Cooler and still clear, warming later… which is yesterday’s weather as well. Although there was periodic overcast yesterday, and I would really like ‘clear’ today. In fact I thought it might rain in the late afternoon. Didn’t though.
Did my driving around and pickups. Stopped at goodwill bins and scored some great books. Literally volumes of the great books of our time. These I’ll send to auction, as my time for reading history is limited, as is my desire. At 50c per book it’s ridiculously cheap to build out a library to rival anyone’s. You do have to take what you get, and fill it in over time, but eventually, everything comes to the outlet.
You never know what you’ll find either. This time it was a giant instapot with the air fryer attachment and accessories, and a complete Panasonic bread maker.* The japanese brands of bread makers still bring crazy money online. A Champion juicer will provide a bit of spending cash too. I filled two carts with appliances and books, no clothes, no electronics. I almost never do that. I found about half a flip top bin’s worth of “smalls” for the local auction too, stuff like old cookie tins, novelty salt and pepper shakers, and a HUGE coral. I’ll keep the smaller brain coral for my collection, but the branching piece that is as big as a basketball will likely go to auction. The bag of seashells will definitely go, and could do really well as there are large and unusual specimens.
I haven’t been doing much thrifting or yard sale shopping lately. I’ve been too busy, and my auctioneer put me on hold. I’m trying to get rid of stuff, not build inventory, but adding fresh pieces to the stuff coming out of storage helps bring up the average price per lot, since I’m a better judge of what will sell now than I was.
In any case, I’ll be testing the instapot and breadmaker today. I’ve already sorted most of the stuff and put away what went into the stacks…
Thrifting is a great way to build your stacks, as is estate sale shopping. Most people will look right past the stuff a prepper wants, like sewing supplies, books, and camping equipment. So as we get back into yard sale season, look around and see what you can stack.
nick
*It’s rare to find a complete breadmaker. The highest value to weight ratio in the bins is the paddle for a bread machine. Second is probably the bread pan. (leaving off collectible cards and ephemera, and mostly considering stuff that you see there all the time) The paddles are almost always missing, and the pans are gone about 1/3 of the time too.
From yesterday, about AEDs…
Just footling on German big river, I see well-recommended models “HeartSine Samaritan” for between 1000 and 1500 bucks, with an 8-year guarantee and service availability. The battery packs cost 150 and are good for 5 years. Sounds like a plan…
Yes, but this is the Jesus Truck, a vehicle literally expected by fanboys to walk on water.
https://electrek.co/2023/11/21/tesla-spotted-driving-cybertruck-into-water-float/
Say, whatever happened to the tunnel which the Boring Company was supposed to build to cross that stretch of water in Boca Chica?
Or the Model 2 “affordable” Tesla?
Blackrock/Vanguard/State Street still have your retirement money invested in TSLA, but the institutions in general are bailing.
The carnage should continue on Monday with the carefully planted “leak” about robotaxis replacing the Model 2 floating around all weekend.
And don’t give me the Musk quote, “Reuters is lying”.
He didn’t specify what they were lying about.
70 F and very muggy here. Lightly sprinkling. The dog refuses to go out. The cat revels in it.
The wife got the dog summer shaved Friday. Her racoon eyes ( SchnauPin ) are very pronounced at age 5. She has the short fur itchies now.
It appears that a large part of Texas will be under cloud cover tomorrow for the eclipse. Bummer. An eclipse is something to be experienced. It is an interesting phenomena, especially the animal and insects who know think it is going to be night. It is strangely quiet. TN will also be cloudy but we are only 90% coverage so I really don’t care.
I was in an eclipse in Virginia in the very early ‘70’s while stationed at Langley AFB while in the USAF, the second one was here in TN in 2017, while retired. Both times in the path of totality. The second one was not as impressive as the first.
My book course talks about how Amazon has some type of system to recognize AI generated books. These can get your account banned. The same with Audible books.
