including expenses from delays and purchasing additional travel to get back home up to $100K. Including any additional lodging. Basically any additional expenses for any trip within the year. No deductible on any of the coverage. The cost is about $400.00 per person for the year. There is also coverage for any monies paid if the trip is cancelled for medical reasons.
Surprisingly the cover includes terrorism events that interrupt the trip.
Considering I have four trips planned that is probably a good price for the amount of coverage. I do have to send the insurance company my travel plans before any trip so any changes that interrupt travel can be verified.
>>It could take up to five years to develop a domestic supply chain to supplant China’s global monopoly in processing rare earths into materials needed to produce everything from iPhones to F-35 fighter jets.
What do you mean ‘keep using my current iPhone’?
I need a new upgraded one every year!
Waaahhhh!!
>>Ah, the smell of mimeo fluid…
And a fresh dry-erase marker
Will you share the company, Mr. Ray?
I will when I get the policy information.
My agent cannot log in to the insurance carrier’s website until she gets her log in credentials. She works for a company that is an independent agency and writes for many companies. She, or rather her agency, currently carries all my other insurance, home, auto, RV, liability, and a rider. She just read me the details of the policy over the phone. She guessed at the premium as being around $350.00 per person. She is unable to confirm the price until she can get access. Which should be in a couple of days.
No. The pressures are the same, but the hardware is different.
I have, for each vehicle, a set of rims with winter tyres, and another set of rims with summer tyres. Each set has its own valves including the blessed pressure sensors. When we swap out the W to S set, or vice-versa, the car expects to keep seeing the same suite of sensors, but those have been changed out along with the rims, so the car needs to be told to work with the other suite. The cars are supposed to be able to remember two suites of sensors (just push the hidden button under the dash three times to switch between the two stored suites) but neither car ever does that correctly.
Thanks for the various suggestions. I ordered one of the ELM 327 dongles for less than 4 bucks to try with my Android phone and the Torque app, plus a generic wired handheld OBD reader for about 18 bucks, so both for about the same in total as the semi-annual tips to the mechanic. Worth a go.
I would still use my original SE if Apple had not stopped the security fixes. That form factor makes the device a tool, not a toy.
The clock is ticking on my current SE, the last generation of that model, designed to burn off the iPhone 8 parts.
My mid 70’s friend and wife decided to move house from mid state Florida back to Milwaukee to better connect with family. They invited me to drive a vehicle as he is partially blind.
The Upack van was loaded by a local 3 man team quite competently. Packed into 16 feet of 27 foot available, the van will stay in storage until they find a new house in Wisconsin.
I picked up a Hyundai Tucson crossover SUV at the Orlando airport. I’d suggested a rental mini-van, however, they decided to save a smidgen. Sigh. Tight fit for the items they’d selected for the extended stay hotel in Milwaukee. Their personal vehicle is a tiny vintage Ford Focus which she drove with the dog and cat and more stuff.
We left in good order after the early enough closing on the FL house Friday April 2. Other than the sphincter that is Atlanta, we made good time to a pet friendly Hampton in Chattanooga. Waved in Mr. Ray’s direction. I’d connected my phone and Google Maps to the car for navigation.
The Hyundai has the latest driver aids, a novelty for me. ASS and lane monitoring aren’t too obstructive. Blind spot warnings and Adaptive Cruise Control are actually kinda nifty. The alarm for the passenger door ajar screamed for quite awhile before specifying the problem.
Miss Google detoured me into a sketchy part of downtown Nashville to avoid something or other. Ignored her further pleas and stayed on I65 after that. Rain slowed progress that day somewhat, most of the way through Indiana.
I’d lived for more than half a century on a 100 mile perimeter of Chicago, east, west and north, visiting the actual city only occasionally. Coming in from the south is rare. Google had us eastbound towards the skyline in increasingly crowded traffic. My companion became agitated when I followed a Google recommendation and visible blue freeway marker at the bend north towards the Eden Expressway. We spent an hour touring the North Side’s neighborhoods (National Ave to Diversey) before re-joining the freeway in stop’n go weekend rush hour traffic. Oops. Caught up to the ‘follow’ vehicle on the northbound I94 tollway and proceeded, eventually, to the hotel. The Tollway is 5 lanes on a side of super smooth pavement, so you do get something for the money.
Spent the next day catching up with other friends before turning in the car and jetting home to Idaho.
Nintendo, master of FOMO marketing.
