Cold at night, pretty nice during the day. Then cold again. We did get some ice on standing water Friday night, but I don’t think Saturday night was quite as cold- it was 37F when I went to bed. I was in shirtsleeves in the sun for part of the day.
I got lots of little things done. Added to the front walk path. Put a security/work light up under the carport. I can switch it on independently of the other porch lights,and it’s super bright. It will make a good area to work now, or play ping pong… Cleaned, put away, and organized some more in the garage. Even got a lure in the water for about 20 minutes in the afternoon. Didn’t catch anything.
Moved the small chiminea to the deck by the house and got it set up. Had a small fire in it before dinner. It’s nice to have a small fire without having to go down to the dock, and it’s warmer away from the water. I had a nice time watching the sun set, feeding it twigs. You get a lot of heat from not much wood, almost like a rocket stove.
Played several family games, and even played some pool before bed. The kerosene heater and a fan added 10F to the temps in the garage. Oh, I got a stereo and CD player hooked up for the garage too. It’s not the final system but it was nice to listen to Christmas music while playing pool.
Played “Ticket to Ride” (still love it), some dice game called Farkle that was sorta fun, once my wife had an app to handle the scoring, and played the SmartAss trivia game again. I like it. The clues are a very good mix so that everyone has a real chance to get the answer. Board games and card games are a great diversion that doesn’t require electricity. I recommend stocking a variety.
Today will be more family games, and more small jobs while cooking. I’m making a pork roast (standing rib) which we all like. This is my stock up time, because Costco only stocks it for Christmas, New Years, and sometimes Easter. Vac seal and freeze. Stack it high…
Don’t know what we’ll do for midnight tonight. We usually turn on the tv in time to watch the ball drop in NYFC, but no tv reception up here. I really hope NYPD and all the three letters can keep the hamas sympathizers from killing a bunch of people in NYC tonight. I wouldn’t be anywhere near Times Square in a normal year,– this year? NF way. It’s one of my recurring nightmares that someone walks a few mortar rounds into the middle of that crowd.
If they want to do something, and the primary targets are well protected, they’ll look for someplace else. Keep your awareness up if you are out and about, and know where the exits are. Stay safe my friends.
And stack. Just cuz…
nick
A lot of hard work lost. How much child labor in the Congo does that represent?
Vietnamese slave labor assembling the cells is a new one.
Ah, globalism.
More politically incorrect desperation from WarnerDiscovery – a “Lethal Weapon” marathon on AMC yesterday. I wonder if Warner is hungry enough to give Gibson a final sequel he’s been trying to land. Maybe it is a sign.
We are back at home this morning but spent the last few days hiding from our respective work laptops in Fredericksburg.
That area has crazy amounts of money, with wineries, high end restaurants, hobby-business boutiuques, and AirBnBs supplanting everything else on Main Street. A lot has changed just in the last decade that we’ve lived within driving distance with a lot of obvious California influence.
Texas will crash hard.
Not a lot of Colonists were hanging around in Fredericksburg like I imagine are down in San Antonio this weekend.
Labor Day Weekend, 10 PM on Sunday night before the holiday, every tourist boat on the Riverwalk was filled to capacity with Colonist families. It kinda limits the romance of the tour when that many people are maxing both vendors’ capacity.
Not that the Colonists care.
Interesting end of year ‘rant’ from Neil Oliver – he’s a well known archaeologist/historian in the UK, having appeared in Time Team and whole heap of excellent documentaries – some available on ytube.
https://youtu.be/EU5RThSrB9g
Not entirely upbeat, but his view of the world is spot-on, also it doesn’t hurt that I can listen to voice endlessly.
Happy New Year all, be well and look after yourselves and your dear ones.
Cheers
Norman
“US Navy sinks 3 Houthi boats attacking merchant ship in Red Sea, US says”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=106016731
“The U.S. Navy sank three small boats, killing the crew, military officials said.”
There are at least three USA Destroyers in the Red Sea right now. Do not mess with Destroyers, they are lightly armored, go real fast, and fire quicky.
It is 42 F here on the west side of the Brazos River. Lily has had her liver and chicken, Remy has had his tuna surprise, and I have had my leftover banana pancake from yesterday with Pearl Milling Company syrup (used to be Aunt Jemimah) on it.
