Hot and humid again. National weather forecast has stuff just north of us again, but Houston in the clear. Hot and clear. Humid and clear. It was 94F and sunny yesterday afternoon and that just killed me for working outdoors in the sun. Nope, not gonna do it.
So yesterday’s plan, such as it was, didn’t really work. I did computer stuff in the morning, getting partway caught up on my auctions, but then ended up running D2 over to a friend’s house to watch movies. I hit a goodwill and then Costco on the way home. Costco has Charmin blue on sale this cycle, and their French Roast whole bean coffee was <$5/pound. I also grabbed a two pack of prime sirloin cap roasts (picanha roast). We had one for dinner, and one went in the freezer. They were $6/pound which is a great price. I'm out of freezer space though. The Kirkland french roast whole bean is pretty good, and pretty darn good for the price. At the moment it's cheaper than the Community Coffee that I like.. I noticed that new EMPTY LP gas bottles are now $42 each at Costco. They were ~$20 pre-wuflu. That's a big increase in anyone's book. They had several varieties of rice but they are still short stock and choices with higher prices compared to 2 years ago. I made dinner and vac sealed the roast and some prime sirloin I'd picked up and just put in the freezer in the store packaging. It won't last long in the thin plastic, so I'm glad I noticed I hadn't done the bagging. A bit more auction stuff in the evening and it was time to retire and face another day. Today the kids have school again. Some schools are still without power, but the district decided to bring as many kids back as possible. I don't recall them doing that in the previous 8 years... it's usually all or nothing. Still have neighbors nearby that don't have power, and there are still streets that are partly or completely blocked. I went and looked at the one a couple blocks from me, and it is a HUGE tree with very thick branches. I think a couple of people could clear it in a few hours, at least to open one lane, but it would be a lot of work in the sun. I decided to let someone else work at it. Still doing cleanup and putting stuff back, but didn't receive my replacement carb yesterday either. I don't want to get elbow deep in generators until I can do them all. And I might set up the evaporative cooling fan first. I've got it, I should use it. And some sun shade would be nice. We'll see how today goes, with an early wrap to my stuff when the kids need rides home. Maybe I'll get a grocery trip in. Gotta keep stacking... nick
The work from your storm, Nick, sounds as arduous or more than one of our bigger quakes. I don’t envy you. Be prudent and wise in what you take on. Sounds like it’s very easy to overdo it.
Just got an email letting me know an old friend lost their second round battling cancer. We spent a lot of time with him and his wife 20 years ago. He’s responsible for me getting into Cardigans. Lots of intelligent and deep conversations over the years. We drifted apart over the last 10 years, which I regret. He was a genuinely good man.
The article is paywalled so I’m not sure where Dive Medic gets the idea about Couric favoring Ze Kampfs. A lot on that side certainly favor it, but they nibble around the edges of the concept.
Wasn’t Dive Medic suggesting some reeducation being necessary back when the pandemic was in the early days and he felt the response wasn’t sufficient to prevent mass die off of the population?
He saw it all first hand and it was going to be bad. Blah blah blah, Ginger. Blah blah blah.
Nibble around the edges of the concept in public.
You may think you’re tired, but you’re not
tiredpuppy
tired.
n
Yup another hot and humid day. Starting with light overcast but that will probably burn off.
Kids are off to school. Streets were a little quiet for a Wed. must still be folks staying home from work. Wife is WFH again today as her office lost power again.
My neck is bad again/still after taking the tree debris apart, so I may have a lie down with a rolled up towel under my neck.
Or not, depends on other factors.
Time to get moving though, because this coffee isn’t going to drink itself.
n
BTW, don’t know why today’s post renders as a wall o text. Looks fine in the composer tool, and I actually have MORE blank space than usual.
n
NVDA reports earnings today, and the expectation is a very high number, sufficient to squash the shorts across the QQQ.
Let the AI roll and the firings commence! Tonymobiles for everyone!
Doh! TSLA is down.
Still, the shorts went back to their hidey holes for a while.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/a_forensic_analysis_of_the_x_rays_of_jfk_s_skull_yields_surprising_results.html
Oswald was a patsy.
The coverup continues to erode.
Looks fine to me.
Do they make any without that? I think even my ancient low end 1440 has it.
