Please take time today to remember why it’s a holiday, and a holy day.
Enjoy it, but remember.
Absent friends.
nick
Mon. May 27, 2024 – Memorial Day
62 Comments and discussion on "Mon. May 27, 2024 – Memorial Day"
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Please take time today to remember why it’s a holiday, and a holy day.
Enjoy it, but remember.
Absent friends.
nick
Comments are closed.
In honor of OFD, I will post a link to a bit of weekend crazy from Ann Barnhardt.
More pics for my “The Real Bill Gates” image stash.
https://www.barnhardt.biz/2024/05/25/you-gotta-be-kidding-me-mailbag-revelation-1823-for-thy-merchants-were-the-great-men-of-the-earth-for-by-thy-pharmaceuticals-were-all-nations-deceived-edition/
It’s foggy this morning. Thick enough that I can’t see the cars or the EDC from the house.
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Mr. Nick, what is your electrolyte intake? You may have to up to a powder like LMNT to boost your E’s. I haven’t had leg cramps since I started on LMNT. It is pricey, but there are formulas on YouTube that use the original receipe off of the LMNT web site that is 1/10 the price. Gatoraid style drink from the store just doesn’t cut it for me. I also take a mineral nutriceutical.
The Fall of Minneapolis
Almost two hours long, but well worth the time.
Another link posted in honor of the departed OFD, who would have surely taken care of “bidness” himself this weekend as soon as he saw the Twitter/X tribute to George Floyd from the White House account.
I assume the post is real. Kunstler isn’t the type to make things up like that.
This Memorial Day, Remember The Fallen, Like This Farm Boy From North Carolina
Garney [Burleson] was killed in action on January 28, 1971, in Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam. He was only 20 years old.
Garney’s last platoon leader, known as “Blue” for his radio call sign, was scant feet away from Garney when he was killed. Blue carried Garney’s body to an evacuation helicopter that was able to descend through a small opening in the trees. On Memorial Day 2018, that platoon leader made the trip from Knoxville, Tennessee, to his fallen soldier’s gravesite.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/05/26/memorial-day-is-a-time-for-recollection-and-reflection/
The letter that Blue left for his fallen soldier in 2018 is timeless.
Here we are still have an unusually cold and wet Spring. Just started raining again. Tomorrow should be dry, then showers off and on for the rest of the week. Of course, it’s all global warming™ /s
So, the video of people singing “Germany for Germans” has apparently been outlawed in Germany? There was one idiot pretending to be Hitler, but there’s one idiot in every crowd. Anyway, apparently anti-migrant sentiment is verboten. @Denis: what’s your opinion?
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Got lots of random garden projects done here. The most annoying: I paid a guy to put in a drain from our balcony that would have the water run down a chain into our fountain. He put in the drain, and the chain, but the water did anything but run down the chain. Pestered him to come and fix things. Pestered him again. Nothing. So I fixed it myself, and certainly won’t be giving this guy any more work.
My impression: he’s competent enough, as long as he has a boss keeping an eye on him. No boss, no joy. Also, while he was working, he told me how he hates being bossed around and intends to go independent. Gonna need some luck with that.
I forgot the link.
I suggest not being in the middle of consuming a beverage when you reach the text after the words getting the bidness regarding the mess in Georgia.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/saving-our-democracy-this-memorial-day/
RIP OFD
On this one day, we honor those who gave their lives for our country.
On June 1st, we honor Rainbow Alphabet people for an entire month.
We are the FUSA.
Today, my Macbook Pro was frozen (forgive me, Lord Jobs) on the login screen when I woke it up
Reboot solved that. No error message, just the beachball of death.
Indeed.
Yeah, plugs “loved” Floyd. Potatus Mashed Potatoes For Brains.
“The Most Dangerous Target in America”?
I’ve been in that store, but the last time we were in San Francisco was almost 20 years ago.
https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1792724860499792323
Happy Memorial Day!
Used aluminum = easy to melt down and re-form into useful products.
