90F at 9am. Oh yes, it’s hot.
Despite my best efforts yesterday, I got dehydrated and I’m feeling hung over today. I’m going to start drinking water and electrolytes this morning.
Time to feed the kids,
n
Sat. June 30, 2018 – late, and headache-y
41 Comments and discussion on "Sat. June 30, 2018 – late, and headache-y"
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Try some painkillers washed down with a big glass of vodka. If you’re going to be hungover, you might as well earn it.
That is the biggest drag about the whole thing, in the old days, I’d at least have had a liter of jack in me to make me feel like this…. now I feel like this after an afternoon of working outdoors. So much for clean living and being productive.
n
Exactly! I suggest a strict regimen of heroin and daytime TV. Earn that pain and self-loathing!
YUUUP! I won’t watch daytime TV now that the Jerry Springer fights are no longer.
I spent about an hour this morning cutting down a 20 foot tree. Electric (battery) chainsaw worked great. Cut all the limbs off, hauled off the entire tree to big organic scrap pile in the back.
An hour later I was really sick. I have been fighting some virus for the last two weeks, caught it on the trip to Croatia. Probably infected half the plane as it transmitted airborne. Anyway, I really felt like crap even to the point of throwing up. Seems that within that short hour I got dehydrated due to the profuse sweating in the high humidity. Skin was cold and clammy, nausea and light headed. A shower and lots of water seemed to have helped a lot.
In my younger years it would not have bothered me. But lately such efforts are really starting to take their toll. Maybe it’s my body fighting the virus or maybe getting old just sucks.
Sarah Hoyt on SF
The executive summary:
“We should ALL be very grateful, now and forever that the crazies in science fiction have reached the point they just unabashedly preach with no shame and absolutely 0 entertainment value. (If you were a decent writer, my loves, you’d be far more entertaining and your poison far more effective. Thank heavens, though, you’re just blinkered partisans and political dinosaurs.)
“It’s far less effective than when they make good entertainment with poison pill lies dropped in like “everybody knows this” so that people assume it’s been proven and the mushy middle moves steadily left.
“Heck, maybe Hollywood has just reached that point too, judging by Star Wars. And this is very good. Because what is in the open can’t sink to the subconscious.
“Do write “Woke” movies and books, dear left. We like it so much when they tank, their poison undelivered.”
Time to feed the kids,
You know, if you feed the kids, you will just have to feed them again. And again.
There is much wisdom in what Lynn writes. I must now step back and contemplate some of my life choices.
The wife and I have decided to drop DirecTV. The $160 cost per month is just too much. We just don’t know when we are going do it but maybe soon. I guess that we will keep our Netflix and Amazon Prime. Plus buy antennas for the TVs. The latest Consumer Reports magazine is all about cable cutters and has a antenna comparison. Plus, I would like to get at least one Tivo for recording over the air broadcast shows. and I have no idea if I will get to watch the Astros games as they are usually cable only.
Financially, we have had a tough year. I have cut my income by half and all of the employees by 20%. One employee has left and I expect more to leave. I do have my investments which are making up for the income loss but not fully. The problem is industry wide as several customers firms have failed and are not paying their bills. In fact, it took an amazing effort to get a company to pay who just got booted from the Dow 30 last week.
YUUUP! Also applies to our dogs.
87º and sunny on the island that isn’t, quite. I went to the race this morning without any help because the kinder decided it was too hot. So they don’t get paid.
So I just checked my BP – I can be goaded on occasion. 150/80. Better than in the past, but not yet where i want it to be. My problem is getting in to see a doctor. We have “great” health insurance, says my boss. I’ve had so much trouble with it I can’t stand it. I don’t DO well with paperwork. So every time I try to get an appointment they want me to fill out a packet of paper, half of which is gibberish. I leave.
It’s going to hit 90º tomorrow, then steadily cool down for the rest of the week. I’ll get plenty of water when I’m out. Wednesday is the Liberty 10k – a race I love to run when I can. I’ll make the kids come & watch.
Sarah Hoyt is right. Most of the movies out now are SJW crap. Hate ’em. But then, I’m a deplorable. Keep telling me I’m evil and how much you hate me. That’ll get me to change my mind.