On AEDs from yesterday:
Yep, knowing how to use a stack is just as important as the stack itself. I try to focus on beans, bullets, and bandages. My knowledge of bandages is sorely lacking. I need to find a local advanced first aid course to beef that area up.
You never know. Apparently, the sudden loss of heat can cause some types of climate yds to dissipate very quickly, because no more water vapor is rising from the surface to replenish them.
The best part of waking up… is going back to sleep.
But now I’m functional, with coffee brewing and some plan for breaking my fast…
I was up late having been sucked into various entertaining videos. I found that I love old lighters, or at least a guy’s channel about collecting them. Who knew?
Various items on today’s list will be ignored, while others move to the top. Like setting the live animal traps in the attic. Didn’t have that on my list until yesterday. Funny thing is that the rebaited bait boxes are untouched, so either it isn’t a rat/rats or they’ve learned to avoid the poison. They LOVED the poison,to the point they would eat their way into the stuff I had stored on the shelf. I’m thinking ‘not a rat’ at this point, so I’ll try the live traps.
n
btw, I haven’t followed the details, so WTF happened with the path of the totality?? I thought the mechanics of this were pretty well know, as were the methods for calculating it…
How did they – everyone who did it- get it wrong? Tinfoil hat crowd says something physical changed, not that a mistake was made.
I find it incredible, in the actual meaning of the word, that ‘they’ bungled it that badly, when we can nail orbital mechanics to make rendezvous with Mars after years of travel, or get the navigation right to get to Jupitor…
n
Well… The earth does wobble a bit. Maybe “they” were using tables from before the latest correction.
Or the “single source of truth” lookup table simply had an error which wasn’t noticed for quite a while, and everyone who did the path calculation used the same “single source of truth”.
Or only one or two organizations did the path calculation and they used incorrect data or made some mistake, and everyone else who claimed to be figuring the path was actually using the incorrect info.
Or, you know, the combination of climate change, Bad Orange Man, and covid denialism caused the errors.
Something to do with uncertainities in the suns radius and “topography”, which at a guess is real Earth land surface rather than the imaginary oblate sphereoid model.
Or it could be drummed up nonsense.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/eclipse-path-has-shrunk-how-it-affects-arkansans/ar-BB1lbYdZ
The Sun is a slightly variable star, and it expands and contracts just a bit over the course of the 11-year sunspot cycle, and over the longer 1Kyear cycles that actually affect “climate change”. This eclipse is happening pretty close to the peak of the cycle, so the radius of the Sun is currently SLIGHTLY larger than the standard number of its size. And over the course of several eclipses, observers have been tracking the edges of the eclipse path, and using that, and more precise maps of the surface of the Moon, to determine with increasing precision the times when the Sun will pass behind various mountains on the Moon.
And the “changes to the path of totality” are correspondingly SLIGHT; the MSN article says that the width of the path of totality will be about 2,000 feet narrower than NASA’s calculations. So if you were just barely IN the path of totality, it’s possible that some people will be just barely OUT of it.
But the calculations of the orbital mechanics of the Earth and Moon around the Sun didn’t change.
I have been trying the “Community Signature” brand coffee that someone here mentioned a while back, not bad.
I rarely want more than two cups in the morning, but found myself wanting a third several times.
I am still battling a head cold so I may find it too harsh when I recover, time will tell.
@EdH, that was me. I add a lot of sweetener and heavy cream, so I want something really dark to start…
I found it to be a great value for the money.
Costco sells the “Breakfast Blend” which is lighter, and if you buy from the Community Coffee website, you can get other blends as well. My HEB stocks several of them to experiment with.
n
My initial ‘knee jerk’ reaction to claims of sabotage or intentional action wrt the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse was “not necessary”. Accident is more than enough to account for the disaster.