Bauxite ore = difficult and expensive to transform into usable aluminum, requiring much electricity.
So your users are planning on diverting the used aluminum stream into hydrogen plus much waste material, which could be reprocessed into useful aluminum, if only we had cheap electricity.
Underpants gnomes got nothin’ on that.
When I moved to Spokane, WA, our electricity provider was Washington Water Power, and as the name says, most of the electricity came from hydro. The Bonneville Power Administration promised people that if they could build the Grand Coulee dam during the depression, we’d never have to pay high electricity prices, ever.
Like most Democrat promises, this had an expiration date. Suddenly, our rates went up 10 times because rich Californians wanted our power, and Carter’s energy department couldn’t remember old promises.
Not that FDR really meant it in the first place. That old commie.
Edited to add: Because of the cheap electricity, aluminum refining happened on a big scale in Spokane. Killing our cheap, locally produced electricity killed that whole industry, depressing the economy.
79F and still. Humid as all swampy hell.
My everything hurts, even my eyes feel sore. I am taking some more tylenol after breakfast.
@mrAtoz, I drink an electrolyte supplement all day, called Squincher Zero. It’s a sugar free industrial version meant for workers not athletes.
I typically judge my fluid intake by “am I sweating” and “am I peeing”. Depending on yes/no and volume (color) I’ll drink more. I never decide to drink less. Still, brain gets focused on something and it’s easy to fall behind.
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Flag etiquette for today is half staff until noon, then full.
————-
n
Was the Macbook connected to the dock? Or do you have the Cinema Display?
I’ve noticed strangeness when waking up the “Apple Silicon” laptops we own when left connected to the docks overnight which doesn’t happen with my wife’s i7 MacBook Pro.
This transition hasn’t been nearly as smooth as Apple makes it out to be.
Microsoft is going to learn the same thing but without any control over the chip design having gone the route of using Qualcomm garbage.
Here in UK and Europe, we observe our equivalent of Memorial Day on November 11th, or typically on the nearest Sunday thereto, in combined Armistice Day and Remembrance Day ceremonies.
In UK, this entails a parade of Veterans and current forces at the Cenotaph (War Memorial) in Whitehall, in the presence of our current government and members of the Royal Family, most of whom are veterans themselves.
There are also smaller parades and observances across the nation. Locally, one is held on the Green at the centre of the borough, with the attendance of local Scouts and Guides (note: in UK these are separate organisations). In past years, while W, D1 and D3 were Guide leaders, they were involved, and luckily, most local politicians were able to avoid sloganeering, with one notable, tone-deaf, exception.
Flags are not flown, except on official buildings. And maybe not even then.
G.
mid 90s and relatively low humidity (around 50%) around these here parts. Not a cloud in the sky. They call it the Sunshine State for a reason…
A bit ago I was telling my 24-year-old son about my grandfather’s service in the Pacific theater in WWII and my uncle’s time as PCF crew in ‘Nam. Neither of those were good spots. I have a Japanese officer’s hand-forged katana in my safe – not for sale. There was only one way an infantry grunt came back with one of those…
I was always kept out of harm’s way, and I appreciate that more than most.
“Meet America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber – with a cost of $700m per plane”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stealth-bomber-b-21-us-air-force-b2550643.html
“The plan is for the newest bombers to replace the B-1 and B-2 models”
Pretty. They went with the chrome option, I like it. I have the chrome option on my F-150 4×4, makes it go way faster.
It’s foggy this morning. Thick enough that I can’t see the cars or the EDC from the house.
It is smoky here. At noon. Looks like they are burning off the fields in South America again.
It is so smoky that I cannot even see the sun.
The US also observes Veterans’ Day on November 11, but not as many people have the day off.
Memorial Day in May is a consolidation of several observance days which arose after the Civil War and spanned May/June. Juneteenth used to be one of those, but now it has its own Federal holiday post-2020 “Summer of Love”.
Memorial Day also is the unofficial start of the Summer travel season in the US, and, in the LGBTQXYZ community, is the beginning of a week of events in Florida which include “Gay Days” at the theme parks in Orlando.