I dropped DirecTV a year ago and all we miss is Joe Kendra on the ID channel. Not enough missing to pay $140 a month. Plus he was getting repetitive. Both Food Network and Cooking Channel seem to be as much about actually cooking as MTV is about music videos.
We don’t miss DirecTV. I bought a $50 antenna at Wal-Mart and used my existing wiring. And it is my wiring, I bought it with my Sony dish almost 20 years ago on eBay. 🙂
I bought a Roku. We watch Amazon Prime and added Sling. Sling Blue for now, for Nascar. $27/mo with tax. I’ll go back to Sling Orange when college football starts (and save $5). We already had Amazon Prime for the shipping and I consider their video a freebie.
Over the air TV is pretty good. The main channels are HD. About all I really noticed being HD on DirecTV was Nat Geo. Weather-wise, over the air is better… it still works when it rains.
Weather. My big annoyance after going to DirecTV HD is their hardware sucks. My Sony box always worked. Always… except the one day we had six inches of rain in almost three hours. All history now.
TVFool.com is useful.
But then, I’m a deplorable. Keep telling me I’m evil and how much you hate me. That’ll get me to change my mind.
Yup.
Kinda of like moving to the Rio Grand Valley in 10th grade and being told “you have to learn Spanish”. I’m stubborn. I can tell you creative things you can do to your Mother. PE /was/ useful for more than making you stink the rest of the day. I can ask directions. I can order from a menu. As for talking Spanish to install Windows or a lot of other stuff, like how to fix the Xerox machine, I’m not interested.
I had one Spanish class. I paid enough attention to get a faint grasp of the grammar and verb forms. What a mess. Vocabulary is picked up as needed.
“Anti-Trump Fort Bend Co Woman Charged With Credit Card Fraud”
https://kprcradio.iheart.com/featured/the-pursuit-of-happiness/content/2018-06-29-anti-trump-fort-bend-co-woman-charged-with-credit-card-fraud/
“Remember Karen Fonesca? If you don’t live in the Houston area, that name might not mean much to you, but Karen was the lady from Fort Bend County with the famous “F— Trump” bumper stick.”
“Last November she was arrested by Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls for disorderly conduct charges after her bumper sticker was deemed to profane for the suburbs of West Houston.”
“Now you remember.”
“Anyway, it turns out Karen’s colorful bumper sticker display is the least of her concerns, because she’s been accused of committing credit card fraud, which is technically a felony.”
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
Our DirecTV monthly cost is about $105. We watch it all the time, and use the DVR to time-shift things (so I can skip through the commercials). That’s for one DVR box for the den, and an extra ‘slave’ box for the bedroom (which we use only occasionally).
We don’t get the extra cost movie channels; used to have them, but rarely watch. Wife likes the Hallmark channel for movies; I like the Food Network, HGTV (sometimes) and a few others. Plus the network shows.
We use the free on-demand stuff, plus we have Netflx and Amazon prime. We don’t get good reception OTA, and I like the channel guide that lets me watch the current channel while looking for something better.
Been a DirecTV customer for almost two decades; am a big fan. The monthly cost is worth it for us.
We changed cell phone plans to MetroPCS from ATT. Got our bill down to $90/month from $150/month. Two new Android phones (LG)) free, plus unlimited calling, data, texting. Wife likes the unlimited data, especially on road trips, so she can watch scrapbooking videos on YouTube.
YMMV.
TVFool.com is useful.
Good night, according to http://www.tvfool.com , I have about 30 line of sight channels available for an inside antenna. I’ll bet that not a single one of them is showing the Astros consistently.
The dadgum Tivo is not cheap. You can buy a 1TB Tivo with ultra HD (who cares above HD) for $300 plus $150/year channel service.
https://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Streaming-Player-Control-TCD849000V/dp/B075SMDHWC/
Or you can buy a 1TB Tivo for antenna only for $400 that includes lifetime channel service.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078HS8386/
YUUUP! I won’t watch daytime TV now that the Jerry Springer fights are no longer.
The wife still watches General Hospital most days. Usually late in the afternoon though and skipping portions that she does not like (if it ain’t Sonny or Carly or Jason, forget it).
What do you call a UCLA professor who dies during sex games? A good start.
ATT says they lit up the fiber in our neighborhood. They claim to have a 1gig plan for $80/mo, no bundle. They also have a 100MB plan for $40 but bundled, and limited to 1TB of data.
