Forecast apparently calls for up to 5 inches today. That would probably raise the lake back up 10 inches. And that would be close to flooding me again. Yesterday was nice. Even got hot in the sun. Still very damp so not much dried out.
I did get stuff done. Got more cleanup in the dockhouse. Mowed the lawn, and made some adjustments to the mower. Still need to do something else to the deck, as it’s cutting unevenly. Might have to watch a vid or read something… heaven forefend.
Today’s list of stuff is going to be entirely dependent on the weather. I’ll do what I can to keep moving forward. And hope the forecast is wrong. I can work on my hobby website… thanks again to Rick for sharing his knowledge.
———
Meanwhile the world is getting even crazier. No matter what it’s gonna be bad, and it’s gonna suck. Having some preps and someplace to go will help it suck less. Do what you gotta do. Stack.
nick
North Austin had pea size hail again last night with an “enhanced” possibility of more and larger hail today.
Everyone has a new roof in my neighborhood from October.
I would counter that having to toss all the proprietary cables caused just as much waste. I have half a dozen USB-A and USB-C to Lightning cables that will have to be tossed. I was forced to buy additional cables for my devices. I carried a set in my laptop bag, a set at home, and a set in the RV. All made obsolete by the EU. I had to restock those cable. And I had to purchase two new USB-C chargers and will be tossing my USB-A chargers.
I gained no advantage by the forced change and in fact suffered a small economic cost due to the EU.
I had one charger in my bag, the charger for my Surface Laptop with the necessary cables to charge my devices. At that time I had an iPhone and a watch. The Surface Laptop charger has a USB-A port. All I needed was the Lightning cable for my phone and the watch charger. The watch charger is still proprietary due to the MagSafe charging.
I still have on charger in my bag. USB-C. It charges my MacBook from which I connect my phone and watch to allow them to charge.
75F with a light overcast. No rain yet. Scrambled liquid egg, with shelf stable (until opened) bacon crumbles, frozen english muffins toasted with butter (from freezer) and cherry jam… coffee is “Caribe’” espresso grind- it was on sale in a vac sealed foil brick. Not bad, just not “oh gnu that is good” good.
I’ve got gennies and solar to keep the freezers running. They are small enough to run off of small inverters and batteries in a “round robin” fashion if needed. Multiple small freezers provide more resilience than one big one. And I got several at auction, 🙂
I freeze the bacon until I use it, which extends it’s shelf life to infinity and beyond…
I’m drinking my coffee with canned “Media Crema” medium table cream from Nestle’. I’ve got powdered as backup. The canned cream is more goopy than whipped, or creamy, and it has a slight caramel taste from the heating process, but still a nice change from black.
Freezers may not be a long term grid down solution, but for most scenarios, having a couple of chests full of frozen food just waiting to be eaten is VERY handy.
n
Our own founding documents allow for the EU…
My question comes down to “did the people have a choice?” or did the global cabal of loosely aligned perverts make the choice mainly for their own benefit? Were there credible politicians opposed to the Union? Was there a real chance of NOT entering into the Union or was it a foregone conclusion once underway?
From the exit movement, I’d say there were some second thoughts at a minimum. Funny that world events just HAPPENED to derail that.
n
If the EU wants to justify rules by claiming “reduced waste” why not limit new models? Think of all the phones that wouldn’t become waste if new models only came out every 2 years. Or 4. Or once a decade.
Why allow multiple colors for cars? That just means more waste when the production lines switch color. And shops have to stock more colors of paint.
Wouldn’t it be less wasteful to only allow manufacture of a few sizes of brick? Or to force standardization of mattress sizes?
The wild proliferation of car models means millions of spare parts are produced, and many of them never get used. Wouldn’t it be less wasteful to only allow a few models? And why should there be multiple companies producing cars? That duplication of effort is certainly wasteful…
In fact, why should ANY proprietary parts be allowed. Surely it would be more efficient and less wasteful if everything was made from the same catalog of standard parts…
Yeah, no. To use a meme… I resent even the examples listed from the US under the dictator Roosevelt.
n
As if ads weren’t enough. One more reason to switch to Linux…
When does the linux calendar run out?
n
In my heavily biased opinion, the EU was targeting the big tech companies for money. Fines to line the coffers of the countries involved. Since companies do not pay fines, the customers pay the fines by increased prices, it is effectively taxation without any representation.