The Magic Condom -er- Kingdom.
$700 million for a plane that, realistically, can be downed by a heat seeking missile costing 0.001 of that price. And whose mission can be carried out by a set of drones costing 0.01 of the price.
The USAF has been way to enamored of insanely expensive air craft for 3 or 4 decades. Now that drones are coming into their own, these aircraft are even more irrelevant.
Don’t worry, I’m sure that LMT has a $700M drone waiting in the wings…
BTW, there used to be a place in FL called Condom Sense. I wore out the shirt with their name and slogan, “Where the customer comes last.” I don’t know if they are still around, but they were nice folks that didn’t seem to have any agenda other than helping people be happy and safe. GFx (where x>0) seemed to enjoy their wares.
This Memorial Day, Remember The Fallen, Like This Farm Boy From North Carolina
Garney [Burleson] was killed in action on January 28, 1971, in Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam. He was only 20 years old.
My uncle left his shot down wingman in the Hanoi harbor in a little yellow raft in 1965 ? in Vietnam. His wingman was shot down by a Soviet built and manned S-2 missile from a missile station in the hills overlooking Hanoi. My uncle said that it looked like a telephone pole going past the wing of his A-4. The S-2 missile exploded and took off the entire wing of his wingman’s plane. His plane crashed into the harbor after he ejected.
My uncle circled his wingman’s raft for several hours before the sun went down and he could not see the raft anymore. His fellow carrier pilots refueled him six times. Every time the Vietnamese would send a boat into the harbor, my uncle would fire one 20 mm shot into their boat. He only had 100 rounds of ammo for his 20 mm cannon. The Vietnamese continuously shot at him using anti-aircraft weapons so the S&R helicopter would not come into the harbor and rescue the downed Navy pilot.
His wingman is still listed as MIA. My uncle still wears the POW-MIA bracelet to this day. I do not know his wingman’s name but I am sure that I have heard it over the years.
My uncle returned the next day with 4 ? 6 ? 500 lb bombs on his plane. He came in at 40,000+ feet and performed a Stuka dive on the S-2 missile site since the missiles could not fire straight up. The bombs removed the top 20 feet of the hill. And the missile site.
The US Navy gave my uncle the Distinguished Flying Cross for trying to rescue his wingman. He is not proud of it.
My aunt moved my uncle into hospice Saturday from his memory care place. I am going to go see him this week or next week when my father comes into town.
War is hell.
Unless you are a Northrup Grumman stockholder, which includes anyone with a US-based private pension or 401(k) plan.
83% institution held with 20% owned by the usual suspects in the US – Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street. Plus the more secretive/selective Capital Group in the top three holders.
VTSMX alone has 3% of NOC.
I don’t see any magnesium in the Squincher. The YT guru’s seem to think that is a very important and neglected E’lyte.
Do you really want to put a nuke on a drone?
Skynet became active on May 27, 2024.
TEOTWAWKI started May 28, 2024.
Yes, the monitor is a 40″ LG UW.
I can’t remember if the MBP froze like that before. If it did, it was a long time and forgotten.
A 40″ LG? I thought I was extravagant with my 32″ Asus. 🙂
Do you really want to put a nuke on a drone?
Skynet became active on May 27, 2024.
TEOTWAWKI started May 28, 2024.
No freaking way should we ever put a nuke on a drone. All nukes should be manned, including the nukes in space.
$700 million for a plane that, realistically, can be downed by a heat seeking missile costing 0.001 of that price. And whose mission can be carried out by a set of drones costing 0.01 of the price.
The USAF has been way to enamored of insanely expensive air craft for 3 or 4 decades. Now that drones are coming into their own, these aircraft are even more irrelevant.
Does the plane have enough heat to be seeked ? The other stealth planes have the engines inside the planes and that exhaust is mixed with air to cut the temperature down severely so the plane does not show on infrared.