The last generation of consoles turned Game Stop and Best Buy into wholesalers for the arbitrage market.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-24/nintendo-switch-2-preorders-quickly-sell-out-at-us-stores
We stayed in the Hampton in Chattanooga during our abbreviated trip to TN in 2022.
That’s where Covid hit me hard. I did really bad things to the restroom at the Moon Pie store.
Dont allow a rental to assimilate your phone into the collective. Use a filter on the “charging” USB port, and avoid Bluetooth connection.
Tax free stuff for you Texas preppers:
https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=64287
Vibe coding. It’s called “playing pinball” with the AI, hoping something useful comes out.
I taught a lecture in my first-semester programming course yesterday. Each time, a few students are selected to present their code for an exercise that I pick (one of several that they were assigned). One guy said he didn’t have that particular one, but he had a different one that he could present.
Ok, let’s see it.
Fancy slides showing his code, but he is basically just reading the code off the page. So I ask him: “hey, that method you call, what exactly does it do?”.
Um…
Ok, the result from that method is assigned to a variable. What kind of variable is it? Note that this is Java, the data type is explicitly declared, so the answer is sitting there on his slide.
Um…
So I tear into him. You got this from ChatGPT. That’s fine, if you need the help, but you need to understand what you get. Otherwise you’ll never get a job in IT.
His answer: “I already have a job in IT.”
Fsck. There is your vibe coder. You really do not want them working on anything that you care about.
He is the IT guy who blows the dust bunnies out of PC cases.
BC: Velociraptor Jogging
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2025/04/24
Velociraptors don’t jog, they pursue.
Pearls Before Swine: Pig’s Rules
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/04/24
Which can be restated as “Be Nice”.
Arlo and Janis: Personal Space
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2025/04/24
After 43 years of marriage, I need personal space at times. So she has her TV and I have my TV.
She is dreading my future retirement. I asked her if I can retire the other day and she said, “we will talk about it in two years”.
It is nice to have goals.
As my retirement approaches, my wife is getting worried about finances. She handles our money and has run budgets over the past couple of years. We don’t live extravagantly, and yet – it seems crazy, how much money goes out every month.
I’m not worried in the near term, but once we are on a fixed income, I do worry what decades of inflation will do to that income.
My wife is incredibly worried about our long term finances. We have the disabled 37 year old kid and that skews things horribly. Her Obamacare is costing us $550 per month. The kid got two crowns and two fillings a few weeks ago and that cost us $3,600. Getting her to the dentist was a disaster as they had to totally put her out due to her constant migraines.
We have much more in savings than I ever thought possible. Several properties (all paid off except our house) and several stocks that have done incredibly well. Of course, this could all come crashing down which is predicted by several noted contrarians.
https://www.amazon.com/MANDIBLES-FAMILY-2029-47_PB-171-POCHE/dp/000756077X?tag=ttgnet-20
She told me the other day that we will talk about me retiring in two years when I turn 67. I suspect the conversation at that point will be the same answer, we will talk in another two years.
“The value of our money”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-value-of-our-money.html
“According to Kitco, the current spot price of gold is (at the time of writing) US $3,339.30. Six months before, on November 25, 2024, it was $2.627.50. That’s a difference of $711.80, or a rise of 27% in the spot gold price over a period of six months. Does that mean that gold is actually worth more, intrinsically? No. It means that the dollars normally used to buy and sell gold are worth that much less today than they were in November 2024. Gold hasn’t gotten stronger – the dollar has become that much weaker.”
“There are many reasons to which the weakness of the dollar is usually attributed, but basically it’s because there are too many dollars in circulation. It’s a basic rule of inflation. Increase the money supply, and the price of goods purchased with that money rises, because there are more units of money chasing the same quantity of production. Milton Friedman explains.”
I read an article yesterday that predicted that the Federal Reserve is going to put $7 trillion more in circulation this year. That number just boggles the mind. The explanation was that a boatload of tbills is coming due and the Fed will probably end up buying them.
“Looks like Microsoft is trying to force Windows users to adopt its AI model”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/looks-like-microsoft-is-trying-to-force.html
“If you don’t like Big Electronic Brother breathing down your neck, second-guessing what you want and delivering its perspective on your requests, and generally invading your privacy, it begins to look more and more as if Windows 11 is no longer your operating system of choice. What’s more, your favorite Web browsers and search engines are getting more invasive too. The Register reports:”
I use Windows 11 Pro at the office (very small company). I killed copilot a while back and it has yet to restore itself. But it may be there in the background, I do not know.
The racket continues. The FUSA will never get out of debt. Raise the debt ceiling, print more money (QE), buy your own paper, charge the tax payers.