A company being successful, with a product that everyone desires, becomes a dominant force, then the government will go after the company to punish the company for the success of the company.
I have not seen anything the EU has imposed that have made any product better. Different electrical interface did nothing for me and in fact cost me money. Allow side loading apps is a security risk, just look at Android.
Apple secures their system from idiots, side loading will no longer protect the idiots. When an unvetted app breaks a phone, or comprises the device, who will get blamed? Most likely Apple. Yes, USB-C is more convenient, but using Lightning cables was not causing me any problems as my primary devices are Apple.
Jerry Seinfeld | Duke’s 2024 Commencement Address
That’s what she said. 😎 #BaDumTss
I need to drop the deck off my ZTR and sharpen/replace the blades and clean it out, but I keep procrastinating it. I will say, the collection of YouTube videos showing you how to fix something is very nice. It’s reminiscent of the Internet pre-social-media when it was useful instead of the train wreck it is today. I miss early-00’s internet.
I never understood people who say frozen food is only good for 6 months. I have regularly grabbed something out of my freezer that was in there for 2 or 3 years and it tasted just fine and everyone is still alive. I suppose if you’re not packaging it for a long haul in the freezer, then that could be problematic. That thin food film isn’t going to do it. Especially since it transitioned from PVDC to LDPE.
I have several of what Corningware calls Petite Pans. Cornflower Blue of course. Make a MrAtoz sniff sound here. 🙂 The sizes are two cup and four cup.
I have the makings for enchiladas. Now, if I make a normal pan I’d be trying to eat it by myself for a month. My plan is to assemble in in Petite Pans and freeze. Then vac seal the brick of enchiladas. I might even include a dollop of refried beans.
I might use Ziploc boxes if I decide all I want is a mold. With the Petite pans as a mold, I can use a pan in the oven. With the Ziploc boxes, I can use a pie plate to heat in the oven. I need to compare the size of the pans and Ziploc boxes.
Heat in the oven to finish cooking the enchilada’s tortillas. If it works for TV dinners it should work for me.
Then I can have enchiladas once a month or so.
I can do this for lasagna too. The last time I bought Stouffer’s it tasted like it had a cup of sugar in the sauce. I exaggerate. Closer to a heaping third of a cup. Way too much sugar.
I have projects. Make spaghetti sauce. Buy a block of American cheese for the enchiladas.
It is time well-spent to take a hard look at the functionality of food storage containers.
I’m migrating to the upgraded Rubbermaid (red interlocking tops) because they are thicker ( better freezer protection, less prone to microwave damage) and have a tighter sealing lid.
At the same time I have some Ziploc that make good molds for the freezer. Freeze the stuff, pop it out, vac seal, and it makes bricks that stack pretty well. I just need to find a tall square container to stack them into, so they don’t slip-slide to the floor.
No, the Katy location was the only Boyert for a couple years now. I shot at Westheimer once; I didn’t like it. I think it was the people. May have been a bad day.
EVs are essentially the same car with slightly different body styles placed on top of the “skate”.
The small SUVs are almost as bad.
The Toyota “Corolla Cross” and the Mazda CX-50 roll out of the same factory in Alabama, and Toyota has a deal pending to build Subarus.
You need a chest freezer so you can have fun digging around armpit deep to see what you have.
And put a bath towel on the lid so things like dog leashes and whatever else don’t scratch the paint and make the lid rust. Of course the lid is full of ice now and while I’m armpit deep looking for stuff, I’m trying to hold the lid up with my head so I have a little bit of light in the freezer. I have something to complain about.
I have a lot of the Ziploc boxes in both two and four cup sizes. About 30 of each. Yeah, I know. But I found the perfect White Trash Tupperware and then HEB had them on sale a couple of times after Christmas. Red or Green four cup size at a dollar per package of four? Win! I’m taking care of them, too. They changed the design and the lids don’t fit.