I will be headed to church in a few. Not sure if the wife is going to accompany me as the daughter is still awake.
https://youtu.be/EU5RThSrB9g
Not entirely upbeat, but his view of the world is spot-on, also it doesn’t hurt that I can listen to voice endlessly.
Man, I need to build my new home pc so I can get audio working. The wife is now making sarcastic remarks.
I made a full 12 cup pot of coffee this morning. I doubt there will be any at church since no Bible classes today.
The dog started my day by jumping on my legs at 5 am. She then fell off the bed onto the Christmas wrapping box, making a huge clatter. Tough to go back to sleep after that.
I thought of one climate change headline that would be true:
Climate Change Causes More Dumb Asses to Become “Journalists”
@Lynn
My main Win10 box lost audio after the last crash and rebooting does not restore it.
Can’t find the keyboard combo for “send 50 volts to programmer”.
drwilliams, look at deleting the audio driver and then letting Windows reinstall it. I don’t remember exactly what we did, but my daughter and I did that on her Win10 computer a while ago when sound mysteriously cut off.
For card games, try Fluxx (or one of its many variants). It’s set up so that the rules change frequently, which keeps things interesting.
My wife’s nephew graduated with a J-school diploma and thinks he is going to be a tech manager.
Sitting at the open fire listening to a classical concert from Munich on the radio… reading Heinlein’s Moon is a harsh mistress. Might even open a beverage when my curent pot of Barry’s tea runs out.
Thinking about the year gone past (it was a hard one for me, but might have ended far worse than it has), and of friends and absent friends.
Thank you for another year of the best place on the internet. Be well all of you. Warmest wishes for 2024.
Happy New Year. Here, one tradition is watching “Dinner for One” – always hilarious.
Otherwise, we’re holed up in the house with all shutters down, because current woofer is absolutely terrified of fireworks. Lots of loud music andcTV…
No water in the house. We had water at 8:30. Now none. Water pipe from the main to our meter ruptured. Water bubbling out of the ground and running down the street. The water company has been notified but it will take two or three hours to get it fixed. Fortunately the break is on the city side of the meter.
We’re spending the weekend at Green Valley Ranch in Vegas. MrsAtoz got the Tuscany suite comped for us.. Normally $1,000/night. We’re hoping to see Vegas fireworks from the balcony.
Mr. Ray, I hope the water gets fixed fast. The downside of our 1st country living is when a convenience is taken away.
Kerosene has been expensive my whole life, and I go back a while. I wonder if it was expensive in the mid nineteenth century, when it was used more extensively.
As a kid, I lived near three gas stations. All sold bulk kerosene, but I was told it did not sell well because it was too expensive. Parts cleaner, some version of naphtha, was a lot cheaper, and sold well. I remember using it for a lot of things, but we never had kerosene lamps. It probably had too low a flash point to safely use in a lamp.
Who remembers the road hazard flares that burned fuel oil I remember when they were replaced with electric ones. We kids collected the used 6V dry batteries to play with.
55F when I woke up and now 63F and rising.
Sunny and clear with a light breeze. I probably should work…
@ray, when it rains, it pours… When my main broke I asked them to upsize one trade size. Might as well, as the original was small by today’s standards. I also paid attention to where it was routed. The break was on my side, and it was costly, but not excessively so.
n
Around here, I think all of NYS possibly outside of NYC, if the water main breaks, it’s the municipality’s responsibility. If the line from the main to the house breaks, it’s the resident’s responsibility, even if it happens right where the side pipe comes off the main.
But it gets better: at least in a couple of the places I’ve lived, you have to hire a city-approved plumber to do the digging to expose the pipe, and remember that the pipes are 3-6 feet down. If you have a backhoe or trencher and dig your own hole or trench, you’ll be fined and have to pay the plumber to dig the hole you just dug. The cynical may wonder about whose palms were greased to come up with that requirement.
Water is fixed. The pipe from the water main to the meter busted in the same spot as before. When they dug up the pipe it was obvious it was patched. This is the third or fourth time that the pipe, or the connection, has failed. It took four hours to get the leak fixed. They had to dig up the leak location, pump out the water by getting a bigger pump. Then they clamped off the line and installed the splice. Three guys on Sunday, on overtime. It cost the city a lot of money.