If they really do, and it’s symmetrical, we’re gonna ditch comcast and go with OTA for locals (which we NEVER watch anyway) and IP based streams for everything else.
I’ve got a couple of Tivos that will stream and one or the other has an antenna connection I’m pretty sure, a Kodi pc, a Kodi stand alone box, a couple of xbox-360 and one, and a couple of apple tv boxes. I think the bluray will stream too. So, streaming sorted.
Still haven’t switched from Vonage for phones, but now costco offers OOMA so I’m looking hard at that.
We(me) haven’t watched regular tv in a year and a half. I’m watching better DIY than HGTV or DIY channel on youtube, I stopped watching shooting shows, and if I get a hankering, Hickock45 is on the net, as is outdoorTV.
At $80, that’s half of my current cable/internet, and faster too.
n
I pay Comcast $190.00 a month for TV, Phone, and Internet. With the TV I have a DVR, two controllers that work with the DVR and one additional standard TV outlet. Internet speed is 150 down, 10 up. Only other choices I have is AT&T for phone and internet and DISH for TV. Fewer channels, less speed, about the same cost.
Having Comcast internet I changed my two cell phones over to Xfinity wireless. I only pay for data as calling and texting are unlimited. My phone bill for two phones last month was $17.00, the month before $30.00, this month will probably be $17.00. I was paying $90.00 a month with Verizon. Xfinity uses Verizon’s service so switching seemed like a good choice.
Well, there is just me, so that makes a difference. TV is OTA, 30ish local HD channels, but rarely turned on. ‘Net is resold Uverse bandwidth from local vendor, 12 mbit/sec, unlimited cap, $35/month. Phone is freedompop resold Sprint network, $35/month Unlimited call and text, 2GB data per month. Prime video if I want it and 20ish TB library. I prefer my Samsung Note4 with user replaceable battery and fat SD card.
Funny about the freedompop, I paid for one month of the high limit to use with my tablet. Never got it to run (tablet issue), dropped the service to the “free” level, but they are still billing me. The last month, I thought it was a prorated month, but this month they’ve billed me about $8 again. Something shady going on there.
I am able to use the freedompop card in a surplus Verizon MiFi Jetpack cellular hotspot. I can use my phone as a hotspot so this is just a backup plan. Free it’s a good deal, $8/mo when I’ve asked for free isn’t.
n
Who needs a gym membership when you have 14 acres in the sticks. I went out late this afternoon and filled potholes with eight wheelbarrows of gravel from 150 ft to 250 ft away from my gravel pile.
And took a few empty boxes out of the garage and moved them into the spare office building. Yes, I am still contemplating moving my family to a new home. Like it is said, the best time to bug out is early.
Got home, ate some supper and headed to the pool. The wife came out and turned on the pool heater. It felt good on my aching bones.
I am not going to hold my breath to see if my neighbors tell me thanks for fixing several of the potholes. They never have before, why start now ? The big one was in the middle of the road and about eight inches deep and four foot across. It took two wheelbarrows of gravel by itself.
After I fill a pothole, I dump a bag of dry concrete mix on top of the gravel to stabilize it.
Seems to hold up a lot longer and stay in place better. Nuf humidity in the air to get it to kick, even if it doesn’t rain.
n
After I fill a pothole, I dump a bag of dry concrete mix on top of the gravel to stabilize it.
In a gravel road ? I am tempted to but it would possibly create an island as the rest of the gravel settles.
I want to add more blacktop to the gravel road but do not have the $15K to spend on it now. Plus I have another problem, heavy trucks are using my cutoff and main road to turn around in. I need to stop that before I blacktop as the blacktop guy will not warranty the blacktop with heavy trucks jackknifing their trailers from the cutoff to the main road. I am thinking about putting in about a 100 ft of huge pots and fill them with gravel.
Get some of those big concrete interlocking blocks they build the material bins with at the stone and gravel yard….
Not super attractive though.
n
on gravel road?– nope, i’m patching potholes in a 30year old parking lot. It’s mostly gravel now though.
All these comments about TV and Internet charges, I’ll just pick one:
I pay Comcast $190.00 a month for TV, Phone, and Internet.
