Cold today, at least to start. 44F when I went to bed. Never got very warm yesterday either. Rain shell jacket and a long sleeve T with a dress shirt over it kept me comfortable. It stayed clear and sunny too. More of that would be nice for today.
Did my driving around an got my pickups done. Picked up another kayak, it was only $40 so I couldn’t really say no. Smaller and lighter than some of my others, it should be easier to manage. It’s a little beat up, but a plastic kayak is pretty sturdy and near indestructible.
Since one pickup was near the store I stopped in at Deseret Industries, the LDS thrift store. Quality stuff. If there is one near you, it’s worth going by regularly. This time I picked up a novel rat trap that should be good for a couple kills before they figure it out. I got a couple of technical books, and one for the kid. Found a netgear firewall/vpn router for the BOL. Found some great T shirts for myself and for the kid. They don’t really have any cr@p, they send any that is donated to the dump or recycle or other thrifts. And prices are very low, even by thrift store standards.
Stopped in at an in person estate sale on my way home, hoping for some vinyl or audiophile gear, but it had all sold. The home was almost empty and it was a one day sale, so the prices were really good. They had a couple of nice watches left, a beautifully sleek Longines dress watch and a Seiko Kinetic diver with a pepsi bezel, but there was no way they’d fit my thick wrists, and there was about zero chance I’d find the extra links for the bracelets…and the Seiko was filthy. At ‘end of day’ 50% off they were a good price, so way overpriced earlier. Still too much for me if I couldn’t wear them. Funny that the watches would be so overpriced while the rest of the house was priced to move. And the family must have kept the turntable and amp, because only the giant speakers were for sale.
I miss going to in person estate sales. Online is easier, but there are usually hidden gems at the in person sales.
D2 had a babysitting job, so we STILL haven’t set up the Christmas tree. That will definitely happen today. AFAIK, we are all home, all day. Time to get caught up on family stuff.
So the only stacking I’ll be doing today is putting away stuff I picked up this week. It’s still progress…
Stack something of your own.
nick
Not this guy.
https://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/
I give it 50-50 that he was the snowflake whose complaint over my use of the f-word twice resulted in me being fired from the tolling company.
You would think he heard that a time or two out at the “Faire” or at his previous job at NI.
The insult was not even directed at him or anyone else in particular, but the bosses wanted something to get rid of me. The HR investigation did not uncover the Me Too issue they really wanted.
Yeah, that will be a really short book compared to the managers at that place.
Fortunately, given the circumstances, using the F-word twice even though it was against stated policy is not grounds for termination in the State of Texas. I was awarded $2700 in back unemployment by TWC after they ruled the termination as “failed to defend”, and the case file number is my permanent Get Out Of Jail Free card covering a lack of management references out of that place.
And, yes, my current employer knows everything.
39 F and partly cloudy here on the west side of the Brazos River. Both varmints have been out twice and declared it to be too cold for man or beast. I gave them both treats to break their fast
I put a fire (electric) in the coffee maker and threw my remaining corn fritter in the microwave (more electric fire). No Bible class at church today and next Sunday, just worship.
Coffee is good. Even cut it a little so it would pour.
Blood pressure is high (138/77 @ 51) so taking a second blood pressure pill this morning. This happens weekly lately.
Research the model and make sure it is still maintained with firmware releases.
Don’t trust it for duty as an IPv6 firewall if the router is not maintained.
Even protection via IPv4 NAT could be iffy on an unmaintained device, especially if the GUI includes a checkbox for the “IPSec Passthru”.
“IPSec Passthru” was never standard and even convention within the manufacturer would vary.
I’ve got both natural gas fired (real fire) heating systems going in the house. 68 F in the kitchen and 66 F in our bedroom. Modern life is so convenient !
We have a ceramic Christmas tree setup on the dining room table. That is all we get anymore. It has a battery (more electric fire) operated Santa that goes around it with lights. It is only 18 inches tall.