Wall o’text here, Safari on an iPad.
However, using the online inflation calculator, a Dow at 40,000 today would dropdown to 32,900 if it were expressed in January 2020 dollars. That really wasn’t all that long ago.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/if_the_dems_ditch_biden_what_then.html
I remember when the Dow broke 1000.
Well, here we go, again. Our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has announced a General Election in the UK, to be solemnised on July 4th next. So it’ll be time to get the voting papers out. As usual, I will be voting by post, but W will vote in person, since she has not applied for a postal vote.
I still don’t trust any politician as far as I can throw a brick chimney – by its smoke, but I believe the incumbent Conservative (Tory) party exhale slightly denser smoke.
G.
Too much heavy garden work today, my shoulders have had it. Dunno, maybe I pulled something. Anyhow, it’s time to curl up with a good book, only…which one?
I asked ChatGPT for some book recommendations, based on what I’ve liked before (many of which are from Lynn’s lists). The results were pretty amazing: about a third of them were other series that I have already read and really enjoyed. So I’m hopeful about some of the recommendations I hadn’t heard of before. Here are three I’m going to try:
Good luck. Try to elect someone vaguely conservative, preferably with a long family history in the UK.
Muhammed is currently the second most common baby name in the UK. Accounting for the various spellings, it may well be in first place. Maybe elect someone who believes in remigration for non-integrated immigrants.
Will Boeing’s Starliner EVER fly?
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/05/22/hey-how-about-another-big-boeing-fail-n4929237
h/t: Instapundit.
@Brad:
TBH, tried The long Way to a small, angry planet” by Becky Chambers, and dropped it as being very very boring.
YMMV, you might try reading the first chapter or two for free online, and then extrapolating that to another 25 chapters.
Wall o’ text here. Firefox on a Dell desktop running W10.
Yes. NASA will not want to be dependent on The Real Life Tony Stark as their only option for low Earth orbit manned flights.
True, but: Boeing/ULA may not be it. There are other companies that are not “old space”. Sure, they’re years behind SpaceX, but Boeing/ULA is hopelessly lost. They apparently cannot function without cost-plus contracts.
“Yes. NASA will not want to be dependent on The Real Life Tony Stark as their only option for low Earth orbit manned flights.”
Which will come first: NASA spends a trillion New Dollars getting to leo or the Chinese take over the country?
Until musk, nasa was dependent on the RUSSIANS. How could RLTS be worse than that?
n
““Don’t Buy the B.S.”: The FBI’s Excuse for Why It Approved “Lethal Force” in the Mar-a-Lago Raid Is Absurd”
https://thelibertydaily.com/dont-buy-bt-fbis-excuse-why-it-approved/
Both of the FBI and the CIA need a reboot from the top down and the bottom up.
Their leaders will be disappearing into their workforces soon as non supervisors who cannot be fired according to current Civil Service rules.
The article is paywalled so I’m not sure where Dive Medic gets the idea about Couric favoring Ze Kampfs. A lot on that side certainly favor it, but they nibble around the edges of the concept.
Wasn’t Dive Medic suggesting some reeducation being necessary back when the pandemic was in the early days and he felt the response wasn’t sufficient to prevent mass die off of the population?
He saw it all first hand and it was going to be bad. Blah blah blah, Ginger. Blah blah blah.
I suspect that DiveMedic has lost a lot of naivete in the last few years as an ER Nurse. I did not want to believe that we were being fooled by the CDC and neither did he.
I think that the Bid Flu is coming in October as the dumbrocrat surprise. Just two weeks, just two weeks of isolation for all of us.
https://thelibertydaily.com/global-technocracy-is-priming-population-disease-x-more/
Until musk, nasa was dependent on the RUSSIANS. How could RLTS be worse than that?
n
NASA is gone, just a bunch of old people waiting for retirement. Astronauts have to have a PhD or two Masters, give me a break.
Not to interrupt the conversation…
We have wills. He gets it all. I get it all. Depends who dies first. Then it goes to his sons to do as they wish. Simple.
“Coffee with Scott Adams — Debating with an advanced intelligence”
https://x.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1792667757278085193
Wow, I had no idea that ChatGPT had such an excellent voice response system. I wonder how much computer power is needed for just that.