Here the connection from the main to the meter is the responsibility of the city. From the meter to the house is the homeowner’s responsibility. Last time I had the line from the meter to the house replaced, I had copper line installed. The stuff the city uses from the main to the meter is some form of plastic. The connection is a compression fitting on the line for the patch. The compression fitting is what failed this time. Just blew out off the pipe. I suspect it was not installed well last time I had the leak repaired.
I had to run the water for several minutes to flush the line as dirt was introduced during the repair process.
The wife started the washing machine and the machine threw a fault code F02. The indication was there was a blockage in the inlet filter. I removed the hoses and checked the filters and there was nothing in them. Then a light bulb went off and I tried a faucet. Nothing. I was going to go across the street to the neighbor and see if he had water. That is when I noticed the water flowing down the street.
I called the non-emergency number at the police department so they could contact the water department. Three police cars showed up to look at the leak and say “yep, there is a leak”. I guess there was nothing else to do on a Sunday morning.
Here in UK, most services have a responsibility split – everything upstream of a defined point is the utility company’s, everything downstream is yours.
In the case of water, nearly everybody has a water meter at the boundary of their property. I think that meter is the demacation point. If there’s no meter, there should be a shutoff, which we call a “stopcock”, and that is the demarc.
For electricity and gas, similarly the meter is considered the demarc. In other words, everything downstream of the point where they measure your consumption is yours.
Phones are slightly different. For that, the demarc is the Network Termination point (currently an NTE5).
G.
I thought that jet fuel was some variant of kerosene.
The Walt Disney World runway, along the eastern edge of the main parking lot, was actively used back in the early days of the property so the jet fuel exhaust smell is something I associate with the park.
>> I had a nice time watching the sun set, feeding it twigs.
Heed the warning of Daedalus…
Delete the device in Device Manager and then reboot the machine to see if Windows automatically detects the hardware and runs configuration.
The upside of 64 bit Windows drivers requiring WHQL since Windows 7 is that Microsoft knows about most of the common audio interfaces used by the motherboard manufacturers.
@ray, when it rains, it pours… When my main broke I asked them to upsize one trade size. Might as well, as the original was small by today’s standards. I also paid attention to where it was routed. The break was on my side, and it was costly, but not excessively so.
Ray, hope your water is already restored.
When we built our house, I put in a 1.5” schedule 40 PVC pipe from the meter to the house. I also paid a little extra for a ¾” meter instead of the usual 5/8-3/4” meter. I wanted to be able to run some irrigation if we ever needed it. I paid a little extra meter fee per month for the larger meter. I considered downsizing the meter a few years ago when the private water company replaced the line from the main to the meter, but was told the cost is now the same. Win.
Here, our meters are in a buried box at the easement line, between the main and the house. Freezing isn’t a problem, as the meter is about a foot below ground level. The original line from the meter to the main was some sort of plastic that looked like flexible polyethylene. This stuff deteriorated after 40 years, forming a small damp spot, so the water company replaced it with pure flexible copper, which is supposed to last much longer. They had a neat little spud that was pulled through the old plastic line with a cable to a backhoe bucket. It had a small blade that split the plastic, and at the same time dragged in the new copper line, which is the same size as the plastic. The whole process only took an hour or two, including digging to expose the main and the meter. All at company expense.
When we built the new garage about the same time, I exposed that 1.5” PVC line to tap into it for the garage. It looked like the day we installed it. That line is buried all around our yard for outdoor garden valves, which are in boxes flush with the surface. No need to protect from freezing, as the deepest frost is typically only an inch here.
Originally, we had 140 psi water pressure, because our main is actually a feed line to an uphill tank. I have a regulator and safety valve for the house. Some years ago, the water company installed a new tank between us and the higher elevation tank, and our incoming water pressure is now 55 psi. I miss the higher pressure for cleaning auto parts, but I didn’t have to put a regulator on the new garage.
A few months ago, I heard a gurgling inside our house, and opening a faucet showed negative pressure. I went outside, and there were workers nearby draining the mains for yet another new tank. I wasn’t notified because they thought I was on another circuit. The water was only off for about an hour, but I learned that our new dishwasher has a built-in vacuum breaker. So does the new fill valve in one of our toilets. Hmm. Plumbing isn’t as simple as it used to be.
Oops, I was distracted and didn’t look before posting. Also didn’t see Ray’s post. Good everything is back to normal.
One of the benefits here is having a private company that delivers water. The field personnel are top notch. No poor fixes that I know of. Everybody seems happy with the service.