I was Bad Daddy yesterday after insisting that the streaming media and books stop in the house to decorate the bare tree after I pulled all of the paraphernalia out of the attic.
This led to an all day display of anger culminating in a second child car accident with significant property damage in less than six months.
The child T-boned a RAM 1500 while turning left out of a shopping center parking lot without paying attention, still angry at Bad Daddy who was sitting in the back seat. The truck was turning left into the lot.
I estimate $10k damage to the truck. Easy.
I’m praying the child didn’t bend the frame.
Our vehicle is probably not totalled, but I don’t have collision on the kids cars.
BTW, the truck driver No Habla, Guatemalan passport as ID, with Loya Insurance. That doesn’t eliminate the responsibility for the property damage, but we’ll see how quickly he files the claim.
I thought Texas DPS required a drivers license after 30 days.
I doubt the other driver was illegal. He tried to get APD to respond for a report to no avail. The child lucked out in that she would have received the ticket had the police rolled.
It is all Bad Daddy’s fault.
TN lost to Ohio. I am not surprised. TN has been highly overrated this year. Many of the teams they beat would struggle against a north Texas high school team. Beating a high school homecoming opponent team is not something to get excited about.
There may be some black ice on I-75 south from all the tears of the VOL fans and the cold weather.
Ouch.
Stating her grievances with admirable succinctness, Broccoli said: “These people are f***ing idiots.”
https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/12/21/will-this-be-the-end-of-bond-james-bond-n4935348
I’ve long believed in Pournelle’s Cultural Weapons of Mass Destruction theory and that dropping nuclear weapons on the suburbs of American cities in the 80s would have done less cultural damage than basic cable.
Lately, I’ve started to wonder if the impact of streaming will be far worse. Most of what is out there, even on “quality” services like Netflix is just cr*p which kids spend endless hours “binging”.
The anime is really disturbing and something I regret letting into the house with the kids underage.
Yesterday, I had to bite my tongue while in the local Japanese book store, when a 9-to-10 year old (guessing) was trying to sell his mother on using his allowance for “Dandadan” manga (an anime series also exists).
The mother, a little younger than me, heard the kid’s description of the book being about “kids investigating aliens and ghosts” and agreed to the purchase.
The kid neglected to mention the aliens on “Dandadan” being obsessed with stealing one child character’s “banana organ” after harvesting same character’s testicles.
And that’s just what I’ve picked up via osmosis walking through the room when my kids had the anime running.
Both 18+ BTW, but I’ll admit that I never really paid attention when they watched the cr*p underage.
Boo hoo hoo. The Broccoli’s let “Fleabag” co-write the script for the last movie which emasculated the character before killing him off so their credibility is shot as far as preserving the series leagacy is concerned.
The only film the Broccoli’s got right with the Daniel Craig era was “Skyfall”.
They botched using Christph Walz in the follow up film, the man born to play the modern Bond villain.
Of all the “Legend of” tech billionares, Bezos is the one most likely to go full “Bond villian” megalomaniacal IMHO. Yeah, Gates is dabbling with buying a nuclear reactor making the “You Only Move Twce” episode of “The Simpsons” remarkably prescient, but BillG wants to be Richard Feynman, not Earnst Blofeld.
Gates’ needle fetish is just a hobby.
The clip supporting my point about Christoph Waltz being the actor born to play a modern Bond villan. The Oscar race was over after the first reel of “Inglorious Basterds”, but this is the clip which really drives it home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT2VWEC3IUE
“Inglorious Basterds” is a tough watch, but that is an amazing flick.
Yeah, revisionist history.
After talking with his family, there will be a massive claim for bodily injury including loss of relations with his 18 wives, inability to play with (what he thinks are) his kids, probably no longer able to work. Look for a demand for a multi-thousand dollar settlement demand.
It has happened to me. Wife bumped a guy, scratch on his bumper, $700 to replace the bumper on the van. I get a letter from a lawyer demanding $25K because the driver of the other vehicle is horribly injured. The lawyer said I had to pay immediately or he would issue a warrant for my arrest.
