52F and wet. Rained off and on all night, very lightly, spatter and drizzle.
Today is the day we take some time and give thanks for the blessings we have. Which is a very religious statement at its base. But even if we are not religious, we can and should pause in our lives and consider what we have.
So, I’m thankful for my family and friends, both here and departed. I’m thankful to have known and been shaped by them. The ones who are gone left their mark on me, and continue to live on through their influence and example in those of us still here.
I’m thankful we’ve avoided both violence and disaster as a nation. I think both are coming, but the longer they can be delayed the better we can be prepared. I’m thankful for the time.
I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had, for the support I’ve been given, and for the successes and failures that made me who I am.
On a more local level, thank you to everyone here, who reads, lurks, and comments. This place is more than the sum of its parts because of you.
Enjoy the day!
nick flandrey
Wishing y’all a Happy Thanksgiving.
We (0bviously) don’t celebrate it here, but I made a pumpkin pie anyway. You can’t get canned pumpkin here, so it comes from a real, live pumpkin – bought last month, roasted, and I have enough now for about four pies. That was surprisingly easy – roast for an hour, peel the skin off, mash it, portion it, and done.
Mmmm, punkin pie! One of my all time favorites. I mostly like round pies, but have made the occasional exception.
All seriousness aside (!), everyone who can should spend some time with treasured friends and relatives today. We have so much to be thankful for.
My list of what I am thankful for is too long to list, so I will just list my top one, that I am still here.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who have half a brain and to those people who are brainless and clueless and feel that they are the politically correct ones, pack sand.
Turkey roasting; sides of mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, stuffing, canned cranberry sauces, corn, and my homemade pull-apart rolls (well actually Rhodes Roll Dough) are all staged and ready to go. And to finish it off a Costco Pumpkin Pie and lots of heavy whipped cream.
There is no such thing as moderation today.
Loose pants for all!
Happy Thanksgiving ! I am thankful for the USA !
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Born To Be Wild”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-born-to-be-wild/
“Some will self-identify as something other than who they are this Thanksgiving, but many will be thankful for what they have and who they are this. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.”
I despise pumpkin pie. Give me apple or cherry. Anything else is just an excuse to eat pie dough.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you low life scum (myself included) as that is what the liberals think of us.
I am thankful to be alive; to be financially stable; to be able to have good friends to visit on Thanksgiving; a son, his wife, and a grandson. (Remember about a year ago RBT went in the hospital and never returned).
I am thankful for the rest of you with similar, and different views, where such things can be discussed without being called idiots (other than the intended humor), and some very intelligent people, more so than me, on this board. We have the freedom to express without being censored by government or others with nefarious agendas.
Reading thru the Brittany posts, which are mostly from 2016, showed me how little some things change, and how little I’ve gotten done in some areas.
Forex… I was undergoing a clean and reorg of my office, and setup of my radios. Here I am 2 years later, doing another office cleanup. I still haven’t gotten some of the radio stuff done. I still had a ton of ebay cr@p piled high.
So today, wife is cooking, and I’m plugging away at my office.
Just got an NVR configured that has been sitting here for at least a year. I bought it new on ebay for $30, added a drive, and the drive wasn’t recognized. Set it aside. Haven’t touched it since. Today I swapped the drive for a 1Tb western digital, and Robert’s my father’s brother… I’ll be either listing it, or basically giving it to someone as a second system. It doesn’t have the throughput I’d like for myself.
Found a few other things under chairs and tucked into corners too.
n
Thankful that this place is still here. Thanks @Nick, @RickH and Barbara for making that possible.
Finding it hard to believe that RBT and OFD are no longer with us.
Yes, what Vince said. Every bit.
What about hosting costs?
Nice and lazy day today. Did some laundry. Vacuumed and learned more about the central vac.
Dogs are fed. I’m next! Not sure what, but I’m next. After a shower.
The vacuum.. it’s a by-pass blower, if I remember the correct term. Cooling air for the motor is separate from the dirty air being sucked in. The plan is to improve the life of the motor because it’s not full of dirt in the brushes and bearings. So, even tho it is noisier, I open the closet door.
The system has a cloth filter. Filter has a bean bag in the middle. The purpose of the filter seems to be to keep the dirt in the ~3 gallon collection tub.
To be honest, blowing the stuff right out seems like a good plan. Just close the windows on that side of the house and go for it.
Ah, but I installed in a coat closet and it vents through the floor to under the house. Yeah, might want to collect the dog hair and stuff instead of dumping it all under the house.