@Lynn
My main Win10 box lost audio after the last crash and rebooting does not restore it.
Can’t find the keyboard combo for “send 50 volts to programmer”.
I got a couple of gallons of water dumped in my home PC a few years ago through a leaking roof vent to an a/c vent. Been having a few problems since then. I even put in a audio board that worked for a couple of years and then smoked itself one day. I need to finish building the new home PC.
Most operating system problems are traced back to hardware issues.
With 29 scholarship players opting out of their non-playoff bowl game, Florida State got massacred by Georgia, 63-3.
On a more upbeat note, there was the first Pop-Tarts Bowl (previously the Cheez-Its Bowl) complete with a human-sized Pop-Tart and a giant toaster.
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/29/1222182226/pop-tarts-bowl-game-edible-mascot
With 29 scholarship players opting out of their non-playoff bowl game, Florida State got massacred by Georgia, 63-3.
My Aggies did not have 12 starters for their bowl game that I attended last week with five friends. Most are in the Transfer Portal and a couple declared for the NFL.
What a mess ! This whole NFL lite thing will have to be resolved.
When our house was built, in the late 1970s, this place was WAY out of town, and the only municipal service we get is electricity. We have a well for water, a septic tank for sewage, and a 250 gal propane tank for heat. We don’t have street lights, or fire hydrants, or sidewalks.
Now, suburbia has crept around us, and there are McMansions on sixth-acre lots all around our quasi-rural neighborhood.
“Fog, smoke from fireworks could make for very poor visibility tonight”
https://spacecityweather.com/fog-smoke-from-fireworks-could-make-for-very-poor-visbility-tonight/
Tell me something that I don’t know. We been having volunteer fireworks every night since Christmas Eve. All three of the fireworks shacks on our road have been selling fireworks in quantity for over two weeks.
Florida State played the transfer portal almost as aggressively as Coach Prime and Texas State. They’re paying a price for that, both with the bowl coalition and player loyalty.
The transfer portal is not going away, however.
While Coach Prime’s experiment fizzled, Texas State ended Baylor’s season opening weekend and landed the first bowl game in the school’s history. Other small schools will try the same approach.
Meanwhile, TAMU is going to pay the price for Jimbo.
Pearls Before Swine: San Fransisco
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/12/31
Puns ! Puns ! Puns !
Cue The Hoff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gb30mGe4k
OTOH, W. Va no longer waits for Jimbo … for now.
Harbaugh would have eaten Florida State alive. He may yet put Saban on the hot seat.
Disney and the Bowl Coalition decided that they actually … gasp … wanted to make some money tomorrow.
“UK Startup Transforms Human Poop Into Jet Fuel”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/uk-startup-transforms-human-poop-into-jet-fuel
“It works just like jet fuel and uses one of the world’s most abundant resources.”
I am not cleaning the feed tanks !
Yeah! Gets the party going!! The best form of humor!!!
@SteveF
“drwilliams, look at deleting the audio driver and then letting Windows reinstall it. I don’t remember exactly what we did, but my daughter and I did that on her Win10 computer a while ago when sound mysteriously cut off.”
Had done this already, but tried it again.
On startup the driver was back. No audio.
Now, suburbia has crept around us, and there are McMansions on sixth-acre lots all around our quasi-rural neighborhood.
How big is your lot ?
We have 34,000 homes being built on 50 foot wide lots just south of our house which is on a 1.2 acre lot. They will have sidewalks, road shoulders, streetlights, and collective septic lines. We will never have any of those.
What a load. Uses weasel terms – ‘fossil carbon and fossil-free fuel’. What does that mean? It has carbon and will produce CO2. And clearly it is very low yield – ‘According to the BBC, the UK’s entire sewage supply would only be enough to meet 5% of the country’s total aviation fuel demand, but it could help. ’
How much energy is consumed in production and what is the waste stream remaining?
It’s a big pile of you know what.
“New Invention Turns Democrat Brains into Jet Fuel”
In theory.
Still looking for Democrat brains to try it out.
The War on Gas Stoves Has Basically Failed
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/12/29/the-war-on-gas-stoves-has-basically-failed-n601756
Sure, just like the proglibtards failed to change U.S. immigration laws.
How’s that one working out for ya?
I haven’t tried to run the numbers, but I read somewhere that there isn’t enough arable land to produce enough biofuel for all the flights that exist. Maybe, eventually, hydrogen will work.