Geez, I thought Switzerland was expensive. We pay (iirc) roughly $50 for our Internet connection (250Mb/50Mb), which includes the free cable channels. We don’t have any premium channels. Older son did have Netflix for a while, but even those $15/month weren’t really justified, so it’s gone. Landline phone, which we hardly use, is on a pay-per-call plan, so we just have to buy the number, which is – dunno – maybe $3 or $4 per month.
If we want to watch something unusual, it’s usually a livestream or a podcast over the Internet. I just recently hooked up a Vero4K (https://osmc.tv/vero/), but we haven’t used it much yet…
Or is mobile included in the price Ray quotes? Our smartphones are separate, those cost something like $30 or $35 per month each, with a 2GB data plan (after which the data is unlimited, but horribly throttled).
My plan is for TV, internet and home phone. I could cable alone for about $90.00 with no extras. The extras add a lot to the price for TV. What I pay is about normal for areas with no competition. With competition the prices drop. Comcast has a franchise arrangement with the city that does allow competition. They are paying the city above the normal rate to keep the competition out of the area. I don’t want a satellite dish and a mixed bag dealing with two different companies to get all three services.
My internet service just went to $85/month (50×5) and I’m getting tired of it. I cannot wait for the local ISP to get fiber to my neighborhood. Should be soon enough.
TV? Cut the cord. It’s not getting you anything you cannot get cheaper elsewhere. When the TV services get the message and start providing service for a more reasonable fee, they’ll get subscribers back.
The wife and I have decided to drop DirecTV. The $160 cost per month is just too much. We just don’t know when we are going do it but maybe soon. I guess that we will keep our Netflix and Amazon Prime. Plus buy antennas for the TVs. The latest Consumer Reports magazine is all about cable cutters and has a antenna comparison. Plus, I would like to get at least one Tivo for recording over the air broadcast shows. and I have no idea if I will get to watch the Astros games as they are usually cable only.
I have two antennas from Antennas Direct mounted on Peavy speaker tripods in our attic. I can vouch for the company’s service and product line … even if the hardware is made in China … Grr.
Antennas Direct’s reps will help you pick an antenna, amp and help you aim towards the Houston antenna farm (the broadcast towers are typically clustered).
I also have a Philips powered HDTV antenna which I would recommend, but they discontinued those for some reason. That one feeds our TiVo due to location … which reminds me:
My TiVo experience is limited to a Series 3 which I’ve kept going for 16 years. I like the product but have no experience with their new stuff, and they’ve been through a couple of ownership changes.
What I really like about my Series 3 is the capability to pull broadcast TV recordings off to my home server for archiving and/or DVD conversion. It is a lot of DIY, but I’ve become very good at manipulating that web interface, and I hope to consolidate all of the knowledge into a homebrew Roku TiVo channel for my house … some day … in my copious spare time.
Financially, we have had a tough year. I have cut my income by half and all of the employees by 20%. One employee has left and I expect more to leave. I do have my investments which are making up for the income loss but not fully. The problem is industry wide as several customers firms have failed and are not paying their bills. In fact, it took an amazing effort to get a company to pay who just got booted from the Dow 30 last week.
We’re looking for a “junior” developer along with an intern at my new place if you need to park a C++ developer who is open to either moving to Austin or living far enough west that MetCenter Austin (move planned later this year) wouldn’t be a commuting issue.
Money might be an issue along with other minor caveats, but work is work. I overlook the minor age discrimination coming from management because I’ve seen much worse, including what motivated me to walk out on the Seattle job without notice.
I used quotes around “junior” since the Austin job hired me at that title. I don’t know what exactly the criteria is for “senior” developer, but the last person they offered a “senior” position had a CMU Robotics Lab Masters diploma.
I’ll talk candidly offline to anyone who wants the info.
I’ll even talk CGI in Belton, but that would be a desperation play since the money sucks. Also, the candidate should feel comfortable working at a place where management’s mugshots are online near the top of the Google search on their name (singular … that I know of).
CGI is dreaming that the salaries in their “onshore delivery centers” are anywhere near adequate in the era of $20,000 Toyota Corollas.
The guy that left me in March is now a senior developer at a pipeline company here in Houston. He is making $85k/year there plus bennies. Way more than I was paying him.
The guy that left me in March is now a senior developer at a pipeline company here in Houston. He is making $85k/year there plus bennies. Way more than I was paying him.
That’s about market for an urban area in Texas if references are good — a given since he worked for you — and the resume isn’t sketchy … like mine.