Ah, so you are in South Dakota:
https://sd4history.sd.gov/Unit7/stateflag.htm
Oh, wait, there is an explanation…
First, some background. The reason I was curious was that I remembered something. When I was a kid in the Midwest, we called South Dakota “The Sunshine State”, and Florida the “Orange State”. Hmm. I decided to look it up, and didn’t really solve much or even satisfy my curiosity before I grew tired of this. I won’t put many links here because of the limit on the number of links.
There are official and unofficial nicknames for states. Some are widely used, and others are pretty much ignored. There are arguments all over the place: who used what first, was it officially adopted, and more. There can be more than one state with the same or very similar nickname. Some states have even had two (more?) nicknames at the same time. (I use the term nickname as a general term to include all other terms such as motto. These may or may not be on the state flag.) My head hurts!
For the record, the earliest use of the term “The Sunshine State” I could find is South Dakota, when they put it on their flag in 1909. Florida started using “Sunshine State” starting sometime in the 1930s, but officially adopted it in 1970. South Dakota changed its nickname to “The Mount Rushmore State” in 1992.
That should be the end of it, but wait… New Mexico uses a sun symbol on their flag, which has caused some to call NM the sunshine state. And, depending on how sunshine is measured, several states rank higher than Florida in sunshine:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/sunniest-states
This list is based on insolation in kJ/m^2, which is easily quantified. Florida ranks tenth. There are some other details, but the ranking of the top ten states is almost always the same on the several sites I looked at. (I cant believe I am quoting something that mentions several suspect organizations, BUT the presentation is quick to read, while other sites are very cluttered, with essentially the same results.) I also wonder if an especially cloudy or clear year would change the rankings, but think I have spent waaaay too much time on this. I’m just glad I don’t live in the cloudiest state.
Now, back to something more productive. Ah, lunch.
SAC and MAD will have to be rebuilt and relearned, respectively. Soon.
Was it a message in two parts or three?
Turn that key.
Every time I see “Wargames” now, over 40 years later, I get a laugh when I see the actor who wouldn’t turn his key. Of course it would be that guy who had the attack of conscience.
It is similar to seeing a young James Earl Jones among the bomber crew in “Doctor Strangelove”.
Yup, chroming anything makes it go faster, but if that isn’t enough, paint it black. From a long time hot rodder.
Me, I like a sleeper XXXXX stealthy car. “Reminds me of the time… ” – Jonathan Quayle Higgins, brought back on subject by Thomas Magnum.
Third party docks are a wildcard with Macs in my experience except, strangely, our USB-C gear.
The same guy is in charge now who famously said of Apple in the mid 90s that the company would best serve its stockholders by liquidating everything and distributing the cash on a per share basis.
Lynn, sorry to hear about your uncle. Seems like quite a pilot. I had the honor to know a few A-4 pilots.
Learn something new every day here.
Yeah, spent a lot of time out west, where there are a lot of sunny days and the occasional family sunflower farm. I’ll stick with FL and the various creatures here. (Cue Jim Stafford…)
Currently 96F and blazing sun with drippy sweat humidity. And not even a whisper of wind. We walked across the street to look at a property and were soaked thru in minutes.
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Sometimes using a persona sucks. I’ll love to tell the story of my uncle, but can’t.
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Tree guy is coming to drop the tree that is leaning on the house. That should be a lesson for me in felling…
I have a pickup appointment in Houston tomorrow afternoon, but I’m wondering if I won’t still be up here tonight.
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For something low effort to do, I was refilling gas cans with 40:1 mix, and trying to decide what to bring home generator wise. As long as my hands already smell like gas, I might as well do some other small engine work too. In the shade. Possibly with a fan blowing on me…
n
NEW Info About the Chechen Illegal Who Was Shot While Possibly Surveilling Special Ops Soldier’s NC Home
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2024/05/27/new-info-related-to-shooting-death-of-chechen-national-who-was-on-army-special-forces-soldiers-property-n2174705
Gee, if the FBI didn’t have so many agents acting as provocateurs, maybe they’d have time to do something worthwhile, like national security.