But then again…
Once is happenstance…
n
Container ships losing power near bridges is looking suspicious. We need to get numbers on how often these ships lose power overall, and perhaps especially when they’re using their electric steering thrusters, or whatever they’re called. If the ships lose power 1% of the time when the thrusters are active and there are 100 container ships going in or out every day all over the world, then smacking one bridge and almost smacking another was probably just “well, it was bound to happen someday”. (It would also be a sign that harbor masters as a group are derelict in their duty to protect the infrastructure.) On the other hand, if this type of power loss has happened only three times in the past fifteen years and two of those were near American bridges in quick succession, that’s casus belli. Any response up to and including missile strikes on Chinese ports or bridges would be justified.
“What We Already Know”
https://areaocho.com/what-we-already-know/
“Grocery prices are 40% higher than they were pre-COVID.”
This seems low to me. I think that the grocery store inflation is closer to 100% since 2019.
It’s 100% on a bunch of stuff since 2020 just based on my posts here.
If I had time, I could compare my grocery receipts from then… but that wouldn’t capture any ‘shrinkflation’.
n
I went looking in the EDC for bill straps. I thought they would be with the coin tubes but, no. Maybe I don’t have any. I found a surprise.
An old (as in starting to feel sticky) baggie sandwich bag with $7 in quarters. One each dated 1958, 1961, and 1963 with the rest dated 1964. I haven’t looked at mint marks.
Melt value is $138.99. Silver value is $148.921.
Plus a couple of pennies. A 1940 S and a 1955 D.
I had to have got them from HEB while checking or in cash control. I always kept some pocket change so I could skim off the silver coins. I don’t remember and why they were in the EDC is another mystery.
Keep some cash in your pocket and you never know what shows up. One time a guy came to the Business Center with a pocketful of change. Not a lot, maybe $10 and besides, I’m not doing anything and the Coinstar took 10%+ at the time. No silver, just regular change like you toss in the ashtray of your car. Complete with pocket lint. He had a “gold” coin in the mix. You see “gold plated” quarters and half dollars once in a while. They freak out the high school kids that are checking. So do $2 bills.
This coin says it’s ½ ounce with face value of $25. Not proof, uncirculated. I looked at it, I’d never seen the like. The other person in the Business Center looked at it and she was nah, that’s got to be fake. I said I have no clue but it’s pretty so I’ll give the $25 face value from my wallet. She was good with that.
It /is/ a very pretty coin. And if my triple-beam scales are correct it’s real. The guy wasn’t acting nervous. Didn’t smell like a smoker or pot head or needing a bath. He took his cash and wandered off and bought a 12 pack of Coke and a bag of chips.
I wonder if he was stupid or if he robbed Grandpa’s change jar. I lean to both. And yeah, calling the cops for a suspected theft would have done what?
Overall I think grocery prices are up somewhat under 100% in four years, in this location for the things that I regularly buy. It’s hard to tell because some things are up more, some less; because we’ve stopped buying some things and started buying some others; and because my box of collated receipts “mysteriously disappeared” some time ago. And a price comparison doesn’t matter much because of decreased quality on many products and, as Nick mentioned, shrinkflation, which is massive on some things.
An HEB store brand Louisiana Hot Sauce was 69¢ for a 12 oz bottle a couple/three years ago.
Say what you will but I bought a bottle of Frank’s Hot Sauce and it tastes just like store brand. $2.49 vs 69¢.
They spent about a year remodeling the store. It sucks, can’t find chit and it’s full of crap that I saw come and GO because no one here buys that kind of stuff. Yes, we are country bumpkins.
Anyway. There are now 18 or so varieties of hot sauce. Which is cool but they made the aisles about a cart narrower so you can’t park yer ass long enough to read the labels without blocking traffic. The store brand Hill Country Fare 12oz size is gone. The 6oz is still available for “ta da!!” 89¢ a bottle.
It’s a puzzle to me. A glass bottle costs $x. The difference in costs between the 6 and 12 ounce bottles must be approaching zero. Maybe a nickle. So keep selling the 12oz bottle!