1913 – The Federal Reserve System created
1933 – The goobermint (Roosevelt) declares dirt people can no longer demand gold as payment
1971 – Nixon takes the FUSA off the gold standard
Game over, Man, game over.
Rumor is that Gates is back running things in Redmond. This is reminiscent of Ze Good Old Days, ja.
The legend of BillG, boy genius.
Or Hank Scorpio if you are a fan of “The Simpsons”.
LOL, it looks like the DNC chair just kicked Hoggladyte in the nuts. “Shut up on primaring Dumbo’s or you are fired.”
The bill allowing private ownership of gold which Fird signed did not repudiate the narrow interpretation of law which Roosevelt applied with his Executive Order.
Another EO could put us right back in the same situation as before Ford signed the bill.
Legend is that Roosevelt was drunk and out on the yacht when he signed the order. Probably boinking the cousin again.
I don’t know if another EO would work like it did in 1933. The oldsters looked at Roosevelt like a God. Not even Camelot came close.
OTOH, people seem less inclined to mind their own business these days.
OTOH, people seem less inclined to mind their own business these days.
Rolf, the good German boy in “The Sound Of Music” with the Nazi armband, exists on every street in the USA. They usually end up as head of your HOA.
That sounds delightful, thanks. I will give it a try!
– you won’t believe how good it smells while cooking…
———-
Sent my buddy on his way. 20Ft box truck, and a new-ish Grand Cherokee on the trailer, and he’ll be lucky to get 5 mpg… it’s a beast.
———–
Bought a boat. 2007 Tahoe bowrider with a 150 hp Mercury outboard. Started on the first crank, sounds like a big V8 burbling. Got the GPS/depth sounder, bimini top, and trolling motor by asking for them. May get some skis and cheap life jackets too. I pick up tomorrow on my way to the BOL.
W is happy.
It’s maroon and white, needs a little bit of spit and polish, and some minor upholstery repair that we might just skip. There is some sun fading, so it must have been outside at some point, but for the carpet and upholstery to be that nice, it must have been covered most of the time. Trailer is in good shape, with good tires. Bunks and rollers might need some work. I can see one roller is damaged. Minor stuff.
n
Fair winds and following seas! Enjoy, and well wear!
“JD Vance is being slammed online after he broke one of the most notorious Vatican rules during his Easter weekend visit,” the headline blared.
What rule is that? The rule not to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel.
The shot was taken by a White House photographer, it was not a private shot by Vance.
The Daily Beast called it an “embarrassing gaffe” and “a White House publicity stunt” that revealed the “glaring faux pas.” They even had “cardinal sin” stamped in red on the side of the story. They also published other angry comments in response to the post from Charlie Kirk.
Except the Daily Beast buried the lede further down in the story — they had permission to take pictures.
Not to mention that other U.S. political figures have had pictures taken in the Sistine Chapel in the past, including Bill Clinton. There’s even one of Michelle Obama.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/04/24/daily-beast-fake-news-n2188250
No, it’s not enough to hate them.
We need to remove their heads and connect their necks to public toilets.
“I don’t know if another EO would work like it did in 1933.”
Anyone want to bet that the feds don’t already have all the gold purchase records from every seller for the last 50 years?
“– you won’t believe how good it smells while cooking…”
Not so good the next day. Open the windows after.
“W is happy.”
So Happy Nick.
>> boat
@nick, admit it, this is just a ploy to reshuffle the to-do list priorities
>>May get some skis and cheap life jackets too.
“Skis” is slang for ‘tor-peods,’ right? ;}
Maybe from the Mint, but not from places like Blanchard, whose co-founder, Jim Blanchard, drove passage of the legalization bill.
I doubt they would go door to door, even with the Mint’s customer list. Put the lid on resale, and gold is only valuable if you can get it out of the country.
Also, US Eagles aren’t money. They are a manufactured good subject to … tariffs!
Today’s music video is “The Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care (Official Video) ”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o4s1KVJaVA
I agree with Elvis, Roy Orbison had the best voice ever.
BTW, this music and lyrics were written by George Harrison. He wrote that high part special for Roy Orbison.
The “Volume III” album is still worth owning even without Orbison.
If you can find a copy, Sun’s “The Million Dollar Quartet” CD, which arguably inspired the Wilburys, is worth picking up. Sadly, it looks like the physical media is out of print even direct from Sun, where I purchased it after the tour in Memphis.
Sun is a must-see if you are a fan of Elvis or any of the other artists Sam Phillips discovered.