Someone should sic the EU on them. /s
I found some cheap food boxes on Amazon. A box of 50 tubs and 50 lids $22. They have the same seal as soup bowls from Chinese restaurants. Kind of a pain to open, too. So if anyone is going home with leftovers, I have the containers. I tossed all the rest of the cupboard. All the valuable Prices Pimiento Cheese containers, several random “where did this come from” pieces of real Tupperware and a few Rubbermaid ziploc box knock-offs from who knows where. Much neater.
Rain started.
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I think Sarah has some interesting observations in her post today. Worth the read.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2024/05/16/dual-edged-benevolence/#respond
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I like the HEB version of the ziplok containers. They are sturdy enough to use over and over, but not so sturdy you don’t want to give them away or retire them when the time comes.
The main series is about 5″ square, and various depths. The short one is an almost perfect mold for 1 ½ pounds of hamburger, which will then slip with only a little squishing into a preformed vac seal bag.
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there is a potential difference between the freezer in your fridge and a chest freezer. The “frost free” design warms the freezer to melt the frost, then refreezes. That cycling can shorten the storage life of food. My own experience is vac sealed in heavy bags, and stored in the chest freezer at 10F or below, and you get years easily, and a decade isn’t unusual. (Missing a steak for that long was unusual, but the steaks were delicious.)
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The wind has picked up and it’s genuinely storming at the moment.
n
@lpdbw – don’t bother with Full Armor range and shop on Katy Fwy a couple miles outside the Beltway. Those guys are arrogant jerks, despite having a nice range.
They’re everything wrong with a gun store, unless some miracle occurred since I visited.
n
American cheese for enchiladas? Yes.
I asked at a Mexican restaurant what kind of cheese they use and got a funny look. I explained I use cheddar and I always have puddles of grease on my enchiladas and your enchiladas are not greasy.
They use American cheese. They stuff the blocks through the shredder attachment on a KitchenAid mixer. Pre-shredded had the anti caking powder and they don’t like the flavor.
Whelp, that makes a couple of my points for me… one being that percentages are often used to exaggerate the impact.
The other being, disease ridden illegals need to stay home.
n
For FoodSaver bags, I buy from these folks: https://www.ebay.com/str/vacandpac I buy the pre-made bags. Sometimes the bag is too big but that happens less often than me making a bag from a roll and it’s too small.
There are some folks that sell for less. But shipping is fast and heck, 3¢ more a bag isn’t much actually.
Measles outbreaks are DeSantis’ fault, even in a Dem stronghold like Weston, which has never gone Republican since the first homeowners moved in to that swamp.
Literally, a swamp. Anyone who is going to argue needs to have visited in person.
(I’ve also been by Mar-a-lago many times. $12 million wouldn’t buy the parking lot.)
And Venezuelans are not Cubans. Republicans outside of Florida need to get hip to this.
Lying liars that lie.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13426831/whoopi-goldberg-defends-harrison-butker-speech.html
What he said, worth reading the whole thing to see why they hate him…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-13426137/Harrison-Butkers-speech-Kansas-City-Chiefs-star-faces-furious-backlash-controversial-graduation-comments.html
And of course, keep in mind WHERE he gave the speech, and to whom, and on what occasion.
n
added- and I miss OFD
“EVs are essentially the same car with slightly different body styles placed on top of the “skate”.”
Makes targeting with .50AP easier.
Disagree. Desantis didn’t open the border.
I read several summaries of the tRump porn trial. I can’t figure out how the prosecution could even indict leastwise prove their charges. Only a vindictive jury will convict. That would be overturned upon appeal. The judge, Merhecan, is a joke. He should be slamming the prosecution instead of the defense.
Paul, the /sarc tag was implied.
MrAtoz, the judge would seem to have gotten his orders from the same source that the prosecutors did.
It is still Ron DeSantis’ fault.
The House Republican margin is now within the four seats DeSantis delivered along with Little Marco’s Senate seat.
Florida voters had to at least look at the candidates in the US Senate race before getting to choose in the Governor race per state law.