I can totally see how blowing the exhaust at an asshole neighbor’s back porch could be a feature. 🙂
Anyway. When the vac turns on the cloth filter is sucked up about 10 inches. /thump/ Guessing, no tape measures have been harmed. When the system is turned off the filter falls /thump/ because of the bean bag and that is suppose to rattle the dirt out of the cloth.
Nice plan.
I tripped the thermal reset gizmo a while back. Ok, my bad, the tub was HEAPING full of dog hair and whatever. So I dump the tub every third or fourth time I vacuum. Today it tripped. Tub was perhaps half full.
Dumped the tub and then spotted a huge chunk of dusty dog hair, almost like felt, hanging from the filter cloth. Enough to make a toupee for a bald man or two.
Well. So much for “self cleaning”. I grabbed a kitchen trash bag, snugged it up around the vac and then jiggled and wiped (through the bag) the filter. Almost 4 cups of dirt plus the toupee.
Yeah. Nothing I read while shopping for the system ever said anything about this.
So, now you know.
I have a couple of Roombas. Dump the collection bin every couple days in the toilet and flush. Lots of dog hair and an amazing amount of dirt, every day. Where does all this dirt come from? Highly recommend the Roombas.
Your creepy stalker isn’t good at hiding his tracks. And you know that dirty glass on the counter which you and your wife both deny leaving there? Yup, that was him, too.
Ditto.
If you want some assistance with hosting costs, let me know. (If you think you’d like me to chip in any time in the next year, it’d be a good idea to drop me a line soon. My income and expenses are highly variable, with four- and five-figure expenses landing on me out of the blue often enough to put a crimp in my savings. I have the money now and might not two months from now.)
well, got my 3d printer powered up. Everything seems to work but a nozzle is clogged. That messed up the feed tubes, so I’ve got a bit of maintenance to do. I might be able to save the nozzle as it is for “support” material, and is supposed to be water soluble. I’m going to try the ultrasonic cleaner on it.
WRT hosting costs, Rick has the skinny on that, but IIRC it’s paid for another year…
It’s my honor and privilege to act as host…
n
Thanks @Nick, @RickH and Barbara for making that possible.
Indeed.
Arlo and Janis: “Everyone knows that cats make good mummies”
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2018/11/22
Heh.
Hey first print! I’ve got about 4 minutes left on my first 3D print. It’s a calibration test model built in. Looks like it is actually working fine.
n
WRT to hosting/domain registrations: RBT renewed both for two years last year sometime. So both are paid up for a while, and Barbara is OK with that cost going forward.
I did attempt moving this place and Barbara’s to my hosting plan, but Barbara had technical issues with email accounts reconfiguration and access, so preferred to leave it on the original hosting place.
As for time/effort; it’s really minimal on my part. Just chiming in when needed, and applying updates when they crop up. (Since I manage several WP sites, I use the excellent Infinite WP plugin to do those updates via one screen. So easy enough to check for updates and apply them to all sites with just a couple clicks. Recommended.)
Wow, I am not thankful for this. In case you are wondering, the USA is in a war right now. In fact, I am not sure how many wars we are in right now. Seven according to this article, “White House acknowledges the U.S. is at war in seven countries”:
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3ywd5/white-house-acknowledges-the-us-is-at-war-in-seven-countries
“I was undergoing a clean and reorg of my office, and setup of my radios. Here I am 2 years later, doing another office cleanup.”
Don’t feel bad – that’s kinda life. Entropy. My desk is currently a disaster zone – I need to have another attack (and, probably, a smaller desk). Seems to happen about every two months.
We’re working on a huge cleanup here, as we look towards the kids moving out, and us moving into a _much_ smaller house in a year or two. We have almost finished going through all the crap stashed in the attic. At least a couple of boxes moved from the previous attic in our previous house 20 years ago. Plus stuff that I didn’t have time or energy to properly sort out, when my mother passed back in 2010.
In my mother’s stuff, I’ve found zillions of ancient, hand-made quilts. Generally well used, and not in the best of condition. Also, she seems to have had a thing for throws made of fox fur. Lovely things, but apparently fox hides go brittle with age – one of them tore just unfolding it. Dunno quite what to do with those… Two other boxes that I’m dreading: old photos and family picture albums. Most of the pics, I have no idea who the people are. Realistically, I should just toss the boxes unopened, but I can’t quite bring myself to do that.