Side Quested: Nobility Marriage Contracts
https://sidequested.com/page/164/
Many wars have been started over the years over failed nobility contracts, especially marriage contracts.
I tried the earlier version. It was pretty incredible, except for the over-the-top valley girl delivery. Give me a break.
The new version is even better. But still a valley girl. In the live demo it literally used the word “awesome”. Barf.
NASA continues to fund Sierra Nevada‘s Dream Chaser as a cargo ship. In theory, crew could fly on that vehicle with some work.
IIRC, Sierra Nevada has (had?) the spare high bay not dedicated to SLS in the VAB so NASA considers them to be serious players.
——
The Lunacy of Artemis.
https://idlewords.com/2024/5/the_lunacy_of_artemis.htm#conclusion
The author is not a fan…
The absurdity of graduation from pre-school for a four year old. Oh well, it is my grandson. He’s also reached the poing were TV can sell him anything. ‘I want that!’ So the grandparents have purchase the Despicable Me Fart Blaster. 6 AA batteries. (good thing I had a big delivery this week) Well at least I get to play with before he gets it. Did not add the scent fluid, I’ll wait for him to get it. Likely my MIL will not approve. Cant’s be worse than her.
The 73 year old kid is just as happy as sonny boy will be. D)
Four year old kids are awesome.
I had a frank discussion with the wife this morning about the beard. Apparently she is not a big fan. I have conditional approval but she reserves the right to cancel the beard at any moment.
“The Fed is already insolvent. Here’s how we think this plays out”
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/the-fed-is-already-insolvent-heres-how-we-think-this-plays-out-150869/
“Within the next several years there could be some Chinese or Russian financier who becomes known as “The Man Who Broke the Fed”.”
“This isn’t sensational. The Fed is already insolvent by $900+ billion, according to its own financial statements. Social Security is insolvent. The US government is insolvent by tens of trillions… and they further anticipate the national debt to grow by $20 trillion over the next decade.”
“These are facts, not fantasies.”
This is like an elevator bank opens but there is no elevator car, just an open deep dark pit.
“And this is why it makes so much sense to hedge these risks by owning real assets which are scarce, valuable, and uncorrelated to the US dollar.”
“Gold is a great example. And as we’ve argued before, even though it’s already near its all-time high, we believe it can go much higher from here.”
I do not want to be a gold bug. But, it looks likes we need to be one.
Divemedic definitely struck me as “Ze Kampf Awaits For Ze Skippy” type, but nurses are always odd, especially if they got a late start at the career.
“It’s official: Houston just experienced a derecho. What is that, and have we ever experienced one before?”
https://spacecityweather.com/its-official-houston-just-experienced-a-derecho-what-is-that-and-have-we-ever-experienced-one-before/
“The National Weather Service has concluded that Thursday’s severe storms in Houston constituted a derecho. So what does that mean?”
“First off, it’s pronounced “deh-REY-cho.” Meteorologists have debated what the definition of one of these things actually is for years. And we still don’t have a concrete, universally accepted definition. However, progress was made after a 2011 storm that hit the Southeast and a 2012 derecho that ravaged the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest to work toward something more widely accepted. Ultimately, NOAA/NWS defines a derecho as a continuous or intermittent path of wind damage from a squall line of thunderstorms, bow echo, or quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) that extends at least 400 miles and is at least 60 miles wide. In other words: It’s a swath of wind damage from mostly non-tornadic thunderstorms that extends for 400+ miles and is at least 60 miles wide.”
My brother says that derechos are terrifying in Chicago. Sounds like they are terrifying no matter what.
Your body, your choice!
Could it be … Trump?
It’s a wall of text in the admin editor’s ‘block’ mode. In ‘classic’ mode, there are blank lines showing. But the block editor has it as one giant paragraph.
I could fix it, I guess. But I prefer not to do that type of editing. I’ll sometimes fix bad links. But I’ll leave Nick’s words of wisdom alone.
Huh, I didn’t do anything different when typing it last night. Same as always, and on this pc that I normally use.
It’s happened before and we didn’t figure it out then either.
n
The carb I ordered for Monday delivery finally got here. I am a bit upset. If I was still running on gennie, I’d have wanted to fix that asap, and I bought from the vendor that listed Monday delivery, and paid a few bux more than the other vendors of essentially the same product.