I wrote the lawyer back and told him to pound sand. In so many word I told the lawyer that courts issue penalties, not lawyers. Additionally only a judge can issue a warrant, not lawyers. If you, as a lawyer, are that stupid, you should not be a lawyer. I told him to contact the insurance company and any further contact with me and I would have charges pressed for harassment. I never heard back.
I did find out the lawyer asked for $150K from the insurance company and they also told him to pound sand. If he did not like it, take them to court. And they (the insurance company), had very good, expensive lawyers. And when he lost the case the insurance would seek reimbursement for their legal fees.
All the insurance paid was $2K for physical therapy. Which in my mind was way too much but it prevented the other driver from filing further claims.
We had not only the longest night of the year but a cold front coming through. The heat light in the chicken coop wasn’t enough to keep it warm; thermometer was showing 21F while the outside temp was just over 0F. Supposed to be colder tonight. Today I’m going to find more material to insulate the coop, mainly to set up a wind break. I’ll throw more straw into the “floor” tray but it probably won’t accomplish much. Whenever I put fresh straw or wood chips in, the “girl boss” hen walks up the ladder, looks into the coop, and then starts kicking the fresh straw out the door.
On the plus side, the birds all seem to have survived the cold. They came right out to eat and drink (heated water tank; works fine so long as it’s kept out of the wind), wandered around a bit, then mostly went back up to the comparatively warm coop.
Texas survived, but I believe that they are overrated.
Setting aside the victories over patsy teams, beating Clemson was only win #8 for “Seven Wins Steve”, the Coach’s nickname when he ran the program at University of Washington when we lived up there.
The TV bowl game to watch will be “Coach Prime Conquers the Mormons”.
No playoff consideration for CU, but “Coach Prime” has the 2024 Heisman winner and a quarterback, Prime Jr., expected to go early in the first round of the NFL draft.
Developing a pro-level quarterback who will draft high and have a solid career in the NFL isn’t easy. Just ask Jimbo.
The NCAA establishment still hasn’t forgiven Sanders for not knowing his place as a patsy and beating TCU last year, putting that program into a slump from which they have yet to recover in Fort Worth.
He spent ten minutes on the phone trying to get Austin PD to roll a vehicle out to file the report. He seemed pretty coherent to me listening from a distance even though I don’t Si Habla.
The other driver even changed his shoes right in front of me. He may have been driving barefoot but had Puma slides on when he got out of the truck.
The insurance caps out fairly low. The only accessible assets to go after at our house would be my stocks and mutual funds outside of the 401(k), which wouldn’t even begin to touch the bills for one of the ambulance chasers who advertise on TV.
Texas law protects the house and retirement plan holdings which are most of our net worth.
Still looking for an affordable 360-degree dash cam that can actually capture license plates.
That is all that he can get. The only way to attach other assets is by going to court and getting a judge to impose the additional funds. That is not going to happen. I suspect even the insurance company with the low limits will fight to minimize the amount of damage.
Property damage is easily settled. Medical not so easy. The insurance company may even demand a physical exam with a doctor of their choosing, perhaps an MRI, to keep the settlement minimized. Insurance companies are very good at not paying.
I found that out in my accident in 2014. Even my own insurance company took a lot of questionable methods to keep from paying my settlement.
It looks like all is forgiven with Alec Baldwin on the SNL set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnaES8YItiA
More Tales From the Swamp – Here’s Where Missing Congresswoman Kay Granger Was Found
https://redstate.com/beckynoble/2024/12/20/more-tales-from-the-swamp-sitting-tx-congresswoman-found-living-at-assisted-living-home-n2183465
A ‘Missing’ GOP Rep Has Been Found…and It’s Not a Good Situation
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/12/22/a-missing-gop-rep-has-been-found-n2649428
Out: Not working from home.
In: Not working from Memory Care.