I’m sure the bottle and delivery far outweigh the cost of some vinegar and chili peppers.
n
Added — might be saving 50% on shipping if the weight is half.
n
“Tesla Plans to Unveil a Robotaxi in August”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/tesla-plans-to-unveil-a-robotaxi-in-august
“Musk teases a ‘robotaxi unveil on 8/8,’ and pushes back on reports that the launch will come at the expense of a low-cost Tesla.”
“The news comes at the same time Tesla is reportedly scrapping its plans for a low-cost EV. During an earnings call in January, Musk said that production of its next-generation EVs would begin by the end of 2025, with the potential for a $25,000 model. (The Model 3 is currently its most affordable model at just under $40,000.)”
No, I do not want to ride in a Johnny Cab.
I’ve been setting up my Dwarf II to record the eclipse. Overcast today, but with the ND filters I could easily pick out sun spots.
Tomorrow will probably be a wash since it is still forecast to be cloudy.
The forecast for the northern tip of NYS has been worsening for a few days. weather.com currently says “partly cloudy” edging toward “mostly cloudy”. Grr. In the morning I’ll discuss with my daughter and the other girls we’re supposed to take, check the forecast again, and decide whether or not to go. Probably yes, as a chance of seeing the thing is worth the several hours (each way) of driving.
@SteveF is that “Probably yes, as a chance of seeing the thing is worth the several hours (each way) of driving.” include possible impacts of extra traffic?
Will the news reports use a term like ‘eclipsageddon’© or ‘carmageddon’ to describe the projected horde of people descending on eclipse areas? (If so, you heard the term here first…which is why it is copyrighted.)
Northern tier of NYS, spitting distance from the Canadian border. I expect extra traffic and possible difficulty in finding a section of parking lot to set up in that’s somewhat close to a public restroom nothing too bad. I live north of Albany and it’s going to be about 2 ½ hours for me to get there. -shrug- I could be wrong, of course, but worse come to worst I’ll get as close as I can and then pull over on the side of the road and watch from there.
During the 2117 eclipse, people drove in to various sites to see the eclipse. But after it was over, they ALL tried to drive away AT THE SAME TIME, often via 2-lane country roads. As long as people are willing to stagger their departure times, there shouldn’t be much problem. But people won’t wait like that.
The difference between being in totality and being ALMOST in totality is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, like the difference between lighting and a lighting bug.
Obviously most of them were driving DeLorean vehicles with the Mr. Fusion power source.
Good tip, Ken. Thanks. I’ll make every effort to get the girls to a bathroom and I’ll bring snacks and they’ll have their phones, so we can wait for a while. If all goes as I hope, we’ll get a spot in a strip mall parking lot which is near a McDonalds and a Dunkin Donuts.
Based on the weather forcast for most of Texas, I reserved a room in a small southern Indiana town, and I’m there now, typing this.
The eclipse is a big deal here, and the parking lot is full of out-of-state plates. The waitstaff at the restaurant where I had dinner were slammed by the unusual number of people here.
All the hotels are sold out.
I’m planning on staying here Monday night as well, to avoid the rush out of town after the event. Then I’m going to my alma mater to get pizza, Chicago pan pizza, only even deeper and better.
Then through St. Louis to see 2 of my boys and their wives, on my return trip to Houston. I have some business to attned to as well, in my old stomping grounds.
Ooops! And the FLYING circuits, because the 4-2-2117 eclipse is over the far-southern Indian Ocean, passing over part of Indonesia and the southern Philippines.
This was my experience. about six hours in a traffic jam on the freeway north of Twin Falls afterwards. I was willing to stay another day at the campground, to be honest, but the person I was with had to get back for work.
Eclipse Forecasts…
https://www.gocomics.com/crankshaft/2024/04/07
Johnny Cab quit that gig, got a medical degree, and joined Starfleet.