It was delivered by an amazon driver.
n
That depends on whether you’re worrying about a currency collapse and hyperinflation, or a civilizational collapse such as a war or civil war.
Gold might be handy once the currency collapse is over and you’re rebuilding your currency and setting up new mediums of exchange. But you can’t eat gold when civilization collapses, or in the near-term of rebuilding after a war. For that, you need guns, ammunition, and non-perishable foodstuffs. Prepare for the threat you think is most likely.
That depends on whether you’re worrying about a currency collapse and hyperinflation, or a civilizational collapse such as a war or civil war.
Gold might be handy once the currency collapse is over and you’re rebuilding your currency and setting up new mediums of exchange. But you can’t eat gold when civilization collapses, or in the near-term of rebuilding after a war. For that, you need guns, ammunition, and non-perishable foodstuffs. Prepare for the threat you think is most likely.
I think that our chance of a financial collapse is much higher than the chance of a civil war. With the USA running a four trillion dollar per year deficit, we are getting closer to dollar rejection by the world very quickly. But, I have been wrong before…
But you can’t eat gold when civilization collapses,
–Ferfal would disagree. He used it to buy food when cash didn’t work. People are people, and people like gold.
Cheap wedding rings and gold chains are a medium of exchange, and you can sell the chain an inch at a time.
Throughout history, if there was any trading at all, gold was involved.
The people I think are nuts are the ones stacking copper. Copper is cheap and everywhere. you can pull it down off the poles, dig it up from under the streets, steal it from houses, (and tesla chargers), pretty much anywhere in our technological world. It’s used for water pipes FFS. Gold and silver were never used for water pipes…
n
“Ghost Run (4) (Day by Day Armageddon)” by J. L. Bourne
https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Run-Day-Armageddon/dp/150111669X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number four of a four book zombie dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and and well bound trade paperback published by Gallery Books in 2016 that I bought new from Amazon.
We know that the zombie infection came from China. Now more of the story is coming out. The Chinese found a space ship in a glacier that was 20,000 years old. But, there was a infected pilot in the space ship. Zombie virus infected that spread across the entire world in a month.
It has been two years since the zombie infection started. Most of the world’s population have died or turned into zombies. But Kilroy and several hundred people are living at the end of the Florida Keys using a Naval ship nuclear reactor for power. But somebody still has to go the mainland for supplies. So Kilroy heads out on his own and finds much more than he expected.
I liked it ! Almost as good as John Ringo’s “Under A Graveyard Sky”.
The author has a website at:
http://www.JLBourne.com
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,618 reviews)
Lynn
Shift-Enter or Alt-Enter?
Shift-Enter or Alt-Enter?
– enter enter.
n
“During ‘War Drill’, Greek Navy Chases Russian Tankers Out Of Oil Transfer Hotspot”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/greek-war-drills-against-russian-oil-tankers-oil-transfer-hotspot
“The Greek Navy has established a temporary obstacle in the Laconian Gulf, approximately 110 miles southwest of Athens, to disrupt a ‘floating oil base’ used by Russian tankers for ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil and related products. These products are then loaded onto other tankers and transported to Asia. This action is part of the West’s strategy to curtail Moscow’s ability to supply energy to customers evading Western sanctions, thereby limiting funding for the special operation in Ukraine. ”
You know, this is how wars get started.
That’s what she said.
I will let myself out.
No, what I meant was, maybe you sometimes have a modifier key pressed when you hit Enter. Droopy finger? Sticking keyboard? Sticky-keys set in Windows?
The only copper I’m stacking is wrapped around lead, and encased in brass sleeves.
RBT would be freaking out. As of June 1, Netflix will have 16 seasons of Heartland available to all of their viewers.
Heartland was the show with the blonde he liked to watch?
n
Heartland was the show with the blonde he liked to watch?
I believe so. 16 seasons, 259 episodes. I think that he owned ten ??? seasons on DVD.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1094229/
really funny DERECHO, as you may know, in spanish the collegue where lawyers study is DRUMS!!
FACULTAD DE DERECHO
so, someone somewhere make fun of all lawyers and all the weather people
jjjajajaj