Meh. Too pricey, mostly. I took my LTC range qualification there. The classroom part was not from them and was offsite.
They had a pretty sweet price a few years ago on multiple rentals: Rent 3 guns for one price. Great for shopping the different brands and models. I decided on a H&K VP9 as a game gun, and then never played the game. IDPA is a thing at Full Armor, or at least was, back then.
I’m still of two minds about AIWB carry, and IDPA didn’t allow it. I went with an OWB holster, and decided that negated the whole “concealed carry” aspect.
The VP9 has a nice trigger, though. That’s what I learned comparing models that day. It was better than the Smith and Walther.
Re the tRump trial, surprise, surprise, the appeal won’t be heard before November.
They HATE this guy. I don’t even know who he is, but the lies keep coming.
He didn’t say that. He also said some of them would have careers. I wonder, does google index photo captions?
n
The accomplished SCIENTIST who raised ‘America’s biggest misogynist Harrison Butker’ – but the Chief’s kicker says women must be homemakers
Really DM? “America’s biggest misogynist”? I guess trump is breathing a sigh of relief…/sarc
n
“Gov. Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry, veteran who killed police brutality protester in 2020”
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/16/daniel-perry-greg-abbott-pardon/
“A Travis County jury sentenced Perry to 25 years in prison last year, prompting Abbott to ask the state parole board to review his case.”
It is about freaking time that this happened.
Good. Ithought the video from the scene was pretty clear, but IDK.
Then there is the last paragraph, where everything you’ve EVER said can and will be used against you…
n
Travis is a trainwreck with an activist DA and sympathetic jury pool.
I’m surprised that the Tribune didn’t have the statement from the DA. Maybe it slipped their minds between hits of the bong
Faux (corporate-owned) 7 Austin has the statement
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/daniel-perry-full-pardon-recommended-texas
Long story short, stay out of Downtown Austin.
Austin PD has been trying to quell the widely-held belief that a serial killer is working Downtown Austin. Of course local (corporate-owned) Faux 7 Austin has been doing its best to keep the story alive.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/man-speaks-out-after-being-drugged-while-bar-hopping-on-6th-street
Sweeps.
More lies. Jeez.
n
Austin PD has been trying to quell the widely-held belief that a serial killer is working Downtown Austin.
Bodies found in the Lake are not suspicious? Hmm…
Do I believe a serial killer is working Downtown Austin?
Sure, put Pappy Van Winkle on top of the suspects list.
Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by bacchanalia.
I’m not a police officer, but “bodies in the lake” would certainly arouse MY suspicions, unless there were missing swimmers or kayakers unaccounted for.
Been AFK for awhile…
Re the earlier mentions of a Microsoft account, has anyone here succeeded in using a smart phone without a Google or Apple account? It is my belief that this is much harder than using Windows without a Microsoft account.
I have been fascinated by some of Rob Braxman’s videos. This is the latest in his series on deGoogled phones:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u4rstFcPcjE&t=1s
This would be very inconvenient, and I wouldn’t rely on such a trick to be private; one slip, and I could be exposed.
Comments?
Climate Professor Thinks We Should ‘Cull’ the Human Population to Reach Emissions Targets
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/15/climate-professor-thinks-we-should-cull-the-human-population-to-reach-emissions-targets/
Got your Self-Defenestration Kit right here, Professor Pointy Hair.
Send me your mailing address and I’ll ship it free with instructions even you can understand (Pictorial Edition).
I’m not aware of ANY way to use an iPhone without an iCloud account. Similarly, I’m not aware of any way to use an Android phone without connecting it to a Google account.
I see that BillGates wants to inject cattle with a magic potion to reduce their methane emissions.
I think he should be caged and fed a bean, broccoli and kale diet for a year, then injected and fed the same diet for another year before experimenting on cattle.
Wait a minute… how old is he?…let me re-chck the actuarial tables… a two-year cycle might not be long enough.
Lizard people don’t eat what we eat.
n
Houston got nailed by a 110 mph storm this afternoon. 40 % of the homes in Harris County are without power. Many high lines are down.
https://spacecityweather.com/spring-just-ended-with-a-bang-in-houston/
We have power and internet.