RIP Bill Walton
https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2024/05/27/the-legendary-basketball-player-and-wacky-man-bill-walton-dead-at-71-n2174731
Way too young.
I doubt they are the only ones who snuck into the country looking to extract a little revenge from someone who was on the US military industrial complex payroll doing something creepy overseas in the last 30 years.
The female half of my Colonel Bat Guano neighbors in Florida, who, according to neighborhood legend, ran the snake torture room at Gitmo, immediately springs to mind as someone who would be a target.
After I crushed their tenbagger real estate dreams, Mr. and Mrs. Colonel Bat Guano sold their house and investment condo for a huge loss and moved to Alabama. I think they are still there.
@ITGuy1998 – How close are you to Hartselle?
“Space Cowboys”.
The modern successor to Jim Stafford.
If you’ve never been, Gatorland is serious about conservation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llJAvp7xOd0
About an hour away. Still considered North Alabama and quite a few people there will work in Huntsville.
I read recently that the refurb/re-engine program for the B-52 fleet is budgeted at $48 billion. While there were 600+ B-52s in 1970, now there are ~70. Seems to be ~$700 million per plane…
CMD Salamander recently reported that nearly a third of the nuke submarine fleet is tied up dockside without Dive Certifications.
I wonder if the Minutemen silos are still using 8″ floppies for targeting info as reported nearly a decade ago.
The National Weather Service is predicting a chance of severe thunderstorms in south Texas including San Antonio.
https://weather.com/weather/today/l/29.45199415348754,-98.75408993414628
B-52 engine upgrade is a total replacement of the engine mounts as well as the cockpit to use state of the art electronics.
The windy.com site shows a line of t-storms from about Austin spread into Mexico; shows it traveling roughly east. Lots of red and orange colored radar and lightning flashes in that storm. Another large cell up near Dallas.
Get those hatches battened down! https://www.windy.com/-Weather-radar-radar?radar,30.074,-99.360,7,m:eqCadiV
I’m typing this to try to get it out of my head. Do go ahead and skip.
With his health insurance plan changing at the beginning of the year, some one wasn’t getting his drugs. He was checking an e-mail and “order has been shipped” and nothing ever arrived.
After he did some cussing I got involved. Macular (sp) degeneration and bad ears are not a good combo. Well, hey, you’re looking at an e-mail from November and it’s February. Let’s call the Scott&White where you go. I get handed the phone because bad ears. It turned out S&W knew his plan had changed and he has to call a different drug company…. here is the phone number. I do tend to be blunt (aka a brutally honest asshole) and the lady didn’t seem to like my saying “you knew this and didn’t say anything or simply handle it all on your end? I thought that’s what you do?”.
I called the new drug company. He gave permission for me to talk for him. Permission good for a year or five if we fill out some paperwork.
They got the prescriptions from S&W. Should have meds in a couple of weeks. Nothing. Two weeks after that the drug company calls to say one of his prescriptions has a co-pay. A whopping $23 for a three month supply. I gave them the credit card info. And his meds finally arrived on the 17th.
Almost seven weeks after the first phone call. Three days after he died. TF.
I called, the drug company knew it was me. I used my phone, not his. Caller ID is cool. I told the lady what happened and please don’t send anymore drugs unless of course you know if there is street corner market value. That got a big laugh! No problem, everything is canceled and sorry for your loss and etc.
They have yet to charge that $23 co-pay. Shoulda hit by now. Maybe next month.
Anyway. He had been getting old and he knew it. No more going to the HEB in Marble Falls because of his eyes. Running 70 MPH wasn’t a good idea. If the Burnet store doesn’t have, you (aka me) can go get it. I was never going to suggest such. It’s better if it’s his idea. I paid attention as his Dad got to where he couldn’t drive.
Since about September going to the grocery store really wore him out. He had a check-up in November, fasting blood work and all, and everything was fine.
We aren’t talking about major shopping. Get some half and half and bacon and bread and eggs and sausage patties. Breakfast supplies. A couple of bags of groceries and a couple of Bota Boxes for the wine he liked.