15 minutes to New Year’s here, a few more minutes to calm the dog down, then bed. Trying to stay awake watching the really awful German TV special – all musicians really obviously using playback, singing unexciting songs. I used to be a night owl, but not any more.
Have you tried a pair of earphones?
The problem might be your speakers with a wire or a bad power supply.
Or plug the speakers into a phone playing a song. If that works, your speakers are ok.
Just tossing out a couple of ideas.
I haven’t tried to run the numbers, but I read somewhere that there isn’t enough arable land to produce enough biofuel for all the flights that exist. Maybe, eventually, hydrogen will work.
There is more than one reason why we moved airplanes from high octane gasoline to jet fuel (kerosene). I can just imagine a hydrogen leak in an airplane. Whoof !
Stupid question. Are the speakers plugged into the correct socket? (Voice of experience here.)
The yield would be very low.
Yeah, been there. For some reason the Mic input doesn’t give audio out. Hey, it looked right while leaning over the desk with a FLASHLIGHT.
Oh yeah, before I forget.
Happy New Year Y’all.
Lynn says:
We have two separate one-acre lots. Our house and “yard” are on one acre, and we have an adjacent acre which is undeveloped and in brush, which we are keeping for wildlife habitat. We have a couple of dozen whitetail deer who spend the day there, and then roam around all the adjacent yards at night foraging. We also have a den of foxes and some VERY fat raccoons around.
Brad – Happy New Year! We’re still 5.5 hours away from that, being on CST.
How big are the new houses? Are they close to the toll road?
Convention is that audio out is the center of the three similar looking 3.5 mm jacks.
HDMI has an audio device if your motherboard’s sound output went bad.
Failure of the audio out jack isn’t uncommon, but it is something to be concerned about because that is usually due to a capacitor issue, and other connectors are sure to follow.
Got a lot done. It was hot in the sun even late in the day. Currently 57F so warmer than yesterday so far. Roast is in the oven, sides are cooking, and there isn’t too much smoke…
N
I spent the afternoon and early evening by myself, exercising, reading, and taking care of a few things. Everyone else went to a cut-rate pseudo-first-night with a handful of friends. They just got back and daughter said that she should have stayed home. The family-friendly part was lame and the majority of the entertainments were not suitable for early- or mid-teens. They stayed until the 18:00 fireworks and came home.
Meanwhile, I discovered a plumbing problem. Nothing immediately urgent but it needed to be found and fixed before too much more time had passed. Shutoff valves were in the wrong position, which is an issue when temperatures get well below freezing. Not sure if my wife did it or some contractor she hired did it; I’m just sure that I hadn’t touched them since 14 months ago, when they were correct. Why, yes, I get really tired of having to find and fix others’ mistakes, both on the job and at home. On the other hand, it’s fitting that the last few hours of the year should reflect the way the year has gone.
How big are the new houses? Are they close to the toll road?
2,000 to 3,000 ft2. Yes, when the toll road (the Grand Parkway Segment C) gets extended south.
https://www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/houston/sh99-grand-parkway/overview/segment-c.html
I’d joke that it could be a bedroom community for Tesla, but once the toll lanes on I-10 reach Columbus, it is only a matter of time before a commute time of “only” two hours to Sugarland becomes attractive.
My wife’s nephew said that Tony runs a bus to Killeen, a solid two hours from the factory in the opposite direction.
2,000 to 3,000 sq. ft. is a bit small for the Colonists tastes..
We’ve all been there.
Even though I’m in Houston, I celebrate the new year when the ball drops in NYFC. My girlfriend and I toasted, so we’re done.
So Happy New Year, everyone!
Happy New Year to one and all.
As we say often say, hope this year will be better.. But I don’t have high hopes..
Anyway, Cheers.. 🙂
Happy New Year, friends.
“California becomes first state to offer health insurance to all undocumented immigrants”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=105986377
“About 700,000 adults between ages 26 and 49 will be eligible as of Jan. 1”
I’ve got nothing.
Happy New Year! Survived another one…
I had my campfire earlier with s’mores even, so I think I’ll skip the fire on the dock tonight. I’m full of food. Couldn’t eat another bite. After my big dinner, the neighbors had a party and all I could eat was a single chicken wing.
On second thought, maybe I should stay up for an hour and let my stomach do it’s job for a bit…
n
Just in time for the 2024 election.