Shows what a bunch of traitorous maroons lead the House GOP. How many of them knew about this, and were perfectly fine with the taxpayers picking up the tab?
Granger may have a non compos mentis excuse, but her staff does not: They haven’t been working for months. If they’ve been taking the paycheck, they need to be indicted, convicted, and imprisoned. Horrible example time.
The Supreme Court, in 1892’s Nishimura Ekiu v. United States
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/12/the_unbounded_arrogance_of_america_s_illegal_aliens_and_their_allies.html
We have a law that controls immigration.
Foreigners entering this country illegally with the help of Canada and Mexico need to be expelled, and the simple solution is to send them back across the border they violated and let Canada and Mexico deal with the problem they created.
https://apnews.com/article/mexico-remittances-record-money-migrants-275a49302e840fdaa8060d5cab9c7a24
https://www.statista.com/topics/12434/remittance-in-mexico/#topicOverview
$1.2 billion per week, the second largest source of foreign exchange for Mexico.
Jan 20: Trump issues executive order instituting 50% withholding on remittances that do not have a verified taxpayer identification number, and making the transferring agent liable for verification.
The House rules allow proxy voting.
One of the other members holds a number of proxies, including one for our former walking corpse Congressman whose last serious challenger was “Doors” in 2018.
The walking corpse district was redrawn before the election in 2022, and our neighborhood was split four ways.
Did the snowblowing twice today, and will need to do it again tomorrow, maybe again twice.
I have the Ego Power+ snowblower, and I’m s bit worried about one of the batteries. Recharging it after the last round, the charger says it’s full. The battery ought to show green, but it lights up red. We’ll see what happens when I want to use it tomorrow.
I’ve had a lot of problems with their stuff. Weed whacker died twice. One battery died, and now maybe a second one. Had to have the snowblower repaired after it ate something, maybe a rock. All but the last under warranty, but still: I am less than impressed with the reliability, given that I don’t use the equipment all that hard.
A proxy cannot be assigned by someone who is mentally incapable.
I’ve had my Ego weed trimmer and edger for 2 years and still on the original battery. A single charge is fine for my use – usually about 30% left after each use. I did have an issue where it didn’t charge after a use, and I ran out of juice while trimming. I can’t discount that I didn’t seat the battery properly when placing it on the charger, but something to keep an eye on.
I still have my gas blower, as it operates just fine. Also still have my gas Honda mower. It does use a fair bit of oil, as I have to add a couple times a season. Still way cheaper than $600 or so for a battery mower with battery.
Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget: Deporting Millions of Criminal Aliens Won’t Be as Hard as the Left Suggests
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/12/ahead_of_schedule_and_under_budget_deporting_millions_of_criminal_aliens_won_t_be_as_hard_as_the_left_suggests.html
This is hardly $1.0 trillion, as some
criticsimbeciles claim.The policy should be that all assets of illegal aliens be confiscated and used to pay expenses. First to pay for the deportation. Second should be a determination of unpaid federal and state taxes. (States should be able to petition for their taxes, but sanctuary states should first be liable to the cost of non-cooperation.) Third should be any civil penalties. Anything left should be returned to the illegals after a suitable period of time has elapsed for any other claims.
Going to need a whole bunch of rules dealing with real estate and rental property. For example, landlords who rent to illegals should not have claims for breaking leases or damages, and damage deposits should be part of the confiscated assets.
Home Depot stopped carrying Ego, but I figured that was another American manufacturer who wouldn’t play along with Bernie Marcus’ disciples’ hardball tactics. Bernie himself destroyed Schlage and Hunter Fan among others before retiring and, recently, assuming room temperature.
Rot in hell, Bernie.
All Chevron (parent company) products seemed to disappear from Home Depot at the same time.
The Legend of Jeff, Family Man, Drives A Honda, Wears The Same Type Of Shirt To Work Every Day.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14217859/Jeff-Bezos-Lauren-Sanchez-wedding-plan-Aspen-date-is.html
Bond villains get married in Aspen with NDA agreements.