After the attice, we can move on to the closets in the main living area, which also contain a lot of crap. Like my old USAF uniforms – WTF have I saved those for? Emotions are, by definition, not very rational…
– – – – –
@Ray: We also have two robot-vacuums. It really is amazing how much dirt they find. The one in the main living area runs every night, and every morning it is stuffed. Mostly pet hair, but an amazing amount of dust and dirt as well. Speaking of which – it’s fritzing every second or third day – I need to figure out where I bought it, since it’s less than a year old, and file a warrantly claim…
– – – – –
The US at war? Yep, and I have never understood this, not even back when I was in the USAF. Take Libya as an example: Sure, Quadaffles sucked, but the situation the US created has made things even worse. Or Syria: another stupid dictator, but trying to destabilize him has only brought massive suffering to millions of civilians – and provided lots of US weapons to terrorists throughout the region.
These wars make no sense, at least, not for any of the stated reasons. I can only suppose that this is a matter of “wealth redistribution”: Paying stupid amounts of tax money to military contractors, who then funnel some portion of it back to the politicians. Corruption, in other words.
Faced the same issue with my aunt. Hundreds of pictures and hundreds of transparencies. I selected a few pictures with people I recognized and kept. Some had names written on the back and I still had no idea who they were. The rest I just tossed. The transparencies were just tossed. My uncle took a lot of pictures that did not involve people and I did not have the time to look through several hundred images. I suspect the same will happen when I die except my son will just toss the hard disk drive.
@Brad: Our carpets look cleaner than they have in a long time even though they received regular vacuuming and yearly professional cleaning. I guess picking up a little every day is better than picking up a lot every few days.
When my son had his carpet replaced in his first house the installers swept up a significant pile of dirt after pulling up the carpet. I was somewhat surprised. Installers said that was normal as the dirt gets down under the carpet and pad where the vacuum cannot reach. I suspect the Roomba is pulling up a little bit each time.
But I am still amazed at the amount. The dog hair I understand as the dog sheds a lot each day. The dirt amazes me. I still vacuum with the big vacuum once a week and it still pulls a lot of dog hair that I guess the Roomba missed. I now understand the lure of hardwood floors. But I still like carpet, always will.
Now off to pick up a 4TB hard drive, HGST from Micro Center for $109.00. Costco has two Arlo cameras for $259.00 or a three pack with controller for $299.00. Even though I only need two additional cameras it does not make sense to save $40.00 when that $40.00 will get you another camera that is normally about $130.00.
Wife is off to pick up a few items that are on sale. All told we may spend $600.00 today which is about normal. Still need to get some stuff for the son, a chop (mitre) saw, a package of four air powered nail guns that he wants.
Have no idea what I want for Christmas and no idea what to get the spousal unit.
“I was undergoing a clean and reorg of my office, and setup of my radios. Here I am 2 years later, doing another office cleanup.”
Don’t feel bad – that’s kinda life. Entropy. My desk is currently a disaster zone – I need to have another attack (and, probably, a smaller desk). Seems to happen about every two months.
Heh. I cleaned off my office desk for first time in years last week because I was interviewing people for a job in my business.
@Lynn: isn’t that called deceptive advertising?
Well, the ladies wear makeup on a date….
n
(and I suppose the Laddies too.)
@Lynn: isn’t that called deceptive advertising?
“HUMOR: The senator chooses between heaven and hell”
http://www.davidmcelroy.org/?p=12044
While walking down the street one day, a U.S. senator is, tragically, hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
“Welcome to heaven,” says St. Peter. “Before you settle in, it seems there’s a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.”
“No problem, just let me in,” says the man.
“Well, I’d like to,” says St. Peter, “but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you’ll be allowed to choose where to spend eternity.”
“Seriously? Then, I’ve made up my mind,” says the senator. “I want to be in heaven.”
“I’m sorry, but I have my orders.”
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him in days gone by.
Everyone is very happy. They’re dressed nicely and having a great time. They run to greet him, shake his hand and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the taxpayers. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it’s time to go visit heaven.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises. The elevator goes up, and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
“Now it’s time to visit heaven.”
So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp, singing and worshipping the Almighty God. They have a good time and — before he realizes it — the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
“Well now, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.”
The senator reflects for a minute, and then he answers: “Well, I would never have said this before … I mean heaven has been delightful … but I think I would be better off in hell.”
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it into black bags as more trash falls from above. The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.
“I don’t understand,” stammers the senator. “Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?”
The devil looks at him, smiles and says, “Yesterday, I was campaigning. Today you’ve already voted.”
I see something truly special in this website.