“Star Trek: Discovery”, otherwise known as “STD”, is limping to a finish with the fifth and final season streaming now, and that may be it for “Star Trek” series for a very long time.
I hope a dozen three letter agencies are taking photos and license numbers…
but I think they’re all too busy harrassing white Americans.
Fury as Muslim protestors chant ‘death to America, death to Israel’ during huge march in Michigan town branded ‘America’s jihad capital’ by the Wall Street Journal
——–
And I guess the confirmation came in …
Baltimore 2.0 is narrowly averted as huge 89,000-ton container ship barrels towards New York City bridge after losing power… before swerving with just seconds to spare
n
A $25,000 model is not possible. Musk knows this.
TSLA has no support for the current share price, and The Real Life Tony Stark has to keep the number above the early January lows or the party is over.
I just watched the first two episodes of S05. Some of the scenes were obviously written by a team of Rainbow Alphabet teens. Watching Tubby Tilly rolling around on her bed was something to behold. There are so many mushy subplots it makes the main plot almost unwatchable.
The opening scene has Captain Amish Dredlocks, Gay Albino, Gay Amish/Hispanizoid, and non-binary they/them buzzcut freakazoid. E03 should bring back the non-binary Trill freakazoid from S01. STD is definitely killing the franchise. Maybe they’ll cancel ST:SNW.
*****Spoilers*****
There is no God. All bi-pedal creatures were created by some ancient race. They were probably Rainbow Alphabet people.
*****Spoilers*****
There are a lot of unattractive amateur actors in STD. This could be their last paying gig as actors.
@Nick
“I add a lot of sweetener and heavy cream, so I want something really dark to start…”
I’m so sory…
This was touched upon in one episode of “ST: The Next Generation”.
Yes. There was a Next Generation episode in which Picard, Dr. Crusher & company were trying to find traces of predecessor races, and discovered a holographic recording of some common race that had spawned the humans, Klingons and Romulans in the distant past.
I seriously doubt that they were rainbow alphabet peepuls.
“””How did they – everyone who did it- get it wrong?”
to busy being certain about global warming
SR 71 was jammed this afternoon from the intersection with I-10 into Bastrop, but things were quiet when we got home to North Austin/Round Rock.
People really just want any excuse to partake in the Bacchanalia in Austin. A lot of people are home tomorrow with many companies, mine included, not wanting to deal with pushback over expectation of a normal work day.
Really, Larry?
You needed the money that bad?
Why do Republicans hate lab-grown meat? War on foods like cultured beef and chicken heats up as lawmakers support $1 MILLION fines for companies selling products backed by Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio
– the more honest question would be, why would anyone want lab grown meat?
And given the backers, I’d be very wary…
n
It’s those darn “youths” again…
Shocking moment youths in supercars takeover Oakland BRIDGE as they perform donuts and drag race while showing off to women: One supporter waves Palestine flag
n
Door “blew open” while she was “gripping the handle.” Yeah, SURE it did.
Top doctor, 58, is killed in freak accident as she’s sucked out of a moving Airstream trailer on to the highway when door blew open while she was gripping the handle – as family watch on helplessly
n
Really, Larry?
You needed the money that bad?
I am confused ? Who is Larry ?
Travel trailers are not designed (i.e. no seatbelts) to be occupied while in motion. It is illegal in most states, although there are exceptions for 5th wheels (not in this case though).
Very sad for the family but somebody didn’t RTFM. I’d be surprised if there isn’t a sticker somewhere on the trailer with a warning – CYA for the manufacturer. To borrow a phrase we know all to well: “Travel trailers don’t kill people…”
Larry David? Tonight was the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” series finale.
I’ve been over the idea of watching a “mench” do anything for several decades at least. Probably since woody was molesting his kid, or at least the movie where he wakes up in the future…
Curb your enthusiasm, that was exactly what I did, curbed any desire to watch the show to zero… maybe I missed out, but it’s not my cuppa.
n