And The Ryman, original home of The Grand Ole Opry before the studios were built outside of town.
Elvis performed at the Ryman in the Opry show … once. The crowd was not thrilled but they were polite.
And if you are a Wilbury completist, “A Complete Unknown” is a good movie, but it is not Best Picture material IMHO. Mangold torched his career with the last Indy movie so Hollywood will make it up to him with Oscar nominations and, maybe, a “Star Wars” film.
“Anora” deserved the win if only because Baker’s “The Florida Project” deserved the statue even more.
“The Florida Project” was a little too truthful look at what The Mouse has done to the economy along US 192 outside their property over the last 30 years. At the time, that was going too far, but now that Mickey is on his blind date with Bankruptcy, the film has a new life on video.
The Blu Ray of “The Florida Project” is gorgeous.
“I don’t know if another EO would work like it did in 1933.”
Anyone want to bet that the feds don’t already have all the gold purchase records from every seller for the last 50 years?
Do the gold sellers take your name if you pay cash ?
Ho, hum. Another day, another judge running the Executive Branch:
Judge Blocks Trump From Terminating Funds for Sanctuary Jurisdictions
WWSD (What Will SCOTUS DO)? Roberts has to do something at this point. If not, tRump should just ignore these turds. Keep rounding up crimmigrants and feed them balogna sandwiches on hardtack until they want to self deport. Chain gangs aren’t out of the question.
Is there any doubt this judge’s order is blatantly illegal? He can’t force the Executive to give money away.
Frustrating, but I believe the long game will swat these turds down. What good is our Constitution if any judge can just contol the Executive.
Bought a boat.
Second best day: the day I bought a boat.
First best day: the day I sold the boat.
Is that the roasted garlic recipe? Yeah, I suspect that it is BEST prepared outdoors; on the grill, or in a toaster oven that you can take to the back yard.
Old adage about boats: “If it flies, floats, or f***s, then rent, don’t buy.
Bust Out Another Thousand! Old and tired, but true.
With Wisconsin Case, It’s Time For SCOTUS To Finally Define ‘Religion’
the Wisconsin Supreme Court disregarded the undeniably religious purpose behind the creation of Catholic Charities and ruled that serving the poor and needy is not “typical” religious activity
https://thefederalist.com/2025/04/24/with-wisconsin-case-its-time-for-scotus-to-finally-define-religion/
I can define judges in Wisconsin.
“Why Tesla’s upcoming cheaper EV is going to look very familiar”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-teslas-upcoming-cheaper-ev-is-going-to-look-very-familiar-100026935.html
“Tesla execs on the first quarter earnings call hinted that the cheaper EV will heavily resemble an existing Model Y or Model 3.”
Ah, a loss leader. Something to get people to look at and then move them into a Model Y.
I bought a USED boat, so the pain of that first day is lessened…
and it’s supposed to be water ready, no projects needed. Could be that’s true, could be it’s not, but it’s a better starting point than the last boat.
n
Seriously, the roasted garlic smells heavenly while cooking. The gorganzola blends with the chicken stock and the garlic and it’s mouth watering – not eye watering…
————
Drove past the Tesla dealership today and there were a LOT of cybertrucks on the lot. Plenty of other models too.
n
@Greg Norton
@Lynn
Anything paid for with a credit card or bank transfer has a record that the feds have on file somewhere. The cc companies put their little pink backsides up in the air with no resistance whatsoever.
Cash payments will have records because the goobermint does not like cash transactions and has all sorts of regs about “money laundering”.
Gold is always valuable, even if limited to the underground economy.
But note that in Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold (1964), Hugh Farnham’s hard money prep was silver dollars, and when he and Barbara were returned to their original time period he requested their reduced weight be compensated with some of those silver dollars, even though gold jewelry would have been worth more if used in part.
“Drove past the Tesla dealership today and there were a LOT of cybertrucks on the lot. Plenty of other models too.”
I suspect a lot of potential buyers are delaying until Trump’s DOJ brings charges against a few of the terrorist vandals, hopefully including the six-time felon in Minneapolis that the Soros-scum county DA wants to “divert” with no jail time.
Lynn beat me to it.
I was going to say: Conventional wisdom is that this is one of the 2 happiest days of your life.
Yeah, I know. I was happy to buy the first one, and reluctant to let it go, but it needed to go.
This one shouldn’t be a ‘project’ and it makes the wife happy. It makes a good 20th anniversary present.
n
https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/g26553021/best-keto-friendly-vegetables/
What, my carrots are not keto ? I am fairly sure that my caveman ancestors ate carrots.