I also have Scotch.
However, we also have half a tree laying in our front yard, and 2 complete fence panels laying in the back yard.
Not good.
3 different hispanic guys dropped by tonight offering their services to do cleanup.
I have an older Moto E running stock Motorola Android without a Google account. It is possible.
I haven’t tried a newer Android like a Pixel, but some of the recent Pixels support LineageOS, which is Android built without Google assimilation.
All the storm is past me now. IDK how much rain we got, couple inches maybe. Lake is trending up slightly according the the USGS.
At home in Houston, 3 fence panels down, lots of limbs in the yard, and no power. Wife and kids are there. Electricity outage site is crashed… of course. And their downtown offices had windows blow out of their tower building according to the news.
Family was supposed to come up here tomorrow anyway, but I’m not leaving the house empty with no power. I might head down there with the extra gennie and gas and LP bottles. Wife and I will discuss it in the morning. Naturally, most of my tools are here at the lake, as are my chainsaws… There is a single electric saw at the house… even my dewalt sawzall with the pruning blade is up here.
In the mean time they are ok without power, even though the honda inverter gennie is sitting there, ready to go. It’s a PITA to run cords all over and the freezers are good for a while.
I’m hoping the power outages are localized and repaired quickly. My renter (inside the Loop, north side) has power. Some limbs down but nothing critical.
The high tension line may be taking power OUT of the city which would be ok. If not, that’s a big fix and will take time and a lot of effort.
But if the City has power, at least the water plant can stay online, unlike Harvey.
We’ll have a clearer picture in the morning. It was a monster storm. It’s currently covering all of Louisiana and Mississippi. It was big enough to stretch from Houston to Dallas, and the same across.
That’s about 5 hours driving…
n
With starlink and power you can bypass all the local infrastructure and get to outside the trouble zone. That is really powerful.
n
@JimB, ISTM that my Google account is more integrated with my Pixel phone than my MS account is with my Windows PC. Setting up my latest Android phone was pretty much fully automated. If you’re looking for stealth, a ‘bar’ type burner phone from Wally World can still be bought with cash. And don’t forget a ball cap, hoodie and your handy Covid mask.
And don’t forget a ball cap, hoodie and your handy Covid mask.
–and a full set of clothes and shoes from goodwill to throw away afterwards. Leave you current phone somewhere else, and ride a bike there. A throwaway bike. Wait a couple months to use it, and never use it from your home location or while carrying your phone.
There are other things to consider beyond this, so you can see that it’ REALLY hard to do.
Criminals use networks of mules to buy theirs and move them around so they aren’t traced to the end user. You don’t have that luxury.
n
I’m hitting the hay. MIght have to drive home tomorrow, and then be a lumberjack…
It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.
Stay strong!
n
Thanks for the comments on the deGoogled smart phone. It seems some of the commenters didn’t watch the Braxman video, but that’s OK.
I wasn’t thinking of a burner phone, but a smart phone that wouldn’t give away its location and other identifying info while using the Internet. It would be used for most things except phone calls, what I currently use my phone for.
This was just an exercise. I actually like some of the Google services. I can look up where I was way back in 2009, the first year I had a phone that could access the Internet. I set up an account, and it remembers a lot about my uses. Very convenient. I have little to hide, or so that is what I tell everyone. I really think it is foolish to attempt to be a ghost while using most modern tech.
I was just out of town for a couple of nights. As I moved about, I thought about how many times my identity was cataloged. Surveillance cams, phone calls (I actually do make a few, especially on trips like this one,) retail shopping, doctor visits, etc. As one smart fella has said, leave the phone home if you want some privacy. Some. Privacy. Too little.
Reminds me; I have a friend who always uses cash and tries to be as anonymous as he can, just on principle. We play this game: he says he did something that would not be recorded, and I tell him what actually happened. He gets a painful look on his face.
It used to be we could be confident of safety if we went about our business and didn’t try to do anything terrible. Nowadays, that is impossible. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. We are doomed… unless we live in that cabin without electricity and running water. Even then…