Researching stocks recently, I noted that Bezos only career employer, DE Shaw, has a big stake in Dutch Bros. DEI-infused coffee. Shaw and the ever-mysterious Ballie Gifford.
At 180 PE, I’m wondering when they start shearing the sheeple with BROS. Tim Horton’s beat the “broistas” to opening first at the major intersection near my house, with a grand opening yesterday and a special preview event for Canadian expats earlier in the week.
Tim Horton’s also timed a coupon mailing to the neighborhood to arrive yesterday. They actually want to sell some coffee and donuts at RBI.
I have no clue about what Dutch Bros. intends.
Check my logic here…
If I drink coffee while eating cake that makes it “coffee cake”.
Since coffee cake is a traditional American breakfast food, by eating it I’m reinforcing and perpetuating my culture.
Therefore, caramel apple pie with coffee for breakfast is me striking a blow in the culture wars.
I’m a hero.
n
(and since the pie is so dense and dry, I’m squinting and calling it cake.)(also, it’s delicious.)
I’m also brave. This is the shirt I picked up for my wife yesterday at Deseret…
https://www.amazon.com/First-All-Im-Delight-Opossum/dp/B0D51H7TGX?tag=ttgnet-20
n
And I know it’s cold because the end of my fingers and thumbs are splitting just below the nails.
n
I don’t think Tim Horton’s has that at the store on the corner, but, when I went back to check, the site indicated that the store wasn’t accepting mobile orders.
Everybody must have pulled the coupons out of the mailbox today and hit the web site.
With just a single store as a proof of market, I don’t think Austin has the full chain infrastructure in place yet. The franchisee is talking 40 stores so I imagine that a more complete build out is in the works.
Is there a new age definition of “brave” that isn’t in my lexicon?
The company “dead” week was supposed to start yesterday.
I’m still wondering when it starts for me, but, to be fair, all I’ve really done for the last 24 hours off-and-on is monitor email waiting for a message from a co-worker that she cobbled together a merge that works for files the system tagged with her name as being the responsible party for delivering.
In theory, once I merge my changes on top of hers, I’m done for the week.
In theory.
57F, sunny and mostly clear. I guess it’s not that cold. No snow.
@Brad, I see a lot of Ego tools in the returns auctions. I don’t see a lot of dewalt or milwaulkee . For whatever that’s worth.
@greg, thanks for the advice about the VPN router. I just looked and it’s more than a few years out of day. Only $5 wasted. I suppose I can still use it as an 8 port switch if needed, albeit a slow one. Last support was 2017 and the last firmware on their site was 2012. Amazon sellers still have it in stock though, for $137.
I guess I should do something today besides waste time on the internet with my friends.
n
@drwilliams, sometimes bravery is indistinguishable from stupidity… the only difference is if you survive to tell the tale.
n
That looks like something Temu would sell on Zerohedge.
At least, that’s what comes up on my Zerohedge ads from Temu.
I doubt the other driver was illegal. He tried to get APD to respond for a report to no avail. The child lucked out in that she would have received the ticket had the police rolled.
She will get points on her license. The insurance company will ensure that if they have to spend any money. I found this out four years ago when I backed my truck into a car and did the right thing.
Is she ok ? Are you ok ? That is the most important thing. Vehicles can be replaced. Maybe with a bicycle.
Went grocery shopping. As usual, bought more than expected. In particular a couple of Xmas tomahawk steaks for a neighbor that has been very helpful to me, a true friend.
Forgot to look for a drip coffee pot. there. Friend wanted to go to Bins on the way home, so I looked then…. Only K-cup machines, and a single off brand drip machine with no auto off at all. Yikes. Are those still legal?
I did pick up a 24 inch high artificial tree, and a solar powered light.
I really haven’t felt the Christmas season this year, but it’s starting to feel a little more like it now.
@paul, @jenny, @”infrequent posters” too
I hope you’re all doing well. Greetings of the season to you.