He would park the van at the end of the walkway. I’d help bring in the groceries and he would go change his clothes and pretty much sleep the rest of the afternoon. Then I’d park the van. Then put the groceries away.
And yet. He seemed to sit in his chair and doze most of the day. He ate anything I cooked. He ate enough that what I planned to be two meals was one meal with a serving left for the next day. And he had me make a new hole in his belt a few weeks ago so his pants would stay up.
The lack of his BP medicine doesn’t matter. His BP was just fine, up a little but just fine by the BP machine we have.
Hindsight’s 20/20 right?
I’ve watched several of my dogs shut down. Getting skinny and all. Eat everything and it just doesn’t digest. I’ve now watched a man shut down. Totally could have passed on the suddenly turn off part. But that could be me being selfish.
Folks have asked “what happened?” and I tell them. Straight out. They all sorta freak when I say I saw his eyes dilate and I knew he was gone.
Crazy? Me? Yes.
Lonely? You need to ask? I’ll be fine. I’m not the first to be doing this.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/05/the-daily-chart-gone-to-pot.php
Take a look at the graph:
Daily Use
alcohol: 1990 9 million, 2023 14 million
cannabis: 1990 1 million, 2023 17 million
combined: 1990 10 million, 2023 31 million (up 127% on a per capita basis)
U.S. population: 1990 248 million, 2023 339 million (up 37%)
Per capita should probably us only the 18-and-over or whatever was used on the polls.
Any way you look at it, the country is more than twice as stoned as it was 30 years ago.
It’s no wonder that people don’t want to work.
And these numbers don’t include hard drugs.
@paul
There’s no way to make it any less crappy.
Time helps. So does sharing.
You write it and I (and others) will read it.
@paul
Keep writing. When I went through the trauma of my divorce, I was in counseling, and journaling was a big part of the healing process. Even when it seemed nonsensical to write, I tried to do it every day. Some days it was “I got up, I went to work, I got home, I ate.” Other days it was 6 pages of vitriol aimed at my now-ex wife.
I did mine on paper, but whatever works for you is great.
No, not at all. I lost my best friend ever. After like 44 years of living together plus a couple of years of “dating”..
Cradle robber. Yep. We were a scandal of sorts.
No idea. I had no intention to get married and have kids. I had a few offers, too. I have my Dad’s temper and sure ain’t going to pass that ass beating to my children. No way.
@RickH; that windy.com is a VERY NICE display of the weather radar, much better than the local TV station. Thanks!
Lately, however, the rain seems to be splitting, with some of the weather going north of San Antonio’s “Hill Country”, and some going south. We’ve had several storms this year where we’ve gotten a trace of precip while nearby towns have been drenched. I’d just as soon get the rain; right now, my “yard” is looking cracked and parched.
@Paul: write about your experience, it helps.
For years I could not talk about the mental, physical and sexual abuse by my aunt and uncle. One day I decided to write all down. The memories, the emotions, just came out. I now have a 52 page document detailing the trauma. I felt much better and can talk about the “adventure”.
The document was sent to my mother, my brothers (both of whom agreed with me), the ex-neighbors, a couple of friends and a few others that were interested. Don’t be afraid to share. Keeping traumatic events bottled up is not good for mental health.
“Got bored today. So I put a hazmat suit on.”.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyAYgdt4OtyrUQiG7Xyw-5emHPHcFGxdEgbY1GKQXG6uH2H61IYI5mOwcNb51R_FFEGB2oH_qOuVNC4iUfwgEp08ArdPsoVD-G-it5zdCkHjZvGOf3p6ZLo4IRegw0hfqkwTbHFeAFodz43Zg1RSlnU5GBTyvBxC_1NxRMVfWtiRQVO459l91xD7BA0E/s655/Meme%20-%20big%20red%20X.png
Heh !
From:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/05/memes-that-made-me-laugh-211.html
Paul:
I lost my wife of 39 years to dementia. Lynda had been active all of her life: softball, snow and water skiing, ran half marathons, golf and bowling. When we were dating, we would dance for hours (I was a runner too). Played softball into her 50s as the catcher. She knew she had a problem and arranged for testing on her own. When she got the results, she when into complete denial.
Lynda had a stroke and a few months later fell and broke her hip. She hated the wheelchair and shutdown – didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to talk, didn’t want to do anything. Her daughters thought I was not getting her the care she needed and demanded that she be moved to a nursing home closer to them; I reluctantly agreed. Her granddaughter who graduated fourth in her Nursing class of 1300 from Eastern Carlina University told me soon after that I had been doing all that could be done, and her mother agreed. Lynda died a short time later. Stuff happens.
Something always can be done to extend life for a few more days. But would those be days you would treasure. Probably not. Don’t fret over the possibly of a few more days or weeks. If we could get more days of a fully alert and active life those would be great. But a few more days of only being alive well … most people would just as soon not bother.
@Lynn
“Got bored today. So I put a hazmat suit on.”.
Wear a vest under that.
Remember the “mutation” scene from “Back to the Future”
Still at the BOL. Family went home. Tree guy came by, and he’ll come tomorrow morning and stabilize the situation by limbing the tree. IE leaving only the trunk. It’s all he has time to do, and I am pretty sure he’s squeezing me in between his morning and afternoon jobs.
He’s widely regarded as the best in the area, and as the job is entirely over my roof, and has to be done by climbing the tree, I want the best. He also comes with the caveat “But not the cheapest.” For one tree, and no trunk or stump removal, it is a little high compared to other work I’ve had done, but given the situation I’m ok with the cost. That’s why money is a prep.
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@paul, you are welcome and encouraged to share whatever you’d like. Think back to when RBT was dealing with elder care and end of life issues, the blog is no stranger to sharing… In fact one of the reasons I read all those posts, as painful as they were, was because I thought I’d be facing those same issues myself, and it’s always helpful to have a guide.
You have friends here.
n
“Space Cowboys”.
Great documentary of why all nukes in space should be manned.
I think I’m going to spend a short time with the radio and a tiny little fire on the dock.
n
Helping a buddy out with his Raspberry Pi Zero. Almost a case of blind leading the blind, except I built a couple of Pi 3 and Pi 4 systems. But that was a couple of years ago, and I forget things.
Also, the Zero is not the same animal. So I tried a few things, and googled some info, and found the ever-so -friendly Linux attitude – Did you read the F’in documentation?
No, I didn’t read it. Where is it? How is that quicker or better than googling “I get a rainbow display and the green led blinks 7 times” and following up on that?
So, for future reference: Raspberry Pi Zero W is 32 bit hardware. Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is 64 bit. If you are trying to locate and burn an image to a microSD card, the 2W shows up at the top of the list, and you have to scroll down to select the W. So by default, you get the 64 bit image first.
Also, I learned what an OTG cable or OTG hub is. The 3 and 4 didn’t need them; they have USB-A ports. Amazon will deliver a pair of them overnight for not much money.
I still don’t know what his problem was, but now I know how to boot his device using my microSD, my burned image, and my OTG hub. We can go from there.
The Pi Zero will not win any speed awards. It took, I’m guessing, 10 minutes to boot up. Maybe that’s only the first time, I don’t know. I suppose I’ll try it again tomorrow to see.
Drone or ICBM, in the end, it’s much the same. Once it’s launched, it’s gonna do its thing. I suppose drones are more subject to being shot down in a way that would make the nuke recoverable.
That makes defense with flares easier, because the flares look like better targets. Before you can use your flares, though, you need to see the missile. And anyway, eventually you run out of flares. Also, some heat seekers are perfectly happy looking at the warmth of the aircraft skin.
I wonder about radar guided missiles as well. The snazzy stealth planes are only stealthy against modern radars using higher frequencies. They are apparently perfectly visible on frequencies used in older radars, from 40-50 years ago. Which makes the countermeasures rather obvious. How much does it cost to recommission (or recreate) a 1950s radar?