For reference CGI now starts new grads at $52k in Belton, but no one stays because rural living offers marginal benefits in terms of expenses beyond rent … and that’s a huge maybe with fixed costs of construction going through the roof.
Get some of those big concrete interlocking blocks they build the material bins with at the stone and gravel yard….
Not super attractive though.
I am also thinking about getting two more trucks of gravel at $550 each to create a two foot tall line of gravel in the vee between the main road and the cutoff road. I have a truckload of gravel in there now that I use for potholes (half gone). That will block anyone except extreme 4x4s or tracked vehicles from turning around in my vee.
A large sign saying “Weight limit 10 tons” and another saying “No turnaround”, backed up with a trail cam. Then file complaints against them when they use your driveway for a turnaround. In PA, at least, you can do that.
A lot of my interaction with the township supervisors has to do with tractor-trailers on my road. The weight limit IS 10 tons, and the Wal-Mart trucks seem to love it, even with the 12% grade in the middle and the super-tight twisties between the straight stretches. Saves them 1/2 mile and a longer set of less-twisties. It tears our road up. Costs us a bundle every few years. The road is simply not designed for that kind of weight.
A large sign saying “Weight limit 10 tons” and another saying “No turnaround”, backed up with a trail cam. Then file complaints against them when they use your driveway for a turnaround. In PA, at least, you can do that.
A lot of my interaction with the township supervisors has to do with tractor-trailers on my road. The weight limit IS 10 tons, and the Wal-Mart trucks seem to love it, even with the 12% grade in the middle and the super-tight twisties between the straight stretches. Saves them 1/2 mile and a longer set of less-twisties. It tears our road up. Costs us a bundle every few years. The road is simply not designed for that kind of weight.
I don’t have a weight limit sign but I do have a dead end / no trespassing sign.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089OUGX0/
And I have a smile you are on camera sign. But no camera.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XKU28O/
And I do have a mountain lion crossing sign (since I saw a mountain lion on my property several years ago).
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NX2JHZQ/
My main road continues on to two other properties. The road dead ends into a 40 foot deep bayou that is uncrossable so no through trucks is not needed. I may need a couple of those no turnaround signs though.
I despise liars. I’d take a dump — not on camera, apparently — on your driveway just out of spite.
Is it feasible and legal to build a weight restricted trap into the driveway? “Trap” more in the mechanical sense than the ordinary one, though it’ll behave as the latter. I’m thinking a large, cross-wise ditch which gets a large clay pipe, then gravel filled in around it. Ordinary cars, even light trucks with trailers, can drive across it safely, but a semi will crush through. Put up a warning sign and then go out and tell them “I told you so”.
If it costs you a bundle, does that mean it’s your road? As in, private property? Can’t you set up roadblocks, shoot at trespassers, and confiscate everything they brought onto your property?
Get some of those big concrete interlocking blocks they build the material bins with at the stone and gravel yard….
That will work. Space them close enough a car can’t get through but a riding lawnmower can. Or space them and plant pampas grass between the blocks. Dress it up a bit and less to mow.
Who needs a gym membership when you have 14 acres in the sticks. I went out late this afternoon and filled potholes with eight wheelbarrows of gravel from 150 ft to 250 ft away from my gravel pile.
Riding lawnmower + dump trailer. $100 for the trailer and your back will thank you.
Riding lawnmower
Ain’t got no riding lawnmower either. I pay people to mow the house and office. My allergies cannot take it anymore. I tried to talk the wife into a closed cab tractor but was firmly put down. I told her I need to move stuff and she bought me a shovel.
I would love a Bobcat. Those things are awesome !
http://www.ironplanet.com/for-sale/Skid-Steer-Loaders-2013-Bobcat-S130-Skid-Steer-Loader-Texas/1454646
Get a riding mower and a hazmat suit, Lynn. Take care of your lawn with impunity, and the hazmat suit will come in handy if you ever need to shake a politician’s hand.
I like the CAT version of the skid steer (as Bobcat is generically known) as the controls make more sense to me. I couldn’t drive the Bobcat, but I could drive the CAT. A good skid steer operator is thrilling and terrifying to watch on a rough construction site. He’ll know EXACTLY how fast he can go and how much he can tip without falling over. It’s scary to watch, thinking he’ll flip the dang thing.
n