I am eating cucumbers, carrot sticks, celery sticks, and zero fat beef sticks for supper tonight.
But note that in Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold (1964), Hugh Farnham’s hard money prep was silver dollars, and when he and Barbara were returned to their original time period he requested their reduced weight be compensated with some of those silver dollars, even though gold jewelry would have been worth more if used in part.
Yeah, I have been thinking about buying a few rolls of silver dollars.
But in the Mandibles book, the kid’s aunt keeps her real heavy purse clutched to her all the time. Turns out the heaviness is … (read the book !).
https://www.amazon.com/MANDIBLES-FAMILY-2029-47_PB-171-POCHE/dp/000756077X/146-1679716-0544446?tag=ttgnet-20
I am still amazed that I am the number one review on Big River out of over 4,500 reviews. That may have been the peak review for me, I read it now and go that was a good review.
My 2022 review:
“A standalone, no prequel, no sequel, book about a financial apocalypse in the USA starting in 2029. I read the well printed and well bound 400 page trade paperback published by Harper Perennial in 2017. BTW, this book is labeled as dystopian fiction by Amazon and others. I doubt that there will be any future prequels or sequels for the book as the author does not seem to go that way.”
“The book covers four generations of a family in the near future. The family consists of about twenty people of whom I mostly did not like due to their overall craziness and attitudes about life. If there was anyone who came close, it was Florence Mandible who even as a single mother managed to buy a house in East Flatbush, NYC on a low income salary. But even she makes a lot of bad decisions that lead to a tough life. And I mostly liked Enola Mandible who was a successful author living in Europe but evacuated back to the USA due to supposed discrimination in Paris. Plus I liked Jarred Mandible who managed to get his patriarch grandfather to give him the money to buy a small farm in upper state New York.”
“The conditions leading up to the beginning of the financial apocalypse in the USA in 2029 had their roots in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, basically the Great Society federal and state programs. And in the continual wars and police actions started or participating in by the USA from WWI onward. One might exempt WWII from that list as WWII was supposedly actually good for the economics of the country but I have not researched that accepted fact for truthfulness.”
“In 2029, the rest of the world changes from using the USA Dollar as the world reserve currency to the new Bancor, a basket of world currencies. The USA Treasury Bills, of which there are $40 trillion outstanding, immediately double their interest rates in the next sale. The USA President and Congress pass legislation that holding Bancors is illegal for any USA citizen. Under further financial pressure, the USA repudiates the entire $40 trillion debt and starts seizing all the gold across the country from both citizens and businesses. Even gold wedding rings are seized as China has demanded that their tbills be redeemed immediately with non USA Dollars.”
“The patriarch of the Mandible family is a 97 year man with a fortune inherited from his grandparents who owned a steel mill. The patriarch has his fortune invested in gold stocks, stocks of gold bullion in central repositories, tbills, and the stock market. With the crash of the stock market, seizure of gold, and repudiation of all tbills, he is wiped out and he and his Alzheimer afflicted second wife move in with his son and his wife. And then the entire family ends up moving in with Florence in her tiny three bedroom house. But that quickly goes away also as the remaining family members are soon homeless and living in a park.”
“The author freely acknowledges that in choosing paths for the family and the nation, she always chose the bad results path. She thinks that her book takes an optimistic view of the coming financial apocalypse which I find amazing.”
“Lynn beat me to it.”
I stole this from someone here on the board.
I’m headed to bed. TON of stuff to do tomorrow…
n
Oh, I didn’t mention the heavy rain that blew thru around 8:15pm and dropped the temp into the mid 60s F… washed everything clean and got everything thoroughly wet.
“Islamicized Europe May Be Ripe for Revival”
https://stream.org/the-church-converted-the-barbarians-once-it-must-convert-muslims-now-or-western-civilization-ends/
“What if, in the grim news of the Islamization of Europe, God has been setting the stage for one of the greatest harvests of souls the world has ever seen?”
One can only hope.
>>and it’s supposed to be water ready, no projects needed.
That’s what they told Gilligan too…
>>Yeah, I have been thinking about buying a few rolls of silver dollars.
@lynn, consider sticking with US ‘junk silver’ coins as they have no numismatic value to account for.
https://www.jmbullion.com/silver/junk-silver/
>>Oh, I didn’t mention the heavy rain that blew thru around 8:15pm and dropped the temp into the mid 60s F… washed everything clean and got everything thoroughly wet.
If only you had a
boat. Never mind, nite all.